August 25, 2025 • 8 mins
The legendary Graham Bidstrup joins Jonesy & Amanda in the studio for a chat!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
My Heart podcasts here, more Gold one on one point
seven podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Playlists and listen live on the Free iHeart app and
Amanda jam Nation.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
The man himself behind that very band, the man behind
that very song, Graham, Bidstrip Joint, Bidstrup Joints.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Do you want to be Buzz? Does anyone call you Graham?
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Only my wife and my mum used to, but Buzz
would be fine.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Let's do Buzz because when you joined the Angels, they said, well,
we can't have Graham in the.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Bad That's right. It was really weird. They were you know,
John Rick, Doc and Charlie, you know, and they said Graham.
They said, that's a bit weird. And I just said,
what about Buzz. And I'd had this name buzz Throckman
that we made up in Denmark right when I backpacked
around Europe, and we just made up this name buzz Throckman,
so he became Buzz.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Look, obviously I know you from obviously the Angels, but
I wasn't aware that you were also behind so many
of the other bands, the Party Boys and Ganga Jang.
And you tell very interesting story in the book about
this line, the iconic line from that song almost didn't make.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
It in it almost didn't. We were out of a rehearsal
room and Jeffrey Stapleton, a lovely keyboard player, said to
Mark Callahan, the writer of the song, you know that line,
this is Australia. It's a bit jingoistic and you know
it's a bit like maybe we should get rid of it.
And Cols said, yeah, yeah, maybe we should get rid
of it. I went over my dead body, you know,
because it was something I thought that was intrinsic to
(01:39):
the whole thing and it would have been frightening of
that had been left.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Out when those secrets came out and in the book
you described this.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
You're recording those secrets. It's a great song.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And then you get the call the Bond Scott has
passed away, and Bond Scott Scott was a friend of yours.
He was instrumental in getting the Angels together.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Yeah, he got them their deal with Vander and Young.
So the Bond and Angus and Malcolm the Angels before
were called the Keystone Angels and they did a tour
with ac DC in southa Strain and they suggested them
to Vander and Young. So yeah, very much. Though Bond
was very interesting.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
So when you hear no Secrets, does that bring back
memories to that day because it was pretty much you
recording it and it happened.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Yet the news it does, it does indeed, And it
was a very somber moment, and we drank to his
health and then then adopted the vogel.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Yeah, and that was it.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
So many of the people that you write about and
that have been part of your life are no longer
with us. What's the sliding door that that keeps you here?
Speaker 5 (02:44):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Gee? I just think I'm just lucky, you know, because
I've had reasonably good health. I think I managed to
get out of the.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Milo years.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Yeah, I got out of them early enough, you know.
And the work that I do now with the Jimmy
Lyttle Foundation, like doing that work that keeps me really
really busy, and it keeps me active, and I think
that's a really important thing. And the older you get,
the more active you can be in brain and body,
then you know you're going to stay around a bit longer.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
It must provide great succor to see that the.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Angels, now like they're pretty much after all these years,
are still available on YouTube and even just reading this book,
and I'd recommend this to anyone. You're reading those secrets,
you can dial into various times of your career, so
it's like they've got a new lease on life. But
on one hand, do you hate it when people say, oh,
the Angels they were robbed or they never got there?
(03:40):
Does that drive you crazy?
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Look? I think I think no. Getting to this age
now and realizing what you have to go through, you've
got to understand that when you get a break, like
when you've got a chance, you've got to take it.
The Angels had a chance in nineteen eighty when we
were touring there when in the England touring America. So
we toured England and America in nineteen eighty and explaining
(04:04):
the book that I was sitting in a motel in
a hotel room in New York and realize we'd have
to sell four million records before I'd make one cent,
and thinking to yourself, well, if we didn't have a
bit of an asprit de corps, like the whole band going,
we're in this. We've had five years of building it
in Australia. Now we need to do another five years
overseas because we would have had to do five years.
(04:26):
I reckon three to five years. But if if everyone
had said, yes, let's do it, I think we would
have made it right. And if we hadn't left Alberts,
like we actually bought out of our contract with one
album to go and then signed with Epic Records, thereby
severing that Albert's Vander and young ac DC love you know,
(04:48):
hug that we had with them, and as soon as
we left them, it was all over. I reckon it
was all over. We should have stayed with Alberts, we
should have toured with ac DC, we should have put
another five years into it, and we'd all be sitting
in our mansions.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
And would you say this to a young band?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
So a young band comes up to you and they say, right, buzz,
give us.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
What's the key?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
The key is when you get your opportunity, make sure
you realize that opportunity and understand that you don't actually
get one or two or three or four chances. You
usually get.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
One, and that sacrifice comes with that.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
It does. Absolutely you've got to be prepared to say,
we've spent five years getting it to this point, are
we going to spend another three years getting it to
the next level. And it really, it really is. You
have to be that strategic about it.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Does it burn you up? Do you see that at
three in the morning.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
No, I just I just go that was that part
of my life, and I'll just look towards what I'm
doing right now.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yeah, and you worked in films, You've done a lot
of stuff, a lot of producing.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
I know, it's just really weird. I just because because
I've got a big hat rack, so I've got lots
of different hats and and that's also kept me, I
think engaged as well, because I do so much different stuff.
I love doing the film music. I love doing the
TV show The Sweet and Sour, you know. I love
playing in bands. I love walking into a studio with
(06:07):
nothing and just walking out with something. So yeah, just
going in there with nothing but the thought and then
a bunch of people and coming out with something.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
To get on the drum kits.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Still yeah, absolutely all the time. I'm always writing, I'm
always recording, got a studio at home. My son plays
as well. He's more of a you know, he does
house music and stuff. Oh yeah, but he's good. He's good.
He plays drums too, so Wig and jam.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
It sounds like a life World Live bus it is.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
It's a good life. It's a good life. And Doc
was a great friend of our show and he came
in and I ended up.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
To you guys, well, I ended up sort of.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It's weird how because I was such a fan of
the Angels and then Doc suddenly had my phone number
and he'd ring me.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
I gave it to him.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
At certain times, usually late at night.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, and he'd said, Jonesy, it's Doc, and I Hey,
Joe Dog, and he's I've got an idea. But he
did come up with Rock for Doc, which was our
backyard Jam series, which was a great.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Absolutely And when we did the Rock for Doc concert,
which I revisited dis Rich that you guys were there,
yeahsted he with the hosts and that concert is actually amazing.
I've got all of the video for it. I've got
all of the audio for it.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Would that ever be released?
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I actually talked to Michael Borgland from Beyond about that
the other day, and if we could get something together
where we honor the support out side of that and
we can get it get it post produced, yep. I
reckon it'd be a great show it and we've got.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
To get Peter Garrett performed yeah, camera stood up saying
went out again.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
But everyone was there.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Everyone half was there, David Hasselo.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Right, but how many there were like fourteen acts.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
It was all there to support Doc nice and when
he needed it.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Absolutely, but there was two minutes in between each and
I remember saying to the organize, you guys, say, you're
talking about bands here, there's no way, no band will.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
Be off stage in two minutes. And they did.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
We did it, We did it, and I had I
had an Excel sheet and a year off now that
was ill.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
And we had to you and I had to pad
in between, but we didn't really have to do any padding.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
It was just extraordinis, very well all machine And that
was night of love for Doc.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Wasn't He could feel it?
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Yeah? Yeah it was. And to see that his the
whole thing sort of came down to all of his
friends performing for him. And then when he came out
on stage and say his top hat, yeah, yeah, just
brought the house down.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Well, Buzz, the book is great, Get it now, no secrets.
It's available now, Graham Buzz. That's right now, right now,
available at all good bookstores.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Thank you buzz great to see you
My Heart podcasts here, more Gold one on one point
seven podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Playlists and listen live on the Free iHeart app and
Amanda jam Nation.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
The man himself behind that very band, the man behind
that very song, Graham, Bidstrip Joint, Bidstrup Joints.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Do you want to be Buzz? Does anyone call you Graham?
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Only my wife and my mum used to, but Buzz
would be fine.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Let's do Buzz because when you joined the Angels, they said, well,
we can't have Graham in the.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Bad That's right. It was really weird. They were you know,
John Rick, Doc and Charlie, you know, and they said Graham.
They said, that's a bit weird. And I just said,
what about Buzz. And I'd had this name buzz Throckman
that we made up in Denmark right when I backpacked
around Europe, and we just made up this name buzz Throckman,
so he became Buzz.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Look, obviously I know you from obviously the Angels, but
I wasn't aware that you were also behind so many
of the other bands, the Party Boys and Ganga Jang.
And you tell very interesting story in the book about
this line, the iconic line from that song almost didn't make.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
It in it almost didn't. We were out of a rehearsal
room and Jeffrey Stapleton, a lovely keyboard player, said to
Mark Callahan, the writer of the song, you know that line,
this is Australia. It's a bit jingoistic and you know
it's a bit like maybe we should get rid of it.
And Cols said, yeah, yeah, maybe we should get rid
of it. I went over my dead body, you know,
because it was something I thought that was intrinsic to
(01:39):
the whole thing and it would have been frightening of
that had been left.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Out when those secrets came out and in the book
you described this.
Speaker 5 (01:47):
You're recording those secrets. It's a great song.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And then you get the call the Bond Scott has
passed away, and Bond Scott Scott was a friend of yours.
He was instrumental in getting the Angels together.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Yeah, he got them their deal with Vander and Young.
So the Bond and Angus and Malcolm the Angels before
were called the Keystone Angels and they did a tour
with ac DC in southa Strain and they suggested them
to Vander and Young. So yeah, very much. Though Bond
was very interesting.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
So when you hear no Secrets, does that bring back
memories to that day because it was pretty much you
recording it and it happened.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Yet the news it does, it does indeed, And it
was a very somber moment, and we drank to his
health and then then adopted the vogel.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Yeah, and that was it.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
So many of the people that you write about and
that have been part of your life are no longer
with us. What's the sliding door that that keeps you here?
Speaker 5 (02:44):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Gee? I just think I'm just lucky, you know, because
I've had reasonably good health. I think I managed to
get out of the.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Milo years.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Yeah, I got out of them early enough, you know.
And the work that I do now with the Jimmy
Lyttle Foundation, like doing that work that keeps me really
really busy, and it keeps me active, and I think
that's a really important thing. And the older you get,
the more active you can be in brain and body,
then you know you're going to stay around a bit longer.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
It must provide great succor to see that the.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Angels, now like they're pretty much after all these years,
are still available on YouTube and even just reading this book,
and I'd recommend this to anyone. You're reading those secrets,
you can dial into various times of your career, so
it's like they've got a new lease on life. But
on one hand, do you hate it when people say, oh,
the Angels they were robbed or they never got there?
(03:40):
Does that drive you crazy?
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Look? I think I think no. Getting to this age
now and realizing what you have to go through, you've
got to understand that when you get a break, like
when you've got a chance, you've got to take it.
The Angels had a chance in nineteen eighty when we
were touring there when in the England touring America. So
we toured England and America in nineteen eighty and explaining
(04:04):
the book that I was sitting in a motel in
a hotel room in New York and realize we'd have
to sell four million records before I'd make one cent,
and thinking to yourself, well, if we didn't have a
bit of an asprit de corps, like the whole band going,
we're in this. We've had five years of building it
in Australia. Now we need to do another five years
overseas because we would have had to do five years.
(04:26):
I reckon three to five years. But if if everyone
had said, yes, let's do it, I think we would
have made it right. And if we hadn't left Alberts,
like we actually bought out of our contract with one
album to go and then signed with Epic Records, thereby
severing that Albert's Vander and young ac DC love you know,
(04:48):
hug that we had with them, and as soon as
we left them, it was all over. I reckon it
was all over. We should have stayed with Alberts, we
should have toured with ac DC, we should have put
another five years into it, and we'd all be sitting
in our mansions.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
And would you say this to a young band?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
So a young band comes up to you and they say, right, buzz,
give us.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
What's the key?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
The key is when you get your opportunity, make sure
you realize that opportunity and understand that you don't actually
get one or two or three or four chances. You
usually get.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
One, and that sacrifice comes with that.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
It does. Absolutely you've got to be prepared to say,
we've spent five years getting it to this point, are
we going to spend another three years getting it to
the next level. And it really, it really is. You
have to be that strategic about it.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Does it burn you up? Do you see that at
three in the morning.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
No, I just I just go that was that part
of my life, and I'll just look towards what I'm
doing right now.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yeah, and you worked in films, You've done a lot
of stuff, a lot of producing.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
I know, it's just really weird. I just because because
I've got a big hat rack, so I've got lots
of different hats and and that's also kept me, I
think engaged as well, because I do so much different stuff.
I love doing the film music. I love doing the
TV show The Sweet and Sour, you know. I love
playing in bands. I love walking into a studio with
(06:07):
nothing and just walking out with something. So yeah, just
going in there with nothing but the thought and then
a bunch of people and coming out with something.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
To get on the drum kits.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Still yeah, absolutely all the time. I'm always writing, I'm
always recording, got a studio at home. My son plays
as well. He's more of a you know, he does
house music and stuff. Oh yeah, but he's good. He's good.
He plays drums too, so Wig and jam.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
It sounds like a life World Live bus it is.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
It's a good life. It's a good life. And Doc
was a great friend of our show and he came
in and I ended up.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
To you guys, well, I ended up sort of.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It's weird how because I was such a fan of
the Angels and then Doc suddenly had my phone number
and he'd ring me.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
I gave it to him.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
At certain times, usually late at night.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, and he'd said, Jonesy, it's Doc, and I Hey,
Joe Dog, and he's I've got an idea. But he
did come up with Rock for Doc, which was our
backyard Jam series, which was a great.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Absolutely And when we did the Rock for Doc concert,
which I revisited dis Rich that you guys were there,
yeahsted he with the hosts and that concert is actually amazing.
I've got all of the video for it. I've got
all of the audio for it.
Speaker 5 (07:12):
Would that ever be released?
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I actually talked to Michael Borgland from Beyond about that
the other day, and if we could get something together
where we honor the support out side of that and
we can get it get it post produced, yep. I
reckon it'd be a great show it and we've got.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
To get Peter Garrett performed yeah, camera stood up saying
went out again.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
But everyone was there.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Everyone half was there, David Hasselo.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Right, but how many there were like fourteen acts.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
It was all there to support Doc nice and when
he needed it.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Absolutely, but there was two minutes in between each and
I remember saying to the organize, you guys, say, you're
talking about bands here, there's no way, no band will.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
Be off stage in two minutes. And they did.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
We did it, We did it, and I had I
had an Excel sheet and a year off now that
was ill.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
And we had to you and I had to pad
in between, but we didn't really have to do any padding.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
It was just extraordinis, very well all machine And that
was night of love for Doc.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Wasn't He could feel it?
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Yeah? Yeah it was. And to see that his the
whole thing sort of came down to all of his
friends performing for him. And then when he came out
on stage and say his top hat, yeah, yeah, just
brought the house down.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Well, Buzz, the book is great, Get it now, no secrets.
It's available now, Graham Buzz. That's right now, right now,
available at all good bookstores.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Thank you buzz great to see you
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