The history of Robert “Bob” Hudson is an interesting one. Before he became an accidental music star, Bob was just a boy from Newcastle, New South Wales.
Bob grew up loving music and played in a number of folk and comedy bands. While the music was a hobby, to pay the bills, Bob became a school teacher. Education is a big passion for Bob that he has carried into his post-music career.
Being in the epicentre of music in the 60s and 70s, Bob was also the lead singer of the Electric Jug Band that was hugely popular in the Newcastle music scene of the 70s. Bob was also one of the original presenters of the Australian Broadcast Company’s new rock radio venture 2JJ which was the predecessor to today’s Triple J.
In 1974, Bob recorded a ten-minute comedy-music set. Sensing a novelty song success, a small section of the ten-minute set was cut. A satirical narrative track called The Newcastle Song.
The song, released in 1975, poked light fun at the working class youth culture of Newcastle and featured Normie driving around trying to pick up girls in his “hot FJ-Holden”. The track was a smash success and went to number one on the charts where it stayed for four weeks.
Bob turned out a sequel to the song called Rak Off, Normie as well as a hit country song for singer Margret RoadKnight called Girls in Our Town.
For many years, Bob continued his broadcasting career with the ABC before turning full time to academia. In the 1980s, he researched and wrote for a number of publications about Australian language. He also received his PhD in Archeology from the University of Sydney where he is currently an associate of the Archeological Department. His expertise is in the ancient Myanmar (Burma) culture. Bob is also a visiting professor at Pyay Feild School of Archeology, the University of Culture in Myanmar, as well as an acting member of the Myanmar Ministry of Culture.
Not bad for someone who was an accidently chart topper in 1975.
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