Bruce Milne

As part of our commitment to capturing and sharing great Australian music stories, the Australian Music Vault asked some of the country’s most influential trailblazers and unsung heroes to open up about their lives in music.

Bruce Milne has been a passionate member of the Melbourne recording industry since the 1970s. Not destined for a career as a musician, Bruce started his career as a band promoter while still a student at Swinburne College with contemporaries Nick Cave and Rowland S. Howard. During this time he also created early punk fanzines including Plastered Press, Pulp and Fast Forward. While working at Missing Link Records he helped to distribute early independent releases from bands such as The Laughing Clowns, The Boys Next Door and The Go-Betweens before branching out with his own label, Au Go Go Records in 1977. In 1986, a record store was added to the business and the Au Go Go label took centre stage in the independent scene in the early 1990’s signing bands like Spiderbait, Magic Dirt and Meanies, and partnering with the Seattle-based Sub-Pop label.

In this interview with Jane Gazzo, Bruce Milne discusses the early days of punk in Melbourne at Swinburne and the legendary Crystal Ballroom; the creation of his cassette-fanzine, Fast Forward, his experiences at Au Go Go, and his days as the publican of The Tote at the time of the SLAM Rally.

Interviewer: Jane Gazzo

Location: Melbourne Room, Arts Centre Melbourne, 2017