This is part 2 of the documentary about Fred Brophy’s Boxing Troupe. As I mentioned yesterday, King of the Outback is set in the world of tent boxing in the 1950s. What this contemporary documentary doesn’t show, is the large amount of aboriginal men who would work the tent boxing circuit as fighters but in [...]
4May12
Outback Fight Club Pt. 2
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Posted in Television
Tagged Australia, Boxing, Fight Card, King of the Outback Launch, Tent Boxing
Tagged Australia, Boxing, Fight Card, King of the Outback Launch, Tent Boxing
3May12
Outback Fight Club Pt. 1
My novel King of the Outback, which is released later this month, is set in the world of outback tent boxing. As tent boxing is pretty much unique to Australia, I thought a brief lesson was in order. Below, in four snippets, is Part 1 of a documentary about Fred Brophy, who ran the last [...]
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Posted in Television
Tagged Australia, Boxing, Fight Card, King of the Outback Launch, Tent Boxing
Tagged Australia, Boxing, Fight Card, King of the Outback Launch, Tent Boxing
3May12
Rally Around the Drum
This classic song, written by Paul Kelly and Archie Roach, recalls Archie’s time as a tent boxer. Drums of all shapes and sizes were used by boxing troupes to draw crowds to the tent boxing shows that were put on in Outback Australia. Some showmen used big base drums and would march through town, pounding [...]
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Posted in Music
Tagged Archie Roach, Australia, Boxing, Fight Card, King of the Outback Launch, Paul Kelly, Tent Boxing
Tagged Archie Roach, Australia, Boxing, Fight Card, King of the Outback Launch, Paul Kelly, Tent Boxing
9Mar12
Commando Raid
Author: R. Charlett Publisher: Horwitz Publications Published: 1965 Book No:. 3 Commando Raid is a slice of lurid Aussie pulp from Horwitz Publications, who were one of Australia’s leading producers of trashy thrill-a-minute stories. Sadly the likes of Horwitz no longer exist, and Australian genre fiction – although there is a surging groundswell, which I [...]
Author: Andrez Bergen Publisher: Another Sky Press Published: 2012 I do not know anything about science fiction noir – beyond Riddley Scott’s Blade Runner. Of course I am talking about the original release which had the voice-over narration by Harrison Ford, not the plethora of director’s cuts and re-releases since 1982. I remember at the [...]
26Feb12
Pokerface
Author: Peter Corris Publisher: Penguin Books Published: 1985 Based on scripts for the ABC TV drama Pokerface by Peter Corris and Bill Garner Recently I have looked at a few Cliff Hardy adventures; firstly the film, The Empty Beach, the book The Black Prince, and the radio drama, The Greenwich Apartments. All of these were [...]
5Feb12
The Greenwich Apartments
The Greenwich Apartments ABC Radio Drama is a little something I picked up in a second hand shop. The packaging was cracked and knocked about, but this almost seems appropriate for a Cliff Hardy story, based on the novel by Peter Corris. Firstly, let me explain that this is not an audio book – and [...]
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Posted in Books, Music
Tagged Australia, Cliff Hardy, Crime, Crime Fiction, Peter Corris
Tagged Australia, Cliff Hardy, Crime, Crime Fiction, Peter Corris
Author: Lester Ellis / Robert Drane Publisher: ABC Books Published: 2007 Fighting the Demons is a pretty sad book. Like many Australians, I remember when Lester Ellis became the IBF Lightweight Champion after defeating Korean, Hwan-Kil Yuh in 1985. It was televised in rural Australia, and was a major event. For Ellis, it was a [...]
19Jan12
The Black Prince
Author: Peter Corris Publisher: Bantam Books Published: 1998 Book No: 22 – Cliff Hardy series For those not familiar with the character of Cliff Hardy, private investigator, he is a creation of Peter Corris and first appeared in the novel The Dying Trade in 1980. Since then he has been releasing Cliff Hardy stories regularly [...]
12Jan12
Lionel (2008)
Country: Australia Director: Eddie Martin Starring: Lionel Rose, Anthony Mundine, Jeff ‘Hitman’ Harding Editor: Ken Sallows Composer: Cezary Skubiszewski One month after I was born, a young aboriginal boxer, named Lionel Rose, became the world bantam weight boxing champion when he defeated Fighting Harada in Japan. I am obviously too young to recall the swell [...]
