Radio Birdman were one of the first Australian punk bands, along with The Saints. They were formed by Deniz Tek and Rob Younger in Sydney in 1974. The group influenced the work of many successful, mainstream bands, and are now considered one of the most crucial bands to Australia’s musical growth, but their main legacy was their towering influence over Australian indie rock in the 1980s. (More from Wikipedia)
Angie Pepper grew up as the youngest of three children in a middle class family in Newcastle, Australia. She was always interested in art and music and became part of the Sydney rock music scene. Angie became friends with the bandmembers in Radio Birdman, a legendary Sydney punk rock band that formed in 1974 and broke up in 1978. One of the bandmembers, guitarist Deniz Tek is actually from Detroit and brought the hard-edged Detroit sound of MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges with him Down Under.
Alex Wheaton, writing for dB Magazine said of this band: “Radio Birdman did it first, did it harder, and broke up sooner, than any other Australian band. They were too much too soon, and their legacy has been felt, through a slew of eighties pretenders right down to this day.”
Angie Pepper’s first significant band, the Passengers came together in 1979 out of the break-up of Radio Birdman, consisting mainly of musicians that she met through that connection.
(December 2013)
