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Early-30s Northern Rivers man, Hugh Enbrooke has a lot of wild story about growing up in Byron Bay before the linen-wearing yuppies from Sydney and Melbourne moved there.

Whether he’s talking about witnessing the ripples of the 1990s Lismore heroin trade, or talking about the time he and the 50 Lions boys bashed Rex Hunt – Byron sounds like it was a very different place prior to gentrification.

Most of these stories revolve around his solid relationship with the boys from Parkway Drive.

Because he’s mates with them. Because he knows them from Byron. Because they are from Byron and so is he. And they are around the same age.

Because Hugh is mates with the Parkway boys, as much as he hates bringing it up. But like, yeah, he’s in a few group chats with them still to this day. So he talks to them a bit.

Parkway Drive are an Australian heavy metal band from Byron Bay, New South Wales. Their latest four albums have reached the top 10 of the Australian ARIA Charts, with their 2015 release Ire and 2018 release Reverence reaching number 1 upon release.

A product of Byron’s hardcore and straight edge scenes, the band was formed at the beginning of 2003 and took their name from the street where their home rehearsal space and live venue in the punchy coastal town. It has since become one of the most stolen street signs in Australia.

However, if you knew spent more than 15 minutes with Hugh Enbrooke, you’d know all of this, because thats bout how long it takes for him to bring up the fact that he went to high school with the pioneers of Australian metalcore.

“Hahaha” says Hugh, while looking at the screen of his phone.

“Oh, never mind” he continues.

“Just something that Jia sent me hahaha”