Au-Go-Go Records
above left : before the store was set up at 349 Little Bourke St it was a GUN SHOP ! Firearms & Ammo made way for records and underground culture ! Middle : The classic logo designed by Phillip Brophy & Right : the awesome Upstairs 349 view of records !
So I'm giving these pages a good go, compiling all my bits and pieces into a website document paying tribute to Au-Go-Go Records, the Store, The Label, The Institution, and the spirit of what a killer Record Store should be. My own time there ( 14 years 1988 -2002 ) will be covered along with those before and after me with thoughts on the rewind, with the different locations discussed, the Instores held, Records Released, Tours funded, Bands born from the noticeboards and more so hopefully it will make for a good read and will be added to on a weekly basis when that pesky thing called time permits ! This is gonna be FUN ! and no doubt a lot of people's out there will enjoy digging through here as your youth will be reloaded before your eyes ! There will be a Missing Link portion as well as you shall see from the home page and the two stores most definitely go hand in hand as the label (which came before the store) was started by Bruce Milne when he was working behind the counter of the Link under the guidance of Keith Glass when new music was coming in left right and centre and some of those sounds needed a good home for documentation and distribution. So yeah, enjoy the heck outta this area of the Fantastic Mess site and check back for mad updates :-)
So the Retail portion of Au-Go-Go kicked off about 8 years after the first label release ( Two Way Garden ) was issued with the first store located down a narrow hallway at 399 Little Bourke Street in Melbourne. It was a shop jam packed with records...there were boxes on the floor, magazines, fanzines, posters, T-Shirts, the Pinball Machine had found a spot and it was a record nerd's dreamspace without a doubt. This is 1987 -1988 and right in the guts of the label issue of GOD's 'My Pal' which would send 7" records flying out the door in quick succession, whipping through the initial Orange Cover sleeve then into a Yellow sleeve and with multiple thousand sales. It was all Australian Releases for the label until ANDA 45 (1986) when Au-Go-Go issued a LP from Memphis swamp garage crooner PANTHER BURNS (Tav Falco and band) and followed it up 2 releases later with a full blown Memphis Garage Rock'n'Roll comp LP 'Swamp Surfing in Memphis' (Anda 47) and again with a Panther Burns 7" ('Red Headed Woman' -Anda 49). This shift to issue music from across the seas would again show itself in a major way after ten more Aussie releases when they licensed and unleashed SONIC YOUTH and THE BUTTHOLE SURFERS onto Australian Record buyers and Radio Listeners and this in turn began a frenzy of sorts within the store (along with a move to it's most well known location at 349 Little Bourke Street in a cool double storey hotbed of activity. *This section will be updated across mid/late 2020
So the Retail portion of Au-Go-Go kicked off about 8 years after the first label release ( Two Way Garden ) was issued with the first store located down a narrow hallway at 399 Little Bourke Street in Melbourne. It was a shop jam packed with records...there were boxes on the floor, magazines, fanzines, posters, T-Shirts, the Pinball Machine had found a spot and it was a record nerd's dreamspace without a doubt. This is 1987 -1988 and right in the guts of the label issue of GOD's 'My Pal' which would send 7" records flying out the door in quick succession, whipping through the initial Orange Cover sleeve then into a Yellow sleeve and with multiple thousand sales. It was all Australian Releases for the label until ANDA 45 (1986) when Au-Go-Go issued a LP from Memphis swamp garage crooner PANTHER BURNS (Tav Falco and band) and followed it up 2 releases later with a full blown Memphis Garage Rock'n'Roll comp LP 'Swamp Surfing in Memphis' (Anda 47) and again with a Panther Burns 7" ('Red Headed Woman' -Anda 49). This shift to issue music from across the seas would again show itself in a major way after ten more Aussie releases when they licensed and unleashed SONIC YOUTH and THE BUTTHOLE SURFERS onto Australian Record buyers and Radio Listeners and this in turn began a frenzy of sorts within the store (along with a move to it's most well known location at 349 Little Bourke Street in a cool double storey hotbed of activity. *This section will be updated across mid/late 2020
above left to right : Au-Go-Go Sale Flyer /Art by Phil Brophy.....TAV FALCO ( Memphis).....Upstairs Rarities wall at 349 Little Bourke... / S.I.C. LP cover... altho' not gifted with a Cat # it was one of the many records that were manufactured and distributed by Au-Go-Go..
Au-Go-Go Records Discography
