The Life and Times of Peter Green
updated 23 January 2026
 Split Enz. 1975. The Reefer Cabaret. (Photo by Bob Starkie. Enz Archives) |
January 5thI drive to the other side of the mountain to get Miss Midnights cat food. I'm nice to the lady at Aldi's, she always looks like she has had a rather rough life, rather presumptuous of me. But sometimes just being a bit nice to an injured beast can make them smile a bit.Some hot weather coming up, which means bush fires. I hope they are elsewhere , I prefer if they never happen at all, but they always do. Be it from lightening strikes or nut jobs who light fires. We are as prepared as we can be. January 6thI sip my coffee at the Garden Cafe and watch the early morning work men wander in. They are a rough lot but always nice to me and say hello.I have the Donna's 21 cd playing in the car on the drive off the mountain, well not off the edge, down the road. It's bit of a drop off Mount Dandenong… so no to that. I find an item I need for the Skyhooks Archives. From Canada. An 8 track cartridge tape of Skyhooks "Guilty Until Proven Insane" which was out on Attic records (8AT1075) so if anyone spots a copy for sale drop me a line. I need it for the Archives. January 7thI see some chunk of publicity coming up for Tim and Neil around Split Enz. So guessing ticket sales for the reunion have slowed a bit. It happens when it's announced so far ahead. I'm sure the shows will sell out.Insane HOT morning. Like crazy hot and the wind is picking up as well, so we all go into bushfire panic, just a bit. I drive off to Food Bank to volunteer for a few hours but leave a note for Mark to call me if any fires break out at Kalorama. A good morning and we load up the donation boxes, lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and other good things to help people survive. It looks great too, I always wonder why supermarkets etc throw away such excellent produce. At least we save it from going into land fill. A HUGE solar battery storage unit opens in Victorias North West. It can power 200,000 homes. Amazing. January 8thPaul Hester would have turned 67 today. He wouldn't have changed much, still the fun loving Hessie that we all know. I still find little notes and messages from him, in my old tour jackets or tucked away in the filing cabinets. It's probably a good time for music fans to revisit the HESSIE (A Tribute To Paul Hester). Our mini documentary just short of 44,000 views now. Lets get it to 44,0000!Not much sleep for me last night, feel a tiny bit groggy, thankfully cooler today. Fenella texts me at 6.00, I hear the ping and jump up, thinking something might of happened to Mum. It scared the hell out of me. I couldn't get back to sleep. So I have some breakfast and head off to charity insanely early. Someone left two full boxes of bottles at the recycle machine, so I put them in and give the $ to one of the charities listed. January 9thIt is really HOT again. The fire alarms are screeching across the mountain, fire trucks heading out. Some of the new residents up here have panicked over the Gippsland smoke that has arrived and think there is a fire up here so a few false alerts. I call in and check on some of the older residents and encourage them to leave the mountain and go shopping at the air conned Eastlands.I arrive home and put all of our fire sprinklers out. In a large bushfire they will do nothing but smaller ember drops they might prevent our house burning down. Afternoon winds return and we are on alert, Midnight stays inside in case we have to evacuate. Mark has that panic in his eyes. January 10thThis morning the weather changed again and cooler. So refreshing and less nutty from fire alerts!It's not the case elsewhere- 3 emergency level bushfires and 36 active fires are happening across the state. I organise some emergency packs for the Evac Centre. It all helps. I call Mum as she is back in hospital, as is Marks dad She insists I don't come up, and hopefully this will be a short hospital stay. I mail Liam at Geelong a copy of TRIP, the only spare diary book that I have left. All the other books have sold out, TRIP had an extra 1000 made so thats why we have a few dozen left. January 11thI go to the bakery and buy some baby sausage rolls and a coffee. Bongo's 2 girls Indiana and Bella are visiting which we are looking forward to.They are on time and Indiana has her kids with her too . A really lovely day , lots of laughter and a few tears. They give us a big box of photos to be scanned for the archives. Mark hangs with them and transfers a lot of our Bob (Bongo) photos from there archives onto a USB for them to have. We talk about an upcoming tribute, more on that next diary. It was so great to see them. I'll always keep my promise to you Bob and keep an eye on them. But they don't need it, both smart strong beautiful woman. January 12thI meet a new pup at the bakery- Secy (Security) and Princess Meg turns up too. So two pups hanging with me while their owners get coffee.Boring stuff like pay the gas bill today. In the afternoon I have a nice chat with Greg Skyhooks- lots of laughter. The Skyhooks Facebook page clocks over its 20,000th follower. Very cool. January 13thBefore Bob passed away he called "Peetie Pie I found my old Split Enz negs from 1975 so I'll get them so you can have them". Well wading through the box of Bobs photos etc I find them. Not great shots but a few will be cool. Mark will work his magic on them too. Both from the infamous Reefer Cabaret, Ormond Hall Prahran. The cool thing is that they are from 2 different shows so different Enz costumes and different hair cuts too. We'll pop some of them up on the socials for the Enz fans to enjoy.The fires have destroyed 350 structures and 1000 properties impacted so far. The weather has improved so it gives the fire fighters a breather. January 14thHuman Rights Monitor HRANA says 2500+ protestors have been killed in Iran, it could be a lot more. How can the world just sit aside and let it happen. Trump encourages them to protest and says "The USA stands ready to help". But does it? Is it just more lip service? I hope not. Sad days.Markys Youtube Wednesday is up. The Finn Brothers, performing PARADISE ( Wherever You Are). Live at the State Theatre, Sydney. 1996. That was fun tour. I love the ukulele on this one. Neil plays a fine Uke! January 15thMost of the day spent around my Mum in hospital. It looks like Marks Dad will be home on Tuesday so that is a relief.January 16thBack home again.In the morning I organise a ticket link for a gathering. The public announcement will be in 2 weeks. Just as I send out the last email, all of our power goes off. The winds have picked up, it sounds like jumbo jet outside. Little did we know the power is off for 27 hours. We get our emergency lights out. Thankfully we have gas , so can cook dinner, boil a kettle etc. No trees fell and the house was safe, but little sleep when it sounds like hurricane outside. January 17thPower is still out. Mark said it would take ages, I need to listen to him more.After my coffee at the bakery I drive to the charity and volunteer for 2 hours. I recharge all our power packs and my mobile. I clear all the donation stock so worth the effort. I decide the next Soho Punk Art TV will be BATMAN. So I will work on that next week, so waving goodbye to the Dr Who art piece. Our power finally comes back on at 3.15 pm. We binge watch tv shows. A few days seems like several weeks with no tv streaming. January 18thThe perfect morning, weather is great. Everyone turns up at the Bakery. All the locals, really fun, loads of chit chat. What a great community.I make a small list of my TO DO'S. Get 2 loads of washing done, and it is outside drying in the sunshine. I do a solar check on my panels and they are running at 92%, not bad for panels that are close to 20 years old. One of the best things we ever did getting solar panels. I work in the office for a few hours. Marky is scanning away, while I play catch up on Emails and messages from when the power was down. So another diary over. I so want 2026 to be a great year. It's not off to a good start is it. Let's hope it improves. Stay positive Peter |
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