Pub rock is a style of Australian rock and roll popular throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and that was still influencing contemporary Australian music in the 2000s. The term came from the venues where most of these bands originally played — inner-city and suburban pubs. These often noisy, hot, small and crowded venues were not always ideal as music venues and favoured loud, simple songs based on drums and electric guitar riffs. The Australian version of pub rock incorporates hard rock, blues rock, and/or progressive rock. In the Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop (1999), Australian musicologist Ian McFarlane described how, in the early 1970s, Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, Blackfeather and Buffalo pioneered Australia's pub-rock movement. Australian rock music journalist Ed Nimmervoll declared, "[t]he seeds for Australian heavy rock can be traced back to two important sources, Billy Thorpe's Seventies Aztecs and Sydney band Buffalo". Origins The emergence of the Australian version of the pub rock genre and the related pub circuit was the result of several interconnected factors. From the 1950s to the 1970s, mainly because of restrictive state liquor licensing laws, only a small proportion of live pop and rock music in Australia was performed on licensed premises (mostly private clubs or discotheques); the majority of concerts were held in non-licensed venues like community, church or municipal halls. These concerts and dances were 'all-ages' events—often with adult supervision—and alcohol was not served. During the 1960s, however, Australian states began liberalising their licensing laws. Sunday Observance Acts were repealed, pub opening hours were extended, discriminatory regulations — such as the long-standing ban on women entering or drinking in public bars — were removed, and in the 1970s the age of legal majority was lowered from 21 to 18. Concurrently, the members of the so-called "Baby Boomer" generation — who were the main audience for pop and rock music — were reaching their late teens and early twenties, and were thus able to enter such licensed premises. Pub owners soon realised that providing live music (which was often free) would draw young people to pubs in large numbers, and regular rock performances soon became a fixture at many pubs. In the early 1970s Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, Blackfeather and Buffalo pioneered Australia's pub-rock movement. In March 1970 Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs consisted of Thorpe on lead vocals and guitar, Jimmy Thompson on drums, Paul Wheeler on bass