The Life and Times of Peter Green
updated 1 March 2026
 Split Enz 2026. Christchurch New Zealand. |
February 16thRobert Duvall from The Godfather and Apocalypse Now has died age 95. He always had such a kind face. I keep wondering who the next Aussie rockstar to die will be. A bit of a morbid thought I guess. As we get older so do they. The clock is ticking.The By Election for Farrer must be announced soon. I hope the Independent Michelle Milthorpe wins, that would piss skanky old Hanson and One Nation off. It's usually a safe Liberal seat , but the Libs in Australia are dead in the water so it could easily change. Milthorpe did well last election. February 17thI had quite a few sharp eyed diary readers point out that February 1st was a "missing day" on this F/16 diary. I'd love to make it glamorous and have a missing Agatha Christie moment but somehow I simply stuffed up and started it on the 2nd. Rather odd after all of these years. I'm going to leave it, let future generations muse over what happened on the 1st and why didn't he write about out.The Music, run an article on our videos from Archies Creek. Overnight it gets to #2 as most popular trending music article. It's so weird this has happened a lot , there we sit among all of these young bands and overseas acts. Hey as long as they spell Marks name and my name correctly I should rejoice that after all these years we still make the music news. Thanks The Music and thanks Noise 11. February 18thI see Tim Finn is doing two live shows, seems so few. Maybe he is in Sydney around something else, just seems rather odd only those few. At least his voice will last.We had two clips go up today. The first being Markys Youtube Wednesday. One from the Split Enz dress rehearsal show in Brisbane in 2006. Such a nice night and the Frenz of the Enz were looked after. Think we had 120 club members come along for feee and watch the full dress rehearsal. Kind of funny so few people in the giant Entertainment Centre in Brisbane. But they all had fun and I filmed it thankfully. The days when the Enz certainly looked after their fans. A huge thank you must go to manager at the time David Hughes. He was very supportive of the Frenz coming along. A lot of effort but we made it happen. The link for that is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmp5W4WAQE0 The second video went up in the afternoon. Our famous BONGO TV -which had road crew, band members and Skyhooks fans in front of the camera giving us a favourite Bongo moment. I gave mine, I was wearing my rayban mirror shades so Mark made me look sideways so he couldn't see himself in the reflection., It's a sweet little video so please give it a quick view. It's already had 1700+ views. The link for that is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtNGv6-hOlA&t=21s February 19thI'm sitting in the car park at the charity waiting for the boss to turn up and I'm reading an article on the ABC News page on "solar forecasting" which is becoming big business. Apparently Australia is getting extremely good at this.The live videos from Archie's Creek Bongo celebration are going through the roof , both have gone past the 10,000 views each, already. Incredible. BONGO TV had 1000 within 15 minutes. We are gobsmacked. I spend the day in the Book Cave, restocking, reworking all the new shelves. It was a very long day , I am feeling worn out. I know the charity helps a lot of people but sometimes I question if it's time to finish.... maybe lacking a bit of energy in me..... it will feel different tomorrow. Maybe? I might need a recharge? February 20thCrowded House bring some healing power to Bondi Beach, good work fellas.I fill up another container with freshly picked blackberries , rain in the way so time to pick a few more before the birds eat them all. At 2.00 I go in and do a small art project. Had some ugly plastic easter eggs , so spray paint them black and shiny and roll them in old Mardi Gra glitter. They are monster eggs, for the Easter display at the Charity during April. February 21stI wake up early and the mountain is very quiet. No cars on the tourist road , I watch a wild deer grazing by the road side, try not to spook it as I don't want it denting my car. I don't want to kill it, so far in 20 years I have never hit an animal up here in the national park while driving.I see One Nation candidate for Redcliffe , Simon Salloum has been convicted for Electoral Fraud. You would think these people would learn. I see Pauline Hanson hasn't even mentioned it , just ignores it. Zero responsibility, zero credibility....and she tells other parties they need to "vet their candidates". Such hypocrisy. I get this really nice call from Wilbur Wilde. He was just on 3AW and gave Mark and myself and our videos a huge rave on air, so nice of him, thanks Wilbur. Well I guess I can return the favour as he has a one man show at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. Sounds like a fun one. Check it out. Malcolm Green sends me a song he recently finished, nice to hear from him. My long lost (faux) brother. I enjoyed it. I buy some kitty litter from IGA, isn't that just thrilling dear readers. See I can be "normal" when it suits me...which also means "boring". February 22ndVery overcast outside and a trickle of rain, a fine mist falls on the national park. You can hear the soil breathe a sigh of relief, I swear all the plants look happy. Locals are walking around in the mist enjoying the cool on their skin. Again I have been awake early, Midnight jumped for the window sill from my bed and misjudged. Crashed to the floor and woke me up. Bloody cats, they control our lives.Another day and our videos from Archies Creek are still ticking over with views. They are just about to hit a combined view of 30,000 which is really good for such a short viewing time. Thank you to those who checked them out. I got to have a secret look at the new Split Enz stage costumes. Shhhh. So for most Noel has done a little flashback but shuffled suits around to different band members. Most are great copies from the Enz 1977 stage outfits worn on the Dizrythmia tour OK maybe a few sizes bigger. I've always loved these ones, I'm sure there will be photos when they play Electric Avenue, Christchurch in a few days. February 23rdFlood warnings for Western Queensland as intense rainfalls continues. Shout out to Keith and Steve , 2 of my mates who do the rescue helicopter work. Stay safe fellas.In the afternoon I head back to the bakery for a second coffee. I have a phoner with Poet and Author Jenny Jewel Brown on a possible project. So sit outside and we chat. Greg Skyhook calls in the afternoon, and that was a nice call. We need to catch up soon. February 24thBushfire Alert today, I check on our fire sprinklers. I will be glad when Summer is over, hopefully we got through another one without Mt Dandenong bursting into flames.By midday it starts bucketing down , which is great, and it means I don't have to wash my car. I talk to some first time Enz fans who are travelling to Christchurch. I feel a bit sad that they never get to see the Enz play with Nigel and Malcolm. But they will have a great time. The Beatles Lucy InThe Sky With Diamonds was recorded 59 years ago. The years zoom on by don't they? February 25thWhat luxury, I sleep into 7.30. Midnight encourages me to get up and head to Food Bank to volunteer and help feed the hills. Good to see Gladys the greyhound, I walk her around outside and she meets lots of humans.Markys Youtube Wednesday is up. It is the very last Live Crowded House video from the bands GET WOODFACED Tour of Australia. 1991. A tour that was mostly a return to the club audiences, but also it started with an Under 18s show at The Palace (St Kilda). I drive Neil and one of the crew down for rehearsals (which was also at The Palace) on July 24th. We hit the road next day on the 25th. I think it was 22 Australian shows. Today's video is from Transformers , in Melbourne on July 28th . Crowded House performing "Mean To Me". The Melbourne audience is in fine voice. The band: Neil Finn, Paul Hester, Nick Seymour and Tim Finn. The link is here, good sound on this one too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys6LS0f17WM February 26thThe latest image of the Milky Way's most extreme region, taken by the ALMA radio telescope is incredible.I'm at charity and a Yamaha drum kit arrives in great condition. It's been many years since Hessie showed me how to assist in drum set up, but I make an effort with my mate Deb and get it looking good. I realise after I've set it up for a left handed drummer, but what the hell. It sells quickly and the charity scores some $$. It looked great in my Book Cave area. February 27thFree coffee at the Olinda bakery, thank you girls. I take one of my work books and scrawl some notes around some future projects.Split Enz play Hagley Park, Christchurch tonight. Electric Avenue Festival. The first lot of Enz gigs that I haven't been involved with since 1980. I was wondering how I would feel and it's odd, very little thought about it. If I didn't spot it on line I would have forgotten about the gig. The re-visiting of the 1978 Enz costumes by Noel (Ok a bit larger as the Enz are chunkier in old age) but they look fabulous. Loved them in those stage clothes. The set list overall so predictable, and once again no surprise, it's a Festival with a festival crowd so they would have loved what the band was playing. Just selfish on my part hoping for a curve ball of something rare , even if it was just for the part of the band that are Split Enz- the old guys surprising us all. Saying that they did play "Nobody Takes Me Seriously" and "Hard Act To Follow" , 2 songs that haven't been performed for awhile. I was happy for them, as some band members get older you know such shows are rare so for those who are Enz gig virgins I was stoked for you. I heard from Nigel and I never mentioned the Enz reunion, wasn't sure that he remembered. Must be hard for him and Malcolm. Our Split Enz MURDER video turns 2 years old March 13th and Mark says it only needs 160 views to get to 15,000 and hoped it would hit that by the 2 years mark. So I spend the afternoon giving it a push , basically me asking mates and fans to watch it. They stand up and support it, we hit 15,000+ by midnight. Thanks everyone. Such a fun video. February 28thHappy Mardi Gras. The 48th year. I tell Marky I need to take him to the 50th Mardi Gra. God we will be really ancient by that stage. HA! We were staying at a hotel down the road when the first Mardi Gra happened , which was a protest gathering around Police bashing up gays etc . Anyway we had our window open that night and we think the gay glitter blew in and made us what we are. So Mardi Gra is rather special because of that.Tens of thousands lined the streets tonight for the parade. 150 floats, 9000 marchers, all cheered on by a passionate fun crowd. I loved The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, in their Nun outfits donning signs of jailed neo Nazi (arsehole) sucking on a baby dummy. The Sisters sending a message saying NO to the scumbag far Right. Bless them. I love watching the floats. I swear gay MP Alex Greenwich somehow gets better looking every Mardi Gra. I loved how they got ex AFL player Mitch Brown , who came out as Bisexual, co-hosting part of Mardi Gra. You did well Mitch. I'm still not sure about the mullet though. Anyway another Mardi Gra is over, and as always a joy to see so many having a brilliant night and such excellent support from the straight community too. March 1stWelcome Autumn, but I still believe March will be a late Summer. I hope all our leaves don't come down at the same time. We can be knee deep in them up here on the mountain.The flood waters are heading slowly across South Australia's dry areas to its heart. Lake Eyre. One of the few times the inland lake will be full. The 4th time in 160 years. So while Aussies were enjoying Mardi Gras, bombs were dropping on the other side of the world in Iran. I am fine with an evil regime being over thrown, I am fine with the Ayatollah being dead (if he is) . But like all such actions innocents die and have their lives destroyed. I am hoping reports that the girls school in southern Iran, Minab wasn't hit and reported 85 killed. Let's hope it isn't so. I'm sure Iran will mess with global oil now, as they will try and close the strait of Hormuz. Time for me to stock up on fuel, lucky the Black Beauty uses so little. It's not a nice way to end this diary, maybe some hope for Iran and its people, time will tell if this is a good thing. I seem to have a lot of emails today from mates overseas wanting to live in our wine cellar.? Stay safe and hold those you love close to you. xPG |
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