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January 1968
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6th
Hello Goodbye
The Beatles
13th
Sadie The Cleaning Lady
Johnny Farnham
20th
Sadie The Cleaning Lady
Johnny Farnham
27th
Sadie The Cleaning Lady
Johnny Farnham
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The Big
Show package, featuring
The Who, The Small Faces, Manfred Mann and Paul Jones
(ex-Manfred Mann) tours Australia. Tour hi-jinks by members
of The Who and The Small Faces lead to confrontations with Commonwealth
authorities, culminating in the threat of deportation. Prime
Minister John Gorton orders the two bands never to set foot in
Australia again. Pete Townshend swears to do just that, and he
remains the only member of The Who never to return to here.
Original La De Das drummer
Brett Nielsen leaves the group just before leaving for
their second trip to Australia and is replaced by The Action's
Bryan Harris.
Allied forces in South Vietnam
reel under the onslaught of a concerted attack by North Vietnamese
forces in the Tet Offensive. Taking advantage
of the Vietnamese lunar New Year holiday, Communist forces stage
a massive assault, reaching even into the heart of Saigon
Major overseas releases:
The Bee Gees - Words
Eric Burdon & The Animals - Sky Pilot
The Byrds - The Notorious Byrds Brothers
Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul
The Kinks - Live At Kelvin Hall
Manfred Mann - The Mighty Quinn
The Moody Blues - Knights In White Satin
4 The U.S.
music industry bible Billboard reports that Americans spent more than $1
billion on records in 1967; US fans bought 192 million albums and 187 million
singles, marking the first year in which the sale of albums has exceeded that of
singles.
- The
search for the body of Harold Holt is called off.
9 Liberal
Senator John Grey Gorton defeats Paul Hasluck and Bill Snedden in
the party leadership ballot, and as a result he is sworn in as Australia's new Prime Minister.
As a fighter pilot in WWII, Gorton was shot down in combat and
survived a near-fatal crash, suffering serious head injuries
which left his face permanently scarred. Treasurer and acting Liberal
leader William
McMahon, the most likely candidate, decides not to stand because of the bitter
resistance against him from Country Party leader and acting PM John McEwan.
Gorton's historic win makes him the first Australia senator to become PM and
the first person in Australian political history
to win the post without having a seat in the House of Representatives. Because he is a senator, Gorton
must vacate his Senate seat
and stand for the late Harold Holt's vacant seat of Higgins to win
a place in the Lower House, as required by the Constitution.
11
Jimi Hendrix moves into a London townhouse which is the former residence of
renowned 18th century composer Georg Friedrich Handel, and in which Handel is believed
to have composed both "The Water Music" and "The Messiah". Hendrix is quoted as saying that
he "will not let the tradition down" and will also compose in the house.
14
Celebrated Australian poet Dame Dorothea Mackellar dies, aged 82
15 The
The "Big Show" tour entourage, including The Who, The
Small Faces and Paul Jones arrive in Australia. Small Faces organist
Ian McLagan immediately enrages the press during an airport press
conference when he tells a reporter to "f*** off" after
being questioned about his recent UK drug bust.
17 The
Seekers are named Australians Of The Year.
20 The
Big Show plays the Festival Hall, Brisbane
22 The
Big Show plays the Sydney Stadium, Sydney
- The first full series of Rowan &
Martin's Laugh-In begins on America's NBC network. The rapid-fire
sketch comedy, featuring a wild psychedelic-influenced visual style,
frenetic pacing and subtly subversive material, premiered as a pilot special
in September 1967. The series broke new ground in TV comedy and alongside
Star Trek it was one of the first American series to feature a
racially-integrated cast. It was scripted by a team that includes expatriate
Australian writers Chris Bearde
and Digby Wolfe. Laugh-In
becomes a smash-hit around the world, and earns the writing team the 1967-68
Emmy award for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Music or Variety. It makes
household names of the hosts, former standup comics Dan Rowan and Dick Martin,
and launched the careers of many of its regular performers including Lily
Tomlin, Goldie Hawn, Ruth Buzzi, Chelsea Brown (who later emigrated to
Australia) and Flip Wilson, and provided the first international TV showcase
for the legendary Tiny Tim. The show's catchphrases -- "Sock it to me",
"You bet your sweet bippy", "Look that up in your Funk & Wagnalls", "Here
come da judge!", "The fickle finger of fate" and "Beautiful Downtown Burbank"
-- soon pass into everyday usage and celebrities and public figures -- including
U.S. President Richard Nixon -- queue up to appear in cameo spots. The series
runs for more than five years until its cancellation in May 1973.
23
The Who/Small Faces 'Big Show' tour begins with a controversial concert
at the Sydney Stadium.
25
The Big Show plays the Festival Hall, Melbourne.
26
The Big Show plays the Festival Hall, Melbourne
27
The Big Show plays the Centennial Hall, Adelaide
28
The "Big Show" tour entourage, including The Who, The Small
Faces and Paul Jones are are escorted from their plane by police
and airport security after a flight attendant alleges abusive
behaviour during a flight from Adelaide to Melbourne. Arriving
in Melbourne, the groups are escorted to the VIP lounge by police,
kept under guard for several hours and escorted onto a plane
to Sydney.
30
Australia's new 12-mile territorial fishing limit comes into force
31
North Vietnamese forces and their allies launch the famous "Tet Offensive".
Taking advantage of a lull in fighting during the annual Tet religious holiday,
NLF forces mount surprise attacks on military targets throughout South Vietnam,
even striking in the heart of Saigon and attacking the American Embassy. Although the
NLF forces suffer terrible losses, the offensive is a huge propaganda victory for
North Vietnamese cause, and a decisive event in the conflict, leaving the confidence
of the South Vietnamese and their allies forces badly shaken.
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When I Was 6
Years Old / So Good
Ronnie Burns |
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February 1968
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3rd
Sadie The Cleaning Lady
Johnny Farnham
10th
Sadie The Cleaning Lady
Johnny Farnham
17th
Sadie The Cleaning Lady
Johnny Farnham
24th
Love Is Blue
Paul Mauriat
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The La De Das make their second trip to Sydney
20 Australian soldiers are
killed and 80 are wounded during Operation Coburg, following
the Tet offensive
Major overseas releases:
Leonard Cohen - Songs
Of Leonard Cohen
Donovan - Jennifer Juniper
Aretha Franklin - Since You've Been Gone
The Move - Fire Brigade
Otis Redding - The Dock Of The Bay
1
Australian and NZ troops continue
their resistance against the full-scale attack on their base
at Nui Dat by Viet Cong forces. The so-called Tet Offensive
proves to be a major turning point in the conflict.
21
World-famous Australian scientist
Sir Howard Florey dies, aged 69. Florey's work was crucial
in creating a useful antibiotic from Sir Alexander Fleming's
discovery of penicillin. Florey's achievement, among the most
significant in scientific history, saves the lives of millions
worldwide during the second half of the 20th century.
25 John
Gorton wins the Higgins by-election, gaining a seat in the House of
Representatives and ensuring his appointment as Liberal Party leader and
Prime Minister.
27 20
year-old Aboriginal boxing champion Lionel Rose defeats
Masahiko "Fighting" Harada in Japan to become the world
bantamweight champion. Rose later ventures into recording and
has chart success with a country song Let Me Thank You For
Just Being You, written and produced for him by Johnny
Young.
- American president Richard Nixon
visits Berlin. During his visit terrorists Dieter Kunzelmann and Rainer
Langhans attempt to bomb his motorcade, but the bomb is discovered
before it can be triggered. Kunzelmann and Langhans, members
of West Berlin terrorist group Tupamaros (a precursor of Movement
2 June) are arrested soon after.
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Mr Love / And She's Mine
The Allusions
Soothe Me / I See A New Day
The Groove
Something Wonderful / We Got Love
The Questions
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March 1968
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2nd
Love Is Blue
Paul Mauriat
9th
Love Is Blue
Paul Mauriat
16th
Love Is Blue
Paul Mauriat
23rd
Love Is Blue
Paul Mauriat
30th
Love Is Blue
Paul Mauriat
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The Factory discotheque at Blacktown, in Sydney's
western suburbs, opens with a permanent lightshow designed by
UBU member Aggy Read.
American TV comedian Don Lane is committed to stand
trial on charges of importing cannabis into Australia.
In Melbourne Tonight scoops the pool at the annual
Logie Awards. IMT is voted 'Best Victorian Show' and host Graham
Kennedy is voted 'Most Popular Victorian Personality', giving him
his twelfth Logie.
Major overseas releases:
The Beatles - Lady
Madonna
Blood, Sweat & Tears - Child Is Father To The Man
James Brown - I Got The Feelin'
Joe Cocker - Majorine
The Hollies - Jennifer Eccles
Incredible String Band - The Hangmans's Beautiful Daughter
Joni Mitchell - Joni Mitchell
The Moody Blues - Days Of Future Passed
The Move - The Move
Simon & Garfunkel - Scarborough Fair
1
UNSW student Roger Foley presents UBU films
at an Orientation Day function, followed by a performance event
(smashing a piano) and a "Psychedelic Party" using
UBU lights. Foley soon sets up his own famous lightshow business
under the name Ellis D. Fogg.
2
Syd
Barrett leaves Pink Floyd after their
disastrous tour of the US.
12 The
Federal government pays a reported $50,000 compensation to Captain
John Robertson, who was commanding HMAS Melbourne at the
time of the Voyager disaster.
14 The
Australian Army admits to reports that one of its officers tortured
a Vietnamese woman suspected of being a spy.
16 A company
of US soldiers carries out the infamous My Lai Massacre
in Vietnam, killing dozens of innocent civilians. In November
1969 Lieutenant William Calley is charged with ordering the massacre.
22 A helicopter
crashes on the Barracouta offshore oil platform in Bass
Strait, killing two journalists and an oil company employee.
25 A second
royal commission into the Voyager
disaster finds that the commander of HMAS Voyager, Capt.
Duncan Stevens, was too ill to command at the time of the accident.
Full blame is (conveniently) placed on the executive staff
of the Voyager, although the commission concedes that
the full story can never be known since all the bridge officers,
including Stevens, died in the accident. The second report controversially overturns
the findings of the first, which laid partial blame with the captain and crew
of the Melbourne. |
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Something Easy / Michael
Cam-Pact
It's A Happening World / Moving In A Circle
The Executives
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April 1968
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6th
Lady Madonna
The Beatles
13th
Lady Madonna
The Beatles
20th
Lady Madonna
The Beatles
27th
Honey
Bobby Goldsboro
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Major overseas releases:
1 American
Christian evangelist Billy Graham begins a tour of Australia.
- US President Lyndon Johnson delivers
a major speech announcing a reduction of US bombing of North
Vietnam and makes the surprise announcement that he will not
seek his party's endorsement to run for a second term as President.
The ABC's This Day Tonight plays edited segments of the speech
relayed from Washington, along with a report from Washington
correspondent Peter Barnett -- the first international satellite
newsbreak in Australian TV history.
2 A group
of self-styled "urban guerrillas" firebomb two department
stores in Frankfurt, West Germany. Former juvenile delinquent
and petty criminal Andreas Baader and his girlfriend,
student activist Gudrun Ensslin leave two time bombs in
Frankfurt's Kaufhaus Schneider department store while accomplices
Horst Söhnlein and Thorwald Proll leave another
in the nearby Kaufhof store. At midnight the bombs go off, causing
about $200,000 worth of damage. As the first flames appear, Ensslin
phones the German Press Agency, screaming "This is a political
act of revenge!". The Frankfurt fire-bombings are the first
in a series of attacks against the West German establishment
by Baader, Ensslin and their associates. They later become collectively
known as the infamous Baader-Meinhof
Gang, a loose collective of left-wing dissidents whose extremist
agenda had been crystallised by the police killing of a young student,
Benno Ohnesorg, during a demonstration in Berlin in June 1967, and by the attempted murder
of left-wing student leader Rudi Dutschke a few days later
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4
America and the world are stunned when American
civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King is assassinated in
Memphis. Outrage in the African-American community over his murder
--widely believed to have been orchestrated by rogue elements of America's
law enforcement agencies -- triggers a wave of riots, looting and arson in
cities across the country.
10
The Wahine disaster, New Zealand's
worst maritime accident, claims the lives of 51 people. As Cyclone Giselle
lashes Wellington, the vehicular ferry Wahine attempts
a harbour crossing but is driven aground by the heavy seas, taking
on water and losing power. Although within clear sight of the
city, only a few hundred metres from shore, the fierce storm
and heavy seas foil repeated attempts by rescue craft to tow
the ship to safety. During the course of the day the ferry is
driven broadside to the storm, takes on more water and begins
to list dangerously. This in turn causes the cars on the vehicle
deck to shift, and eventually the Wahine capsizes. Poor command
decisions delay the evacuation until late in the day, and the
subsequent crisis is compounded by the bad weather, panic and
confusion during the evacuation, and inadequate lifesaving equipment
-- including the total lack of any children's life jackets. The
result is a catastrophe -- as darkness falls, dozens of people
are swept into the raging waters as they attempt to abandon ship
and 51 passengers drown. A huge controversy erupts when the subsequent
enquiry exonerates both the captain and the ferry company.
The stricken Wahine lies capsized
in Wellington Harbour
11 In Berlin, a young house painter,
Joseph Bachmann, ambushes student activist Rudi Dutschke,
the firebrand leader of the leftist APO movement, in the street
outside his home. Bachmann shoots Dutschke three times, knocking
him clean out of his shoes, but he survives the shooting. Immediately
after the shooting Bachmann hides out in a basement of a
local building and swallows 20 sleeping tablets in an unsuccessful
effort to commit suicide.
12-15
Students riot in Berlin after the attempted murder of left-wing student activist
Rudi Dutschke. The enraged students assume that Dutschke was targeted
was because of the red-baiting rhetoric of the right-wing Springer Press
group. The Springer press is owned by the ultra-conservative and rabidly
anti-communist Lord Axel Springer. His newspapers dominate the German press and
through them Springer rails against the Left,
and particularly against the "red" Dutschke. After the shooting
thousands of students converge on the 20-story Springer Press headquarters,
which straddles the Berlin Wall. Among the demonstrators is noted
journalist Ulrike Meinhof and future Baader-Meinhof biographer
Stefan Aust, editors of the leftist magazine konkret.
Many students park their cars in front of the building, forming
a blockade; Aust suggests that Meinhof should park her car in the
blockade, but she is unsure about getting involved. She compromises
by parking her car at the very end of the blockade, but she is arrested
anyway. Meinhof avoids conviction by persuading the court that
she is only guilty of poor parking! Although seemingly
innocuous, the act is Meinhof's first step towards
a far more radical political agenda, culminating in her becoming
a key member of the notorious Baader-Meinhof urban terrorist gang.
21 On
the eve of the passing of the Race Relations Bill through the British
Parliament, right-wing MP Enoch Powell delivers his infamous
"rivers of blood" speech in Birmingham, predicting that
there will be a race war in UK if the admission
of non-white migrants is not curtailed. In the wake of the
speech, the British political climate lurches to the right and
a Gallup Poll indicates that a shocking 74% of Britons support
Powell's views.
- French students occupy the campus at
Nanterre, a university in a bleak suburb of Paris, where students
are sexually segregated. The occupation is the first of a series of events
of leading up to the famous May '68 protests.
23 A surgical
team headed by A.G.R. Sheil performs Australia's first liver
transplant at Sydney Hospital
30 Gough
Whitlam retains leadership of the ALP, defeating his rivals
including Dr Jim Cairns, whom he beats by only six votes.
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Hide & Seek / Livin' In Style
Somebody's Image
Gotta Stop Lying / Time Killer
The Wild Cherries
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May 1968
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4th
Honey
Bobby Goldsboro
11th
Honey
Bobby Goldsboro
18th
Honey
Bobby Goldsboro
25th
The Unicorn
The Irish Rovers
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Guitarist Kevin Peek leaves
The James Taylor Move, and is replaced by John Pugh (ex-Roadrunners)
and Lance Dixon
Major anti-war riots and student
protests break out in Paris
Major overseas releases:
James Brown - Licking Stick , Licking Stick
Donovan - Hurdy Gurdy Man
Aretha Franklin - Think
The Rolling Stones - Jumpin' Jack Flash
Simon & Garfunkel - Mrs. Robinson, Bookends
2 The federal government is forced into
an embarrassing admission that the purchase price of the twenty-four
American-made F-111 supersonic fighter-bombers, originally
ordered by Menzies in 1963, has now blown out by 140% from the original
estimate of $112 million to $266 million.
3
French university students mount a massive series of anti-government
protests in Paris. The Sorbonne is closed and fierce street fighting
rages for days between police and demonstrators, causing many
casualties in the Latin Quarter, which has been blockaded by
the students. The Paris riots, later immortalised in song by
The Rolling Stone's classic Street Fightin' Man, trigger
a month-long wave of dissent, industrial action and political unrest
across Europe; the protests in France bring the ultra-conservative
De Gaullle government to the brink of collapse.
5 Three
Australian journalists are killed by Viet Cong near Saigon; a
fourth escapes.
14 Ethiopian
Emperor Haile Selassie begins a five-day state visit to
Australia
15 The
Beatles announce the formation of their own recording company,
Apple Corps.
18 Possibly
affected by his heavy and protracted use of LSD, John Lennon
calls a meeting of The Beatles at their London office to inform
them that he is Jesus.
19
While his wife Cynthia and son Julian are away on holiday, John Lennon
and Japanese-born avant-garde artist Yoko Ono
spend the night together recording their experimental work Two
Virgins, concluding by making love for the first time
at dawn.
21 Indian
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visits Australia
- French unions stage a general strike in
support of students. France grinds to a standstill
24 A French
policeman is killed during rioting in Lyon.
26 An Oz benefit is held at the Middle Earth Club,
London.
28
Sydney underworld figure Joe Borg
is killed by a car bomb at Bondi. His will includes a huge $250,000 bequest to the
RSPCA, which is used to establish a new animal shelter at Yagoona.
30
In France,
President De Gaulle announces strong measures against anti-war
protesters, dissolves the National Assembly, and calls General
Elections
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Drawing Room/ I'm Your Puppet
Cam-Pact
Love Machine / Spread A Little Love Around
Love Machine
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June 1968
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1st
The Unicorn
The Irish Rovers
8th
This Guy's In Love With You
Herb Alpert
15th
This Guy's In Love With You
Herb Alpert
22nd
This Guy's In Love With You
Herb Alpert
29th
This Guy's In Love With You
Herb Alpert
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Seminal Brisbane blues band
Bay City Union breaks up.
Drummer Bryan Harris leaves
The
La De Das and is replaced
by Keith Barber (ex- Wild Cherries)
Major overseas releases:
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Fire
Deep Purple - Hush
The Doors - Hello, I Love You
Fairport Convention - Fairport Convention
Pink Floyd - A Saucerful Of Secrets
Aretha Franklin - Aretha Now
Randy Newman - Randy Newman
The Nice - The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack
Harry Nilsson - Everybody's Talkin'
Otis Redding - The Immortal Otis Redding
The Small Faces - Ogden's Nut Gone Flake
3
Melbourne's GTV-9 launches Australia's first breakfast TV program, Today,
hosted by former radio DJ Mike Walsh
and co-presenter Bobo Faulkner. Local versions are subsequently set up in
other capital cities. The 'Today' format is dropped by Nine; it is picked up
by the Seven Network for some time and it is eventually revived as a national
program on the Nine Network in 1982.
- Radical feminist Valerie
Solanis , author of the SCUM Manifesto
(Society for Cutting Up Men) shoots Andy Warhol at The
Factory in New York. Warhol is critically wounded and only barely
survives the shooting.
5 Senator Robert Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles
while campaigning for the 1968 US presidential election.
12 President
De Gaulle bans all demonstrations in France
14 Conscientious
objector Simon Townsend is granted exemption from national
service. Townsend had resisted the draft and was forcibly inducted
under order from a magistrate. In May he had been put on bread
and water at Ingleburn Army Camp after refusing to obey his first
Army order. In the '70s and '80s Townsend becomes well-known
as host and producer of the successful children's TV program
Wonder World.
15
John and Yoko plant acorns for peace in the grounds of Coventry
Cathedral.
- The heroes of the Paris barricades Daniel
Cohn-Bendit aka (Danny The Red) and Alan Geismar are
flown to London by the BBC to address a conference at the London
School of Economics.
18 The
Warringah Expressway opens in Sydney.
 24
British comedy star Tony Hancock is found dead in his Sydney
flat. A coroner later rules that Hancock had committed suicide by
taking an overdose of barbiturates. Hancock had come to
Australia to make a TV series for the Channel 7 in Sydney. He rose
to fame in the '50s with a series of popular BBC radio and TV programs,
and was regarded as one of the most gifted comic actors of his
generation. Although tipped for international success, he was
plagued by depression and self-doubt. His career and personal
life took a nosedive after leaving the BBC in the mid-Sixties, and
his psychological problems were exacerbated by alcoholism and
his increasing abuse of amphetamines and barbiturates. It was
evident for some time that Hancock was in trouble -- when he
performed at Melbourne's
Dendy Theatre in October 1967, he fell several time during the
show, and eventually left the stage amidst jeers, catcalls and
audience walkouts. Many factors contributed to his suicide --
his drug and alcohol problems aggravated his
long-standing problems with depression and
paranoia, his notorious perfectionism and his pathological fear
of failure. Other factors included his split from his long-time
collaborators, actor Sid James and writers Galton &
Simpson (a move which Hancock himself had described as "professional
suicide"). Hancock's divorce was another contributing factor,
having been finalised only a week before his death.
- Penalties for the evasion of national
service are increased
29 Pink Floyd release their second album
A Saucerful Of Secrets
30 In
France, the Gaullist Party are returned in the election; a coalition
of the Gaullist state, the Unions and the French Communist Party
turns the revolutionary impulses into reforms
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Windy Day / This Town Ain't The Same Any
More
The Executives
Advice / I Had A Dream
Doug Parkinson In Focus
What Price Love?/Only Once
In My Lifetime
The Avengers
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July 1968
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6th
This Guy's In Love With You
Herb Alpert
13th
MacArthur Park
Richard Harris
20th
MacArthur Park
Richard Harris
27th
MacArthur Park
Richard Harris
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The Groove win Hoadley's
Battle of the Sounds.
Major overseas releases:
The Beach Boys - Friends, Do It Again
The Buffalo Springfield - Last Time Around
The Byrds - Sweetheart Of The Rodeo
Aretha Franklin - I Say A Little Prayer
The Move - Wild Tiger Woman
2
30 protesters are arrested when police
clash with anti-conscription demonstrators in Sydney
- Artist Sir Hans Heysen dies, aged
90
4 Mounted
police charge into a crowd of over 1,500 anti-Vietnam war demonstrators
outside the US consulate in Melbourne. 45 people are arrested.
10 World-famous
US paediatrician and best-selling author Dr Benjamin Spock
is sentenced to 2 years for encouraging draft dodging.
30
The Beatles announce the closure of their Apple Boutique in Baker St, London.
The store is shut down after just six months in business, all the stock is given
away and the controversial psychedelic mural on the building's exterior, created by
design collective The Fool, is removed immediately after the store shut down.
31 The Beatles
record Hey Jude at the Abbey Rd Studios in London. The song tops
Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart for nine weeks (Sept-Nov) making it
their biggest-ever American hit.
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What Is Soul
/ Goin' Back
The Groove |
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August 1968
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3rd
MacArthur Park
Richard Harris
10th
MacArthur Park
Richard Harris
17th
MacArthur Park
Richard Harris
24th
You Keep Me Hangin' On
Vanilla Fudge
31st
You Keep Me Hangin' On
Vanilla Fudge
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The La De Das make their second
trip to Melbourne
A major epidemic of Hong
Kong flu breaks out in Melbourne and soon spreads to other
states.
Major overseas releases:
The Beach Boys - Stack-o-Tracks
Jeff Beck - Truth
Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper and Stephen Stills - Super Session
James Brown - Say It Loud - I'm Black And I'm Proud
Cream - Wheels Of Fire
The Moody Blues - In Search Of The Lost Chord
The Rolling Stones - Street Fighting Man
The Beatles - Hey Jude / Revolution
6
"Rocket" Rod Laver wins the men's singles title in the first Wimbledon
Open
7
The Easybeats
feature in an all-star lineup at the Sounds '68 concert
at London's Royal Albert Hall. Topping the bill are co-headliners
The Move and The Byrds. This version of The Byrds
is the legendary but short-lived lineup that includes Gram
Parsons. The Albert Hall concert proves to be one of his
last appearances with The Byrds -- he leaves the band at that
end of the month over his political objections to their impending
tour of South Africa. Also supporting with The Easybeats were
the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, Joe Cocker and The
Alan Bown Set.
8 Following
the sudden death of aging premier Jack Pizzey, Kingaroy peanut farmer Johannes
Bjelke Petersen is elected unopposed as the new Country Party
leader, thus becoming the new Queensland Premier. Joh's pro-development
leadership ushers in an unprecedented era of growth for the
state, but he is reviled by the Left for his autocratic style,
his anti-union, anti-civil liberties stance, and his heavy-handed
use of police powers to repress dissent. Joh retains retains
power into the 1980s thanks to his cynical exploitation of Queensland's
notorious electoral gerrymander, but in later years his administration,
and in particular the police force, are dogged by constant allegations
of corruption. When these allegations are eventually aired on the landmark
Four Corners
program "The Moonlight State", they lead to the
establishment of the Wood Royal Commission. Its damning findings
result in a stunning electoral defeat which sweeps the National
Party from government, and leads to criminal charges against
several government ministers and former police commissioner Terry
Lewis.
9 UBU
Lights premiere the use of liquid slides and their "Jumbo
Strobe" at the St Aloysius College Ball.
10 Tamam Shud play a benefit for the Coogee Boardriders
Club (with lightshow by UBU) at the Hefferon Hall in East Sydney.
Partway through the show the hall manager cuts the power, calling
it "the ultimate in depravity". The same night,
UBU premiere "Trip Without Glue" (simulating
an LSD trip) at Briar's Club in Sydney's western suburbs.
- Cream's Wheels Of Fire, with
covert art by Martin Sharp, reaches #1 in the US album charts
12 More
serious race riots break out in the black suburb of Watts,
Los Angeles
15 The
National Library opens in Canberra
- Yippies Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin arrive
in Chicago and claim that they will disrupt the Democratic
Party Convention by releasing greased pigs, seducing delegate's
wives and daughters and getting female yippies to dress as prostitutes
and put LSD into delegate's drinks. The suggestions are taken
seriously by the mayor and his police force.
16 Government
health statistics reveal the shocking fact that deaths amongst
Aboriginal children account for almost 10% of the infant mortality
rate in Australia, even though Aborigines comprise less than
1% of the population.
17 Fire
by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown reaches #1 on the UK
charts and stays there for the next fourteen weeks
20 The
National Gallery of Victoria opens in Melbourne
21-23
Soviet forces invade Czechoslovakia, dramatically
terminating the reforms of the so-called 'Prague Spring' and
the liberal government led by Alexander Dubchek.
22 Cynthia
Lennon files for divorce from John Lennon
23 A Be-In
is organised by the Yippies in Chicago. Allen Ginsberg and Ed
Sanders of The Fugs lead a dance through the Old Town
27 Under
orders from Chicago mayor Richard Daley, police use extreme
force to quell demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention.
The police brutality is so extreme that the McCarthy campaign
office is turned into an emergency hospital to cope with the injured. Many Yippie 'leaders' are
arrested but the events backfire on the Establishment, drawing
widespread criticism of Daley's heavy-handed approach. Many of
the events surrounding the clashes, and graphic footage of the
riots themselves are captured by film-maker Haskell Wexler,
who uses the footage in his classic docu-drama Medium Cool. |
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Bird In The Tree/I Gotta Know What You're
Like
Tymepiece
You'd Better Get Going Now / 3 Jolly Little Dwarfs
Zoot
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September 1968
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7th
You Keep Me Hangin' On
Vanilla Fudge
14th
You Keep Me Hangin' On
Vanilla Fudge
21st
You Keep Me Hangin' On
Vanilla Fudge
28th
Hey Jude
The Beatles
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The Seekers' farewell LP Live At The
Talk Of The Town reaches #2 in the UK.
UBU provides
lighting for a Dave Miller Set
performance in the ABC-TV pilot Good Grief It's The Twilights,
and also for segments of Channel 7's The Mavis Bramston Show.
Major overseas releases:
The Band - The Weight
Deep Purple - Shades Of Deep Purple
Jefferson Airplane - Crown Of Creation
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - All Along The Watchtower
The Move - Something Else By The Move (EP)
The Supremes - Love Child
3
Adelaide
band Zoot hold a media reception at
Berties Disco in Melbourne.
For the occasion, club owner Tony Knight decks out the disco
completely in pink, including pink champagne and pink carnations.
The party, organised by new manager Wayne De Gruchy (who also
manages Berties) is to launch the band's "Think Pink - Think
Zoot" campaign, part of the group's new image as a bubblegum
act, which has them decked out with matching pink suits and pink
guitars and even sees Daryl Cotton's luckless Afghan Hound dyed
pink!. Although the group later repudiate the idea, it proves
a promotional success and their next single 1x2x3x4 is
a Top 40 hit in Melbourne.
3-7
Ubu
Films presents "Underground 68", a week-long
season of new underground and experimental films from Australia
and overseas. The program includes Count Vim's Last Exercise,
the first film by Peter Weir, who is working at Channel
7, Sydney as a stage hand on The Mavis Bramston Show.
5 The
premiere of ABC-TV's new rural affairs program
A Big
Country. 10 shows are made in 1969, followed by twenty
each year from 1970-72.
14 Aboriginal
activists Pastor Doug Nicholls and Charles Perkins
are refused service at the lounge bar of the Crown Hotel in Cairns.
21 South
Sydney beat Many-Warringah in the NSWRL Grand Final.
26 The
censorship of theatrical productions in Britain is officially abolished.
The change has largely come about because of the public outrcy surrounding
the Lord Chamberlain's banning of Edward Bond's second play, "Saved" in
November 1965. The play was banned because of an allegorical scene
in which a baby is stoned to death in its pram, but London's Royal Court
Theatre sidestepped the ban by temporarily converting into a club theatre
(which was exempt from such controls) in order to stage the premiere.
27 The
cast of the musical Hair appear naked onstage in London
for the first time.
28 Carlton
defeats Essendon before a record crowd of 116,828 in the VFL
Grand Final
- The Beatles' epic single Hey Jude reaches #1
on the US charts.
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Good Good Feelin/ It Won't Be Long
Cam-Pact
I Don't Care / Theme For A Merry Go Round
The Wild Cherries
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October 1968
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5th
Hey Jude
The Beatles
12th
Hey Jude
The Beatles
19th
Hey Jude
The Beatles
26th
Hey Jude
The Beatles
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The Groop
returns to Australia after 11 months in the UK.
Conscientious objector John Zarb, 21,
is jailed for two years for refusing to obey his call-up notice.
Zarb is the first person to be prosecuted under the amended
National Service Act. Zarb states that he is not a pacifist
and is prepared to do military training, but specifically
objects to Australia's involvement in the Vietnam conflict,
which he feels is unjust.
The Frankston home of IMT star Graham Kennedy is
severely damaged by fire
Major overseas releases:
The Temptations - Cloud Nine
Stevie Wonder - For Once In My Life
The Jeff Beck Group - Truth
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland
3 Arts
Vietnam an anti-war event at Paddington Town Hall with music
by The Id, Nutwood Rug, Stray Wild Dogs,
Feeling, Ian Walsh Trio and Pip Proud and
lightshow by UBU.
7 Tim Buckley performs his first solo concert in Britain at London's
Queen Elizabeth Hall with guitarist Lee Underwood, vibes player
David Friedman and British jazz/folk bassist Danny Thompson (later
of Pentangle). The concert is recorded and eventually released
as the album Dream Letter in 1990.
12-27 The Olympics are held in Mexico City. During one medal
ceremony two black American athletes give the Black Power salute,
and some are expelled from the games.
13 Fledgling
German terrorists Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Horst
Söhnlein and Thorwald Proll are convicted of arson attacks
on two Frankfurt department stores. Each is sentenced to three
years imprisonment. (<-- 11/4/68).
14 The Western Australian town of Meckering is virtually
demolished by an earthquake which is estimated at 7 on the Richter
scale.
18 The
London home of John Lennon and Yoko Ono is raided
by the Drug Squad, beginning a concerted campaign of ridicule
and hostility against the pair in the British establishment.
23 Dr
Harry Windsor leads a team which performs Australia's first heart
transplant at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney
25 Swimmer Michael Wenden wins the 200m freestyle,
taking the Australian gold medal tally at the Mexico Olympics
to five.
27 Pop
show Uptight, hosted by Ross D. Wylie, premieres on the
0-10 Network.
28-29
Major bushfires around Wollongong and in the Blue Mountains kill
three firefighters and destroy over one hundred homes
- The PMG reduces suburban postal deliveries
from two to one per day
31 RSL
President Sir William Hall tells the RSL annual congress that
the "lawless behaviour" of tertiary students who protest
the draft should be punished by expulsion from university.
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You Are The One
I Love / Merry Go Round
The Groove |
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November 1968
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2nd
Hey Jude
The Beatles
9th
Hey Jude
The Beatles
16th
Hey Jude
The Beatles
23rd
Hey Jude
The Beatles
30th
Hey Jude
The Beatles
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The Best Of The Seekers
knocks The Beatles'
'White Album' off the #1 spot on the UK album chart, and it stays
on the UK album chart for 125 weeks.
UBU installs a permanent lightshow at the Cheetah
Club (formerly the Latin Quarter)
British supergroup
Cream splits.
Major overseas releases:
The Band - Music
From Big Pink
The Beatles - The Beatles (The White Album)
Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band - I'm The Urban Spaceman
James Brown - Live At The Apollo, Volume II
Donovan - Atlantis
The Kinks - The Village Green Preservation Society
Aretha Franklin - See Saw
John Lennon/Yoko Ono - Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins
The Supremes & The Temptations - I'm Gonna Make You Love
Me
1 President
Johnson orders a halt to the US bombing of North Vietnam
2 "Barbarella
Night" at the TV Producers Club, Sydney with music by The
Id and lightshow by UBU.
3 500
people attend UBU's first self-promoted event, the First Intergalactic
Festival Lightshow Concert, at the Cellblock Theatre, East
Sydney with music by The Id and Nutwood Rug.
5 Rain
Lover wins the Melbourne Cup
16 Electric
Ladyland by The Jimi Hendrix Experience reaches #1 on
the US album charts.
25 The
Beatles ('The White Album') is released in the U.S.A.
26 Cream
play their farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London
28 John
Lennon and Yoko Ono are fined £150 in a London court for possession
of
cannabis
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December1968
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7th
Hey Jude
The Beatles
14th
Hey Jude
The Beatles
21st
Hey Jude
The Beatles
28th
Hey Jude
The Beatles
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Singer Wendy Saddington
(ex-James Taylor Move) joins the first line-up of seminal blues
band Chain in Melbourne.
The La De Das are voted 'Best Australian Disco Act'
in the annual Go-Set Pop Poll
UBU provides lightshows for numerous Sydney Xmas balls
and dances, including the Teachers College Ball and the UNSW
Engineers Ball.
Koomooloo wins the Sydney To Hobart Yacht Race
Major overseas releases:
The Doors - "Touch Me"
The Nice - Ars Longa Vita Brevis
The Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet
3
Fifty-two workers
are forced to jump into the sea to escape a wildcat gas fire
which that erupts at the Esso-BHP Marlin oil rig in Bass
Strait.
4
World-famous Texan oil trouble-shooter
Paul "Red" Adair arrives at the Bass Strait
oil fields. Adair has been called in to tackle the Marlin gas
fire.
13 UBU
stages their first Underground Dance at Paddington
Town Hall with the UBU lightshow, films screened between music
sets, and music by Tamam Shud ("the wildest new
group on the local scene") and The Id. Admission:
$1.00.
14 A referendum
approves the proposed Wrest Point Casino in Hobart, the
first legal casino in Australia.
19 NSW
introduces the the use of the Breathalizer to combat drink-driving.
- The Shadows play their final
concert at the London Palladium.
27 Apollo
8 becomes the first manned spacecraft to orbit the Moon.
31 A MacRobertson-Miller
Airlines Viscount aircraft crashes at Port Headland, killing
all 26 on board.
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Age Of Consent / Piccadilly Pages
Ronnie Burns
Christopher Robin / Summerhill Road
The Executives
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