Author Biography

Clinton Walker is a Sydney-based writer the Sun-Herald has called 'our best chronicler of Australian grass-roots culture.' Born in rural Victoria in 1957, he published his own fanzines in the late '70s and established a colourful reputation in the '80s freelancing for newspapers and magazines such as RAM, Rolling Stone, Roadrunner, The Age, Stiletto, and The Bulletin. He has since published ten books, worked extensively for television, for example as co-writer and principal interviewer on ABC-TV's hit 2001 Oz-rockumentary series Long Way to the Top, and compiled and annotated a score of anthology CDs.

Review

'Much misunderstood on its original release in 1996, Stranded is just as contentious and compulsive nearly a quarter-century on. One part stoned memoir, nine parts hard-boiled history, it walks the low road and back streets, charting along the way a near-forgotten period of Australian music from punk to grunge.'-Andrew Stafford 'The appeal of the book lies in seeing Walker juggle narrative and economic history, biography and autobiography, interview and prose . . . [as he] traces Australian music's transition from a provincial cargo cult to a world power.'- Chris McAuliffe, THE SUNDAY AGE'What makes Walker's book so useful is that he writes not only of the musicians, but also of the venues, the promoters, the record stores and the community radio stations that together carved out a space within culture where it could turn back on itself and become an art. The ethos of this art was 'do it yourself' and Walker's book can be read as a field manual for doing it for yourself in any medium, not just music.'-McKenzie Wark, THE AUSTRALIAN 'HIGHER EDUCATION''Part memoir, part scrapbook, part history, part gossip, all linked by Walker's passionate, sardonic commentary.'- Philippa Hawker, MARIE CLAIRE

Review Quote

'Much misunderstood on its original release in 1996, Stranded is just as contentious and compulsive nearly a quarter-century on. One part stoned memoir, nine parts hard-boiled history, it walks the low road and back streets, charting along the way a near-forgotten period of Australian music from punk to grunge.'-Andrew Stafford 'The appeal of the book lies in seeing Walker juggle narrative and economic history, biography and autobiography, interview and prose . . . [as he] traces Australian music's transition from a provincial cargo cult to a world power.' - Chris McAuliffe, THE SUNDAY AGE 'What makes Walker's book so useful is that he writes not only of the musicians, but also of the venues, the promoters, the record stores and the community radio stations that together carved out a space within culture where it could turn back on itself and become an art. The ethos of this art was 'do it yourself' and Walker's book can be read as a field manual for doing it for yourself in any medium, not just music.'-McKenzie Wark, THE AUSTRALIAN 'HIGHER EDUCATION' 'Part memoir, part scrapbook, part history, part gossip, all linked by Walker's passionate, sardonic commentary.'- Philippa Hawker, MARIE CLAIRE

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