The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 22 May - 4 June 2017
Winter arrives at Kalorama.
May 22ndThe Art Gallery of NSW has it's "Warhol Before Pop" exhibit coming to an end. We are so lucky in Australia, we continually get some wonderful art exhibits , extra lucky because we have so many amazing local talents too. Every house in Australia should own at least one original painting by an Aussie artist. If I was P.M. I'd make that law. ..and ban Ken Done (Ych).A really nice email from Anthony O'Grady such a great influence and RAM magazine we devoured every issue in the seventies. He's penning a few lines for one of the upcoming fanzines which is a real honour. Nice bloke-thanks Anthony. It's been awhile but I made a spinach pie for dinner, some fantastic European fetta in it . Yum. May 23rd"Some people are just not meant to run with the Prince's of the Night".Love that quote and so true. Don't even try. May 24thStill smiling from a fantastic moment at Eastlands yesterday. My wonderful sister sent me a $100 voucher for Ishka . Now Ishka we have been buying from, since the late seventies when they only had 2 stores. It's changed, in some ways not as good (they use to have much more exceptional South American artefacts). My timing was perfect though-50%-80% off! So my voucher ended up getting me around $280 worth of goodies. I kept going up to the counter and they'd say- "still more to go $65 left, $55 etc". The two girls in charge of Ishka Eastlands were just brilliant, I had a fun time. I almost felt guilty as I left the store with three packed carry bags.I called into JB as we had a voucher for them too and grabbed another season of House of Cards on Bluray. The one copy I spotted was $11 cheaper, not sure why, just an old price tag I guess so I got it at sticker value. Dropped into our friend Claires house with a small birthday present. Just a little gift, at least we remembered. I make some yummy home made Pizza's for dinner... really really nice. It's good to cook in Winter. May 25thMarks working away on editing some Andy White footage from the Boy 40 album launch at The Corner. January 2004. No way could it really be that long ago. So here is the mighty "Faithful" from that show. Enjoy.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCt7dfT8slw&feature=youtu.be An incredible present arrives from Di T. today. so bloody generous, it made my whole day. Endless smiles. I start taking a bit of Ginko, good to keep the brain on track...... May 26thI find it incredible that 600,000 people have viewed clips on my You Tube page. Just blows my mind, we try to put up stuff of interest, even a few quirky,rare unseen things. Lots of nice comments so guessing people have been enjoying it all. I don't think we have anything on the page with less then 100 views. I even have 1036 subscribers. Someone told me and I went "I have subscribers?". It made me laugh, not sure why.Ryan Adams is playing the Margaret "I'm a big ugly homophobe" Court Arena tonight. I'm glad that he has stood up for gay marriage and given the tennis has been a "serve". Ryan Adams "It's time to evolve" I like that tweet. Margaret Court has spent years attacking the gay community so I'm stoked we live in a country where people have the guts to stand up to her and such comments and tell her to go fuck herself. Only one thing worse then a homophobe and that's someone making excuses for one. Great so many have called for the arena to get a name change. History will remember her for the bigot that she is. May 27thHappy 59th Birthday Neil. I was up early and sent him an email. A friend told me it was his 60th- c'mon he looks younger not older. As i said if it was his 60th we'd be on a flight to his exotic 60th birthday location.I keep on writing, 2 articles today-one on Blondie and one on a CDGBs cd release. Both for the fanzines. Am in awe that Blondie's latest "Pollinator" has such amazing songs on it- a nice return to form. Joan Jett on backing vocals on "Doom or Destiny" from the album is certainly a favourite. Good to see that Blondie can still work that old magic. May 28thHappy Birthday Andy White... far more important than Kylie Minogue who's birthday it is too.I write a piece on American folk artist Howard Finster, if he was alive still he would be 100 years old now. I love his work, so wanted to add a piece into the upcoming Fanzine. Great quotes from Michael Stipe of REM and of course Howard painted one of Talking Heads album covers. Quite a few of us around Crowded House have Howard Finster pieces of original artwork. The Muse is on my shoulder today, she likes the coffee at the General Store... so it gives me a kick in the arse to write during my lunch break. The rest of the days we both work in the office, a lot of Neil Finn emails today , nearly all of them general. Three hours later and I've cleared them all. My "Boss" has been very quiet - he knows where I am, guess he's just letting me do what i do. May 29thI go on line and order Mark a three in one knife-fork.... don't even ask, he knows why. It's a 2017 design, someone has gone to a lot of trouble to make it look rather exceptional. It will be gift wrapped from Banshee and left on his bed.I work in the art room for a short time, get some silkscreen canvas's done as part of the 3 prize packs for the club fundraiser. Happy to do it, fans will love them and it helps the club , so time well used. My little contribution. May 30thHappy Birthday dear Fen, nice to have a chat and stoked you enjoyed the present.I find our old typewriter and get a ribbon . Going to use it for a few things in the 40th Anniversary fanzines. Typing again on such a relic feels bizarre. Split Enz bought this for me way back in 1980. I'll only use a few small pieces of type. It adds some texture. I hear from Tim Finn, he penned a little piece for my Bondi Lifesaver article- it's the first place the Enz played when they arrived in Sydney in 1975. Anyway it will be in one of the articles in the upcoming fanzines. he was so good, got back to me really quickly. May 31stI'm taking my gingko like a good Gryphon. It must be working as I remember to take it every day! Does it work-who knows, I'm staying positive and saying it does.Mark hands over the 1976 audio from the Countdown Skyhooks show. The band return from America and it's total insanity in the ABC studios. This one has been lost forever...and just off an old a cassette tape. I remember it so well. My Sister would of been about 6 years old and jumping up and down on my uncles bed, while I sat in front of the old B&W tv at my grandfathers place taping it. Anyway the fans will love this....we so miss Shirl- his intro to the show is jus SOOOOOO Shirl. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9PO1flaM0M Nice phone call from a musical mate-who's secretly in town . So a few of us are catching up for dinner- arty crowd and some friends. I email a buddy and she doesn't get back to me. Sad as it's an incredible night. My face still aching from laughter, Mark loved the food and the company. What a wonderful night, under the stars with the stars. I hear from Bic Runga again and a second show has been added for Melbourne at MEMO Music Hall -so now 9th and the 10th of June. Will be awesome to catch up. June 1stWinter arrives and you can feel it in the air, it has a bite to it. I thought I'd sleep in after such a brilliant dinner but quite the opposite, I'm up and in the office by 8.00.Mark reminds me that it's 40 years today since we saw Skyhooks play at the 2JJ Regent Theatre show. Introducing new guitarist Bob Spencer. Such a cool show. We didn't have tickets so totally bluffed our way in . We also got into soundcheck pretending we were volunteers for 2JJ putting badges and stickers on the seats. We go to hear all those new Skyhook songs. Very exciting for the 2 fan boys. Spence coming to our rescue a few weeks later when we were asked for ID at the Bondi Lifesaver (we were both underaged) and didn't have any-but Spence arrived and said 'It's ok they are with the band". After all this time we still think back to that moment of kindness. I hear from my Sister and all seems well with her tests. Brothers worry over such things. Mail the last Andy White media copy of Imaginary Lovers out. We still have about 10 fully autographed copies of this really great album. Take the chance and grab one, you won't regret it. Call Noel and he's not home... hard to get that Crombie man. Grocery shop late tonight and head out to dinner with some friends. We end up at anothers house and midnight when we finally get back home. Fun though, what social butterflies we are. June 2ndCoffee at the General Store and I write a Review for 'Cave In The Snow'. Such an awesome book.Charlie Watts from The Rolling Stones turns 76 - how incredible that he is still such an excellent drummer. No Charlie No Stones. He would be impossible to replace. I spend my lunch time looking for the nude picture of Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols. I need to re shoot an old cover from Wipe The Sweat and nude Sid is on the cover of the Punk is Dead issue. He's not very attractive naked, I prefer Timothy Olyphant! We get a call from some mates who have bought a new massive mansion near our old stomping ground at Toorak (as one does). I help them find some excellent art buys. So we are off to this huge party they have thrown. It seems like it was never going to end and whatever happened to my shoes? I did go for a swim in the indoor pool,with it's grand domed roof and the most beautiful tile work I've ever seen. We were going to stay the night but instead everyone PARTIED all night. It was 8.00 AM when we finally departed. The party to end all parties. One pill makes you bigger and one pill makes you small, haven't a clue why I wrote that. Next time I'm tying my hoes around my ankles. Apparently they have been found and are being couriered to me! June 3rdIt's cold when we eventually get home and I borrow Marks mohair jumper and need a coffee at the General Store. It's all a blur 3 nights in a row of heading out and more to come. We certainly still have the stamina for it. Not quite old farts yet.I have a small list of "to do" things today. One of them is give the giant amethyst crystal in the lounge room a wash. So I do and Miss Banshee is totally intrigued by what I am doing. She's such a strange pussy cat. I start writing a small piece on The Pelaco Brothers for possible use in the fanzine.. still not sure. I play "Conga Line" which is from the Pelaco Bros live 6 track EP. Cool song,recorded live at Melbourne Uni in 1976. The wonderful Stephen Cummings on vocals, Joe Camilleri was in the band, Peter Lillie on guitar. All very cool. Peter Lillie passing away in 2012 from liver disease. I really liked some of his poems too. The Autodrifters stuff like "Big Jim" is fun. The Drifters, Lillie joined (well co created) after the Pelaco Bros broke up. I keep trying to locate Noel Crombie so he can pick the lucky prize winners tomorrow. I'm sure he'll turn up. Maybe I need to pray- after all some do indeed think Noel IS God. June 4thBanshee wanted to go outside early this morning, and of course I couldn't get back to sleep. My brain ticking over. So I'm a bit of a Zombie today. It's funny, 3 days out partying and I'm not too bad- one early morning rising cat and my yawning and tiredness happens all day.I head to the bakery, suns out over icy blue skies of Mt Dandenong. Strange that there are no bike riders on the mountain. I call in and have a coffee -see a few regulars which is nice. I manage to pen another smaller article for "Wipe The Sweat". So far i've managed ten articles for "10,000 Voltz" and 9 for "Wipe The Sweat". So around 5 more to do. Actually, that's a bit of a fib as I have about 5 half articles penned, so in reality it's more 10 before they are all completed. Love for Noel to be in one, maybe something obscure like him creating songs with Neil under the guise of The Ninnees and I'd cherish more detail on that very first set of Enz stage costumes - the more obscure the better when it comes to Mr Crombie. I want to know more about early Noel. But for the moment he is awol- and I really want him to pick the lucky raffle tickets... so I'm hoping he is back by the end of the day. I can see the headlines in The Age "God Goes Awol"! Ha. That's it for the moment. Snuggled and warm up here on the mountain XPeter P.S.- We are really excited, our Facebook page for "10,000 Voltz" + "Wipe The Sweat" fanzines just became active. New content and even a bit of Retro from previous Fanzines will make the page. You can find it here (and give us a "Like") : https://www.facebook.com/AustralianFanzines/ |