Bruce Hearn of 80s ska band Strange Tenants will release two albums soon.
The first one, the solo ‘The World Is The Music The People Are The Song’, is a 20 track album with 10 original songs and 10 covers of folk classics. The second is the Bruce Hearn & The Machinists live album ‘Live At The Athenaeum: A Tribute To Woody Guthrie’ featuring appearances from Eric Bogle, Margaret Roadknight and Kerri Simpson.
As an activist in the 1970s Bruce was part of the group of students in “the kidnapping of Malcolm Fraser”.
In 1976 Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser attended Monash University in Melbourne. This was a year after the ousting of Gough Whitlam as PM. The students protested Fraser’s visit with 1000 surrounding him and blocking his exit. Eventually all was forgiven and in 2010 Bruce and other students from the protest were invited to a dinner with Fraser.
The story of Bruce’s band Strange Tenants was told in the 2018 book ‘Strange Tenants: The Godfathers of Australian Ska’ and a 2019 documentary film ‘Strange Tenants: Ska’d For Life’.
Bruce is now a doctor. He earned his PhD and became Dr. Bruce Hearn Mackinnon, Senior lecturer, author and recognised expert on employer de-unionisation strategies. He has published widely, particularly in the Journal of Industrial Relations.
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