Cirrus@Austlit

At age 26 Vic Simms, a Bidjigal man, was mid-way through serving a seven year sentence in Bathurst jail, New South Wales, when he bought an acoustic guitar from another inmate for two packets of cigarettes. After learning to play chords, Simms began writing songs about his life and the injustices he observed. RCA recorded and released his album The Loner while Simms was still in Bathurst Jail. After his release in 1977, Simms became one of the first Aboriginal performers to sing at the Sydney Opera House. In August 2009, The Loner became part of the collection of the National Film and Sound Archive's, Sounds of Australia : The National Registry of Recorded Sound.