The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 15 April - 28 April 2002
April 15th 2002
Hi world! One of those Melbourne days , people all rugged up, I decided to risk the wrath of the fashion Police and headed down to post the mail wearing my NYC Winter Police coat...and SHORTS...hey I did have Doc's on so it was a Punkoid moment! Strangely enough I wasn't cold.A day of paying bills- is it my imagination or are we all getting more bills. I am trying to simplify my life here and they keep mailing me. Surely if I'm simplifying it means less "things"....and that must include less bills. I surrender. In the end I just pay them.
April 16th
Well after a month of uncertainty we announced that our girl group Bardot are calling it a day. Big meeting at Warners, loads of tears. Started sending the press release out, not totally happy with the wording but in the end it says they are splitting and I suppose that's the thing that people talk about. Strange for us, but more so because I'm not use to groups splitting up, it's been awhile. So the phones started, didn't want to add any fuel to the media fires so I just kept to the basics- very boring. The emails were next, massive amount and the Imacs have suffered because of the vast amount.It's strange, not really freaked or anything, as Bardot were more a few friends and work...I occasionally was spotted vacuuming the stairs singing Bardot- but that's kind of where it ended musically. I can look back, and see the moments of fun, the last six months have been a lot of hard work for many of us around the group- we just put in the extra time ...and I truely had thought they'd made it to a new level...and could just move on a bit. So close to six gold singles in a row with sales too...and chart success in areas like Indonesia and India etc. But at the end of the day, and without this sounding horrid , it's work. Fun sure, but it is still another act that we were employed by...and now that sounds cold. Out of the original five, Tiffany, Katie and Belinda we'll probably stay mates with- really good people. We are still working for them till mid May, so my life isn't totally Bardot-less yet. Maybe the Popstar trend has faded...if Bardot can't keep it together after the success they have had, not much hope for the rest.
Ben decides to spoil us and cooks one of his feasts. I'm fried (though not the main course *grin*), mentally exhausted and its nice to escape to be spoiled. Good food and some special guests that turn up to see the four of us (His Eric *grin*). Fun night.
April 17th
Christie Eliezer gives us a mention on the WINGS OFF FLIES photo book in BEAT street magazine. Tell MG he has to do ALL the interviews now, and I will just float round in the big swimming pool sipping on slippery nipples (be nice) and smooth sioux margarita's....doing nothing. After the last few days I am happy to live a media free life. How can people embrace the press that much....urgh.Email back and forth to Rebecca about the healing qualities of Magnesium Bicarbonate....its starting to appear in some healthy "WATER" drinks. It's a miracle they all shout...!
Ok what's in a Sioux Margarita?
You need:-
1 lemon (or it can be lime) wedge.
Saucer of Salt
1 1/4 ounces of 1921 100% Agave Reposado Tequila (You'll love the bottle)
1 ounce of Cointreau
1 1/2 ounces of lemon juice (or once again Lime).
Rim the glass with lemon, (the hurricane glasses are best), dip the rim in salt. Put Tequila, Cointreau and lemon juice in cocktail shaker, packed full of ice (I prefer crushed ice). Shake rattle and roll. Pour into Glass via strainer... enjoy while avoiding the media.
April 18th
Helen from the Eccles Entertainment office emails me about the Finn show at the St James on May 31st- part of NZ music week- should be good. Hopefully my Enz DVD trip to NZ will be around that time.Catch up with Nick and Paul from Crowded House, over at Hessies studio. They are working on some music with a local band. All good. Get some ideas around Pauls upcoming solo CD. They are working so I couch it and just draw and write down things. Nicks looking healthy, he's been surfing a lot since he's been back, off again in May I think.
Just miss the traffic and get home, I hate that afternoon traffic horror, how can people suffer this every day, it would kill me.
April 19th.
Tim Finn's in town, the Mercury Lounge at the Casino tonight. Just can't go, decided awhile ago I really never enjoyed that place, it's not like it's a fun Las Vegas -look at all those safari suits- type atmosphere, it just looks sad , especially the K-mart shoppers in all their glory feeding those machines. Just don't like the vibe, but the gig pays the artist really well and heaps of our acts do play the Casino for the $. Still I ain't going. From all reports a fine show, good crowd and Tim singing really well.Meeting with Spock , he brings around some page art for "WINGS..." coming along nicely. I'm just letting him do it at his own speed, we'll get there. Rocket Pocket Books is a low pressure area of our life and we want to keep it that way.
Kate has been working away on the website, and we thought May 11th (yeah Gryphons Birthday) is a good time to have it up. The address will be: http://www.rocketpocketbooks.com Photos (some bizarre shots eh Marky), interviews and bits about the books that are available and coming up. So May 11th the Rocket site has lift off. Hopefully it wont end up being the reason Kate gets a "F" in Spanish!!!
April 20th
Wake up feeling really strange, kept saying to Marky that I caught some viral disease thats been making the news....I shouldn't joke as I just realized the area where it came from was the place I had been on the day...urgh.Head to soundcheck at the Armadale to see Tim and get him to sign all the What You've Done CD covers. Told him I was sickly and he jumped back about ten metres like I was a leper. Told him that I was just allergic to him *grin*. Dugald is looking after the stage for some of these shows- looking good Duges. Finn snr sends me home to bed, he does have a doctorate after all !!! Vow to at least see some of the show...Tim with a band is a good thing.
Get to the Gig just as he walks on stage, think we know half the room, endless people saying HI (like the new hair Louise), Bold as Brass starts the set (something about a Doctor being out back for me)....end up making it to the half way point...and decided with all these faces, it would be a bit tragic throwing upon the dance floor (URGH) so exit stage left and head home. Hate that. We leave Rosemaree and Tania to the open advances of male hormones that have packed the Armadale tonight.
Fall into a deep sleep.
April 21st
Wake up early and feel good, need to get away to the country to recharge. On the way we hear that another Seattle lead singer dies-Layne Staley who was the lead singer of Alice in Chains was found dead in his apartment. Only 34 years old....sad.The mountains are covered in mist, slowly evaporating into hundreds of swirls, a lyrebird bounds across the road in front of us, they kind of hop when they run and like a well fed chicken attempts flight and fails miserably...feel embarrassed for the bird.
I'm out picking some lavender when a huge eagles flies over and lands in a nearby tree- a huge wingspan. he's surrounded by magpies and they seem to be singing at him...hail the king of birds. He's big and I can see just how massive his beak is. I just watch him and you can tell he's watching me. The most majestic of birds- hate how people shoot at them.
We go for our hike and run into some land owners, seem ok and give us permission to hike on their land. They tell us they spotted a Logging Sucks message in stone down the track (gee I wonder who did that)...I just smile. Mark really wants to "borrow" all his geese!!! That's all Cosmo the rabbit needs is to share the plant room with several Geese!
April 22nd
Mark threatens to have his own Internet Diary, he can spill the beans on all of us....be scared.Pay the rates- just on a thousand dollars...am trying to figure out what the council do for me for that much money. They just seem to move the trees around Greville street park.
Week #9 and the last Bardot single is still hanging in the national Top 50...only just at #49. Damn thing still isn't Gold- think it will run out of steam. Guess it doesn't matter any more.
Speak to NZ office and July is still the date for Neil's USA tour, no dates yet, haven't a clue if I'm going, or if they will be so tight with the budget that I can't go. Touring just costs so much....know soon enough. Talk is for a 3 week run, which has been mentioned before. The vibe should be a good one, a lot of people asking for dates etc.
meanwhile Mark and myself are working away on the Split Enz and Skyhooks dvd, trying to track down 1 and 2 inch tapes, the problem with working with bands that started in the early seventies. Am horrified to think of how much footage has been lost forever.
April 23rd
Decide to catch the train into the city, it's only a few stops. Proving that it pays to be honest and buy a ticket, I was justly rewarded. The ticket machine instead of giving me 40c change kept spitting out the coins, reminiscent of that poker machine in Vegas. Bing Bing Bing... $5 later I think how damn strange- who am I to question fate. A lady walked up and said "are you always this lucky". I smile my goofy smile.Grab some more Betchadupa SLEEPY NEWS stock, even though they have a new single out, this one is the one we are after and it keeps selling out, the record company must be confused by our purchases. Liam and the boys keep signing them and we keep mailing them to good homes.
Back to the office to find two free tickets to a special private showing of Queen of the Damned. Head to the Jam Factory Cinemas but we are starving so into the local Mexican food stop. Mark dares me to drink 6 Midori Margarita's and I meet him half way- three is enough (ok MG it was probably two)... my head is swimming a bit.
We arrive to a full empty cinema, the guy jokes on just how unpopular this movie is and that sets the tone for the next few hours. Renee should be happy that her acting ended up on the cutting room floor- who would ever put this piece of crap in their resume- consider it a blessing girl. Aaliyah Haughton is the worst actress, no Vampire pun but she sucks- I don't care if it's speaking ill of the dead, hopefully her singing is better then her acting skills- she put the "S" in HIT. A few good effects but after a time they become repetitive. Interview with the Vampire is so, so so, much better.
What went wrong here....would take up too much space to list- THIS is the movie Anne Rice should of hated. A total let down- glad I didn't pay for this one. It could of been great, it's like a bad video clip.
April 24th
So Ally McBeal finishes next month...as someone who discovered it after the hype, it was a pleasure to watch and the question is-does Ally finally find true love! Fun show...some good moments.The Tibetan Film Festival is on in Melbourne this week (27/28th) and celebrates the birthday of the Panchem Lama. He is one of Tibet's most important spiritual leaders...he is also one of the youngest political prisoners. He was abducted by the Chinese government in 1995-when he was six years old- he would now be thirteen (April 25th). Anyway the festival celebrates his birth. I know both Kundun and Himalaya are playing- both wonderful movies and both reviewed here over the years. The Festival is a fundraiser by the Australian Tibet Council and it will be part of the promotion leading up to the Dalai Lama's visit to Australia in May. Wonder if our prime minister John Howard will make the effort to greet him this time.
April 25th
Holiday today-Anzac Day. Think Australia only has one of the original Anzacs left. Even though I hate war, I like seeing the comradeship between them. It's a different world these days, but these old diggers deserve respect and support for what they did for Australia. Instead of a mortar exploding, our Anzac day was celebrated with our hot water system blowing up!My ears got to hear a new noise...Cosmo escaped to the corner of the plant room eyes bulging thinking the end of the rabbit world is coming. Plumber Steve gave me instructions, I soon had the beasty machine calmed down but it's inside had ruptured so $1400 later we have a new Aqua Max .... oh the joys of being a home owner (take note Rebecca...home owning costs buck$).
April 26th
Bardot do their last public show at Channel V in Sydney. Was close to going and work just made that impossible. Several hundred fans turned up- all very loud and ready to dance. Thought Sophie was kind of odd when being interviewed, kind of a vacant look.It was a nice way to go out, except final song, Tiffany who was always made the tough "popstar" by the tv show editing room, proved that this was more then a day job and broke down- it's funny to see real emotion live on TV. It doesn't happen as much as you think ,all those reality TV shows are so far from reality it is scary. So to see a young singer show some genuine emotion was really nice (even though sad for her). The kids helped her out singing the right bits.
Chatted to Katie who was the 5th Popstar and that was good- we both understand the group and it's members...thought it was nice that they dedicated "These Days" to her. So apart from a one off song at the S.A.D. charity appearance in Sydney that's it...all over. two good years of work for us and fun.
April 27th
The weekend and what did we do today? Did some washing, we patted Cosmo a lot today...no idea why, stir fry for dinner, answered emails, spoke to Greg Skyhook about the DVD, cleaned up the back yard of the leaves from our other trees, watched a lot of Angel episodes from the DVD box set, wow a whole day of nothing really.......the kid next door has started drumming (oh joy), some friends phoned, had a late lunch, played Bic Runga's new CD BEAUTIFUL COLLISION for the ten zillionth time and drove MG crazy.We head to the Grampians at 1.00 with Sven Loster our climbing friend and spend the afternoon hanging around off rock ledges, I have this scrape on my leg, will make a nice scar from a piece of very sharp rock...really work out our arm muscles and yep back in shorts again, which can be both good and stupid when climbing, all that unprotected skin. Mark is always on the look out for wild animals....the peaks are lovely here and the air is full of pine and eucalyptus. Heaps of Kangaroos and very few tourists as its starting to get cold.
April 28th
Get our sale award for BANG! & HUSSY...can't put it up till we sell ten more copies of BANG! Can you believe that ten copies...but I am being honest so we will wait. It's exciting has our name on it, cute plaque and the covers.So if any of the readers are thinking of getting BANG! now is the time, I have the wall space for the award, its just the right size *grin*. Not going to tell my Mum as she will go out and buy them- you know what mothers are like.
Lovely Melbourne day, do more washing and we head off to Armadale for lunch.
Decide to finish off the text for WINGS OFF FLIES this afternoon...been putting it off, finding it hard to write anything of value at the moment... don't think it's laziness just lost the vibe. It's not a lot so I'll have some food and get my act together. Give myself a slapping.
I had this interesting thought about reincarnation, whilst in the bath(where else). Do people only come back to Earth when reincarnated or can they get reincarnated to another planet. Does this also mean that if you die just before the Earth explodes, does a higher force send your reincarnated body to a different planet because the Earth does not exist anymore....and why do I think of these things when I am up to my neck in bathwater. Will have to look up my Tibetan scripts and see if they have the answer.
Welcome to my world...
Peter Gryphon.