Ed Nimmervoll is a legendary Australian rock music journalist, author and historian. He worked on rock magazines Go-Set (1966-1974) and Juke (1975-1992) both as a journalist and as an editor. Since 2000, Nimmervoll has been editor of HowlSpace, a website detailing Australian rock music history, providing artist profiles, news and video interviews.
DID YOU KNOW?
Pearl Jam’s guitarist Stone Gossard is known to use a Fender Telecaster and a Gibson Les Paul.
MILESTONE
Jazz legend Louis Armstrong was born 110 years ago. All his life he thought he was born on American Independence Day July 4 1900. He loved the patriotic symbolism of it, but after his death his baptism certificate revealed that “Satchmo” had actually been born a year and a month later.
WHAT’S NEW
Canadian singer/songwriter Feist has announced details of the follow-up to her multi-Grammy nominated album ‘The Reminder’. The new album, called 'Metals' is due in October and described as “astoundingly intimate, yet often exuberant; rife with transcendent and unforgettable pop gems.” Record company speak, but still a highly anticipated release. ‘Metals’ was recorded in Big Sur, California.
THE NAME GAME
Big Band legend Bill Basie was renamed Count Basie because there was a Duke (Ellington) and an Earl (Hines) so why shouldn't there be a Count?
COVERED
Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ cover is still causing controversy 20 years later. Last month the cover’s famous image of an obviously boy baby – uncircumcised – under water was removed from Facebook for contravening the social network’s terms of use with regard to nudity. The child shown, one Spencer Elden, was chosen as the Nirvana baby because his parents knew Kirk Weddle, the underwater photographer hired for the job. He’s 20 now. The album soon will be.
QUOTE
Amy Winehouse said: “I really started writing music to challenge myself, to see what I could write.”
A LEGAL MATTER
When The Who released ‘Substitute’ on their manager’s new record label, their old record company sued. They had no claim on the “A” side but the “B” side ‘Instant Party’ was theirs, so original copies of the single had to be withdrawn and a new ‘b’ side quickly substituted (no pun intended). The instrumental ‘Waltz For A Pig’ was credited to The Who Orchestra, but recorded by another group altogether.
YOU HAD TO BE THERE
John Lennon’s last public performances was with Elton John at Madison Square Garden in 1974. When Elton played piano on John Lennon’s ‘Whatever Gets You Through The Night’ he bet the ex-Beatles it was a No.1 single. Elton was right and now John Lennon had to live up to his part of the bargain. Backstage Lennon was reunited with Yoko Ono after months of separation.
ABOUT A SONG
The ‘Angel of Harlem’ in U2’s song is Billie Holiday, a Jazz singer who moved to Harlem as a teenager in 1928. Billie’s nickname was "Lady Day". That's where they got the line, "Lady Day got diamond eyes, she sees the truth behind the lies." U2 recorded this at Sun Studios in Memphis while the band was touring the US in 1987 and it was produced by "Cowboy" Jack Clement, who worked with Sam Phillips at Sun Studios in the '50s. When U2 asked him to work on this album, Clement had never even heard of them, but fortunately some of his friends were familiar with U2 and made it clear to Clement that working with them would be a good career move. By using Clement, U2 was able to recreate the famous Sun Studio's sound they were looking for.
THIS MONTH IN AUSTRALIAN MUSIC
Forty years ago Australia’s favourite group Daddy Cool travelled to Los Angeles for an industry showcase at the famous Whisky Au Go Go. One performance could launch their career in America. The band was understandably nervous. The first show they did didn’t show them at their best. The next one they blitzed. But all the industry big wigs were gone by then.
Three years ago Australia’s Grammy winning Wolfmother imploded at a concert at Byron Bay. The group’s rhythm second had fallen out with frontman Andrew Stockdale, and during that final performance the tensions were there for all to see. It was over. Stockdale went and recruited a new Wolfmother line-up. | 
