NEW WAVE DAZE.....

In a west end town in a dead end world
where east end boys meet west end girls..

So I was back where I started.  At home, living with my parents, far, far away from the lights and glamour of the city.  It really was a dead end world.

My parents accepted me back happily and after a few days life returned to it's normal, tedious outer suburban routine.  I celebrated my 18th birthday at home alone with not a drink or drug in sight.  My older sister was planning her upcoming engagement and all the focus was on her.

My mother managed to get me a job working in the same shopping mall where she was now working in our neighbouring town.  Unfortunately she was working in a trendy boutique and I got a job in a very conservative menswear store. It was totally the opposite of what I wanted but it was a job.

I had to dress in conservative clothes, gel my outrageous hair down flat each day and sell clothes that I wouldn't be seen dead wearing myself.  It was so old fashioned that when mothers would come in with their teenage sons and ask me  'did we sell anything trendy?' I would quietly direct them to the department store next door!

But I was good at my job and my work mates were accepting and friendly.  I worked all week, including Thursday nights and Saturday mornings.  I was stuck in a backward, bigoted world where my only safety was inside the shop.  Outside I was commonly abused by the local hoods, that was just about every boy except me!  One morning while I was having my daily coffee someone shoved their finger sharply in my back.  I turned around and a middle aged woman spat out loudly at me, 'your fucking sort ought to be locked up!'

One Thursday night I was even physically attacked inside the shop by a group of local boys, all drunk and determined to bash the shit out of the 'poofter'.  My manager and the mall security had to intervene.  Afterwards my boss told me it might be a good idea to change my dyed bright orange hair to a more conservative colour.

After 2 months of trying to stay away from my former life of drugs and the gay scene I realized I was kidding myself.  Funnily enough it was while watching TV one Friday night with my mother.  The movie was the Dianna Ross version of 'Lady Sings the Blues' - the life story of Billy Holliday.  The club scenes and drug taking took me back to where I wanted to be.

That week I bumped into an old school mate who was selling drugs and bought a block of hashish.  That was to be the start of my very long addiction to drugs that would last for the next 30 odd years.

The early 1980's were a defining time for both music and fashion.  Not since the 1960's and not again until the recent emergence of K Pop has music and fashion been so revolutionary.  I was right in the thick of it.  I was listening to bands like the Sex Pistols, The Clash, Siouxsie Sue and the Banshees, OMD, Toyah Wilcox, New Order, The Cure......anything that was New Wave, Punk and British.

Saturday afternoons after work I would head into the city to hit Paddington Markets.  This was Sydney's first alternative market for arts and fashion and the place to be seen.  Every week I would buy either a new outfit or new shoes. Each one as individual and outrageous as possible.

Back home again to get ready for Saturday night out.  I would spend up to two hours putting my outfit together and getting my hair gelled, spiked and hair-sprayed to the max.  Then it was a walk to the station with a big daggy coat covering my clothes and a large newspaper which I would hold open to cover people seeing my hair and make up.  The 9.30pm train to the city was full of drunken yobs going home or off to another suburban party and the risk of getting bashed was high.

My venue of choice was Sydney's trendiest night club, Stranded.  This was the in place to be and was located in the basement of one of Sydney's most historic, beautiful and expensive shopping arcades. It was a mixture of people and styles, most of us on the edge of the latest fashion trends.  The others were rich society boys and girls who came because it was the 'in place'.  But even their money didn't give them the advantage.

A select group of us were given automatic and free entry.  Often walking straight past a line up of 50 or more people waiting to get in.  Our first drinks were free and with both our fashion styles and dance styles we were the centre of attention.  It wasn't a gay bar, but it was the hottest spot in town and the clientele was mixed.  Some nights I picked up and went home with a boy.  Other nights I didn't.  Then it was either a 3am 1 hour train ride home, or crashing with friends in their grotty inner city flats.  Most weekends I crashed with friends and spent Sundays recovering and then eating out in the cool restaurants of the time.  By Monday I had enough money left to get me through to pay day for lunch and train fare but very little else.

The week nights I spent in my room, headphones on, listening to cassettes of my favourite music and smoking hash.  I taught my self to sew on a sewing machine and began raiding the second hand stores buying 50's and 60's clothes or materials which I would turn into bizarre outfits.

I managed to last just 6 months living back at home.  Around Christmas time I met a boy at Stranded who I went home with.  He had a small bachelor flat in Kings Cross and we would spend the nights dancing, before heading to his flat for sex and then a whole day on Sunday getting stoned on grass or snorting speed with friends.  It was a totally alternative lifestyle in which I reveled.

He was 24, which at the time, seemed ancient to me.  However he was convenient and not demanding and would give me anything I asked for.  A few weeks into our 'relationship' he asked me to move in with him.  I told him that his flat was too small for two of us so he found a house in nearby Surrey Hills.  This was the 'haunted' house I mentioned earlier in my story.  I moved in and conveniently broke up with him a week later.  He had no problems with me staying on.  The house had 3 floors and 4 bedrooms.  We were friends and it was convenient for both of us.

So besides my boring job in the suburbs, I was now able to live the life I wanted and would continue this way for the next 3 and a half  years.  The jobs, boyfriends, clothes, hairstyles and apartments changed, but the lifestyle didn't.

These  years would possibly be the best time of my life.