IN: John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 - January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only three writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others were Booth Tarkington and William Faulkner), Updike published more than twenty novels, more than a dozen short-story collections, as well as poetry, art and literary criticism and children's books during his career.

Updike was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, the only child of Linda Grace (nee Hoyer) and Wesley Russell Updike, and was raised in the nearby small town of Shillington. The family later moved to the unincorporated village of Plowville. His mother's attempts to become a published writer impressed the young Updike. "One of my earliest memories", he later recalled, "is of seeing her at her desk... I admired the writer's equipment, the typewriter eraser, the boxes of clean paper. And I remember the brown envelopes that stories would go off in--and come back in."  These early years in Berks County, Pennsylvania, would influence the environment of the Rabbit Angstrom tetralogy, as well as many of his early novels and short stories. Updike graduated from Shillington High School as co-valedictorian and class president in 1950 and received a full scholarship to Harvard College, where he was the roommate of Christopher Lasch during their freshman year. Updike had already received recognition for his writing as a teenager by winning a Scholastic Art & Writing Award, and at Harvard he soon became well known among his classmates as a talented and prolific contributor to The Harvard Lampoon, of which he served as president. He graduated summa cum laude in 1954 with a degree in English and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa Society.  Upon graduation, Updike attended the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at the University of Oxford with the ambition of becoming a cartoonist. After returning to the United States, Updike and his family moved to New York, where he became a regular contributor to The New Yorker. This was the beginning of his professional writing career.
QUESTION: For how many years did he work for The New Yorker ?
IN: Skyhooks were an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in March 1973 by mainstays Greg Macainsh on bass guitar and backing vocals, and Imants "Freddie" Strauks on drums. They were soon joined by Bob "Bongo" Starkie on guitar and backing vocals, and Red Symons on guitar, vocals and keyboards; Graeme "Shirley" Strachan became lead vocalist in March 1974. Described as a glam rock band, because of flamboyant costumes and make-up, Skyhooks addressed teenage issues including buying drugs "Carlton (Lygon Street Limbo)", suburban sex "Balwyn Calling", the gay scene "Toorak Cowboy" and loss of girlfriends "Somewhere in Sydney" by namechecking Australian locales.

For Skyhooks, the replacement of Hill by Strachan was a pivotal moment, as Strachan had remarkable vocal skills, and a magnetic stage and screen presence. Alongside Macainsh's lyrics, another facet of the group was the twin-guitar sound of Starkie and Symons. Adopting elements of glam rock in their presentation, and lyrics that presented frank depictions of the social life of young Australia in the 1970s, the band shocked conservative middle Australia with their outrageous (for the time) costumes, make-up, lyrics, and on-stage activities. A 1.2 metre (4 ft) high mushroom-shaped phallus was confiscated by Adelaide police after a performance. Six of the ten tracks on their debut album, Living in the 70's, were banned by the Federation of Australian Commercial Broadcasters for their sex and drug references, "Toorak Cowboy", "Whatever Happened to the Revolution?", "You Just Like Me Cos I'm Good in Bed", "Hey What's the Matter", "Motorcycle Bitch" and "Smut". Much of the group's success derived from its distinctive repertoire, mostly penned by bass guitarist Macainsh, with an occasional additional song from Symons--who wrote "Smut" and performed its lead vocals. Although Skyhooks were not the first Australian rock band to write songs in a local setting--rather than ditties about love or songs about New York or other foreign lands--they were the first to become commercially successful doing so. Skyhooks songs addressed teenage issues including buying drugs ("Carlton (Lygon Street Limbo)"), suburban sex ("Balwyn Calling"), the gay scene ("Toorak Cowboy") and loss of girlfriends ("Somewhere in Sydney") by namechecking Australian locales. Radio personality, Billy Pinnell described the importance of their lyrics in tackling Australia's cultural cringe:  [Macainsh] broke down all the barriers [...] opening the door for Australian rock 'n' roll songwriters to write about local places and events. He legitimised Australian songwriting and it meant that Australians became themselves.  The first Skyhooks single, "Living in the 70's", was released in August, ahead of the album, and peaked at #7 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Charts. Living in the 70's initially charted only in Melbourne upon its release on 28 October 1974. It went on to spend 16 weeks at the top of the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Charts from February to June 1975. The album was produced by Wilson, and became the best selling Australian album, to that time, with 226,000 copies sold in Australia.  Skyhooks returned to the Sunbury Pop Festival in January 1975. They were declared the best performers by Rolling Stone Australia and The Age reviewers, and Gudinski now took over their management. The second single, "Horror Movie", reached #1 for two weeks in March. The band's success was credited by Gudinski with saving his struggling Mushroom Records and enabled it to develop into the most successful Australian label of its time.  The success of the album was also due to support by a new pop music television show Countdown on national public broadcaster ABC Television, rather than promotion by commercial radio. "Horror Movie" was the first song played on the first colour transmission of Countdown in early 1975. Despite the radio ban, the ABC's newly established 24-hour rock music station Double Jay chose the album's fifth track, the provocatively titled "You Just Like Me Cos I'm Good in Bed", as its first ever broadcast on 19 January.
QUESTION:
What happened in the seveties?