Since 1968 David Nichols has created comic strips and books, and drawn, painted, and otherwise brought into being over thirty record covers and numerous band flyers and posters, tea towels, t-shirts, and a series of greeting cards for a children’s cancer charity, as well as a limited-edition Converse sneaker.

He began writing about music in his fanzine, Distant Violins, in 1980, and has contributed to magazines ranging from Puncture, Meanjin, and Rolling Stone to Smash Hits Australia (where he where he was features editor from 1983 to 1991). His music-related books include The Go-Betweens (2003), Pop Life (2011, co-author), Dig: Australian Rock and Pop Music 1960–85 (2016), and Urban Australia and Post-Punk: Exploring Dogs in Space (2020, co-editor).

Parallel to his journalistic work, Nichols has pursued what someone once kindly described as a “unique musical vision” as the drummer for numerous bands, beginning with the Cannanes, of which he was a founder member in 1984 and left in 1996, through Crabstick, Blairmailer, Huon, Driving Past, and the Grey Tapes.

Nichols teaches urban history at the University of Melbourne, and is co-author of Trendyville: The Battle for Australia’s Inner Cities (2014) and Community Green (2021), and co-editor of Community: Building Modern Australia (2010) and Cultural Sustainability in Rural Comminities: Rethinking Australian Country Towns (2017). His latest book is The Alert Grey Twinkling Eyes of C.J. DeGaris (2022).