The Life and Times of Peter Green
Archive: 23 October - 5 November 2017
"Halloween- 2017-Kalorama-The Pumpkin didn't stand a chance."
October 23rdI had a chuckle as Molly read out the Skyhooks poem on Countdown-all the way from 1980. I remember Mark and myself sat in the Toorak flat with some Skyhook mates writing out fake letters to get the band on Countdown. 120 of them including THAT poem. It worked, the Tony Williams line up got to host the show and Molly did indeed have egg on his face. Funny that piece resurfaces time after time all these years later. I only cringe slightly. The original poem in our Skyhooks Archives.George Young dies, songwriter, record producer. A sad loss. Age 72. We find out that Judith McGrath died as well, from our beloved Prisoner tv show, also aged 72. We are having our Prisoner marathon all 692 episodes. Bad news from home. Dealing with it from this distance. October 24thImproving our diet a bit. Enjoying the Kefir from the Culture Company. A probiotic, about a billion healthy cultures in each serve. It's like turkish yoghurt-I've been adding it to fresh pears and soon, home picked blackberries every day. Some of our friends are in bad health , I don't want us to join the list- so a few changes are good.Booked our air tickets home for Christmas, it's coming up fast. Driving back from Montage with Marky and one of the wild peacocks stops our car- its in the middle of the road, slowly walking along, life is cheap for that kind of bird. I stop and usher the stubborn thing off the road way. October 25thChristmas is coming up soon so I'm ferreting about in the office , wall spaces, underground lairs , band member rubbish tins, looking for items for the traditional Giant Christmas Stocking. I love that we can make 1 lucky fans Christmas truly amazing. It's become tradition and each year we have managed to create a super prize pack. This year I'm adding in a little surprise pack from my own collection. I'm even designing and painting up the box. The list of goodies will go out via the clubs VIP email service, but you can also email me (peter@frenz.com) and grab some details. I really do feel like Santa when I get to tell a fan they've won it. Usually Noel or Nigel from the Enz picks a winner, but if Neil etc are in town they happily play barrel boy.October 26thOnce again Pink just slays them at the ticket office, Australia can't get enough of her , I think she's up to NINE Rod Laver Arenas. Her last tour here, she sold 650,000 tickets. She does put on a fun show. More power to her.It's a grey wet old day, and I find it very hard to wake up, very odd dreams. We went out and did the supermarket shopping late last night, so few humans around, we like that. October 27thMark resurrects our old Split Enz Sweetwaters cassette tape. It had endless joins, tape and really on its last legs. I'm impressed that he even managed to get anything from it, but he does and some of it is really great. The kiwi crowd of 1981 just adored the Enz, true heroes and they get a heroes welcome. We decide it would be great for the fans if a few songs go up on You Tube .My Mistake : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyLbIOW35VQ AND Whats The Matter With You: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0rYFzfFhl4 October 28thThe "T" key on my keyboard is crapping out, I'd forgotten how many words have a "T" in them. So I have to keep checking that it is working. I've cleaned it but time for new keyboard I think. Excuse any words on this diary, missing a "T" !!!!!!!Spend part of the day going through the rest of the cupboards and other areas finding more stuff for the giant Xmas stocking. If people only knew how much time I spend putting this together every year. It's crazy but really positive for the fans. I emailed Neils office to try and get a Neil + Liam signed tour poster for it, I like the poster design. I use my climbing rope (Yes think of Batman scaling the building) and start cleaning out the drains on the side of the house. Hell it really is so high up here. I get Mark to send up the camera and take some photos from the roof. Our neighbour Martin waves to me from his house, I put on a show for the locals. Did I really moon walk on the roof? I loved the book and so hoped the Jasper Jones movie would be equally great-and it is. The majestic sounds of the aussie bush in the background-add so much. Try and see this one if you can. Excellent aussie movie. October 29thEpisode #7 of Countdown, 1981 this episode. Still laughing at how bloody terrible Daryl Somers single and performance was. Who convinced that muppet he was a singer. Truly tragic, but it was good for a belly laugh.Miss Banshee decides she wants to spend the night sleeping on the couch- too cute to disturb. October 30thThe Liberals are now behind in 22 consecutive Polls. Only 8 more to go and that will be the same number as that total loser Tony Abbott & Fizza Turnbull opens himself up for a good old fashion Liberal knifing. Right on time for the Kmart Christmas knife sale.Spotted some of Dr Leah Harcourts exotic rainbow designed letter boxes. Such awesome work. Her company is Blue Bower-worth checking out. 77% of voters have now returned the Same Sex Marriage non binding expensive survey (Phew). Quietly staying confident. October 31stHappy Halloween.It's meant to be 3 degrees tonight and rain, so no Halloween Party for us. But Kalorama trick n treaters are a tough lot, so we add some ghosts etc outside and some special Halloween bags. Still wearing our Jason Voorhees hockey masks from Friday the 13th. I always thought Jason was a bit whimpy with his machete , so I'll be carrying my axe tonight. I found a good use for the last of my home made Italian cooking sauce, nice and gory smeared on my axe blade. Take a few photos inside, a hell of a lot of tea lights down our hallway and those wooden panels look stunning. The pumpkin this year has our Halloween cat design on it, a very quick carving. I put on my "outfit" and sink the axe into it as Mark very patiently takes a snap. Our first treaters arrive, the best young Frankenstein , a Ghost and a cute Fairy girl with vampire fangs. They are not even scared by us. They ask if my axe is real. I lie and say No, Fairy Girl might freak out, or turn and use it on me. She tells me we have the best trick & treat bags. Cute kids. By 8.00 everyone of our T/T bags are gone. The first time ever that we have ran out. Obviously the cold didn't keep them away this year. On the stroke of midnight, I have a selfie with Marky in our Hockey masks. What a fun night. November 1stGood to see we can finally release a few of the Neil & Liam Finn dates. The NZ tour looks brilliant, small shows all around both islands. Meanwhile the Zoo shows here are selling out, three for Melbourne now. Hopefully we can announce a few more Australian dates soon...and possibly overseas. Liam will keep dad on his toes-Ha! Then again Liam is a dad now too, we are all getting older.November 2ndI start filling the new used stamp donation box. This time it helps the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children. A nice freshly painted box -empty and ready to fill. So please mail any stamps to : Peter C/O Crowded House- PO Box 50 , Kalorama VIC 3766 Australia. I have to say it's really strange having an empty box, so use to the old one being 80% packed. No doubt our incredible supporters will soon fill it.I work on my micro light project, using copper wire and tiny light nodules. I call them my fire fly eggs. I've wrapped a hand painted "mystery box" in them, which is full of secret goodies from my own collection, for the giant end of year Christmas Stocking. Trying to make it extra special . Over half the tickets have gone for this massive prize pack .. Someone is going to have a beauty of a Christmas. November 3rdMark is so spoilt -this great parcel arrives from Wendy in QLD. I'm at a loss to how lucky he is-thanks girl x. It really made his week.No surprise that they have found a 30 metre long cavity in Khufus great Pyramid. Its about the same size as the Grand Gallery that leads to the Kings chamber. I bet it gets announced that its multiple smaller rooms . So wonderful that after all this time the Pyramids are sill managing to surprise people. I do love Egypt. First main polling for the Queensland election arrives, Labor are ahead. Lets hope the QLD public open their eyes and see what a terrible party One Nation are-so unstable and not a fiscal bone in their political body, Hanson's just the Liberals lap dog. Woof. Looking good for Amazon Australia to finally start on Black Friday- lets hope it finally happens here. November 4thUp a 6.00 and bake some fresh bread. I dropped a bread tin and caught it with my foot, before it clanged and woke Mark. (phew).I see Miss Banshee sitting in a tree staring down the circular drive. Two female Jehovah's Witness approach. I thought she was going to do a "drop bear" and jump on their heads. I was nice to them, I usually hate religion being forced and invasion of my space + home , but what the hell, nice was easier. As I headed towards the bakery they gave me a happy wave. To each their own. We watch T2-trainspotting and what a relief -it was great. Excellent soundtrack again. Ewan is still a very sexy man a 46 isn't he! ? I make homemade Pizza for dinner. Pears for desert. I'm enjoying that the world is giving me some space, well except for the Jehovahs. ! November 5thMark gives me an USB with some cool footage by The Runaways. Joan Jett singing lead on School Days, from Top Pops-1977 , mighty!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVuQ27jwlsc&feature=youtu.be I work in the office for the whole of Sunday -playing catch up again. A few emails around the Giant Xmas Stocking and Neil shows. Head home early to cook some Indian casserole-pick a pile of broad beans from my garden for it. Perfect timing so we can settle in and watch Classic Countdown. Sometimes it's good to hide from the world. xP |