No Fixed Address inducted into SA Music Hall of Fame
LES Graham never saw his band as politically motivated. He says they just sang the truth. Now they’re being honoured with an induction into the SA Music Hall of Fame.
LES Graham never saw his band No Fixed Address as politically motivated. He says they just sang the truth.
Founded in 1979, the Aboriginal band went through the 1980s singing about oppression and social injustices.
“We wouldn’t call the people racist, it was more stereotyping,” Graham says.
“Pub managers wouldn’t want us performing because they thought we’d wreck the place.
“When they found out we could pack the house, with most of the crowd being non-Aboriginal, they wanted us pretty quick.”
Graham says despite the band’s strong messages, it never set out to be political.
“Instead of a love song we just did stuff about everyday life,” he says.
“We were singing the truth about everyday life we had to put up with in our own country.”
On Friday, the band will reunite to perform at the Goodwood Institute and will be inducted into the South Australian Music Hall of Fame on the night.
The band comprises Bart Willoughby on drums and vocals, Ricky Harrison on vocals and John Miller on bass, and has not performed since 2008.
The group formed at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music in North Adelaide.
The band’s work over the past three decades raising awareness of Aboriginal issues earned it a spot in the Hall of Fame.
Singer Harrison says it is great for the band to get this recognition.
“I was over the moon when I found out,” Harrison says.
“All the work we have done over the years, it’s fantastic for this to happen.
“This is the ultimate accolade for us. We hadn’t really thought about it at all in the past. It sort of surprised us all that it happened.”
Original member Veronica Rankine, who played saxophone, died in 2001. She will be inducted posthumously.
Tickets for the band’s performance are available at www.trybooking.com for $38.
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