Famous for Sixteen Minutes: Archive

The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 12 September - 25 September 2016

Crowded House -back for a quick visit- see you in Sydney

September 12th

Mark tidy's up some Crowdies footage from the State Theatre Sydney from 1988. The band played so brilliantly at that show, pity the lighting was horrid for the tv cameras. One of those moments ,as far as tv went, that we blew it. Still a song or three it's worth putting up on the Crowded House Archive FB page- purely because of the excellent music and performance. Where would I be without the brilliant MG! Thanks buddy.

Water rates are in.. nearly $200 for water, nutty as i have three tanks full of it, maybe Yarra Valley can do a trade off with me, just come and get it guys. Stuff it, bill paid.

OL' 55 on the chart for week two, it's like 1976 all over again. Usually these bulk compilations drop out after week 3. At least some people buy aussie music for a few weeks which is something. Time Warner released the Straight-Guilty-Orient discs with bonus tracks.

September 13th

We still have a few weeks to go with the boring bug in our system. On the couch and we see an advert for Pizza Hut. It sparks some flashback moment , way way back to early seventies. My Mum called in and collected a young Mark and myself and we headed off to Pizza Hut Warrawong (at Wollongong..what is it with those place names) and a treat at the newly opened Pizza Hut. I remember Marks nose curling because of his hate for pineapple and my Mum ordering an Hawaiian pizza. Next it was to Putt Putt Golf loocated behind Pizza hut and Mrs Green CHEATS.. hey she was an ol' Hockey girl so for her so lame arse golf club gentle swing is way out of the question. I love my Mums spirit.

Anyway, despite the bug, we made a decision to head to a Pizza Hut. Now I make an excellent home made Pizza and the local Pizza place at Mt D is excellent too, so why the hell would we go to Pizza Hut. We both moaned "it will not be the same" but still we ventured out, over to the other side of the mountain. No tables, just a couple of chairs , but the counter staff were really nice. The Pizza arrived, we both said "smells great" and IT WAS! We could not believe that it tasted the same or was it our f**ked up taste buds? Anyway very impressed and happy. To extend our oddball date night we spotted an Aldi supermarket nearby, we are not Aldi people but for "fun" we ventured in. I did buy 600 metres of cling wrap! We encouraged a staff member to fulfil her desire to sneak out into the car park and cling wrap a customers car. I told her I was taking Mark home, cling wrapping him from head to toe and depositing him on a bus seat! She was so into it. I'm now sidetracked the Aldi portable solar panels, I'd love to buy them all as they look amazing , probably totally shite with their conversion rate. I head to the check out but little did little did I know that Mark was being 'checked out'. He's looking at the fake toblerones and suddenly a european woman arrives from nowhere and starts hitting on Mark. She's stroking the chocolate bar and talking about "sizes" YIEKS. I rescue him and we are both pissing ourselves laughing all the way home. We love date night and all it's possibilities.

September 14th

What a strange old day, so many aggressive people on the mountain. Nearly all of them women. Keep clear- we did! It was all very weird. Over the angry bird stuff, I start to believe that it's in some peoples natures to be bossy and frustrated and they stay that way. Kind of sad , especially from a strangers perspective. Walk faster Mark, walk faster... No Angry People Allowed.

September 15th

"60 Minutes" announcement goes crazy, the Sydney Morning Herald FB page run some cool stuff and it sends a lot of emails our way. Suddenly my IN box is looking rather packed.

I get a reminder about the Robert Mapplethorpe movie, which will be showing at ACMI, it's really good , do not miss it if you live in Melbourne.

September 16th

Coffee at the General Store,go through slides from The Corner 1996 show. Some good shots, we'll use a few.

Call our excellent manager in Sydney and run through the latest. He's a blessing to work with. Nathan, Grant and Bill , my favourite 3 as far as working with (in no order). Spend the whole day in the office, nothing but Opera House stuff today.

September 17th

I have to make some time to call Michael den Elzen back, the Crowdies stuff seems to take over every living moment. Yes I love it, but it tends to mean all our other stuff gets left by the wayside. Sorry Michael, I will call soon. Slack tart that I am!

I do call my Mum, she will always sneak in above the band! What a Mummys boy! She's still having a rough time but happy to be at home.

We hear from Giles and Fen, Wendy, Toija, Jane and Allie and Laura. All checking in asking if we need anything. That's when you know who your friends are. We love you guys, thanks so much for that means a lot.

September 18th

Coffee with Nelly at the General Store. I enjoy watching them paint the walls, from red devil to a ghostly white. It will look brighter inside.

'60 Minutes' is on tonight and it most certainly lights the fuse, the phones, emails, everything. Out of control. I keep hearing the "ding ding ding' of messages and posts on Sheepbook. It's off and racing ...... life in the ol' Crowdies yet!

September 19th

My In box up to 7025 emails-so far. That number just keeps increasing. I didn't think we'd break the record, within 12 hours it's well over 10,000, our Email record broken.

I get a booking with our Doctor, need to take some pills to get rid of the last part of the bug. So back to Prahran in a few days.

Schnitzel sandwiches and salad for dinner, a new organic juice that I found.

September 20th

Club presale on and tickets sell out in under 3 minutes. You feel for people you really do , you want everyone to have tickets but it never works that way. The usual stress, I remain calm. Only a few people I want to slap, 99.9% patient and onto it.

I do order BOSS #2 on bluray, sucks it isn't on Bluray in oz. Ebay for me.

The day is nothing but Crowded House, I miss lunch, I breath the band, my fingers ache from typing and pasting. I take the 10,000 + emails on, I chop the pile down, short replies and paste paste. Get thousands done. It's remarkable how loved this band is.

In the end I tell Mark I need to escape and do something 'normal' like shopping at Woolworths. So off in the 4WD by myself.

I park and as I climb out of the car I hear a mighty fine cover of an INXS song. Cool, a busker in front of Woolworths. What a really good voice. I head back to the car and grab all my coins- $3.85, happy to donate to a fine effort. I decide I'll do it after my shopping. As I approach the store the music changes and a familiar bunch of cords. No fucking way. I turn and he's playing "Better be home soon". Have I cracked?, has this week made me hear things? I decide to ask him- "Are you really playing Crowded House" . He stops smiles and says Yes and adds "Are you Peter Green". Inside I'm taken back, but outside I blatantly lie- "No who's that?" . "Are you sure?" he continues. "No never heard of him". He's still smiling. "Ok I am, have I met you before". "I'm Caroline Hesters son" he says.

What a small world, what are the chances that after a full on band week, I run into Hessies nephew and he is playing Crowded House! Ha! I love this life. We talk for awhile, nice guy , Paul would be proud of him. I drop the coins in and go do my shopping. I'm rewarded as my Woolworths card gives me $10 off. Love that. I wave goodbye on the way out and he's playing another excellent INXs song. I drive off into the night still laughing at the madness of it all.

September 21st

A small break in the ticketing and craziness so I take advantage of it and we head to Prahran to visit our Dr. I'm giving some Amoxycillin for the last remaining cough, but Mark is more complicated so off for some scans etc. Sounds like he has some minor infection, I like that our Dr just double checks everything. We both just want this bug gone. He manages to use his influence to get us into the scanning facility- the place where all the football players go.

Mark has to drink nearly 2 litres of water in one hour- full bladder or what!

Chapel street is empty, we walk down one side of the main street and there is one other person. It's like a Ghost town. I buy a cork board for some arty farty stuff that i might do for Sheepbook. We look in JB but nothing, that store is so squashy. We have some Indian food at the Prahran Central Indian place (Simply Indian). The owner we have known for many decades, lovely lady and a fine cook. LOVE their pan rolls. I start on my pills.

Finally home as the sun sets. Work in the office till midnight.

September 22nd

Morning emails, emails and emails. A break at lunch time and I do some restoration work on Tim Finns - Crowded House jacket from Aust. Music Day. It's a complicated one as the jacket itself is thick and the art not painted on but attached. Spend ages getting the wrinkles out and a tiny bit of mould removed.

I mail a birthday card to our mate Giles! I always get birthdays wrong. I celebrate my friends the other days of the year, birthdays I care little for.

Pick some of our lemons and add some "Bee-Cause" bush honey and hot water.

I do order the new Pansy Division cd from their website.

A bit of a rush on the last copies of the Ghost Cars On The Freeway - Crowded House book. Lots of nice compliments on it.

The latest Polling on the Liberals crap Plebiscite is that now has dropped from 70% support to only 39% support. People have finally woken up to it being a "Non Binding" piece of rubbish. Just allow a conscience vote Malcolm , we vote our politicians in to represent US, for fuc*k sake let them do that !

September 23rd

Moxy, Poxy, Moxy, Oxy! The pills are working, slowly but working.

I put my first corkboard moment on Sheepbook. Corker #1!

Another insane Presale, All gone 3 minutes.

I buy an organic pineapple, had the urge. Fresh fruit- yum.

We are having a toasted sandwich fixation at Ailsa Craig, it's all we both want. Just simple.. our taste buds are still a bit fu*ked up.

I hear from Tim Finn which was nice, also his manager calls , so find out some more on the delay of "Fiery Maze" cd. Will email fans when our Crowded House stuff settles down. Just a bit over emails at the moment. hate delays but this one is out of our hands, we are just the middle men.

September 24th

Sunny Day, in fact it's fantastic. This fine Saturday I will spend less time in my office and more in the garden. I start to mow parts of it. Something wonderful about gardening, chills me out. Strip to my singlet and shorts while mowing the nature strip, so nice to have sun on my shoulders.

I chat to Sis during dinner, they are off to see Peppa The Pig live onstage in Sydney. The Pig returns. She's a great Mum my Sis, they are always taking Miss MIM out for adventures. I make homemade Pizza for dinner. Yoghurt with Yellow box honey for desert.

The wonderful thing about all this attention for Crowded House is that "The Very, Very Best OF " cd jumps on the chart. #2 on ARIA catalogue and bullets to #21 on the National Top 100. It's heading towards triple Platinum!

September 25th

That's it for the moment, Crowded House now up to FOUR shows. I'm freaked at how fast each sells, all over in 2 minutes. There are some ticket-hotel deals with Flight Centre for November 25/26th shows for those who have missed out. So give Flight Centre a go, far better then smelly old scalpers. See you at the Opera House!

Rock on!

Peter