Simon Stretton

Songwriter, writer and musician Simon Stretton is founder of cult first wave Australian punk band Black Chrome, originally hated and ignored by an uncomprehending Australian public but now rediscovered by the Internet and back playing to packed houses, featured recently in a film by Victorian documentary maker Jennifer Ross an official selection at the Sheffield Documentary Festival (UK) and the Doc'n' Roll Film Festival (UK), and the Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane International Film Festivals and other upcoming European and US Film festivals. It has been declared a film of national cultural significance by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.

Some reviews cite their first single “Australia’s God” (written by Simon) as the most original Australian Punk single of all time. In the words of an early review... “Listen to the lyrics, this guys a XXXXin’ poet!”!

Simon founded the independent Australian underground punk label Tomorrow Records which on a shoestring budget with borrowed recording gear usually with cables from the venue out to the back of a battered 1962 VW Kombi Van, recorded many bands live over the formative years of punk including Black Chrome, JAB, The Chosen Few, Bohdan Xero, The Accountants, The U-Bombs, the Dagoes, Psychosurgeons, the Lipstick Killers, Riff-Raff, Young Modern, and many others, and in recent times Perdition (Australia), CULL the Band, Fear and Loathing, Ben Gel’s Shitshow, Teenage Crime and others. Some of these recordings now form the sole audio record of that band's existence.

Some Black Chrome recent releases are on streaming services and YouTube:

• PIONEERS OF PUNK (Live punk compilation LP recorded at "Pioneers Of Punk" Adelaide 2014) - 2014 - CD and 12" black vinyl

• AGE OF RAGE (LP) - 2018 - Digital, CD and 12" black vinyl

• The Storm/Blank Generation (Two track single) - 2020 - Digital and CD

• Scared White Man/Real Wild Child (Two Track Single) - 2020 - Digital and CD

• DNA Fanzine Gig!!! Hotel Metro Adelaide, 25 January 2020 Live!!! (LP) - Digital, CD and 12" white Vinyl

• HARD TIMES PARTY (6 Track EP) - 2021 - Digital, CD and 10" white vinyl

• I Don't Care What You Want Me to Be - (Digital Single) Release date 8 January 2023

(Unreleased) musical projects include Black Cat Mother (electric blues band)

Black Chrome plan to release more music shortly and tour nationally and internationally for the first time in 2024-5.