4zzz Live Delay

The Go-Betweens: Brisbane, Australia – 1983. The city was in the midst of its adolescence, trying desperately to shake off the ‘big country town’ stigma and evolve into something resembling a modern city. The wink of Matilda’s eye may have evaporated, but government authorities were already getting ready to unleash the charming powers of Expo Oz the Platypus, a mascot that apparently heralded the emergence of a more adult Brisbane as the city sweltered towards the 1990s. Still, the music and art scene was locked in a perennial ‘pig city’ skirmish with the destructive forces of the Bjieke-Petersen government. The Saints had emerged and promptly moved abroad, while local radio 4ZZZ, still based at the University of Queensland, continue to agitate its way through the veins of the modern Brisbane alternative landscape. In late ‘83, The Dead Kennedys would play a blistering set before being strong armed towards the jailhouse by the local Queensland junta and David Bowie would end up feeding camping fans outside