Campaign to name Brisbane park after Ed Kuepper

A campaign has begun to name a park in the Brisbane suburb of Oxley after Ed Kuepper.

The currently-unnamed park is on the corner of Lawson Street and Oxley Road.

The campaign was launched by local resident Maurice Murphy. Murphy was aware that Kuepper’s first band The Saints had emerged from Brisbane to international success with their first single (I’m) Stranded, released in September 1977. But it was only after watching a recent ABC-TV documentary on Brisbane music that he realised The Saints had come out of Oxley, a suburb eight miles southwest of Brisbane city that was established post-World War II to cater for immigrants.

“I started reading about the early years of The Saints and found Ed Kuepper grew up on Lawson St,”Murphy recounts.

“Ed Kuepper’s mum and dad still live in Lawson St today. Ed Kuepper still lives in the area.”

German-born Kuepper met up with The Saints’ singer Chris Bailey at Oxley High School, who’d moved after there after being expelled from a school for his radical politics.

Oxley could even be regarded as a birthplace of ‘70s punk. After all (I’m) Stranded was released before the debut singles of London’s punk juggernaut as The Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, The Damned and The Clash. The first Saints album, I’m Stranded, and some of the second record, were written at the Kuepper family home.

Kuepper went on to form Laughing Clowns (“the most important band in the world”, the NME declared at the time) and The Aints, and released 21 solo albums – four which crossed-over into the ARIA Hot 50 and two of which won ARIA awards

Murphy approached Brisbane City Council and got a positive response, especially from Lord Mayor Graham Quirk.

Brisbane City Council, after all, had honoured The Go-Betweens with Go Between Bridge in 2010.

Murphy was told that the Council had to research the idea to ensure that the suburb’s residents thought the idea relevant.

The petitionis set up on the Council’s website until May 1. It has notched up 610 signatures as of the time of publication.

Kuepper apparently quite likes the idea, for his parents’ sake at least, and has wished Murphy well with the campaign.