It’s a tale often told, because it says so much about Brisbane in the 1980s.

On August 13, 1983, San Francisco punk band the Dead Kennedys played a blistering gig at Brisbane’s Festival Hall, supported by Sydney act the Johnnys and local band the Black Assassins.

Famous for satirical thrashers like California Uber Alles and Holiday in Cambodia, which were on high rotation on community radio station 4ZZZ and feverishly passed around on cassettes by naughty schoolkids, the Dead Kennedys were pioneers of what would come to be known as hardcore.

When they played in Brisbane, 15-year-old punk Jennifer Jackman was in the front row.

“Festival Hall was absolutely seething with bodies,” she recalls. “It was loud – it was everything you wanted it to be.

“[Lead singer] Jello Biafra knew what

See Full Page