Ryde Shed (1978, disputed)
Domestic shed, Ryde area.
c.1978.
Single source account only.
| Alleged date | 1978 |
| Location | Ryde, NSW (street unrecorded) |
| Type | Domestic shed |
| Alleged capacity | ~30 |
| Equipment | Modified reel-to-reel system |
| Documentation | Single anonymous submission, 2019 |
The Ryde Shed is an alleged domestic-outbuilding gathering site in Ryde, Sydney, at which a modified reel-to-reel audio system was used to play "repetitive electronic recordings" to approximately thirty people for approximately six hours in 1978. If the account is accepted, it would represent one of the earliest documented uses of electronic music in a shed-based informal gathering context in Sydney.
The account was submitted to the archive in 2019 by an individual who declined to be named, who states they attended the event as a young adult. The submission provides a suburban description sufficient to narrow the likely street to one of three candidates in the Ryde area, but not to identify a specific address. No other source has been located.[1]
The reel-to-reel detail is considered by community members who have reviewed the account to be consistent with amateur electronic music playback systems available in Australia in 1978. Whether the recordings played constituted proto-doof music in any meaningful sense cannot be assessed from the account available.[2]
Notes
- Submission received 2019. Geographic corroboration: street-level description compared to cadastral records. Three possible streets identified. Specific address cannot be determined.
- Community review: two experienced members assessed the technological detail as plausible for the period. This is not independent verification of the event.