Legendary Australian Music Executive Tells Her Story From Inside The Engine Room Of Rock History
by Paul Cashmere
Amanda Pelman has lived much of her life behind the scenes, shaping careers, navigating power structures and witnessing cultural shifts from positions rarely occupied by women. In February 2026, she steps firmly into the foreground with Four Weddings And An Encore, a revealing and sharply observed autobiography that traces her journey through four decades of music, media and personal reinvention.
At a time when music history is often flattened into playlists and algorithm-driven nostalgia, Pelman offers something far more substantial, a lived account of how modern rock culture was built, contested and survived from the inside. Four Weddings And An Encore is part memoir, part cultural document and part coming-of-age story, anchored by an unmistakably Australian perspective with a global reach.
Pelman’s story begins in Brighton Beach, Melbourne, where she grew up surrounded by post-war resilience, fashion and ambition. From there, the narrative follows her into the heart of the Australian music and television industries, before expanding outward to London, Los Angeles and Paris. Along the way, Pelman became a trusted insider in radio, music television and touring at a time when decision-making rooms were overwhelmingly male.
Rising through the industry across four decades, Pelman earned a reputation for instinct, candour and an ability to read both people and culture with precision. She often found herself as the only woman present, negotiating authority, credibility and survival in an environment that rarely accommodated female longevity. That experience forms the backbone of the book, not as grievance but as clear-eyed documentation.
Despite her proximity to power, Four Weddings And An Encore avoids the trap of industry name-dropping. Pelman writes with a literary voice that privileges reflection over spectacle. Her narrative weaves professional milestones with personal history, family dynamics, sexuality, ambition, heartbreak and endurance, presenting music as both a career and a compass for memory and identity.
“I invite you to examine my tale of life, laughter, and loss,” Pelman writes early in the book. “Almost like Almost Famous. However much you may have loved, admired, wronged, or fucked me over, this is my story.” The tone is set early, frank, unsentimental and unwilling to soften experience for comfort.
One of the book’s strengths is its documentation of Australia’s modern music evolution. Pelman charts the rise of commercial radio, the cultural impact of music television and the transformation of live touring into a global industry. Her vantage point captures how careers were launched, stalled or reshaped in studios, offices and backstage corridors, often far from public view.
The memoir moves fluidly between continents. Readers are taken into Parisian apartments overlooking Notre-Dame, London hotel rooms humming with chart success and Australian workspaces where creative risk met commercial reality. Music is not treated as background colour but as a structuring force, anchoring memory and meaning. Each chapter is paired with a QR Flow code, allowing readers to listen along as the story unfolds.
At its core, Four Weddings And An Encore is also a study in women’s autonomy. Pelman writes openly about four marriages, desire, mistakes and reinvention without apology or retrospective moral judgement. The title reflects the book’s emotional architecture, each marriage marking a distinct chapter, followed by an “encore”, a later-life phase defined by clarity and self-determination rather than compromise.
The foreword is written by Australian concert promoter Michael Chugg AM, who frames Pelman as a figure whose honesty and creative intelligence helped open pathways for others. His contribution situates the book within the broader Australian industry narrative, reinforcing its value beyond personal memoir.
While deeply individual, the book functions as a cultural record of Australia from the 1970s onward. Pelman’s experiences mirror a generation that pushed Australian music onto the world stage, often without institutional support and frequently against entrenched resistance. For Australian readers, the memoir operates as both history and reflection, capturing a period when ambition required nerve and endurance demanded constant reinvention.
Four Weddings And An Encore is available now.
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