25/08/2026
Name : Ed Garland
Location : Australia
Title : I’ve just arrived back from Melbourne, and here was Bob Yates book Confessions of a Pub Rock Promoter.
Review : It's a page turner, and a full review soon. It is Bukowski with Hunter S Thompson with street level rock promotion. At a time when the bands and characters were outlaws, often on the edge not far from crims and dealers. An explosive time of Sydney’s late seventies rock’n’roll. Could be one of the greatest books on the period. Full review coming.

25/08/2026
Name : The Murray Engleheart review
Location : Australia
Title : The Murray Engleheart review
Review : Have you ever wanted to know the full story behind the aborted Stiv Bators’ tour of Australia in the early eighties? Bob “Fuck it! I’ll do it myself!” Yates, one of the true pioneers of the Sydney music scene, can fill you in. His promoting career began in his teens on the folk scene working locally with the likes of jazz giant, Thelonious Monk and Tangerine Dream - separate gigs - and later Tiny Tim, Radio Birdman, the Saints, early Midnight Oil and countless others. Bob didn’t just do the bookings, he silk screened the posters and saw the bigger picture. In the late seventies, he ran the Civic Hotel in Sydney, a gateway gig to so much for so many at a crucial time. All his skills and learnings, fired by instinct and self-belief, were applied to managing Misex who he took to the big time here in Australia and over to the US where they played with acts such as Iggy Pop and the Ramones while drawing major admirers including Debbie Harry. The legendary Bill Graham himself personally introduced Misex at a San Francisco gig. Back in Sydney, Ian Rilen pleaded with Bob to manage Sardine. That’s just off the top of my head. It’s all written very much as if the man himself was standing before you, enthusiastically laying out his next grand plan. Inexhaustible and endlessly engaging. If you want to know how the Sydney scene came to be and immerse yourself in a document detailing the great empire that once was, this is the place. Whether you’re in the music industry or just trying to make your way in this weird, fucked world, you don’t need a life coach or motivational books. All you require is a pep talk via Bob and these pages.