The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 12 October - 31 October 2015
Happy Halloween -2015 from Markys Bar- Kalorama Australia.
October 12thRocktober and I'm already thinking about our massive christmas card mail out for the band. I keep suggesting to Mark that when we have a day with no electricity because of the power lines being put underground that we should set up a photo shoot in the art room. Marks usual reply- "the world that you live in". A standard Mark reply!I get to sleep in today, which was nice, just felt my body deserved a recharge. Luxury. October 13thGood to see that the Uncanny Xmens Brian Mannix will indeed release his book. Now that will be a fun read, only 1000 done. A piece of aussie music history, and you can get more information (and support it) here:https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-brian-mannix-autobiography#/ We are going through some bits and pieces in the office to get them framed, came across Neil's poster for The Prince at St Kilda- it just appeared in the mail with "Thanks again you exotic creature" (signed by NF) , now that made me smile. He's a good boss that Neil Finn. I had a call from some people who saw me on the Countdown documentary and asked me to have a chat on radio. I'll probably say 'yes' to that, love radio, far easier then that evil TV camera staring at you. The Countdown documentary the gift that keeps giving. "Halt & Catch Fire" Season two is excellent, as good as, maybe better then season one which was fantastic. Not certain where they can go in Season Three (California I guess) but very happy that AMC has ok'd a third season. This show should be massive. October 14thOur music fans are passionate, both the Split Enz and the Skyhooks facebook pages had 28,000 people checking out the posts today. Both those pages do so well, the numbers just keep growing and growing. It's brilliant so many people just keep returning.I get a call from Jeff Jenkins, who penned the Molly (Meldrum) book. It's out on paperback soon and he surprises me by giving me a thank you in the credits. I did so little, just a few corrections. But really nice of him to do so. Thanks Jeff. It's done well that book and of course the tele-movie will probably be huge. I get my old wellington boots out and we add some blue fur to them. For the upcoming coming Christmas card photo session. I knew there was a reason why I bought a few extra metres of cookie monster blue faux fur! Stuff Santas Red & White coca cola look, the blue fur looks far more dazzling. October 15thRolling Stone Magazine (online) now has our Skyhooks boys on the main page, article plus a sampler of Carlton live from 1975. We have press lift off.http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/post/flashback-hear-the-skyhooks-perform-carlton-at-1975-sydney-state-theatre-show/2596-page-1 Jurassic World is out today on BluRay - so I order a version via JB online, and we were surprised just how much we enjoyed the movie. A return to form , and as expected the special effects were amazing. While the power was off today we took the time to set up the shoot for this years Christmas Card. It takes forever but hoping a few of the photos are good ones. A bit of a hoot. (No I'm not in a giant owl suit). October 16thWe call into Office works to get some stationery prices. I check the back of the 4WD to make sure Annie from the General Store hasn't hidden inside as she LOVES Office works! I work out some of the text for the Christmas card, it's a little bit Crowded House-ish this year. That's all I'm saying.October 17thTwo wonderful full colour old school Crowded House posters arrived today as a donation for the upcoming end of year Christmas stocking, both in mint condition. Wonderful, the guys look so young, it all seems a million years ago at times, I'm still so exceptionally proud of them. It really is time though for ARIA to put them in the Hall Of Fame.Anthony O'Grady calls and we chat for an hour. What a nice surprise, a nice guy. Such a great rock writer and of course he created RAM magazine in the seventies. 53 Greville street Prahran was auctioned today, the house next to our old place, we guess it went for around $2 million. I climb up on the garage roof and start cleaning away the leaves, getting ready for Summer. I take a snap and run some sfx on it- another piece of photo art? I tag it "Corrugated blue sea"- people seem to like it. Fun. October 18thSkyhooks magnificent "Living In The 70's" album debuted on the 3XY charts this date 41 years ago- Yes Forty One years ago. Where did the time go, all those decades later and it still is such a magnificent musical beast. Our favourite album.Wade through some ideas around cover art for another project, it all seems to be coming together. One finishes and another starts , hey one day we might even get paid for our efforts - ok probably not. October 19thJustin Trudeau now P.M. for Canada - the conservatives kicked out- he seems to have an optimistic vision. We love Canada, one of our favourite places to visit , so hopefully this win is a very positive thing.I'm scanning away on some Crowded House photos for possible use in 2016. The scanning addiction. I'll be glad when they are all done. October 20thA nice chat with Brian Mannix today, it's been way too long. He sounds good, as always he leaves me with a smile on my face.October 21stI mail my uncle a card and present, can he really be turning 70, and he's the youngest on that side of the family.A huge amount of Neil Finn related emails today, takes me 4 hours to wade through them all. Did the world just wake up and decide to email me on Neil? October 22ndMy Mum has some "Big Gay Moment", a chat (not her becoming gay, she's not) it was all very surreal - what am I a sixteen year old boy? I leave a message for Sis, the whole thing made me laugh. Mark is still shaking his head. I swear as parents get older they become more bizarre.Tony Abbott now looks about 200 years old, he's just faded to nothing, a toothless political nothing. I am still in awe that the fool has become nothing but a piece of political flotsam and jetsam. Why is he even bothering hanging about, he really should just quit. Go back to England. Great line up for A day On The Green at Rochford Wines. Hoodoo Gurus, Violent Femmes, Sunny Boys, Died Pretty and Rat Cat. March 12th 2016! October 23rdBye Bye Julia from the Finn NZ office. She's been great and will be missed.Andy the Kookaburra arrives with his new baby bird. A huge evil crow tries to attack them. I have my super water blaster gun out and send the evil crow a packing. I'm a good aim with it now. Don't fuck with Andy the Kookaburra , he has a human body guard! I get out the Breville- "Happy Feet" massage machine and soak my cares away. The foot spa piece goes into over drive and ten minutes later the decking is covered in suds! Opps. October 24thI start working on the garage and art room for Halloween. I think we should christen Markys bar. Just keep it all low key, Halloween it up and see who turns up for some drinks and dancing. A big effort on my part but it will be Halloween so you can't do it half arsed.October 25thSkyhooks, Skyhooks, Skyhooks . We arrive at the final week before the release of "Don't You Believe What You've Seen Or You've Heard". I start getting nervous about now, praying no fuck ups have been made. We've spent so long working on this one. It's a cool 3 CD set. A must have for every Aussie record collection. Grab a copy now- in the words of Vivienne- "It's fucking well great"!!!!October 26th60 days till Christmas. No way.. seriously!!!!!!!!! It all makes my head spin.I pay my car rego, that's like $700 this year- crazy. The Midnight Oil exhibit is on at Melbourne Arts Centre- starts November 13th. Hopefully an invite will turn up in the mail, it sounds like it's a good one and hey it is FREE (That magic word for many of us). October 27thPower off again today while they work on the underground cables, probably the last time for ages for our segment. Hurrah.I'm about to plant a new batch of wheatgrass for the juicer soon. It's been awhile and I do like it's taste. We took the mobile office up onto the decking and worked in the sun today. Stripped to my singlet and am almost brown. That vitamin D wipes the blues away. October 28thA really good mate gives me some of the "Song of India" solid fragrance perfume. This one Aphrodesia- all of their perfumes are so subtle. I recall Vali Myers wearing them. Thanks Wendy!I get a new blender for Markys bar. The one I have been using has finally bitten the dust. It was my Mums and came to melbourne with me all those years ago so it's many many decades old so lasted the distance. The new one will probably last 2 weeks as things tend to do in 2015! October 29thI had 2 days where the office floor was empty and tidy and now it's flooded with bits and pieces again. It just happens, I think because I'm working on ten things at once. So I quietly surrender to it and make Fridays "wipe the office floor day" so my Monday starts with a nice neat empty floor for me to cover again.Fireworks tonight down the road for us, all legal and only goes for 10 minutes. Some sort of celebration. October 30thI carve the Halloween Pumpkin and put it on the table outside (stage one) to dry and I'll carve more later. I have my brilliant canon camera outside and Andy the Kookaburra lands on the Pumpkin - which is the perfect snap. A bit of Australia mixed in with Halloween. He's such a smart bird, patiently waits and poses for me.The new Skyhooks release is out and 90% of stores get stock on time. Some fans get it a day early from JB Hi FI! We have lift off. October 31stHappy Halloween!!!10 years today since Skyhooks original lead singer Steve Hill passed away. So I'm thinking of having a costume change mid-Halloween. At the start I'll be Clause Rains (The Invisible Man) along with Marky in the same get up. Later on I'll change into something GLAM ish in honour of Steve. We work on the bar most of the day. Open the roller door at 7.30 and our neighbour Martin in a monster outfit is the first one in. A family with trick or treat kids invades next and they are fun. We have some special bags we've made and 50% chocolate and 50% healthy etc. So thanks to the Cartwrights, the Browns and Stevenson families for showing up with their kids. Quite a few mates turn up and neighbours. The bar is active, the mirror ball spinning and everyone seems to be having a great time. Allie goes way too close to the candelabra and somehow sets her hair on fire!! (ends with everyone slapping it out on her head). Mark becomes mirror obsessive over his bandage wraps and we both laugh when people tell us "smile" for photos (as neither of us have mouths!). Laura, Allie, Kevin, Martin, John, Neil, Wendy, Jodes, Doug and Nancy -thanks for being part of it. Also late arrivals Mick and Kaz a nice surprise. Doug falls in love with the giant chicken suit and it just adds to the flavour when all of us do "The Time Warp" from Rocky Horror Show! A total ball- and one of the best nights we've had up here. November 1stI leave the house early in search of coffee. Not really hung over, just lack of sleep. While I'm out Mark starts packing up the bar area (bless him) . We still ponder how a dozen plus people could manage to use 4 dozen glasses! Halloween over which means Christmas is approaching fast. Now that's scary!All the best Peter |