We were all equal, but sometimes the band could be led by whoever shouted the loudest. Step inside one of Australia's most beloved and hard-working bands. For eighteen years, Mark Seymour fronted Hunters and Collectors - although he was never remotely in control of it. Together they released songs that remain Australian anthems like Talking to a Stranger, Say Goodbye, Throw Your Arms Around Me and Holy Grail. The band was also a great social experiment - an artistic collective that shared everything equally, from the drinks rider to songwriting copyright. It couldn't last. In the end, the relentless touring machine known as 'Hunnas' didn't break up so much as switch itself off. With a songwriter's eye for the perfect detail, Seymour tells the truth about the endless fried breakfasts, bewildering industry negotiations and the view from a thirteen-tonne truck on a never ending highway. More than a simple rock memoir, THIRTEEN TONNE THEORY is a dryly comic, revealing and passionate reflection on the struggle to be heard in a democracy of blokes. 'Anyone who writes of their years in rock music must know that this is the book they are going to have to trump.' Robert Forster, The Monthly 'Very funny . . . there can be no escaping the absurdity of rock'n'roll.' The Age

Released in 1986, Hunters and Collectors' album Human Frailty is one of the most important Australian albums of the last two decades of the twentieth century. It was pivotal in the group's career and marked the group's move into pub rock. It is unashamedly concerned with love and desire. The album challenged traditional understandings of Australian masculinity while playing music to predominantly male audiences. No other Australian group would have dared, or indeed been able, to get their audience to roar 'You don't make me feel like a woman anymore,' the culminating line off Hunan Frailty's first track, and the first single taken from the album, “Say Goodbye”. The second track on the album, “Throw Your Arms Around Me” has become an Australian standard, an anthem sung drunkenly more by women than men, in pubs, at weddings and similar occasions. Human Frailty is an album that transcended the critical categories of its time.

In his first book The 10 Rules of Rock and Roll Australian singer-songwriter Robert Forster takes readers on an idiosyncratic journey through the past and present of popular music from Bob Dylan to Cat Power from AC/DC to Nana Mouskouri from The Saints to Franz Ferdinand. With thirty-years experience as a recording artist/performer and an undimmed love of popular music Forster's observations about his fellow artists balance the enthusiasm of a fan with an insider's authority. He is that rare thing a musician who can write about music and he brings to this collection of critical essays the erudition wit and craft of his songwriting.

'Sometimes I play a game in my head: name the five best American rock bands of the '60s. My list goes: The Velvet Underground, The Byrds, The Beach Boys, The Doors, and then I stall on the fifth. Creedence? The Band — although they're mostly Canadian. Simon and Garfunkel? Jefferson Airplane? The Lovin' Spoonful? But I plump for The Monkees.' Robert Forster In The 10 Rules of Rock and Roll, Robert Forster takes readers on an exhilarating trip through the past and present of popular music – from Bob Dylan, AC/DC and Nana Mouskouri through to Cat Power, Franz Ferdinand and ... Delta Goodrem. To accompany Forster's acclaimed writing for The Monthly, there are some stunning new pieces – 'The 10 Rules' and 'The 10 Bands I Wish I'd Been In' and an appreciation of Guy Clark – as well as a reflection on The Velvet Underground, a short story about Normie Rowe and a moving tribute to fellow Go-Between Grant McLennan. Funny and illuminating, The 10 Rules of Rock and Roll shows a great critic at work.

A juicy piece of trivia is like a beautiful fresh cut of protein. It needs to be handled just right. Some fillets of trivia work well as a question, others are best posed as a ‘Did you know’. Some have so much flesh on them that they are better served up as a whole story or essay. That is what you will find between these pages, a smorgasbord of trivia treats to feast upon. Like a buffet on a cruise ship, you can start at the beginning and work your way along, you can push in at any point for the one tasty treat that you want, or you can fill a small plate and come back over and over again. This is possibly the most complete book of Rock Trivia ever compiled and the morsels will astonish … Did you know that in 2013 Chubby Checker sued Hewlett-Packard over a 99-cent app called the ‘Chubby Checker’ which allowed users to enter a man’s shoe size to estimate the size of his penis? He claimed that the product would cause damage to his goodwill, tarnishing his image. Trivia with a twist? Did you know that Charles Manson co-wrote a song for the Beach Boys? Plus hundreds of questions to tease and expand the mind. "At last ... a rock trivia book that is not at all trivial! This is a remarkable collection of questions, facts, myths, stories, jokes, riddles and answers. Number one with a bullet!" - Brian Nankervis, ABC Radio and RocKwiz host. "This is the book that we music trivia nuts have been waiting for. Even if you think you know it all there'll be something that surprises you. Read it from front to back or just dip into it when you need a trivia top up. I love it!" - Murray Cook, The Wiggles, The Soul Movers

The real story of the man behind the bands - and a backstage pass to forty years of Australian rock music.Known to many as GODinski, Michael Gudinski is unquestionably the most powerful and influential figure in the Australian rock'n'roll music business - and has been for the last four decades.Often referred to as 'the father of the Australian music industry', he has nurtured the careers of many artists - Kylie Minogue, Jimmy Barnes, Paul Kelly, Skyhooks, Split Enz, Yothu Yindi, to name just a few. But his reach isn't limited to Australian artists. With his Frontier Touring Company, Gudinski has toured The Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Sting ... pretty much a who's who of the arena level international music scene.A self-made multi-millionaire, Gudinski is the Australian equivalent of Richard Branson or David Geffen, but who is this tough, inspired, flamboyant and impassioned businessman who has shaped Australian popular culture? Where did he come from, and how has he stayed relevant for so long in an industry notorious for its fickleness? Rock journalist Stuart Coupe delves into Gudinski's life to find the answers - and in doing so gives us a backstage pass to forty years of Australian rock.