Blood, Sweat and Beers: Oz Rock from the Aztecs to Rose Tattoo

It all began in the late 1960s when Lobby Loyde was blowing up amplifiers on such a regular basis that equipment had to be specially constructed. King of the Sunbury festivals, and former child star, Billy Thorpe then took massive amplification to another level, making history along the way when his band, the Aztecs, pulled as many as 300,000 people to the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne. Rose Tattoo somehow cranked everything up even higher and became the loudest, most threatening band to ever stalk the earth. Banned from the TV show Countdown, they often played in prisons, and occasionally had to fight, microphone stands in hand, to get out of the very venues they'd performed in.Then, of course, there were the Angels, Australia's number-one live drawcard, who turned venues across the country into jam-packed paramilitary rallies. Against a backdrop of interviews with all the major Australian players and international heavyweights, Murray Engleheart hands out the earplugs and the morning-after aspirin on a tour through the bar-brawling, riot-inducing and occasionally gun-toting Oz rock culture.