The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 13 July - 26 July 2009
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July 13thA strange day for me, it seemed to go by very fast, I'm still unsure if I managed to get any work done!!!I did book Banshee cat in for her yearly needle, she likes our vet Moss.....our previous vet was Cedar, all those Earthy names! Both good vets too. God the Jackson family are fucked up, especially the father. They make so many excuses why they couldn't help Michael Jackson, what chance did he have with people like this. Yeah you can't choose your family. The father creeps me out big time, such a go getter. Let the circus roll on, watch them rip each other apart for the money- horrid. July 14thDr Chiro today, works on my hands, it's strange I am mostly right handed but it's my left hand that seems to be the one with the most pain. If one more person says 'too much wanking' I'll scream. God, well worn joke that one.I know it's more Michael Jackson ramblings and the guy is dead and you shouldn't speak ill of the dead etc but I just couldn't stop laughing today when the Ian Halperin Jacko book quote went out. The article on Jackson being gay, I just went into hysterics. Just that his lovers were a waiter, aspiring actor and (this is the best bit) a construction worker. Why do I picture a big burly man in overalls humping 'break if you look at me' MJ on the 20th floor cross beam of a new building being built. The best thing was the quote' The first time he had sex with me he said "The King Of Pop is going to lick your lollipop"! ' I'm sorry my eyes are watering, maybe MJ did have a sense of humour after all. I'll never look at lollipops the same ever again. A classic. I see Bruno's 'mockumentary' hit #1 on the US box office , bumping off Scrat and Ice Age 3. Bruno has gotten a serious slagging, how could it ever compete with Borat? Hear from the NZ Enz boys and Emlyn Crowther is signing the Split Enz covers, those guys are great, no bullshit they just get on with their lives without any bitterness, nice to see that is their way for Em, Chunn... July 15thThe twitter link on the last diary was used a lot, several hundred more people signed up for Frenz.com Twitter. I'm hoping to be able to send out information bursts daily, providing we have enough information. Our Tim dates arrive so I'm sure some of those will sneak out early, they always do, so having Twitter handy is a fast wonderfully short way of getting this info out to people. To sign on up, go to http://twitter.com/frenzdotcom and choose FOLLOW. You will need a Twitter account, which is easy to obtain. After two days we doubled the number of people who receive our 'tweets'!Have a chat to our friend Alison . It was fun and also productive- she helped me find one of the Crowdies venues from my list for 1986. No one could locate this place not even industry mates or booking agents- and she tracked it down while we were chatting. Eventually I found a cool old photo of the Marco Polo (that's the venue we were looking for)during the floods of 1976. It feels good when you cross another one off the gig list. I was beginning to think it didn't exist, and I think certain managers were thinking I made it up *GRIN*. Alison also has all the old JUKE music magazines so I'm hoping the gig guide area will fill in some blanks especially around The Mullanes period. The writing is going ok , it seems to come in bursts, or if I find some exquisite piece of history tucked away in my folders. I'm playing loads of demos and studio rehearsals just to keep my vibe going, and hell I do enjoy it. It's rediscovery time for the old Gryphon, stuff I've forgotten and in a few cases music I probably haven't heard before. Crowded House jamming away is perfect musical backing for working on such a project. I fill my publishing bag with copies of GLAMOUR this afternoon and head on upstairs. I need to sign about 20 copies. The third diary book is kicking in now and it seems to have some strange life of it's own, or it could be panic with a few dozen copies remaining. I keep telling Mark that his one off appearance as Nana in Glamour now has a rush on it. I do flick through Glamour when I'm signing them and the little photos are a great diversion. The one of Hessie and LLT (page 14) on the kids bikes crossing the road...Paul is barefoot. make of that what you will *GRIN* Well the lesser known Paul (McCartney) was barefoot on Abbey Road cover wasn't he?...and it did ignite the Paul is dead rumour for Macca didn't it. (funeral procession)! The LLT bike snap is when the band was a 5 piece. The line ups changed so often. On page 27 there is a holiday snap with my cousins and my sister is a such a baby, it's taken at Moruya and we are about to go to the beach and swimming hole. Sis had these floaties on, which was weird as she could swim really well from an early age. On page 38 the Gryphon statue that sits near the main entrance of Ailsa Craig these days. I notice I'm wearing a san Francisco 1984 Tshirt and it still fits fine, a medium size. I bought it at a flea market down near Fishermans Wharf and it was $1.99. This tee has lasted endless washes, it seems to be in fashion every 5 years when retro 'date' Tshirts are 'in' again. Yeah Glamour is a neat little book so it will be sad when this third book sells out. Deb has copies available still via Frenz com. Go to the merchandise area at the bottom of this page if you want one of these last copies, signed by the author- I hear he's a nice bloke.? Maybe not! July 16thWe open the office door to find the two new chickens standing on my shoes. One perched on each shoe! I'm more worried they will both lob a serious chicken poo in my boot! They are so strange these two, different to the previous chickens. It's like they are not really chickens, some strange alien pretending to be a chicken just to observe us. They are also becoming obsessive and chase me when I go for a walk. Maybe in their eyes I'm the great chicken god handing out food for their survival.Neil signs some 'Don't Stop Now' cd single covers for me, we had spare stock that we purchased (hey it did get to #14 on the Melbourne chart!!!!). I've just got to get the other guys to scribble their signatures on the slips. he never ever moans about signing, unless it's some insane amount. I try to give him as much as a break as possible. He always gets back to me with Emails and such, unlike Eddie Rayner who never seems to reply to Emails, he's probably too busy tarting himself up *GRIN*. July 17thI start to work on my garden again. The soils had enough time to do it's thing, all wormy and healthy. I plant some Bok Choi- just for use in stir fries and salad. I moved it up onto the BBQ in a pot as Belinda the black chicken looked like she had a smile on her chicken face when she spotted it and a little balloon caption over her head that said "YUM"! It's also called Chinese cabbage but is nothing like cabbage (thank the Gods). It's good for Vitamin C, vitamin A and I think calcium (I may be wrong on calcium) . I know it contains good old glucosinolates, which possibly help fight cancer (like sulforaphane in broccolli. Remember DON'T boil Broccoli as it reduces the levels of anti cancer fighting benefits). Where was I? Oh yeah Bok Choi.... easy to grow and good for you. I try to get some for Bec but it's all sold out.I also buy a wood splitter at Bunnings to work on the chopped up fallen trees. Plus good for us to have an excess of fire wood. It's some solid work though and I question if it will make my hands worse, no matter how blokey I amj feeling!!!! Still I chop up 2 or 3 pieces a day. We watch 'When Borat Came To Town' on SBS 2. A doco and it shows what happens in the tiny Romanian Village of Glod after Borat visited and filmed for his movie. I'd safely say most of the people in the town would like to kill him. Some parts are very funny, some plain scary and others very sad. Most feel humiliated, some are after the big Hollywood bucks . It's an interesting little doco.... check it out. I'm playing some rehearsal demos today, from the 'Temple' period at Platinum studios, just before Mitchell arrived. The band feel very 'young' still. July 18thSaturday morning and I'm at The Verandah with some head phones on, drinking a bit too much coffee and transcribing the Paul Hester Interview, for 'Ghost Cars'. Well the Crowded House bits anyway, thankfully enough was chatted about to let Paul's word settle into the book.... I was worried how I'd deal with it, mostly hearing Paul's voice during an Interview that I did - but he is happy and stirring me slightly. It's the Paul that I know as a mate , nothing dark or sad just happy to sit and have a coffee and call me Peety! I think he is the only one that ever did. So an hour later all done. It touches VERY briefly on the possibility of Crowdies playing some shows, or doing something. Paul wanting to get some of the old crew back and ex manager Grant. Anyway possibly the last interview he ever did- I think, for what that's worth.The Verandah starts filling up so I decide to split and head home and work in the garden. I plant some Eremuru's (Cleopatra's) and some Calla Lillys too. It will be good to add some colour to the gardens and bulbs are good for that, they keep giving and splitting and giving. The Cleopatra's can grow huge too, these ones are blood red pyramid shapes . Noel from the Enz calls and the guy from Rhythm magazine is doing the rounds for albums covers. I send him some images and not a single thank you- I make a note not to deal with this guy anymore. One thing I hate are people with no manners. He goes for Greg Skyhook next (I roll my eyes). The Yeti calls from Queensland or did I call him- always good to talk to him, we'll be seeing them soon enough- really looking forward to it. We miss those guys, we've started digging a tunnel to Brisbane and putting in a mono rail they live too far away. July 19thSend some flowers to Trudi and Fran for their birthdays. At least we remembered which is rare. I'm sure Trudi is trying not to remember her birthday (chuckle). Anything after turning 30 and you just give up!I attempt to give Banshee a brush, so she looks good for her visit tomorrow to the vet. I wear the super thick oven gloves that Rosemaree gave us and managed to get a good 5 minutes brushing in. That damn cat hates it, it's like I'm trying to kill her. Such a wild beasty! I hear from Nick Seymour which was nice. I've asked him for a Crowdies photo for the site but no word yet. Not sure why, maybe he didn't take any shots this time around, or maybe Lola is just keeping dad on his toes. We sent him some footage from the Tassi shows of the audience having a sing of 'Lola' by the Kinks... thought it would be a nice keep sake for her when she is older. July 20thI'm playing some rough Enz demos from 'Conflicting Emotions', that horrid drum machine is on a few tracks, it's totally fucking annoying. Such a distraction from all the other stuff. Paul wasn't in the band yet, thank the gods he came along. 'Devil you know' is playing, such a great song. Fangs vocal range is amazing, though he does let it rip in the middle- it's the punk in him dying to get out. That's what happens when you've hung out with the Pistols Cat- woman!!! Now if someone could destroy the drum machine! I hate those things, pieces of shit they are. Parasite has some strange vocal spaces where Tim just fills in with noises ...well these are rough demos after all. The band sound good on this one though. Demo's are fun... you see songs coming together before your eyes!Banshee visits Moss our Vet- she's such a tough kitty. Doesn't care that she gets 2 needles, though getting her out of the cage was an experience, she locked her legs and claws inside the cage and really until she decided to come out it wasn't going to happen. Thankfully our Olinda vet is a patient man! While waiting she buried herself under all the toweling in the cage, it looked more like we take taking South Parks Towelly to the vet not a hairy cat. It's still Winter-ish up here, the large fire place is full of cinders and needs cleaning out, but we are using it regularly now- nothing beats an open fire in Winter. July 21stThe girls enjoy their flowers, an easy birthday solution, but a nice one. Another year older.I notice a few of the Tim Finn dates are sneaking out on the net and venue websites. We've kept mum about him appearing at Homebake, till they do the official media release. I'm surprised that no one has blown it yet. I'm fairly sure there will be another Sydney gig in the early stages of the tour as well for those who don't want those massive festival crowds. We'll announce it soonish. I expect to see a lot more Tim Finn around and about with his Anthology cd being released later on. It's good that he has a solid musical career, while others just talk about having one. www.frenz.com/timfinn/ for more live dates. July 22ndI get a call from the turtle. Nige's off to England soon. We can relate, it's hard to just jump on a plane sometimes, especially if you enjoy your home life. As the years roll on I've grown to appreciate that. Still there are plenty of places to explore so that bug will always entice us to travel. He sounds good , we have a bit of a laugh.I send Bec an article on the Liberals supporting nuclear energy, she's on her Garrett soap box lately, and I agree with her, I hate how he supported the extension of that uranium mine. I know it employs people and brings in export dollars but it still annoys me. We'll be at the next anti-Uranium protest , like we have previously. I went to the Greens website in the hope of finding some protest information but that part of their website wasn't working. How can you be considered to run a country when you can't even run a website.!!! My mum had a bet on a horse, just a spur of the moment thing and won $553 today. She is way too excited, pays some of her bills- I was stoked for her. Good karma I told her for buying me some new PJ's. July 23rdIf all the facts are true Fort Myers Beach council is a bit twisted; sacking it's city manager because his wife is an adult film actress. The mayor of the town Larry Kiker (who's name sounds like a porn star but he ISN'T one) says they sacked the guy because his wife being a porn star would be a major distraction. It's a bit sad if someone is doing a good job, a nice guy and because his wife is in the adult film industry HE gets sacked. What a load of 1950's bullshit. It's not like she is going to give free blow jobs to the city council or demand a tax deduction on butt plugs! Councilman Tom BabCOCK (also not a porn star but a name like one) addicted that Janke's wife's profession brought an 'inaccurate image to Fort Myers beach'. Surely this is discrimination based on marital status. It would be great to do night raids on council members home and see how many have a porn collection under their beds- what a bunch of hypocrites. Someone send Dexter around there now!!!!! Moralistic wankers.My thrill for the afternoon, installing this antique toilet paper holder. It has some brass leaf sort of design on it. My friends will spend hours trying to figure out how I managed to get the screws in.... I need to find some ruby red gemstone for the centre of the brass design. Looks good for a toilet accessory!!! I am easily thrilled. I'm playing Paul's STAY REEL demo's , 'Ugly but happy' and 'Bankcard song' are my favourites....... these demo's are so old, he only just joined Split Enz when he wanted me to copy them... 2 songs went on to become Crowded House tracks...many many years later. July 24thDon't you hate it when photo images just somehow disappear. I took a selection of snaps of our Crowded House backdrops airing around the trees at Ailsa Craig and for the life of me we can't find them. Not in any of the files or our photo storage area or even in the camera. Mark found one of the stage cutouts from that first major Australian tour (we've leant the 2nd one of these to the Hard Rock Cafe in QLD). It looks funny hanging amongst the gum trees on the property! I gave it a bit of a clean and it was hanging up to dry! Thought we'd use it for the main photo on this weeks diary update, seeing our world is so devoured by Crowded House at the moment for the book.and yes it's no longer hanging on the tree!!!! I hope the backdrop snaps turn up or I'll have to re shoot them all over again, as it would be nice to use one or two images for the book. Send out thousands of Emails around Neil's 2x largo shows. Sadly it messes my hand and the carpal tunnel stuff seems much worse after this. I took breaks and overall was good. So less emails for me next week, people are going to have to understand for awhile. One step forward two steps back on this. July 25thSaturdays are good for me at The Verandah, I actually get a lot done, think it's the handy coffee that Joy brings to me at MY table. I have changed my times a bit as the other day 8 people (yeah I counted) came up and all knew I was working on the book- sometimes what one puts in the diary can work against one. Look, everyone was really nice, so wasn't remotely annoyed but by the time people chatted and went I lost close to an hour of work time and a huge bit of my vibe , so got little done. Today was different, did well. Working back the front- did some chapter layouts as well as a rough page design. On paper it looks fantastic, interviews over locking with album releases. Photos, some never seen before and original material , handwritten bits and pieces and it is so fan friendly. Also I'm trying to capture the humour of the band. I know awhile back Neil saying he felt that was one thing that books etc missed, the fun moments of Crowded House. God 'Private Universe' book makes them all sound like miserable bastards- which was so far from what it was really like. Chris Bourkes excellent book deals with the history, but we do pick up a few mistakes, which I guess every book has (I'm sure 'Ghost cars...' will have some too but we will do our best). Running through demos and roughs and even rehearsals is a joy as you can get the feel for the moment....am hoping some of that will come through too. So today was a good day.I spend some of the afternoon getting boxes for Tania, thought we'd offer as I don't think anyone else has bothered, we'll lend a hand too if they need it for moving. I don't envy them, trying to buy a house in the middle of house buying fever. This saturday was another record breaking amount of home sales in Victoria. I truly don't think it's ever going to end. Only a few of our friends still rent, but saying that rental market is nuts too not much available. Maybe Mark and myself should rent out our gardeners cottage (: We are going to surprise Mark for his birthday- it's really on Monday (27th) but I thought dinner tonight might be fun. Just for a few. Thought we'd try Sky High that is on the peak of Mount Dandenong and overlooks the whole of Melbourne. So a surprise for Mark. I suggest we go for dinner and fake a phone call , table for 2 and he fell for it. I ask a few mates to be at the restaurant at 7.00, we are a bit early so I slow down. I spot a few friends in cars arriving when we do so I sit with Mark, all romantic and watch Melbourne twinkling and blinking way below. I think he thinks I'm being super romantic *GRIN*. The coast is clear so we head in, and we blow it, several people sitting at the window....but hey it was still a surprise. Food was ok, not brilliant but fine. Tania's boyfriend Warrick is at the table and we both decide he's a really good guy and great for Tania- he gets our approval (not that she needed that). We all behave, well kind of, the police are out and about tonight, major drink driving crackdown. Rosemaree goes off because I mention the infamous Etihad airlines- says she's sick of hearing about it, does she ever think we get sick about hearing about Katja and her family. Next time we'll tell her to shut up. *GRIN* Our shittines last about 7.5 seconds, Rosemaree's a great mate and we adore her and her italian temper. All of us always tell Rebekah to shut up (chuckle) but she seeks revenge on Mark during our pool marathons... this is my dysfunctional Melbourne family. God I love them. A few head back to the house , playing pool with the open fire warming up the freezing room, it was zero outside after all. Fall asleep about 2.00, Banshee snuggles in deep, it's a chilly old night up here on Mount D! The Glayva kicks in and I'm all warm inside (HIC). July 26thBongo Skyhooks birthday today..I've forgotten how young (ok OLD) he is... like Mark a Leo. I sleep in, it is Sunday and my bed is way too comfortable. I drive to the bakery, and call into the Verandah. Get little done, a few quotes and scrawl some ideas. Iarla has been re jigging the Skyhooks website: http://www.skyhooks-music.com/Putting up some of those fantastic Hooks posters from yester-years on the TOUR Archive area. Looks great, the fans will love it. The clouds roll in and it is very grey up here, makes you lose the vibe for any work. So I think i'll go and make a cup of tea! Wow what an exciting guy! Stay Happy PG |