Laurel
Bank Hall, Toowoomba
15 August 1981
The Black Assassins, Cam & the Cattle
If Brisbane was a conservative hell-hole in 1981, Toowoomba was a fascist fantasia where police didn't bother arresting rugby players who punched out hippies because the magistrates wouldn't convict them. Nevertheless, the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education harboured a few malcontents and they gathered at Toowoomba's Laurel Bank Hall after dark on a freezing mid-winter's night when all god-fearing citizens were home and the party commenced. A life-size dummy of Queensland Premier, Joh Bjelke Petersen, came under the axe and jelly babies were hurled into the crowd. The band got shockingly wasted before the gig, fought on stage and off and generally disgusted the audience. They continued in this vein at the party afterwards, where, despite the frost on the ground and sub-zero temperature, some members of the band went swimming in a dam out the back.