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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
A story about a 1930s all-women dance band on the 'Showboat' Ferries on Sydney Harbour .
Notes
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A novel in verse form
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Epigraph: from Australian Music Maker and Dance Band News, 1 September, 1938, p.4 'Trocadero Girls' Band Makes Debut'
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Epigraph: 'You have no suburb, like those easier dead
In private berths of dissolution laid -
The tide goes over, the waves ride over you,
And let their shadows down like shining hair...'
Kenneth Slessor: Five Bells, (1939) -
Epigraph: 'It warms the very sickness in my heart that I shall live and tell him to his teeth,"Thus did'st thou".' William Shakespeare: Hamlet, (1601)
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Author's note: Acknowledgements An earlier version of this story's first part has been broadcast by the ABC as a radio play, under the title Sally Rivers' All Girl Band.
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Author's note: The context, but not the events, of this work derives from the experiences of Australian female dance musicians in the 1930s, as detailed most recently in Sweethearts of Rhythm by Kay Dreyfus (Currency Press, 1999). Any reference to actual people, living or dead, is unintentional.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
Sax Appeal Sets Verse Tale Alive
2006
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 5 June 2006; (p. 8) -
Untitled
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , no. 82 2004; (p. 148-151)
— Review of Drumming on Water : A Verse Novel 2003 single work novel ; Blood and Old Belief : A Verse Novel 2003 single work novel -
Untitled
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: JAS Review of Books , March no. 23 2004;
— Review of Drumming on Water : A Verse Novel 2003 single work novel -
Poetry Survey
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Island , Autumn no. 96 2004; (p. 62-67)
— Review of Beautiful, Unfinished : Parable/Song/Canto/Poem 2003 selected work poetry ; Ships on Fire 2002 selected work poetry ; Drumming on Water : A Verse Novel 2003 single work novel ; The Weight of Irises 2003 selected work poetry ; Rooms and Sequences 2003 selected work poetry ; High in the Pawpaw Tree 2003 selected work poetry ; Extraction of Arrows 2003 selected work poetry ; It Is Nearly Dark When I Come to the Indian Ocean : The Collected Poems of Joyce Lee 2003 selected work poetry ; A First Reader 2003 selected work poetry -
The Paradox of Jazz
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 254 2003; (p. 56)
— Review of Drumming on Water : A Verse Novel 2003 single work novel
-
A Novel that Sings the Story of a Band
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 5 July 2003; (p. 5a)
— Review of Drumming on Water : A Verse Novel 2003 single work novel -
Swept Up in Dark Riffs and Rhythms
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 2-3 August 2003; (p. 15)
— Review of Drumming on Water : A Verse Novel 2003 single work novel -
The Paradox of Jazz
2003
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 254 2003; (p. 56)
— Review of Drumming on Water : A Verse Novel 2003 single work novel -
Poetry Survey
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Island , Autumn no. 96 2004; (p. 62-67)
— Review of Beautiful, Unfinished : Parable/Song/Canto/Poem 2003 selected work poetry ; Ships on Fire 2002 selected work poetry ; Drumming on Water : A Verse Novel 2003 single work novel ; The Weight of Irises 2003 selected work poetry ; Rooms and Sequences 2003 selected work poetry ; High in the Pawpaw Tree 2003 selected work poetry ; Extraction of Arrows 2003 selected work poetry ; It Is Nearly Dark When I Come to the Indian Ocean : The Collected Poems of Joyce Lee 2003 selected work poetry ; A First Reader 2003 selected work poetry -
Untitled
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: JAS Review of Books , March no. 23 2004;
— Review of Drumming on Water : A Verse Novel 2003 single work novel -
Sax Appeal Sets Verse Tale Alive
2006
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 5 June 2006; (p. 8)
Last amended 24 May 2017 16:46:19
Settings:
- Sydney, New South Wales,
- Sydney Harbour, Sydney, New South Wales,
- 1938-1945
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