Music journalist Jeff Apter will share stories from his latest book about Lee Gordon. Photo: Supplied.
Two of Australia’s most respected music journalists are set to lift the lid on the scandals, stars and larger-than-life figures who shaped the nation’s music and nightlife scene, when they share stories from their explosive new books at Kiama Library on 17 October.
Sydney music journalist, author and radio broadcaster Stuart Coupe will share his latest book Saffron Incorporated, an arresting tale of corruption, crime and showbiz about Abe Saffron, known as Mr Sin and the original King of the Cross.
It looks at sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll in the nightclub era in Kings Cross and Saffron, Australia’s first crime figure, who would become one of the most powerful in the country.
Joining him is Illawarra-based music journalist Jeff Apter, who will detail stories from his latest book Lee Gordon Presents about Australia’s first music and entertainment entrepreneur Lee Gordon.
The Friends of Kiama Library have brought the two authors together, who worked in the same sector at the same time, for an “in conversation” event.
When Region spoke to Apter earlier in the year about his book on rockabilly cat Carl Perkins, he revealed he was working on Gordon’s story about how the pioneering American rock ‘n’ roll concert promoter revolutionised Australian entertainment in the 1950s.
“Lee Gordon was the first great promoter of big concerns in Australia in the 1950s,” Apter said.
“He was the guy that blazed the trail for the Gudinskis, the Chuggs, the Edgleys and the Harry M. Millers, and all those guys that came after him.
“He was the first. He was this mad American who was allegedly on the run from the mob … had some great connections and knew where to find money – and was a friend of Frank Sinatra’s.
“It all sort of exploded from there.”
Gordon, described by Apter as a larger-than-life character who to some appeared a typical crass, loud and outspoken Yank, brought an astounding 400 international artists to Australia in just seven or eight years, transforming the nation’s live music landscape.
He said Gordon’s roster included legendary performers like Sinatra, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Little Richard, Abbott and Costello, and Lenny Bruce.
For them, he was a mentor, a guru and a lifeline to the big time.
The two books being featured in the Jeff Apter and Stuart Coupe In Conversation event. Supplied.
“It’s a great story. I chanced upon it years ago when I was writing about Johnny O’Keefe and this name Lee Gordon kept coming up,” he said.
“I think it’s a film waiting to be made, because this guy, he was crazy in all the good ways, but he was almost too much for Sydney in the 1950s.
“It was post-war and was still a very conservative kind of environment, and this guy just blazed this trail.”
He said Gordon’s focus was on making money – and he did – with a meticulous process adopted for moving it around.
“He had his own private bank vault in Martin Place,” he said.
“He used to host the shows down at Sydney Stadium, which was this big bunker where you would get 11,000 people squeezed in. And they’re all paying cash for their tickets.
“They had a room under Sydney Stadium, him and his staff, and they would iron all the pound notes to get them flat so they could squeeze more into this box, which they would then drive in the middle of the night down to meet a security guard outside the Commonwealth Bank, who would let them into their own vault.
“It was absolutely crazy.”
Apter said while he died far too young at age 40 and in mysterious circumstances, one thing was undeniable: without Lee Gordon, there would be no billion-dollar entertainment industry in Australia today.
Coupe’s book on Saffron looks at how selling sex and drugs had always been a way to make a fast buck – and potential customers were more open to temptation in pubs, bars, dance halls and nightclubs.
Coupe said Saffron figured all this out very quickly.
Within the book, he shows how showbusiness and the underworld are intrinsically linked – from nightclub fires, corrupt cops, cocaine, smack, illegal gambling, vice, celebrities, standover men and rock ‘n’ roll promoters, musicians who partied hard and lost their way, and gangland shootings.
Coupe said Saffron would lay the foundations for more than 50 years of intrigue, murder and mayhem.
Outside of writing about music, Coupe has his own background in the music industry as former manager of the Hoodoo Gurus and Paul Kelly, and founder of Green Records.
Book tickets for Jeff Apter and Stuart Coupe In Conversation on 17 October from 6 pm at the Kiama Library, with drinks and finger food provided and books available for purchase. Tickets are $15 Friends of Kiama Library members and $20 guests.
