“I was riding to Suffolk through the back road from Bangalow to Byron. I had bought a brand new Motorbike. I was speeding, basically inexperienced , the road is poor and I crashed at a very high speed of about 160km/ph. I got the death wobbles and I was launched off. I was on a crest and slid across the road into the oncoming traffic which luckily missed me. I remember trying to get up off the ground but because I was going so fast everything slows down. I thought I had stopped and could get up but I was still sliding so fast I catapulted myself into the air. I had full protective gear except I had sand shoes instead of boots so consequently I carved up my ankles. I actually got up and walked away. Days later I went to the doctor with muscle damage and high blood pressure from shock. I remember thinking I was going to die. It felt like I was in that moment for ever and that I would die. I was stupid. I always wanted to go fast but never had the outlet. I was recovering and decided to go motor cycle racing because I felt that it wasn’t going to slow me down which really scared me. I bought a race bike and started racing for North Coast Road Racers which I’ve been doing for 3 years and now I don’t have any desire to go fast on the road. I really craved pushing to the limit which I can do on the track with less risk. Last year I came second in the championship and third in the State titles. I am now the Assistant Club Secretary. Neville races with me and we have 4 race bikes and on a weekend I do about 30 races. I crash a lot.
Nedlands Studios now has 2 rehearsal rooms for hire. Both fully equipped so you can walk in without having to lug heaps of gear. They have drum kits, bass amps, guitar amps in both rooms which is a bit rare for rehearsal rooms. I wanted it to be easy and comfortable. Having it out here on the farm is such a nice environment to be creative. I’ve had a band come and I’ve screen printed their shirts while they’ve rehearsed.
The Poster Book idea kind of started through talking to my father about printing all their own posters. I was instilled to keep all posters from when I was young. My parents would get A3 folders and make sure they kept one of every gig in good condition. I have drawers full of so many posters. My house and studio has poster walls. I wanted to do a book of really cool art posters. Around that time Matt Mason who is a family friend came back from the New Orleans 50th anniversary of the Jazz Festival with a poster book of all these punk and hard core shows in New Orleans from the 70’s. It was so cool. Matt had a band called Blurter years ago. Matt and I started talking about doing something similar for Lismore. That’s kind of how it evolved. I asked bands and so many in the area had cool posters. It wasn’t long before we had over 500 posters. I know there’s so many more out there. We published the book and eventually we would love to do a second one. Originally it was just going to be Lismore but then we were getting some amazing stuff from Byron and beyond. We decided to expand it and include all those amazing little gigs around our halls. It’s an evolution of the music scene and how it’s changed. The key word is resilience as well. This area has gone through so much over the years. We definitely have the quantity of musicians and artists. So many creative people live here.
When I was really young all I wanted to do was race and play music which is what I’m doing now. I’m living my dream. I remember thinking..Oh I wish my parents had got me a Go kart or put me in racing earlier and then I thought..well what’s stopping me now? I’ll never race professionally because I’m 29 which is too old now and it’s a rich mans sport but I’m loving my life.”
The poster book Stick Em Up is a snapshot of original bands & artists posters from Lismore and its surrounding areas from 1977 up until now. You can purchase through the link below.