Around those couple of collections there was an intersecting number of social circles that encompassed graduates of both of the city’s big high schools along with contacts around the various residential colleges at the University and the various student houses scattered around Castle Hill.
There weren’t many places those people could gather, however. From time to time there was a cabaret at the University Refectory in Pimlico. Downtown the old Sadlers’ Sound Lounge was transformed into the Inside Out Disco with Cairns band Barabbas as the resident act and occasional appearances by an outfit called Gutbucket, who were largely Army personnel.
Thanks to the National Service ballot, the presence of a number of blokes out at Lavarack Barracks who’d been wandering around Sydney and Melbourne with hair half way down their backs a few short months before was another wild card that was thrown into the mix. I know that the song says that you can’t judge a book by looking at the cover, but it was a time when you couldn’t tell a bloke’s musical taste by his haircut.
Many of my fondest memories from the time are linked to a small hall behind St Matthew’s Church in Mundingburra, and there are a couple of interesting links that come into play in what I’ve come to think of as the Underworld Years.
The whole thing came about thanks to the elder of the Fabulous Furry Buff Brothers who lived over in Belgian Gardens. I’m not sure how he did it, but he persuaded the parish priest at St Matthew’s that opening his hall two nights a week to a group of young people of no particular religious affiliation was a good idea.
Apart from the odd priestly visit the religious factor throughout the Underworld Years was virtually nil.
It wasn’t, however, a place that drew a large crowd. There was a fairly static core membership numbering about a dozen who were present on most nights.