Bookings for this event are currently closed. Please directly with any queries.

Fringe to Famous

Name: Fringe to Famous
Start: 2026-03-05T18:30:00+11:00
End: 2026-03-05T18:30:00+11:00
Location: Upstairs at Gleebooks

About

Cultural Production in Australia After the Creative Industries

Tony Moore, Mark Gibson and Reg Mombassa in conversation with Catharine Lumby

Fringe to Famous argues that the crossover between fringe scenes and mainstream culture has been a major source of cultural and economic value in our nation since the 1980s. It draws on interviews with scores of Australia’s most iconoclastic artists who emerged from fringe countercultures spanning post-punk bands to Indigenous film makers, underground comedy to gamer collectives to shape Australian popular culture. It’s chapters include alternative music, surf wear design, TV comedy, Indigenous screen drama and digital games; and feature musicians from the Hoodoo Gurus, Sunnyboys, and Mental as Anything, to Royal Headache and Bloods; comedy from Fast Forward and DAAS to The Chaser, Pizza, and Aunty Donna; Mambo; Indigenous filmmakers such as Warwick Thornton and Rachel Perkins; and games festival Freeplay.

Countercultures are crucial for experimentation and risk taking, but so too are institutions that enable exchange between the margins and the mainstream – from festivals and public broadcasters to online platforms. The authors offer an alternative to romantic celebrations of a ‘pure’ fringe and the economism of ‘Creative Industries’ proposing an idea of ‘generative hybridity’ between fringe and mainstream that imagines new possibilities for arts and culture in the 2020s and beyond.

Tony Moore is a cultural historian and Professor of Media and Communication and at Monash University. He leads major Australian Research Council projects ‘Comedy Country: Australian Performance Comedy as an Agent of Change’ and ‘Conviction Politics: the Convict Routes of Australian Democracy’. A former ABC documentary maker, book publisher and policy advocate, Tony’s books include Dancing with Empty Pockets: Australia’s Bohemians (2012), and Death or Liberty: Rebels and Radicals Transported to Australia 1788-1868, (2010, adapted as an ABC documentary) and The Barry McKenzie Movies (2005). He is co-author of Fringe to Famous – Australian Cultural Production After the Creative Industries (2024).

Mark Gibson is Professor in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University. He has interests in cultural and creative industries, the history of media and cultural studies, comedy, the role of audiences in cultural production and the contributions of fringe, independent and avant garde scenes to mainstream media. He is author Culture and Power – A History of Cultural Studies (Berg 2007) and co-author of Fringe to Famous – Australian Cultural Production After the Creative Industries (Bloomsbury 2024).

Reg Mombassa, (aka Christopher O’Doherty), is a New Zealand-born Australian artist and musician. He is a founding member of the band Mental As Anything and member of Dog Trumpet (alongside his brother Peter O’Doherty) and The Pinks. Reg was a principal artist-designer for iconoclastic of surf wear label Mambo Graphics. Mental As Anything recorded 9 albums and in 2009 were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.

Catharine Lumby is a Professor of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney. She is the author and co-author of six books. She was the Foundation Chair of the Media and Communications Department at Sydney University, the Director of the Journalism and Media Research Centre at UNSW and Professor of Media at Macquarie University. She advises the public and private sector on cultural diversity and schools and universities on preventing bullying, harassment and managing social media. She writes regularly for The Guardian and worked as a journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Bulletin and ABC TV.