Australian Penthouse

HEY, YOU IN THE BLACK T-SHIRT
MICHAEL CHUGG WITH IAIN SHEDDEN
MACMILLAN

Michael Chugg is not what the literati would call a sympathetic protagonist. Even in his auto-biography (written with Iain Shedden, music critic for The Australian), he is not a man it’s easy to root for—at least most of the time. But he is one of Australia’s most respected music promoters, and he is responsible for a string of tours that will always have a chapter in Australia’s rock history.

Hey, you in the black t-shirt is just one of the tomes that will weave that history, and given the nature of the man it centres around, it’s as conflicting as you’d imagine. It’s also far more insatiable than you’d expect.

Though Chugg—or “Chuggi”—is definitely not someone who will appeal personally to every reader, the stories he’s gathered over almost 50 years at the helm of the Australian music industry are genuinely fascinating to anyone with an interest in music, business or debauched living.

Once you move past the occasional bout of self-reverence, and the relentless glorification of “the industry”, you get tales of everyone and everything music-related to ever pass through Australia. You get the view from above, and the desperation from below, the promoter’s market; you see the face of Frontier Touring, as it forms itself in to a juggernaut, and the back of it as Chugg walks away; you see the struggle of Stevie Wright, the obsession of Billy Thorpe and the secret behind Fleetwood Mac’s beer bottles.

You see Michael Chugg, a man who has grappled with excess, over-entitlement and self-importance, a man who has both won and lost everything because of those traits. You see that he was never unkind and he was never unfair. You see that there were moments he did not relish, though he pushed through them with the requisite smile, and there were moments he cherished that he could not share.

Overall, this is a meaty portrait of a man most of us have no cause to know anything about, but as you become familiar with the Chuggi brand of charm, it’s a portrait you can’t look away from.