Bruce Milne

Bruce Milne (born 1957)^[1] is a prominent figure in the Australian music industry, a long-standing member of the grass-roots Melbourne music community who, after getting his start publishing a punk fanzine in the late 1970s, has done practically everything since – been a writer, radio presenter, DJ, run record shops, book shops and record labels, run bars and venues, and worked in A&R and as a tour promoter.

He started out producing fanzines and writing for rock magazines and working in public radio - he has been involved with 3RRR-FM since 1977, and was still doing a show for the station in 2023 ^[2] - then worked for Missing Link Records, and then formed his own label-cum-shop Au-Go-Go, which defined a whole Melbourne sound and ethos in the 1980s/90s.^[3]

In the early 80s, Milne also ran the audio cassette magazine cassette-zine Fast Forward. After its demise and the demise of Au-Go-Go, he successively headed three other labels, Giant Claw, Reliant and In-Fidelity, who along with Au-Go-Go collectively debuted such bands as the Scientists, the Moodists, Harem Scarem, God, Magic Dirt, Spiderbait, the Meanies, the Datsuns, the 5.6.7.8s and many others.

After working in the late 90s/early 2000s in major label ventures and running the bar the International, Milne took over running the Collingwood pub the Tote, whose enforced closure in 2010 became the rallying point to keep live music alive in Melbourne.^[4]