NO!
in about 1972 i met him
he was a year older than me about 19
we met up in the david jones record bar in canberra
i was asking for some records and paul was in there
and he starting making some interesting comments on the records i wanted
we started talking and immediately became fast friends
paul was the only person i had ever met who loved marc bolan like me
he understood! he fucking understood….!
this alone was enough to guarantee ya lifelong friendship in my world
he was a good looking dude with his beard n everything
(i got quite a shock seeing him the first time he shaved it off!)
paul was such an incredibly knowledgeable character
he kept all his pop magazines neatly filed and sorted
his records were all in plastic bags n in mint condition
and he had everything…all the singles , e.p.s whatever
and a hilarious line in gossip on all the comings n goings
in the rock world
paul was interested in production too
and already had a tape recorder he was experimenting with
paul turned me onto bowie who i was kinda resisting “for marcs sake”
but paul n i were honest with each other about bolan
even if it hurt
paul said after we bought tanx “how disappointing!”
it was
we knew bowie was the future
paul n i formed a band
he was the singer i was the bass player
theres a little bit about him in my biography “no certainty attached”
he was the singer who wouldnt go on stage because of the bullies
as a consequence of paul pulling out of singing that night
i became a singer myself because otherwise i was gonna be a bass player
a word about these bullies
i knew em
i saw who was there that night
a bunch of teenage thugs who’d given paul grief
at the catholic boys high school he attended not that far from my lyneham high
these guys were onto anyone like artistic or intelligent or slightly feminine
wow you had pauly there in spades cos he was all 3
he looked round the curtain n saw simmo n robbo n jonesy or whoever
n he couldnt handle it….singing in front of these guys who one year ago
were probably smacking him around a bit at school
so he just said
i aint doing it!
and fuck he left us in the lurch but i understood why he didnt
it was our first ever gig
it was 1973 at the o’donnell youth club in braddon
i drove past there the other day with sam n pointed it out to her
it sure looked insignificant in the daylight so many years later
but that night it was full of bullies n from my school too
but my sense of destiny always burnt within me so hard
i just get up n play n i dont care
let em thump me afterwards i gotta play my songs
(incidentally no one thumped me or even said anything except for one
long drawn out sneer of KILBEY!!!!???? when i hit the stage)
paul n i kinda remained friends after that but things were a little weird
paul n i both loved bowie and paul was really getting into all the bi-sexuality hoopla
well i very faintheartedly tried to embrace the idea
but the truth was i liked girls n i didnt like blokes not one tiny bit
paul called me as butch as a meat pie
i mean i still liked to dye me hair n put makeup on
but i just didnt dig blokes
paul never suggested anything inappropriate to me either
we verily loved each other like brothers
i dunno how paul felt about me but to me
he was the voice of all good taste in things to do with music
paul loved the beatles the who n todd rundgren too
and he filled me in on everything
half the stuff i know about anything to do with rock probably was from paul
he like me was a man out of time n place
if he’d been in london or somewhere he woulda been engineering n producing
im convinced of that
he really understood pop music in a way that few people ever grasp
he would have made an amazing producer he had a great “ear”
eventually i guess my butchness n i guess sometimes harsh words
woulda broke up our friendship
but not before we travelled up to sydney together n saw trex
(they were absolutely awful!!!!!)
paul n i drifted apart tho we caught up a few times
once he completely blanked me when he was working in a newsagents in civic
i invited him round to my place but he didnt wanna know me
well i held a grudge and i held it good
when the church got wellknown i met up again with paul in 1981
he was working in the public service
i couldnt work out if he was straight or gay or bi or whatever
whatever it was he seemed confused by it and
i wasnt so friendly
paying him back for the newsagents incident
but just lately we have met up twice in canberra when the church played
paul had really changed
but he was still funny witty gossipy and bloody lovely to hang out with
we talked about all the stuff only WE knew about
paul was meeting a woman from sydney that night
in some bizarre twist she worked at the bondi post office
and we had already spoken about paul
paul told me that night
youd be proud of me i’m gonna date a woman!
it seemed things were looking up
paul wrote me a lovely letter about the churches performance
he hit every nail on the head in his critique of us
he asked me where i got my new choppers
paul had somehow lost some front teeth n he was reticent to smile
it seemed the new romance might have a chance
i kept saying come up to sydney paul
he kept saying he would but he never did
this guy was a huge influence on my nascent musical direction
he was a brilliant brilliant man and as i said
in some other time n place he would have been feted as quite a somebody
i knew his brother phil at school too
he was a diamond geezer a really nice cat
i remember his whole family as being gracious and hospitable
i dont think anybody quite knew what to make of paul though
i dont think he did himself
as far as i go
he was an indispensable part of my story
we studied bolan n bowie like other people study mathematics
we debated we laughed we argued we rhapsodised on em
i unreservedly tell the world paul culnane was a big influence on me
he had an idea for something called the amnesia operetta
i finally stole his idea last year for a church song called operetta
i told paul n he was chuffed
oh i’d forgotten all about that he said…..
an adorable man
a sad day for me
paul if you see marc up there……ah…you’ll know what to say…..
i’m gonna miss you man
sk philadelphia on tour
feb 2011
that
