Biography, plus the roar of ’80s pub rock, to shake Paperchain in Manuka

Posted on 22 September, 2026

Canberrans love the regular author talks that take place at the iconic Paperchain bookstore. But for music lovers, things are moving up a notch on Thursday 1 October.

Promoter, manager and raconteur Bob Yates, who helped create the soundtrack of sweat-soaked Australian pub music during the ’70s and ’80s, is bringing his new memoir, Confessions of a Pub Rock Promoter, to Canberra.

And in true Bob Yates style, this will not be a quiet literary evening of polite applause and lukewarm white wine. Halfway through the talk, the room will shift from bookshelf hush to back-room buzz when Nightbeat – singer Julienne Mostyn of The Flaming Hands and guitarist Warwick Gilbert of Radio Birdman – performs a special live cameo in the store.

It is a fitting flourish for a man who has dedicated his life to rock ‘n’ roll without ever having picked up a guitar himself. Born in 1945 to a British Army padre and a country girl from Richmond, NSW, Bob staged a major folk concert at Paddington Town Hall at just 19. From there came labouring jobs, corporate detours, a lawn-mowing run, a steakhouse, a folk club in Balmain and, eventually, the deafening, glorious centre of Sydney’s pub-rock explosion.

And that’s what propels his latest book.

If the walls of Sydney’s old beer barns could talk, chances are Bob Yates would have booked the band, sweet-talked the publican, counted the door takings and found a way to get the posters up before knock-off.

Bob (in white) with Mi-Sex and Molly Meldrum. Do yourself a favour and read his book

By the late 1970s, Bob was working across three key Sydney venues – The Civic Hotel, the Kings Cross Rex and the vast Royal Antler on the Northern Beaches.

His rooms heaved with the young Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil and The Angels, while the broader circuit thundered with Rose Tattoo, Radio Birdman, Mental As Anything, Dragon, Skyhooks, The Sports, The Dingoes, Flowers before they became Icehouse, INXS in their Farriss Brothers infancy, The Radiators, Australian Crawl, The Church, Models, Hunters & Collectors, Divinyls and the rest of the homegrown artists making waves beyond our shores.

In the age before streaming, social media, mobile phones, GPS or tidy digital ticketing, the scene ran on instinct, word of mouth, handbills, beer, sweat, road cases and nerves. Promoters had to back their ears, and their gut, and Bob did both.

His great leap came when an unknown New Zealand band called Mi-Sex arrived needing gigs. Bob booked them, then managed them, even mortgaging his house to finance state-of-the-art equipment. Soon, Mi-Sex were racing up the charts with Computer Games, touring Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada, and sharing stages with Iggy Pop and The Ramones.

Bob’s memoir chronicles the momentum, packed rooms, last-minute deals, paper trails, egos, miracles, the near-disasters and nights when magic was made. The book is part industry history and part front-row ticket to the sound of Australian and New Zealand rock (turned up to 11).

And those who attend the author talk at Paperchain will feel some of that energy when two of the characters from the book come to life in a musical cameo.

Julienne Mostyn and Wawrick Gilbert make Nightbeat

Julienne Mostyn was the dynamic lead singer of Sydney new-wave underground band The Flaming Hands, whose records on Phantom Label and Big Time Records helped place them firmly in the city’s independent music story. In the 1980s, she drew critical praise for her stage presence and was named the number one female vocalist on the independent charts.

Her husband, Warwick Gilbert, was a founding bassist of Radio Birdman, the legendary Sydney band whose influence still crackles through Australian punk rock.

Together, the pair have lived more than one creative life: Sydney stages, Coffs Harbour blues and jazz, community radio, animation studios, gallery walls and now, Canberra, where they live and where Julienne works at the Roberto Verino store in Manuka. Their acoustic cameo as Nightbeat will bring the author talk to new levels.

Author Bob Yates will speak on his latest book, Confessions of a Pub Rock Promoter

For those who moshed in the pubs during these halcyon nights, Bob’s talk promises a return to the sticky carpet, the ringing ears, the smoke, the queue outside, and the support band that became famous six months later. For those who were not, it offers an entrée to a formative chapter of Australian music and the moment when pub rock stopped being an underground rumble and became the sound of a country finding its amplifier globally.

And with Julienne and Warwick stepping in to play live, Paperchain’s Manuka store may briefly feel less like a bookshop and more like the best kind of old band room: intimate, unpredictable and bursting with sound.

Main image: Julienne Mostyn performing with the Flaming Lips.