As noted in an earlier post this book (written by Craig Griffiths) had been completed & was all set to be printed so long as adequate funding was secured. It was. And I have a copy.

The Bondi Lifesaver sat in Ebley St in Bondi Junction. It thrived as an extremely popular music venue in the 70s. Lots of important bands played there & of the Kiwi bands (in the years up to 1976) the La De Da’s & Dragon were the best known.

During 1972 the La De Da’s recorded The Place – a song Kevin Borich has in his sets decades later. Until I began to read my copy of this book I hadn’t realised that ‘the place’ was in fact the Bondi Lifesaver.

In their early days in Sydney some of the members of Dragon lived in Ebley St. Todd Hunter was one & he has written a brief segment for the book. In this he commented that as they lived so close if a band didn’t turn up they (Dragon) would be summoned to play. This worked well for them before they became a massive hit machine & got lots of gigs.

Mick Leyton was in the houseband at this pub for some time. During the day he worked as a session musician and when the pub had 12am closing he could do both.

It’s a great book with lots of photos. It has a street map of the local area in the days when the pub was a music venue. It met a sad end & after years of sterling service was pulled down for a shopping centre to be built on that site.