Famous for Sixteen Minutes: Archive

The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 20 June - 3 July 2011

40 years ago today Jim Morrison Died- A rebel at an early age (Pre-Doors)

The 4th Famous For Sixteen Minutes Book "TRIP" is now available!

June 20th

I hear from Fenella & Giles and they mention Morrissey performing 3 songs on UK 2. I'd heard a rough of "Action is my middle name" previously , it sounds similar to what I heard and can remember. "The kids a looker" and "People are the same everywhere" were the other two. I'm still amazed that Morrissey doesn't have a record label- he must sell a healthy amount worldwide- how insane. Such a talent! Love the photo of him witha cat on his head! Only Moz could get away with that- I joke to Jennifer that's the only pussy Morrissey will ever get (opps). It's a bit predictable that old line isn't it?

A huge wind storm hits Melbourne tonight, I'm in the office working and a giant terra cotta vase smashes to pieces in the wind. It's a bit out of control I'm hoping none of our trees come down, have the emergency lighting ready in the office still it gets a bit freaky when you start hearing things gettting thrown around outside. The trees are a creaking , I bet the chickens are flipping out in there shed wondering if the sky is falling...

A wonderful article in The Age on the Steam Punk scene. A subcultural time machine, its the Victorian era clashing head first with 2011. Brass Goggles is the steam punk Forum in the UK I look at that quite a bit.

http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/

June 21st

A parcel arrives for Mark from Amazon UK-it's the brilliant Bob Bonis archive book "The Lost Rolling Stones Photographs" amazing book and 99% of the photos we have never seen before- going back to 1964. The photos were unearthed 45 years later (Bob worked with the band on the road). With the strong Aussie dollar and Amazons free postage to Australia the whole book ended up being a mere $15 Australia which included the postage-which is incredible. Anyway it's my book of the month!!! Love it-good score MG. Apparently the very very young Keith Richards holding his cock in hand is the most popular photo-so we are told!!!!

I'm walking down the street and a $50 note blew onto my shoe today- the money god is smiling on me- how great is that!

I get an email from the Finns that they have indeed arrived in America, so the Pajama Club have touched down on U.S. soil. The Volcanic ash is back over Australia so flights are being cancelled everywhere again. I'm relieved we are not traveling yet. I spend the afternoon finishing the rough of the July newsletter. Each time we do such mail outs they are epic, I'm still horrified that a letter mailed to USA is now $2.25! Postage is killing us but we somehow slog on... I can see a day down the track where the insane postal costs will force us to do E-Newsletters.

June 22nd

Well Neil jumped up onstage at Ed Vedder's New York show, (it was the 21st in NYC)- played and sang on "Throw your arms around me" and "I Got You" and returned during the encore for "Hard Sun" and "Into the wild" such a passionate audience reaction. It was at the marvelous Beacon Theatre - a cool venue. Pajama Club are at Bowery Ballroom this Sunday- they should do well. I heard Liam & Elroy may do the drive t climb up onstage with Mum and Dad.

My official copy of Vedder's UKULELE SONGS arrived- thank you Marky. It came in from the USA so we helped give him his #4 chart debut on Billboard! It dropped to #11 this week but #4 is pretty good for a solo album. It was #6 in Australia but store stock seemed to arrive late so I wouldn't be at all surprised if it slowed the sales down because of this.

June 23rd

Kalorama is still fogbound, I'm sure my lungs now breath in fog and nothing else... I'll end up being a human fog machine... you can rent me out for shows and dance parties!

We drive to the deli for some breakfast, great coffee today though my appetite is a bit suppressed, not really hungry. I work in the office on mail outs and press. I also dig up a few items for a mini exhibition that is for Hurstville Civic Centre so the Skyhook boys will be represented.

I get a really nice email from our buddy Rebekah, she just put a deposit on her first home- so happy for her! Excellent news.

June 24th

We drive to Eastland as we needed to get some more security keys cut, yours truly snapped one of the keys off in the security lock a few days ago. Call into JB but Wendy wasn't working, we were going to steal her away for coffee. I do buy a plasma ball...how cool. I put Banshees paw on it and she was amazed by the gas/light show...ok she freaked out a bit.

Mark imports Priscilla Queen of the Desert on Blu Ray- such a brilliant fun romp, Australia looks amazing as the desert background. 10/10 movie.

Neil joins the Wilco team onstage at Solid Sound for a rousing version of I Got You. It rained a lot Joes Field where the main stage was set up got quite a soaking. Liam is at the Festival tomorrow for his set. He'll blow them away. Good on Wilco for doing this, I've lost interest in their music but people love them and give me a Wilco over some of the other horrid bands out their....

June 25th

Happy Birthday Tim Finn! Roll on the new album- "The View Is Worth The Climb".

I see that New York has become the 6th USA state to legalise gay marriage. Great to see 4 Republicans state senators vote yes too, it made the difference. Meanwhile in Australia QLD State Labor said it will show support for gay marriage....the wheels are indeed turning. Fantastic news New York. Tasmania and South Australia Labor are also supportive of Gay Marriage- time for NSW and Victoria to come on board!

Rosemaree arrives with a few more boxes for our storage area, hope she gets to move in before the 21st when we are about to head off. I'm off to do serious driving of Miss Banshee to the Pet Motel the day before, that way it's all out of the way and I wont spend the first few hours on the plane guilting and feeling sad.

June 26th

It's such an amazing Winters day , so we both head outside to work on the vegetable patch. Just stripping it back and turning the soil. We have a big bin of chicken poo and straw that goes back into the earth. We leave it empty over winter so the soil has a chance to recover and maintain it's nutrients. Mark extends the patch by a metre or two, I'm thinking of making it double the size. Of course as soon as we finish 3 chickens invade it and scratch and peck - as chickens do. They naturally dig and turn the soil so we leave them. I dig up a few dozen potatoes, they grow so well here, brilliant growing your own vegies. I understand why home vegetable patches in Australia are everywhere now- good to see,

I next head to the kiwi fruit vine, we estimate about 2000 kiwi fruits are growing on it!!! I pick a full tub of them and Bec turns up while I'm picking them. She has some cold and her voice is croaky and a bit sexy! The chickens and Miss Banshee are enjoying the sun, so we make a pot of green tea and join them. I'm playing some very early demos by the Models on my iPod, music to pick kiwi fruits to?!

I see Liam's album didn't make the National Top 50 in Australia, I've ran a section on it in the glossy newsletter that goes out in a few weeks so that might ignite a few Aussies to buy it. I really thought it might stand a chance especially after a #5 debut in New Zealand. Still to chart in NZ you don't need to sell all that much. Sucks that Australia is not getting behind his album.

The final copy of Split Enz LUTON on Frenz Com sells tonight so all Frenz Com copies have now gone, Deb puts up the SOLD OUT sign. So just this little pile of stock on the office shelf for fanclub members. It will be kind of sad to see the LUTON limited edition gone. I doubt it will ever be available again. We all know once these few sell I'll suddenly get heaps of emails from people desperately wanting a copy.

June 27th

The Newsletter artwork is off to the printers so we should be able to start sending these out in a few weeks time. I've almost finished addressing the Life membership envelopes so that just leaves yearly paying. It's hard going without the label machine for this mail out, people will recognize my appalling scrawl on the front of their envelopes again! Feels a bit weird writing everything by hand, I guess the one good thing is that we save about $500 on not buying labels, but probably cost me $600 when my hands give out on medical bills. I am off to Dr Chiro in a few days so that will help.

It's one of those days where I get a lot of little bits and pieces done around the office. So by the time 6.00 rolls on I've wiped about 20 things off my 'to do' list. Some of them floating around for awhile now. I'm also impressed that my Email IN box is now down to about 50 emails. It isn't even a whole page- now that is great.

I'm in the office at 8.00 at night and just finished an interview for Mike Pursche radio show, it's a pre record, he's putting together a piece on Shirl from Skyhooks as it's coming up to 10 years since Shirl has died. Mike's great easy to chat too, so just did a 30 minute rave. Hopefully I don't come across as a total wanker!

June 28th

Banshee wakes me up with a kiss on the nose, the only passion I get in the morning *GRIN*. I head to Dr Chiro, he works on my hands today, after all the enveloping and computer stuff I think they need some acupuncture. It's funny what those tiny needles can do and the right spot. My fingers feel pretty good, like the blood and energy is running through them again. It helps a lot.

The Greens gain the balance of power in the Australian senate in a few days (July 1st) so interesting times ahead. The Liberal voters will hate that...I quite like it that the Greens will shake it up a bit.

I spend an hour re-checking all our security cameras and cleaning the lens, back up power sources and alarms. I tend to always do this mid year, that way we know our security is always active. The night vision on the cameras is freaky , I was hoping a Yeti would walk down the track (no not you Benny) and we capture it on night vision.

I think Nikki from Oswego in America is trying to kill me - two giant boxes of Hot Tamales... I'll be breathing fire! Yieks! So cool actually SO HOT! No more my heart can't stand it.

I kept watching my screen to see when my pay arrived in my bank account, and at 3.45 it was in. By 3.49 all gone but our final airfare booked. Meant not having some insane American Express bill so I am happy and 2 business fares and 2 first class fares so I won't arrive a wreck. So excited to be escaping and grabbing some sunshine again. I'm so buzzed, feels good. We've been working hard so deserve some time off.

June 29th

Another incredible day up here, the skies are so blue, as clear as my baby blue eyes- not a cloud to be seen, even the sun is out. It's weird though, sun and it feels incredibly cold today.

The Deli is packed, it's such a nice day all the locals are out eating, some say hello, it's nice that we know faces up here.

We are listening to another chunk of Triple J's Hottest 100 Australian albums, so stoked the wonderful Skyhooks came in at #75 with "Living in the 70's" , who would of thought after all these years (37!), then again 2JJ did play Skyhooks as their first song on air all those years ago.....

So Karen Gillan, who plays Amy Pond in Dr Who was naked and confused in the corridor of the Ace Hotel in New York we hear. Serious partying going on... sounds like they were making a XXX version of Dr Who. "One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small, one pill makes Karen take off her clothes till she's wearing not much at all! " Opps sorry Jefferson Airplane...... Mark says she just earned massive respect from him, what a bad boyfriend! (Quote " as cool as it gets") I keep hearing she has a drinking problem but it seems like much more. I hope the media don't crucify her. Can't keep a good party girl down!!!

June 30th

I decide to make our Thursday a Friday and get all the Friday 'stuff' out of the road, as we need to focus on the upcoming mail out. I expect the printers to get everything back to us next week so need to have all the pieces at our end ready to go.

I grab some American cherrys and one that I am eating is a freak as it has two cherry seeds in it without me knowing, manage to crack my tooth, the same tooth I cracked on a cherry seed ten years ago.!!! How insane, so will need to book in for the dentist. I want this done before we head off.

July 1st

I was going through some of the Jim Morrison images on file and one of my favourites has to be his mug shot via the Tallahassee Police Department. Way before The Doors wee created , I think it was because of drunken antics at a football game at Florida State University.... Jim was a bit of a rebel even before the Doors infamous Dade County 1970 bust for exposure (which was basically bullshit beat up by the police and recently Jim and the invisible dick got a posthumous pardon). All those people at that show all those photographers and cameras, really if Jim Morrison pulled his dick out at least ONE photo would of been taken.... if Morrison was around today he'd think the whole thing a big lame joke.

My regular dentist can't see me, totally booked out for school holidays but they do give me a contact at Montrose and they can fit me in. I am more worried about dealing with an unknown dentist then the tooth pain, ok I have no idea what they have to d to the tooth so that adds a new layer of fear. Thankfully 40 minutes later and it's all good, a second great dentist who would of thought and they looked after me, very little pain, and teeth are all happy and fresh. He commented that my gums are really healthy too, not bad for an old fart.

I book Miss Banshee in with Moss the Vet that she loves, so she will get her F3 and FIV shot next week, she doesn't make a noise when she gets a needle, doesn't give a shit, Moss could probably give her ten needles at once and she wouldn't flinch! She's braver then I am.

I see Tony Abbott the 'leader' of the opposition in Australia can not find a single economist to back his "direct action' policy on Climate Change, the economist think his ideas are incredibly dodgy- not that we expected anything more from that twit. I am amazed at how many people fall for him, he'll say and do anything to score a vote, people are getting dumber.

July 2nd

I slept so well last night, I have this incredibly comfortable bed and Winter it feels way too snug.

I head off for a coffee and read some insane costs on the USA involvement in Afghanistan/Iraq and Pakistan War. It actually has cost $4 TRILLION dollars (and that cost is only a fraction of the full economic cost of War). When you write 4 Trillion it can easily be dismissed but when you add the zero's that's 4,000, 000,000,000.00! That is so much money. The cost to care for future usa veterans be be somewhere between $600-$950 BILLION as well.

225,000 people have died-civilians, troops and insurgents! Think what the USA could be doing with that 4 TRILLION dollars. American is crumbling around the politicians heads, it's time to seriously re-think money spent on War. God knows what Australia has spent...... obviously not $4 trillion & Australia is in far better shape then the USA.

I'm having a coffee and addressing envelopes to get them out of the way, and a lady comes up to me (I noticed she was watching me) and she asked if was a writer and musician .... funny i don't consider myself a writer,I'm so not, it took me awhile to answer...... felt a bit strange, but rolled with it. I had a second coffee.... she kind of threw me.... I was nice just wasn't sure what to say. She started talking about Hessie so it fried my brain a tad.

So home again and wired, encouraged my boyfriend to head outside and help me do a few things around the yard to wipe them off my list- he didn't grumble just got into it. After all the work I decide t head to the office, playing Liam Finn's FOMO in the background and enjoy it. I still think "The Struggle" should of been massive, still my fave track from the cd, though I do love "Jump your bones"! A reminder to all Melbournian's that Liam will be playing The Corner Hotel - August 19th. Some extra tickets have been added : http://www.cornerhotel.com/

I hear from Miss K & Miss J who are now in London, so look out for 2 wild American gals getting seriously into trouble at te local Gryphon Pub (and thanks for picking an establishment with such a fine name!). Have fun you two...and at least try not to demolish London town with your antics!!!

July 3rd

Email in from Neil in America, which was nice, he sounds great, Pajama Club making some ground. Not long now till they are in the UK.

I drive to the bakery and while buying some pies and other goodies the lady next to me is asking the bakery people how to get to Olinda Falls. It sounds confusing as she doesn't have a map. On the way out I tell her I'll change my route home and she can follow my car and I'll point out the turn off. Which I do, I'm hoping I've got it right as I have a feeling I might of sent her down the incorrect road! Opps. It's very close so she will probably find it, I had good intentions now I worry she is lost somewhere in the Dandenongs!!!!

Well it's 40 years today since Jim Morrison died and 42 years since Brian Jones died - yes the same date. So I'm in the office playing the Doors and Early Stones , loving the music. Jim's little books of poetry were one of the things that inspired me to put out the little diary books. They are around the same size too. RIP you two cool dudes.

Take care everyone.

PG