Musicland
When the Music Came to Byron 1970-1995
Tricia Shantz
“It’s so great to have a comprehensive record of the contributions that Northern Rivers musicians and studios made to the Australian music canon. So many stories, so many big personalities.“
Bernard Fanning, Musician
"Tricia Shantz has captured a seminal time and place in Musicland: When the Music Came to Byron 1970 - 1995”
Byron Writers Festival
Scan the code for the soundtrack to Musicland and of that time in Australian music.
In the 1970s and ‘80s, Byron became the Laurel Canyon of Australia. The Music Farm was built and the Arts Factory opened in town.
Musicland is the story of when music came to Byron in the ‘70s and ‘80s: the venues, the musicians, the promoters, the people who were there at the beginning of it all. It follows on from my Neverland book that ends with American musician/surfer Dan Doeppel buying the old Norco Piggery in Byron Bay in 1974 to build an Arts Factory. At the same time, Melburnian musician Garry Deutsher, bought land in Coorabell to build the Music Farm, which officially opened in 1976.
Fifty years later, it is still a working studio. These two music dreamers/visionaries were instrumental in bringing music to our area. They brought the biggest Australian bands of the era, to the region, as well as international acts.
Many of the most well-known Australian hit songs were recorded in that time at Music Farm. The book includes a list of these hit songs. There is a QR code you can scan and listen to them while you read the book.
80 interviews, 80 stories from Richard Clapton to Shane Howard, Rob Hirst to John Schumann, Tim Farriss to Reg Mombassa, they were all in Byron. Besides Music Farm and the Arts Factory/Piggery, it includes Fowlers Lane concerts, Bangalow Bowlo, Billinudgel, Mullumbimby, Everglades and Globetrotters. Foreword by John Schumann, musician (Redgum).
Tricia Shantz, Author
“Those early days, I think they were pioneering days in the Byron area. It would have possibly been like Nashville in the early days when the music scene was in its infancy. It was being on the ground at the right time. I knew the Byron area was ripe and ready to explode like a mini-Nashville. The reason I was so sure there was going to be an explosion of music in Byron is because there was a surfing scene. It just had to happen.”
Pip Lee 1969, Musician
About Tricia Shantz
Tricia is a social geographer, research consultant, and author who works and lives in Byron Bay, Australia. She is committed to knowing the environmental and social construct of her community. Tricia co-wrote and published her first two books with Rusty Miller: Turning Point Surf Portraits and Stories from Bells to Byron 1970 - 1971 in 2012 and Turning Point II Surf Portraits and Stories Hawaii: Oahu-Kauai-Maui 1968-1972 in 2014.
A third book, No Fixed Abode; Stories from the streets around Byron Bay in 2017, was in association with the Byron Bay Community Centre and Byron Writers Festival.
Neverland. American and Australian surfers in Byron Bay 1960s and 1970s was published in 2022 with a re-print in 2024. She co-publishes and edits the Rusty’s Byron Guide magazine about people, politics and culture.
Musicland. When the Music Came to Byron 1970-1995 is her most recent book.
