The Life and Times of Peter Green
updated 30 November 2025
 Bob “Bongo” Starkie. 1952 -2025 We Love ya Mate. (Photo by PG-Wollongong Town Hall 1976). |
November 24thI go for my morning hike, it's almost Summer but this morning far more like Winter. I head to the Lookout and little circular rolls of fog twist all around me like some mountain demon trying to escape. The wildlife is very quiet this morning, no birds, even my resident rock wallaby is awol. Thankfully it is also clean, just half a bag of rubbish, maybe the rangers have been here and done a clean up.I chat to Bongo for awhile after lunch, he tells me he keeps running out of energy. He says when something happens that I should look after his press . I promise him I will, he knows he can trust me. I add footnote that if something happens we will always be there for his daughters Indiana and Arabella. He says "love ya Peety Pie", his voice is fading because of the ulcers etc. I am holding it all together…but only just. I don't cry a lot , but I am getting close to it each time I speak to him. I pay the car rego, it is one of those boring things on my list. I need to get stuck into Christmas presents soon, time is running out, Christmas a mere month away. November 25thCrowded House "Farewell To The World" is now 29 years old. Holy crap. Time flies. I give our little documentary on it, that Mark made, a push. Over 8000 people have enjoyed it so far. Anything over 1000 is fine with us. I have no idea why I decided 1000 is the "worth doing" number. I think I want 1000 people to watch everything Matk puts rip as he spends so much time working on these for the fans.I wake up this morning feeling average, maybe i didn't have a deep enough sleep. My stomach isn't happy so I take a probiotic, they seem to work well with me. The gang at the charity are fun. We all work extra hard today, everyone focused on the job at hand, even me (shock gasp). I'm thinking I might keep doing this for one final year. As long as I feel I can help some people it's worth the effort. November 26thAfter Foodbank today I drive to Monbulk as Midnight has become super fussy and only eats Kangaroo meat. I hate that she eats Skippy. I tell her so. It is so lean, 2% fat only.Next into Hair for the Hills and I meant to tell my haircutter to only buzz the sides but she does it all so my hair is very short. I'm ok with it, it is good cut and dye job. I purr again with my scalp massage when it gets the wash. Marks Youtube Wednesday is Neil Finn with Fall At Your Feet. It is from Glasgow. The tour bus zoomed to Scotland after Manchester. The crowd sing a long is fantastic. It is at the Clyde Auditorium on September 30th 1998. This one is really worth checking out. November 27thAus Music Tshirt day so I wear a Ramones shirt. LOL. I wear Oz Music T-shirts every other day of the year. To be honest I simply forgot.I hear from Bongo and the poor bugger sounds so tired. "Maybe we can catch up on Monday Peety". So funny only Hessie and him call me Peety. November 28thBlack Friday Sales are on and Aussies spend around $9 billion in the stores. So much for concerns about the cost of living. Eastlands is packed, so many people spending up big.I call Nathan about his photos from the "In The Heat Of The Night" but he can't find them. It's a nice chat though, so I will forgive him, my lovely old Split Enz manager boss. I think the Enz forget at times just how much Nathan did for them. Insane he loses the negs for so many great shots. He really had a great eye for photos. The Skyhooks Facebook page has 19,372 followers, it just keeps on growing. November 29thI have this weird restless sleep so head off early to the bakery for a coffee. It is quite full of people for such an early time of the morning. I'm sitting outside and the phone rings, it's Bongo's daughter Indiana. "Please tell me this is not the call". "It is" she says between tears, "Dad just passed away". I try not to , even typing this I have tears. I feel my heart break and we talk and I go into "the mode" . I need to get home and tell the band, I don't want any of them hearing it from a stranger. The bloody press release and Mark has to do what he does best as well, video and photos. If I let myself think about Bob too much , I will crumble and today of all days I need to do this stuff for him.I go into the bakery and take my cup and ask for it to be takeaway, tears running down my face. The bakery girls all leave their customers and come out and hold me and in some ways it makes it worse but so nice. People are staring like what the fuck is going on. I pull the car over going home, I need windscreen wipers on my eyes as I am sobbing. Mark puts those long arms around me. We both go "It's fucked". I call the guys and all different reactions, I think most of us are in disbelief. I thought we had 3 more weeks. I start on the Press Release, which normally I can churn out, but my brain is mush. This is Bob. Indi calls and she is writing her piece. I feel guilty asking her to do it but I need the side from the family, I want it to be a father, brother friend has died not just a seventies popstar. I get it together, it feels ok. Suddenly I feel like I am a bit out of body, so I stay in that state while I call my press list and start sending out the Press release. Paul Cashmere at Noise 11 and Jeff Jenkins from The Music put up some really good articles. The phone starts, ABC is first, very respectful and just reconfirming etc. TV news follows, channel 9. It all starts snow balling from that point. They seem to like a little B/W photo I took of Bob in front of Wollongong Town Hall in 1976. I wa just this kid with my Skyhook loving best mate Mark. Our shitty cameras and Bob happily posed for a photo. He looks gorgeous. Anyway it's all over the news. One of Bongo's favourite photos too. By afternoon we leave the office for a break, and I need to film more stuff for Marky for our upcoming mini documentary on Skyhooks "In the Heat of the Night" tour. Mid filming I talk about soundcheck in 1975 and mention Shirley (who has also passed away) and I think of Bob and just lose it in front of the camera. Tears. Fuck me . I have been holding it all in so perfectly. Mark stops and I get myself together and it happens again and again. The 4th take I get it but you can tell in the roughs/footage I have been crying. Oh well it is what it is. Back to the office and we work till about 4.00 in the morning. Mark rushes this cool Bongo Tribute with brilliant photos. At the time of writing it has had 25,000 views. Incredible. For those overseas who don't know who he is or the band, check out the incredible stage costumes. So great. November 30thThe Melbourne Metro tunnel is open today and it is beauty. I love what it looks like, and the reaction from the public has been great. I am glad the state government is focusing on infrastructure, more of that please.We both worked in the office till very late last night- again, feeling worn out. Bob dying has been like a tsunami. Thousands of messages and it is everywhere. It's so odd to see a photo I took of him in 1976 suddenly appear before my eyes on the News channels or the internet. No photo credit but that doesn't worry me, I know and I guess that's all that matters. So many of us are so sad around this. I guess that is obvious dear reader. December 1stSummer has arrived and it snowed lightly on the East Lawn. The arctic cold front hit Mt Dandenong and you could feel the temperature drop. The rain starts again, it seems endless. The coldest start to Summer in 29 years.We love the documentary on Aussie writer Charmian Clift. She's from our home town, well close by, Kiama . A fascinating life but such a sad ending. I love the way she writes. The doco is called "Life Burns High". I suggested to Mark to buy Sis the book on her "The Life & Myth of Charmian Clift". I think she will like it. I have the address where she lived in Kiama so I may well stalk the place. It's within walking distance of my Grandfathers original home when he was a lad, he would have lived nearby . I wonder if he knew her? December 2ndI chat to our friend Toni around Bongo, like us, she has known him since she was 14. The Hooks crew (some may say Hookscrew) are in grieving. I have been hassling RAGE to have a tribute. The pressure is on. We will make this happen.December 3rdThe weather is again beautiful and I call into the lookout and go for a hike. No people and I can see all the way to the bay and the city. It looks like the Emerald City from Oz, glistening in the distance. I just chill, breathe, think of Bob and let the sadness drift off to somewhere else.Food Bank is good today, yet again the team is focused. Helping a lot of people, it feels good. Distraction. Mark tells me the Morrissey Biopic "England is Mine" is on SBS streaming so we settle in to watch it. Unauthorised, overall it just doesn't work, you know they didn't have the $ to get the rights to the Smiths catalogue. I thought Jessica Brown Findlay was rather exceptional as Linder Sterling. I came away from it feeling really disappointed. I get what they were trying for, but it feels flat and dull. December 4thI talk my cousin and he might be back in hospital soon, the endless Wollongong family is sick stuff seems to never end. I am adopted surely I am… or maybe it is something in the Wollongong water.I wear a Santa shirt to the Salvo charity today… I guess Christmas is here soon. I like Christmas, I want Christmas , I AM Christmas. Ho, Ho Fucking Ho !!!! The radio has been playing Skyhooks all day, I heard 5 mentions of Bongos death on air. People who shop in the store come up to me and tell me Bongo stories. It's odd, it's human nature I guess. I go into auto pilot response. I drive home and feel sad. I call into PO Box 50 at Kalorama and clear our mail. There is a poster tube. I open it and am so delighted. Our mate Tony (Williams) who was the final lead singer for Skyhooks sent us two of his amazing water colours of Ailsa Craig our house. They are simply beautiful. Am in awe. Someone give this man an art exhibit. They will be framed and go in the foyer of the house. A lovely gift and it cheered me up 100%.Mark loves them too. December 5thI hear from the ABC and they have had a lot of requests for a tribute for Bongo, so it is on, about 1.5. hrs worth. Which is great. Hopefully not too late as Skyhook fans are really old and need to be in bed. HA.I put up the Christmas tree, just the baby one as I don't trust Midnight when we are not home and know she will destroy it trying to play with the decorations. At 3.00 Bob was cremated today. Now that feels suddenly final, which I know it has been all week but just typing that feels so strange. Eventually I will stumble out of this sadness and death brain fog. I am so glad Marky is with me to talk about Bobs death , it just helps so much. I need to isolate the friend part from the musician part. Hard when people are telling me Bongo stories every few minutes and I try to hold onto Bob the person. I am sure you are all bored with me talking about this. Maybe it is my therapy? December 6thThe RAGE special was good, nothing new but nice to stay up and watch it. It has been a long while since I watched RAGE.The bakery girls give me a free coffee and dough nut, they know I am sad. I work in the yard a bit today. Just some mowing and tidying up. Stir fry for dinner and I have the urge to have a chocolate Bavarian cake for desert so I drive off mountain and find one for us. December 7thThe suns out which is nice but the wind has a bite. I am outside at the bakery in shorts and every so often an ice wind hits me.We photograph some Split Enz and Crowded House T-shirts from the archives. We are doing a few every couple of days. Putting them up on some of the social media pages. I ask Noel about some Split Enz white canvas shorts from the NZ 1977 tour. I call him and he is in NZ , about to start rehearsals with the Enz. Nice to chat to him but he can't recall the shorts, so they must be rare. A record company PR item we both assume. Jim Morrison would have turned 82 tomorrow if he was alive. I think he would still be churning out poetry and being this fascinating beared guy. I find him a tad sexy with his beard, I usually don't go for the bearded look but on Jim, it suits him. So Christmas is approaching fast…hopefully a F/16 diary update just before Christmas, but in case it is late, maybe I should wish you all the best now. Happy Christmas and Holidays to you all. Love PG xxxx |
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