Phil MacDougall has been playing punk and garage rock on PBS every week since 1980.
Many pillars of the Melbourne/Naarm punk rock scene endure only in memory. Pubs like St Kilda’s Crystal Ballroom and North Melbourne’s The Arthouse are long gone, and pioneering indie labels like Missing Link and Au Go Go are now defunct. But two cornerstones of the city’s punk and heavy rock scene survive: Phil MacDougall’s Sunglasses After Dark program on PBS FM and Collingwood venue The Tote.
The two will combine on Sunday October 26 for a gig celebrating MacDougall’s 45th year on air. The lineup features several bands that MacDougall has rinsed on the show over the years, such as The Breadmakers, Mach Pelican, Alien Nosejob and The Hybernators.
Sunglasses After Dark airs for two hours every Thursday night. MacDougall has been hosting the show since 1989, but he started at the station nearly a decade earlier.
PBS FM and Phil Macdougall present 45 years of Sunglasses After Dark
- When: Sunday 26 October, 3-9.30pm
- Where: The Tote, Collingwood
- Tickets: here
Check out our gig guide, our festival guide, our live music venue guide and our nightclub guide. Follow us on Instagram here.
View this post on Instagram
“I originally went to a meeting in early 1980 at the Prince of Wales Hotel,” MacDougall says. “At that stage, PBS FM had only been on air for two or three months, and we were broadcasting from the back rooms behind the piano bar upstairs at the same hotel.”
One of MacDougall’s friends suggested he apply to the station, and he hosted his first show in September 1980. “It was a 60s garage punk show called The Classical Gas Show,” he says. “After three or four years, that evolved into a punk show. The second show was called The Roadrunner Show.”
MacDougall hosted various drive shows in the mid-to-late ’80s before launching Sunglasses After Dark in 1989.
“It’s still a garage punk show,” he says. “But I’ve always played and been a big supporter of Australian independent bands from day one, and especially the Melbourne garage punk scene and alternative indie scene.”
MacDougall has interviewed hundreds of bands from Australia and overseas. One that stands out in his memory is a face-to-face chat with John Lydon of Public Image Ltd. “I got to sit down with him when he came here in 83 or 84,” he says.
MacDougall’s interview history reads like an almanac of punk and garage rock: he’s spoken to Dead Kennedys, Buzzcocks, The Damned, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Black Keys, and Ramones drummer Marky Ramone.
“Sat down with him, just me and him in a room. It was amazing. I couldn’t believe it,” MacDougall says.
He’s also interviewed tons of local greats, including Radio Birdman, Cosmic Psychos, The Mark of Cain, Beasts of Bourbon, Kim Salmon, Amyl and the Sniffers, Civic and Six Ft Hick.
“I’m probably the longest community broadcasting punk announcer,” MacDougall says. “I’ve played punk or garage punk every week on the radio for 45 years in Australia.”
MacDougall remains passionate about the local scene, and the PBS FM Sunglasses After Dark 45th anniversary show at The Tote gives him a chance to see many of his favourite bands all in one place. His enthusiasm for the acts on the lineup is evident.
“I’ve got Garry Gray, who was the lead singer of the Sacred Cowboys,” he says. “Under the name of Gary Sacred, he has just done a new album with Cong Josie. So that’ll be more electronic, which I like because I love industrial music.”
Spitting Chips features original Cosmic Psychos members Bill Walsh and Peter Jones. “They do the original Cosmic Psychos songs from back in the day, which they recorded on, but they’ve written about 10 brand new original songs now,” MacDougall says.
Plastic Section are “one of the best Melbourne garage punk bands or rockabilly garage punk bands,” he says. “They’re not a household name or anything, but they could play anywhere around the world. And Digger & the Pussycats are one of the best two-piece garage punk bands going around at the moment as well.”
The show’s title, Sunglasses After Dark, is taken from a song by The Cramps, and MacDougall has asked every band on the lineup to play a Cramps cover.
“I want it to be a surprise,” he says. “But Sunglasses After Dark and Human Fly and What’s Inside a Girl, they’re all taken.”
There’ll also be a barbecue in the back garden later in the afternoon, and some of MacDougall’s friends from PBS will be DJing in the main bar in between bands.
“It should be really, really good,” he says.
PBS FM is celebrating with Phil on Sunday 26 October at The Tote, Collingwood. Tickets here.
