Bohdan X

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Bohdan X is the stage name of British-born former punk rock singer in the Australian bands JAB and Bohdan and the Instigators, both features of the emerging punk rock scene in Melbourne, Australia in the late 1970s. He was also a highly successful DJ on Melbourne's 3RRR radio station from 1978-1995.

[edit] History

JAB began in Adelaide in 1976, with Bohdan on guitar and vocals. It began as an experimental rock band, with synthesisers as well as guitars, but adopted a punk rock style from 1977. Bohdan X wrote the songs. He also recorded his first solo single "Time to Age"/"You Got Soul" on the Tomorrow label in late 1977, and the band relocated to Melbourne the same year, joining an emerging New Wave scene and frequently playing live. The band broke up in August 1978, and Bohdan formed 'Bohdan and the Instigators' with former members of 'The Chosen Few'. His solo records since that time included a 12-inch EP "Fear of Flying", "Rumour" (1983) and the mini-album "Kingsnake" (Rampant, 1988). In 1992, a failed effort was made to revive The Chosen Few.

In 1978, Bohdan was recruited to an independent FM radio station that had been established at RMIT University in central Melbourne in 1976. It soon became 3RRR, Australia's most successful community radio station. Bohdan began broadcasting a punk rock show, which lasted for 17 years. Interviewed in 2006, he said "I said I wanted a punk show. Greig Pickhaver (later known as HG Nelson) said to come down. They got me to come in at 11am and I was on air that afternoon. Volunteers were a lot harder to come by in those days. But I fitted right in; it was like a family." ^[1](The Age, 2006). For him, the shift to broadcasting was "better than being in a bloody band, married to blokes who moan all the time" ^[2]. Bohdan became a fixture and a legend in Melbourne. He was once suspended for six months after playing the Sex Pistols' "Frigging in the Rigging". In 1995, the management tried to oust him from his Friday night broadcasting slot. His career as a DJ ended precipitously when he denounced the station manager on-air before turning the power off and leaving the studio, leaving the station off air for over half an hour.

Bohdan still has a phone-in slot on 3RRR's Vital Bits show on Saturday mornings, where he reports on an interesting life as a sometime landscape gardener, taxi driver, farmer, and man of the people. On the state of the environment, 29 Mar 2008 "even the dumb bastards are starting to realise something's wrong". He resides in Ballarat, Victoria.

[edit] Sources

3RRR official website - includes audio streaming of the broadcast and archive of best shows.
Mark Phillips 2006. Radio City. Melbourne: Vulgar Press. (history of RRR, released to commemorate the 30th anniversary)
The Age newspaper. 2006. Rated R. November 23, 2006. (Article on 30 years of 3RRR).