for anyone just tuning in here
let me bring you up to speed
i was born in 1954 welwyn garden city england
at the age of 3 we migrated to australia
my father leslie was a photographer
a mechanic
a piano player
quite a comedian
an ex-marine who fought in ww2
my mother joyce
young and very english
pretty but quite strict
interested in literature
both my parents working class
we live in dapto
a little town on the outskirts of wollongong
my father does well in australia
hes a very matey blokey bloke
and the aussies love his comedic schtick
i go to dapto infants and primary school
where i usually become the naughtiest most outspoken child
i get entered into a poetry eisteddfod but i do badly
i get in lots of fights
some i win
some i lose
i am constantly in love with various girls
my mother reads me alice in wonderland
the beatles 1st come to my attention in 1963
i learn to swim at 8 teaching myself after having failed at lessons
in 1964 we move to shepparton vic for one year
i was number 1 in the class at almost everything
pop music suddenly became important to me
beatles songs were soaking in via the radio
my father bought please please me their first album
russell and i would mime to relatives strumming badminton racquets
youre my world and anyone who had a heart by cilla black
blew my mind
music was beginning to take hold of me
i fooled around with a piano but i was hopeless
i lacked my fathers natural ability
or i questioned it too much with my insistent mind
so that it could not then function as it does now
at the end of 1964 we move to canberra
we live in brick house behind which is a park
canberra almost treeless and still very new
hot and dry and in the middle of nowhere
artificial lake and far from the lovely sea
i start lyneham primary school in 1965
my teacher really hates me as i am an impertinent brat
i get the cane quite often
i get into trouble with the police when some other boys
send a girl a “rude” letter signed in my name
i get into trouble again for burning down the park behind us
playing with matches with another boy
my mother made me have a bath and i went to bed early
i attended a school dance and the concept of fashion
intruded upon my thoughts
i realised that from then on in i should be “with it”
i still got in lots of fights
but something about it literally nauseated me
and i started avoiding them
the rolling stones and bob dylan appeared in my life
i attended an all ages rock concert at the albert hall in canberra
mpd ltd
the easybeats
bobby and laurie
normie rowe and the playboys
i took it all in deep
i immediately began to analyze and dissect in my mind
the screaming girls around the 11 year old me
their nascent sexual frenzy
the unbelievably loud pounding drums
bobby and laurie had a song where everybody stomped their foot in time
the power of this shocked me
the whole spectacle…what did it all mean exactly?
i started drawing rock bands in my schoolbooks
i fell in n out of love with various girls
i watched rock shows on the tv
i started buying my own records
the easybeats
simon and garfunkel
the stones
ray brown and the whispers
in 1967 i went to lyneham high
flower power exploded
psychedelic rock appeared and made a lasting impression
i got into fights but usually lost
the violence had more serious consequences now
i was an average student
i was often cruel to bugs and ants etc
i was reading playboys
i was interested in myth magic music
i was disinterested in sport maths science
i played cards a lot
i was still obliviously eating meat without question
i played squash
i grew up in many ways
i remained a child in many others
i was attracted to young female teachers
sometimes becoming friends with some of them
i got the cane regularly for stupid things
like carving bands names into desks etc
i loved attending the school dances
and can still feel that excitement
of walking in and seeing everyone dolled up n grooving
i watched the bands and i wanted to do that
i felt the bass guitar pulse in my stomach
and i decided that that would be it
after several false starts
my father bought me a violin bass for 80 dollars
he rigged me up an amp out of an old school pa
despite a massive wave of scepticism from all quarters
i persevered beyond their expectations and mine
it was hard slow going teaching myself bass
but at the end of a couple of years i could do it
discover marc bolan
i had a real girlfriend at 16
she would inexplicably break it off with me
and i wouldnt hear or see her for six months or a year
then she would phone up and we’d be back on
i joined a band called saga who played loads of songs
we did parties football clubs etc
i earned quite good money playing with them
at high school i debate and i debate for the state
i debate against malcolm turnbull
who is billetted to stay at our house
im 18 with hair down to my arse
faded grey lee cords
a houndstooth flannelette shirt
and thongs
hes 18 in slacks and a sweater or whatever
my mother says when he leaves
he’ll be prime minister one day
i leave school with a mediocre result
i languish in bed for a while
before being accepted into the public service as a clerk
in the dept of primary industry
i immediately become a thorn in the side
of anyone who was trying to do any work
and i remain so after nearly six years in the p.s.
i wrote poetry
organized poker games
i snuck off to guses cafe and drank cappos
got kicked out of saga because of my bad attitude
formed a number of bands which evolved into baby grande
who were excrutiatingly awful due to my pathetic songs
and that the other guys didnt like me
i was by now a vegetarian and couldnt eat anywhere
my mother gave me egg and chips a lot
i moved out in 1975 and lived with guys in band
i met michele and moved in with her
my father died of a heart attack
baby grande actually procure contract with emi but get dropped
baby grande kick me out of my own band
to become a power trio
peter koppes had long since departed
everyone was always angry with me
but they all needed me
because none had any clue about writing songs
i bought a four track and overdubbed with myself for 4 years
went to london for a few months see many bands
after that i couldnt stand canberra and moved to sydney in 79
i silkscreened tshirts and sold em at paddington market saturday morning
increasingly smoking marijuana and trying cocaine and lsd for 1st time
writing some satisfying songs now
constantly at work writing
sydney impresses me
its big and dirty and sleazy and i can lose myself here
i start to make more friends than i ever had in canberra
start smoking marijuana on a constant daily level
take mushrooms and lsd regularly
meet peter k and form the church
church has its ups n downs
i have 5 daughters
and start writing this blogge
then…..