An introduction by CLEETUS DELANEY, musicologist.

"Vic Manuel? Don't get me started, goatboy.
Goes way back to Lady Jane Beach, Vic pure diamond in a sea of hard men stalking Sydney's no-go boho wasteland. We were just kids, see, but Vic had that tough glint of the mentor, and an ass-javelin for anyone fool enough to block his sun.
It's like the NDP was there before any of us. A beautiful idea waiting in the ether to be plucked by a beautiful cat. And man, Vic Manuel is one beautiful cat.
Magnet Man Manuel: see, word got around about a poet who could out-write the pretenders into puffy clouds of mince. Clowns who smiled smiles of dead teeth. It was something.
David J. Moss was suss to this unbearable truth. Hey, we knew the guy played bass like other people sniff gnocchi, but who's gonna say no to a dude who rides two-fisted into The Man at a Roseville race-riot? Not Vic Manuel.
And Gorgeous George Bibicos? Scared me then. Still does, man. All those nights at the Candy Gristle, hep homeboy joint for juiceheads and trippers, George a riot of dark threads, wide-load Afro and flip asides. Rolling off glissandos on the honky-tonk like other people clean lamps. We were hooked.
Bibs flipped a hip digit at this guy one night. Guy with great ear-lobes and a dog-eared CV. A cat who, you know, had been around. Been in the Big House, too, but you don't go there. The quiet type, but shiny. Played guitar like some folks observe camels. Are you with me? Then Mark Bradridge was.
Sure, the NDP was like, momentumising, but who was gonna rattle the cans?
Word got out about The Plank, house combo for a Toorak bed-in, three guys tearing rock apart and rearranging it into bite-sized chunks of lurid sputum. Nick Fisher on the traps, man. Five feet nothing of spite and butcher's fingers, a beautiful man in a zeitgeist that's fiveways from nowhere. Never went anywhere without a kitten in his greatcoat, and played drums like other people warm fruit.
Heady days, man: Manuel on a mission, me on a Magic Bus screened for midgets. It's been a long, strange, beautiful trip. Drink it up..."