The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 5 September - 18 September 2011
September 5thJennifer sends me some information on the new Ben & Jerrys icecream in America. Dexter Morgan's "Miami Slice"- Key Lime Pie ice cream with blood strawberry swirl and chocolate body parts! Yum- god I love American marketing..now how to get a tub to Australia!We head out and grab some more Tim stock, all helps, though I don't expect a decent chart, having those 4 days with no stock in the store just caused grief I'm sure. It probably won't make the top 50 because of this. I burn some leaves as the sun sets and play my music a bit louder than usual in the yard. I see the horrid neighbours monstrosity is going up, some people really do have tastes in their arse when it comes to housing additions! September 6thTim debuts at #28 on the NZ charts, which is ok, the last few have debuted around this mark. I was trying for #25 but at the end of the day it doesn't matter all that much. Just good to see Tim Finn in the charts! We drive to Eastlands and spot Wendy working at JB- I was worried she had quit so it's good to see her at the front counter doing her thing. I noticed the last of the Tim stock has sold out, so this is probably the first store where it's all gone.The weather has turned again, the brilliant Spring day is now grey with more on the way. The heaters are on in the office again, well that last 5 seconds! Four years today since our mate Robin died, we email our buddy Trudi and have a chuckle over some fun stories and epic travel journeys that we did. Nice memories, we miss our mate. Shitty that she died so young. September 7thI hear from NZ and it now looks like Neil and Sharon will be signing the Pajama Club covers in Australia, which is good as it was going to be NZ after the shows. So this is better, it's a few days delay but it means it can all go out as one instead of having to send signed covers later etc. We buy more then any record store, they probably don't even know that.Lots of 9/11 stuff on TV some of it fascinating some of it incredibly sad. That moron George Bush just makes my skin crawl, what a total dickhead. The good stuff are the resilient people of America, my heart goes out to them on such a sad anniversary for many- the USA is still one of our favourite places and we know so many good people, generous people and just people we care about. We'll be thinking of you on the 11th. September 8thI spend the day working on the Pajama Club upcoming release, plus I've decided to organise a special "100 days of the Frenz" contest where we give out 100 prizes. The first are 22 double tickets to the album launch in Sydney...We grab some JB magazines, the Pajama's are on the front, article inside, though the fans would like some of these...I look around to see if there is a security camera filming me stealing 50, well they are free and it doesn't say a limit of one, so it's not really stealing. Is magazine gluttony a sin? We buy a Porn dvd for a friend for his birthday, he loves superheroes so.... been awhile since we have ventured into a Porn store, we are both amazed at how enormous this one is. So much 'stuff', I giggle like a school girl at some of the titles. They have some great birthday cards so we buy that here too. I eavesdrop on a conversation from the two women behind the counter talking about the new lube the store is selling, "it says you can spray it on ten times but that's a lot isn't it? Maybe they need to wash 'it' and then re apply". Good grief, I love it... I could sit here all day and be 12. Wow Porn dvd s are 70% off , so a cheap birthday present to go with the other non porn non sexy presents. We wonder if our neighbours will spot our car and point-Look Peter & Mark are buying porn!..... we almost hope they do. Some tradesmen walk in and actually take some photos of the porn displays-how weird is that? Tell me they are not going to get off over a XXX display! How weird. To each their own I guess. September 9thOk who stole Spring? It's zero today and sleet ,hail and something that looks like hard snow is falling. Banshee thinks the sky is falling and runs under the house..... till we let her inside. God it's cold outside!As we head into the supermarket for Friday shopping it starts to hail, a lot, the car park is now white! Sure Mr Abbott nothing wrong with the weather at all!!!!! Kalama and the other orphan elephant babies appear in a multi page story in the latest National Geo magazine- that's great! I see the NSW state government are messing with the solar industry again. 418,000 households had solar panels added to their roof tops here in the past 2 years alone. The actions of the NSW Liberal government will cost the (NSW) solar industry around 3700 jobs by the end of this year, It's funny so much fuss that the Bluescope steel could lose 1000 jobs if a carbon tax goes ahead yet no one flinches that the solar industry could lose 3 times that because of the actions of the NSW state government! Pathetic really... I did read though that Australia has it's trade SURPLUS for it's 5th month in a row. iron ore, cotton and wool were all huge trade items being sent overseas. Not bad 5 months in a row, the government must be doing something right. September 10thIt looks like Jagger & Richards are fighting again....!!!!! All because of some comments Keef made in his book, there is a band meeting in London this week. Some talk of the Marquee Club being the venue for the Stones anniversary gig next year... the venue where they first played.....! Lets hope Mick and Keef bury the hatchet before the show if it happens! Such a small venue, god knows how people will score those rare tickets. The Stones have always been generous to us with freebee tickets overseas, but I think I'm pushing my luck to try and score 2 of these for the possible Marquee! Also it is looking good for the brilliant SOME GIRLS album to be reissued like Exile on Mainstreet with 10 bonus tracks.... we hope it's some of the ones we have they are wonderful ......!Americans spend 53 MILLION minutes per month on Facebook, no wonder nothing is made in America anymore they haven't time they are on Facebook!! *GRIN*. I've had quite a few people send me photos of the trucks in the UK with PETER GREEN CHILLED on the side in huge letters.... I am chilled today, very calm..... and with the temperature drop, very chilled indeed! Benny calls which is great, wonderful to hear from him, he's been on the road for 3 months now. We miss the big fella. Good to hear that John Butler is treating our mate so well. Tania and Warwick call by with Rosemarees old couch which we install into the art room section of the garage...I find some great material to cover it with so it goes from old lady floral to art room cool in minutes. September 11thI remember where we were, we came back from the Memorial service at the Palais for our Skyhook lead singer-Shirl.... it was a day when evil won for a short while eh?September 12thMt favourite drink at the moment is Charlie's Honest Smoothie- the Spirulina & fruit one. Yum and good for you too. Get that green juice into you folks, the banana that is in it takes the edge off a bit too. Mark says it looks like something you drain from a toilet..... or a swamp!I turn the computers off at midnight as the power is being cut on the top of the mountain tomorrow, I just want to make sure none of our gear gets fried. We've been working away getting the CD mailers ready for the Pajama Club CD mail out. Sharon and Neil are either signing them on the plane or at the gig.... so not long till fans get these. September 13thPower goes off at 8.00 on the dot, meant to be back on by 4.00 by it takes them till 7.00. They are fixing up old power lines etc, so we should be happy that the effort is made before bushfire season. By the time it's back on we have candles burning to light the house.I go and see Warrick my Dr Chiro, first time since we have been back. With the power off at home it is good timing to get some adjustments. I feel good afterwards, just what I needed, he whips me back into shape. Tim Finn debuts at #36 on the New Zealand top 100 chart. Not sure what our Aussie chart is,m it's a bit too early. September 14thWe are playing The Angels FACE TO FACE & NO EXIT cds a LOT these days.. the remastered versions with bonus live tracks. Mark can't stop singing their song "BE WITH YOU"... actually neither can I. I love those few lyrics at the start "You're flashing eyes are a beacon light, that guides my jet plane in the night"... I was corrected by Marky, it is IN the night night not THROUGH the night like I was singing (cough). He was right. The Angels were so amazing before the bogans invaded the shows.... Doc was always really kind to us, invited us into the band room and sound checks.September 15thPajama Club are in town for the Prince Show, I've made my mind up to grab the stock head home and spend the night boxing it to be mailed. It means I'll miss the gig which is shit but I want people to get these asap.We visit Enzman Noel Crombie in the morning, Buster the dog goes nuts and howls and is so loud. Noel signs some photos for prizes and gives us a one off cdr of an instrumental he made called "CRANK" (by Crom). As we are sitting there he draws a rough cover of his homemade hurdy gurdy machine which he uses on this piece of music. We are giving this prize away. I had an idea to do the "100 days Of The Frenz" where we send out prizes for 100 days, some small some unique and some very cool like this one from Crom. Just peoples names picked at random. He shows me the most amazing chandeliers made from bed springs... that Sal and him are working on, they are honestly beautiful. Blown away how something so brilliant can come from something so ugly. I mean old bedsprings for god sake! The Crombies are friggin' amazing! We head back home, and continue working in the office. I leave at 4.00 for St Kilda. Traffic sucks and I wonder if I'm actually going to make it to any of the soundcheck. Thankfully I do and the manager walks me to the band room entrance. They are onstage playing "Tell me what you want", & "Daylight" . I get to hear 4 songs and I'm astounded just how tight they now sound, it's thick and lusty music, really good. The guy from Pluto is filling in on keyboards, Sean is still very sick...not good. Neil does his "hey Pete hows it going".... "Traffic!!!" I sigh! Good to see them after they leave the stage, and N&S both say the cd signing was easy work and did not take too long. There is one small box left and they quickly scrawl away..... Alana is folding Tshirts, I have to say she does look tired today, jetlag she explains. Sharon grabs me, "we'll see you at the show or afterwards"? "No cd mailing for me... "Oh cmon"...Grrrr I am so close to saying YES that Sharon Finn she can convince me of anything *GRIN*.. but not today, so I say goodbye and stuff boxes into the car, which I fluked a park right by the side door- no parking fee either-we like that. Manage to get home by 7.30 and we start CD mailer stuffing. Each address has to be checked and half the people forget to include their membership numbers. I think my new rule in 2012 is if you forget to include your full membership number we put you to the bottom of the pile! The only break we have tonight is to watch True Blood on cable.... and then back to the office. Two HUGE mailbags are ready to go, we are about half way by 3.00 in the morning. September 16thPost the CD & bonus, so some lucky people will get these on Monday. I put up the Crew Contest winner on Frenz com. The only problem I had was his name, we have two people with the same name on our membership books. But he (thankfully) included his membership number so that made it easy.We head off for Friday shopping and I notice the seal on our main hot water system has blown, so I have to turn the water off, till it's fixed on Mon-Tues. It means quick little dripping showers. Mark will be happy. September 17thA beautiful spring day here. I head to Viewpoint for a quick coffee and to fill up my real diary with copious notes. "copious" is my new fave word! Some visitors chat to me , I seem to have some novelty value today. They have a really well behaved kid- he seems very smart for one so young, an old soul maybe?Our friends have delayed their trip to France so no extra cat and rabbit for us to look after yet, maybe next week. We were all excited to look after Stan and Mr Bunny. I pick a huge bunch of flowers for our friends , always nice to get some flowers when you are sad eh? We call Rosemaree, and Mark wants to have a shower at her place (hopefully)... and I want to install her new security cameras so we jump in the car.. Something is wrong with the new places pipes as the shower water is suddenly filling up the kitchen and Skully the cat is floating by on a chair! Mark guilts but it's not his fault and probably good for this to happen now instead of 2 years down the track eh Rosemaree. Security cameras in and we are rewarded with dinner, Yey! Nice to have Miss R so close by, 10 minutes for us to get home. We watch the new series of Dr Who, episode one is good so some hope for it. The evening is spent back in the office boxing those cds..... endless! I seem to slow down towards the bottom of the pile. September 18thI decide to work in the office for all of today. Yes cds again. (and again and again) Well it has to be done.The new season of 'Breaking Bad" starts on cable tonight, excellent, what a cool show. Greg Skyhook emails me from Sydney sweet Sydney, no idea what he is doing up North. That's it for another diary.... Hope life is good. PG P.S.- We have a box of WINGS OF FLIES the coffee table book of 25 years of music photos that we have taken. Obviously a huge section on Crowded House , Enz etc. For Australian Music Lovers ONLY we are offering them for $10.00 (and $3.75 postage)- so you save $25.00!!!!! But it's Aussies only...and you need to email me (peter@frenz.com). It's good to offer a bargain. First 25 emails get them at this special price. |