Tony Barrell (broadcaster) - Move To Sydney

Move To Sydney

Following the excesses of the Three-Day Week and the IRA bombing campaign of 1974 (and the birth of their daughter Klio), Barrell and Norris moved to Sydney where they lived together in the same house in Balmain. Barrell was hired by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in 1975 to write and produce ideas and stories for their 'youth station' 2JJ (later Triple J). He and Graeme Bartlett developed the style of "cut up" radio shows through Sunday Afternoon at the Movies and Watching the Radio with the TV Off, both of which combined music and audio from sound tracks, comedy shows, mystery stories and contemporary pop (avant garde and mainstream) to create new narratives (a style that was later re-invented by ABC Radio National's Night Air program, which Barrell worked on toward the end of his career). Among those Barrell interviewed for Triple J were Brian Eno, Hunter S. Thompson, John Lydon (né Rotten), John Cale, and members of bands such as Madness, Wire and Cabaret Voltaire.

Barrell worked with Rick Tanaka for Triple J on The Nippi Rock Shop—a program on pop culture and politics of Japan—for thirteen years. People featured in the programme included The Yellow Magic Orchestra (Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi), Sandii and Makoto of Sandii and the Sunsetz and other people from all walks of Japanese life. The pair also made a groundbreaking series of radio documentaries Japan's Other Voices for the ABC's Radio National network's Background Briefing program in 1984. Tony and Rick wrote articles for Australian Rolling Stone, Kyoto Journal and, for a while, were Sydney correspondents for the newsletter Tokyo Insider.