The Life and Times of Peter Green
updated 13 May 2026
 Happy Birthday to me, the old Gothic vampire of Kalorama. |
April 27thI'm playing some of the songs from Ringo Starrs recent album "Long, Long Road". His 22nd solo record. 22! Amazing. Not bad for a guy who is 85. Its highest chart position was #17 in Japan. Ringo big in Japan , just don't try to sneak any pot in if you tour that place Ringo!A tree limb came down and crushed one of our garden lights, no biggie it could have been worse, it could of crushed our car. So I clean up the mess and get the tree limb ready to chainsaw. The positive side, more wood for our Winter fires. I make a banana cake with fresh bananas and organic honey and some passionfruit icing on top from 3 passionfruit off my vine. It tastes pretty good says Marky. I am in awe that I can finally grow passionfruit. April 28thGood old Jimmy Barnes turns 70 today. As you can imagine with his close contact with the Finns our paths cross a bit. He was always really nice and lots of fun backstage. I know his health isn't fantastic but he just keeps on going. Have a great birthday Jimmy.I had $4 worth of coins in the car and my coffee is $5. I opened the door and next to my car was a shiny gold $1 coin. Thank you money gods. I set up an Elvis "shrine" table in the Book Cave at charity. Yes Elvis is in the building. Elvis clocks, badges, music, dvds ,VIDEOS, beach towel and everything that is Elvis. People start buying it instantly which is great but so funny. He has been dead for nearly half a century and still loved by many. We are loving "The Boys" as mentioned in the previous diary. What a wonderful show. Based on Marky and myself, no not really. April 29thMarky's YouTube Wednesday is rather special today. Two rather rare live Split Enz (audio) clips. Both from Sydney's Capitol Theatre in 1979. A show that teenage Peter and Mark attended (yes that's us cheering). "Betty" from Frenzy. Now we LOVE Betty which has such a touch of sadness. Wait till you hear Tim Finns rather exceptional soaring vocal at the end of the song, Magnificent. The 2nd song is "Things" . The first Neil Finn A side single. A total flop, super collectible (it sold a mere 1026). This is the only live version of "Things" that we have. Anyway both very special and if you are reading this, take a punt and give them a play.The link is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7asoHMFMSo Food Bank this morning and we have a lot of volunteers today which is great but we are way too efficient and get everything boxed and ready rather quickly. So I have time to hang out with Gladys the greyhound who turns up with her best mate. Gladys sees me and is so excited she knocks me over. A huge dog kiss. I wash my hands afterwards around the Food Bank produce etc. Next I drive to sleepy old Monbulk and buy a bag of concrete for the art room and some grocery shopping, plus a Mothers Day present for my Wollongong Mum. Malteser's are on special so I get some for Mark. Got to spoil the ones you love. Drive back home via Olinda and pay our electricity bills. $208.00 for our 3 month power bill- thank you solar panels. April 30thI continue to wake up up early, I've created an early rising monster (why does that sound like I am describing a stiffy?!). I now surrender to waking up early and climb out of bed. Midnight is all bright and cheery most mornings but this morning she stayed in bed with her Dad Mark. Didn't even come and say goodbye which was odd.I drive the Black Beauty in for petrol- $47.10, that's not too bad. I only buy fuel every second week. The car is so economical. I have the car radio on and REM with "What's the Frequency Kenneth" is playing. I love that song and I think the REM album MONSTER is magnificent, I love the guitar sound. A nice way to start my day. Music news comes on and Amyl and the Sniffers win three ARIA awards-more power to them. I sip my coffee at the Garden Cafe and look at some polling information that a friend sent to me on this weekends Nepean By Election. Usually Nepean is a very very safe Blue Ribbon Liberal seat. Labor are being smart and not running a candidate. They save money and in 6 months the seat is up for State election. So basically the Liberals and One Nation can tear each other apart. I think the Independent Tracee Hutchison will do well. I don't think she will win but she seems articulate and focused, so fingers crossed for a great result for her. The one and only Noel Crombie (Yes GOD) from Split Enz calls. From the rehearsal room in NZ. Just letting me know some tickets etc have been left for me for the Melbourne ENZ gig. So nice. Great to chat and it sounds like it is all going well. The Enz adding 5 more songs to their rehearsing, no idea how many will end cup in the stage set. I avoided asking so I could be surprised too. May 1stIt's been awhile since I did a full hike to the Lookout and picked up the micro plastics so I force myself a bit to do so. Stupid really as it is a stunning walk, and I can see all the way to the bay. No humans but a few wild rabbits hopping about. I sit and just breath in the beauty. I feel so lucky.I head for a coffee at the bakery and loads of CFA workers come in. I talk to one of the head guys and William Ricketts Sanctuary is pretty much ready to be opened. Nearly all the repairs have been done, a few areas closed off but ready for the public. It is one of my escape areas in Winter so I am excited that it might open soon. I have missed it. I head home, work in the office with Marky till lunchtime. After lunch I go to the art room and mix up some concrete and work it around the door area. Just filling a tiny area that was annoying me. I get most of it done. Next I carry the big tree limb for chainsawing. Mark says I am so "fucking macho" Ha. Does that turn you on baby? LOL. May 2ndI wake up singing " sweet dreams and flying machines and pieces on the ground...".I'm sipping my bakery coffee and a neighbour Carol comes up with a pack of finger limes for me. Her tree near us has loads on it. This is great I can use them in my cooking. They look like chocolate clinker lollies. Mark will be in for a shock if he bites into these thinking they are his beloved clinkers. Rain tomorrow so I pick some of our old heirloom roses for the kitchen. The house smells amazing from these. In the evening I work on this diary in the office while the Nepean By Election comes in. The independent Tracie Hutchison is doing well ,nearly 25% of the vote. Better than One Nation at the time of writing. The Liberal vote down by 15% but it swings around a bit. Still it's only 10% of the vote counted while I write this. It seems to be taking them ages to count the votes. 50% were apparently pre-polling. End result is that the Liberals keep their seat, but a large swing against them, the Independent comes second and One Nation third. The usual Hanson huff and puff but fails again. I guess ON are saving all of their money for the push for the Farrer By Election. I cook us some homemade hamburgers for dinner. Rather delicious. May 3rdGrey and rain, Winter is on the horizon. The nights are still passable, but that will change. As the day moves on the rain continues.The Chestnut Festival is on so I go down and buy a few things, all the $$ go to our local school, up here. I help Duncan move some big wooden barrels at the festival, do my bit. I see a few familiar faces and have a chat, in the drizzle. I see Robert Forster from the Go Betweens will be at MEMO (St Kilda) on June 10th, playing some songs and talking about this first book. Tempted to go to this one. It would be great night. I assume he will be signing copies of the book too . May 4thI'm first in line at the post office and get Mums Mothers Day present posted. Just happy that Mum is still with us , so a good card and copious amounts of chocolates.Split Enz play Christchurch Arena tonight, I thought I might be a bit melancholy not being in the tour but surprisingly I'm not. I guess after all of these years I am rather Enz saturated. I hope it goes well for them. No sign of UK or Europe shows so I'm guessing it's just NZ and Australia again. May 5thI am flat chat for time this week so decide I will give myself a quick dye job instead of the hairdressers. So this morning I buy some coffee brown dye and will do it when I get home.At charity I put up the giant Batman in the Book Cave and surround it with super hero DVDs. All the dvds sell out- every single one. The "Bat-shrine" as we are calling it, certainly is attracting my super hero geeks. May 6thI wear my Big Freeze beanie for the fight against MND. Each beanie sold raises $25 to help find a cure for motor neurone disease, so a good one to support. Lots of people at food bank make nice comments about it. I give them details where they can buy MND enamel pins too.Markys Youtube Wednesday hits our target number within one hour which is great. So I'll mention another here that needs a tiny helping hand. Split Enz at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney in 1979. Two super rare tracks, 200 views to hit the target. The 2 songs sound awesome. You can enjoy them here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7asoHMFMSo May 7thI wake up with the Kalorama sniffles, it sure is cold this morning and pitch black outside. I climb out of my vampire coffin and head to the car. I see this white blob at the main gates. I realise my entire car is covered in snow. I look around and so is our 2 acres. I use a big chunk of bark to clear the snow off the car window and thankfully the warm motor does the rest. The roads are insanely slippery though, I am careful. So easy to go over the edge of Mt D.The giant Batman has now sold at charity too, thinking about the next display. As I'm restocking the books , a guitar and a ukulele sells. There is such vibe for the Book Cave. I find out that today has been the coldest day of the year. No surprise. Mum send some $50 for my birthday, so nice of her. Only 4 days till I am 17 again. I think Mum still thinks of me as her 12 year old kid. May 8thDavid Attenborough turns 100 today. I have only met him once and he has this wonderful slightly wicked sense of humour- we had a few laughs. I'd prefer him to be the USA President instead of lard-arse Trump. Is that possible, maybe we can just replace them and have a test run. Happy Birthday David. David for President.A really nice birthday parcel arrives from Sis and family so that was great. I head to Woolworths which is near my charity, so call in and do some volunteer charity work for 1.5 hours. Someone donated a record player so we are having fun in our backstage area playing music. Nice vibe. It's certainly cold on the mountain , the polar blast has us all rugged up. I like the gothic fog and grey for the moment. Snuggle up to Mark and Midnight and watch TV till the wee hours. May 9thNot sure why but woke up early. So off for my coffee. The Bakery has changed it's hours so I wait in the car till they open. I help Polly by carrying some tables out. I forgot that I have paid my Internet today so need to transfer some more money into my account, but I also had cash so no biggie.I set up a slightly PG gothic photo session in tone art room for my birthday. I wanted an old Goth eating birthday cake look for my Birthday snap for Monday. Mark takes a few photos. I add some stuffed ravens behind me in chicken wire. I am a scary old bugger...we like that. I just don't really do "nice". The Farrer By Election is on tonight, it's such a safe conservative seat , the Liberals have had it for some insane amount of time. I'm sure One Nation will wipe out the Liberal vote, which they do. The Independent Milthorpe does exceptionally well. While Hanson's prattling on with her bullshit I get sidetracked and read about the possible UFO landing at Kingman AZ in May 1953. Did it happen and is this an actual UFO that the government tried to reverse engineer. Far cooler than any By Election result. May 10thHappy Mothers Day. I called Mum and she loved her giant parcel of chocolates and card. Our naughty niece scored a few chocolates from the bag.I am working the office with Mark. We pop some short 3 minutes interviews up with 2 of our Skyhooks. Not video Wednesdays, just throw away moments for aussie music fans to enjoy. We are amazed at Red Symons rather giant hair do. Just up on our YouTube page , not one but 2 (short 3+ minute) Interviews with Skyhooks bassist/song writer Greg Macainsh and the one and only Red Symons. Greg's Interview was on May 13th 1977. The first episode of Nightmoves. Skyhooks had just played gig at the Kingston Hotel at Richmond and Greg arrived at the studio after that show. Two days later he would be on stage with Skyhooks at Festival Hall (introducing their new guitarist Bob Spencer). You can enjoy the Greg Interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Mdpj2rh7tg&t=9s The second short Interview (also from Nightmoves) is with Ex- Skyhooks guitarist Red Symons. It is from 1977 and Red had left the 'Hooks. A long haired Redmond talks about his first solo single "It's Only A Flipside" released on Ross Wilsons OZ records label. Another 3+ minute interview. You can enjoy the Red Interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGOs7oJg1-Q An hour later and both videos have had a few hundred views already, which is fantastic. We love that people enjoy what we put up. 867 video clips now on our page. Isn't that incredible. Mark gives me another huge pile of music for my birthday, every day music that I did not have. I am stoked as one is the Black Crowes "1972" EP. Such brilliant covers- Rocks Off, The Slider, Moonage Daydream etc. What a great band, and what brilliant EP. I LOVE this so much.... I will drive him crazy playing this one. I dance around the office singing somewhat out of tune. May 11thWell Happy Birthday to me! Another trip around the sun . As Mick & Keith said " I'm zipping through the days at lightening speed" !!!!So many calls, Laura and Kevin beat my Mum and call first... and the calls kind of continue all day, which is really lovely. The bakery girls head outside and sing to me and hand me a free coffee and birthday doughnut with a candle and the locals sing with them. I am rather teary from it all. Mark has been spoiling me all week, the best music ever, all these cool cds I do not have, super rare stuff and a brilliant book on The Runaways. He makes me so happy. The best birthday ever... thanks everyone. Love PG |
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