"Nine Parts Water, One Part Sand: Kim Salmon and the Formula for Grunge" by Douglas Galbraith (Melbourne Books)

Why The Scientists thought The Angels' fans would kill them

11 February 2020 - 07.02 a.m.

It was 1993 when, at the end of a Sunday night shift on The Newcastle Herald in NSW, Australia, one sub-editor said to another sub-editor, "There's a band you'd probably like down at the Cambridge Hotel tonight, Kim Salmon and the Surrealists. There are three of them and they're all in the Beasts of Bourbon." We went. Small crowd. Smoky bar. It was superb. Brilliant. Great discovery. Kim growled and played grungy guitar. Instant magic. Went out and bought all his older CDs with the earlier Scientists and then the Surrealists and the Beasts. Saw him every time he came to town. And now there’s this must-have book. An extract follows.

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