Lifestyle "1983 Redux Zeitgeist Surf School"

[3KZ is Football]

It was/is a cool story true......however the serious young insect part goes on to say.....
That is the first time writing the story down and I didn't seek any publicity or recgonition because:
A/I don't particularly like what the press do in Australia. It's happened too many times. I've been the 'Bunny' of writers perceptions in major Art reviews which albeit were positive but were so wrong, have experienced the 'tall poppy' spite of the Murdoch press when I won the Murdoch Travelling Fellowship*and you had a perfect example about the current writer, writing the 'History of the Art Scene' in the Maine to see it's always I think going to be the case.
B/ Publicity steals time away and distracts from creative flow. I loath explaining what I am doing when I am doing it. I consider 'Creativity', Art requires a balanced carapace between the intuitive and the practical manifestation. I find it impossible/uncomfortable/perverse to step away from 'IT' to be analytical by 'explaining myself' without a good measure of time passing for digestion and guardianship. Even though training at Art School is in part, all about staking your claim with your work theoretically, let alone banging the ego drum it is antithetical as to who I am.
(Nutshelling; A picture tells a thousand words, please just leave me alone to be, do and see, I don't need the interferance or want it. To do it is enough.)
C/I really was brought up with the old fashioned Australian "Quiet Achiever' ethos. The 'just get on with it' which is the opposite of the steamrolling 'I am the greatest' monocultural positioning of self.
A side serve of irony is that here I am explaining myself publically but then I do have an oblique mission in doing so.
D/It's complicated by the fact that my younger sister is a very famous Milliner (cover of Vogue for her first collection), part of the founding of the FDC** and even if it isn't the first or last time she's taken clues to run with from me, I would never, ever throw my family into disarray over staking claims to territory publically or privately. I have learnt to tollerate the mischeviousness of setting up sisters against each other for the sport of others entertainment, by just moving right along.
Pammikins, does reveal a penchant for being obtuse, obscure and observing...pasque c'est amusente pour elle mais oui!

All that being said, this isn't the only untold story by the ethernet campfire and the Artist Prince had many a moment of being willfully misunderstood. His stance against the exploitation of publishing behemoths is but one, with the ridicule he endured in changing his name to the symbol as a by product of it.
I admire not only his Art but his intelligence, determination to make his own way as an Artist and his $%#@ it individuality.

I did get to see him play in 1992 on the 'Diamonds & Pearls' tour in Australia and then go on to the secret show at the HellFire Club, as one of my friends was the then president of the Melbourne fan club and had a hand in organising it ( the only time I have been in that club as it definitely wasn't my scene) that was amazing to see the difference between the big public show and what he did in the private show and the mundanity that he was so tiny up close and personal.
And I did line up at a small record store in Soho NYC in 1988, to buy the orignal underground 'Black Album' the week it was released on a very limited basis, that took a lot of detective work. I had to buy the cassette for travels sake damn it. That was sheer coincidence in timing or maybe it wasn't.....

The equivalent of Mozart in scope and talent, Prince was one magnificent allrounder & showman guitarist extrordinaire, as shown by the ending of this clip.

*That complete story will not be told here for professional privacy.
**Post #34

The Murdoch part of this post indicates that you might need to buy some merch…

The Shot Shop

The official shop of The Shot website.

theshot.store

 

[Braklet]

Hey Pamcake1 and 3KZ is Football, our old pal sends his regards:

"Hey Brak - please pass on to 3KZ is Football & Pamcake1 my appreciation for my new favorite Big Footy thread,

1983 Redux Zeitgeist Surf School

Hope to post in it one of these days.

Cheers, Sun Ra"

 

[Pamcake1]

Future Reverse Road Trips, Are We There Yet File;
1974-75

Kraftwerk Autobahn 1974. Single version (revelation is the full version)This is a concurrent out there on the avant garde road linkage;



The Whole Earth Catalogue Access to Tools
The Whole Earth catalogue 1968-72 Vol 2 1974-75
First Publication of the Earth as viewed from Space

Access to Tools.
(Kind of as there was no way of getting that stuff or service as advertised in Australia then)

"American counterculture magazine and product catalog published by Stewart Brand several times a year between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. The magazine featured essays and articles, but was primarily focused on product reviews. The editorial focus was on self-sufficiency, ecology, alternative education, "do it yourself" (DIY), and holism, and featured the slogan "access to tools"
Steve Jobs compared The Whole Earth Catalog to Internet search engine Google in his June 2005 Stanford University commencement speech.
“When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation ... It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along. It was idealistic and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.” Steve Jobs Ref; Wiki

They talk about it being Google before Google but how about it’s also the prototype of Amazon.

Op-Ed: The invention of Google before Google — a radical mail-order 'Catalog'

Original
Front Cover 'Access to Tools'
Ground breaking as it's the first time the image of the Earth from Space is used anywhere.
“The broad interpretation of "tool" coincided with that given by the designer, philosopher, and engineer Buckminster Fuller,’ Ref;Wiki
Back Cover 1974 ‘Stay hungry. Stay foolish”




The Updated Last, last one
Really?
Front Cover; The Earth shadowed by the moon. With 'Evening Thanks Again' at the bottom in fine print.
Back Cover; "We Can't Put It Together. It Is Together'
(Positivity Spin, as the world was spinning out.)

 

[3KZ is Football]

Future Reverse Road Trips, Are We There Yet File;
1974-75

1975 Tasmania Trip.

For the first school term in 1975 my dear Mother (whose shoulders I stand tall on amonst others) took all of us 4 kids out of our schools and with her then boyfriend and another friend, we headed off from Castlemaine to Princess Pier to board the Empress of Australia.
This 'Mum' adventure, a 3 month tour bush walking/camping tour, going right around Tasmania in the Kombi* was made possible by the fact that she was a qualified teacher and legally had the right to take us away from the standard education & educational authority. This wasn't 'Bull' we were each equipped with a fresh exercise book and we had lessons such as mathematics, calculating distance/fuel/map co-ordinates, writing, history and drawing. (I know she kept these books but don't know if they have survived my Mums penchant for a good purge of stuff.)
The crossing was rough, I started throwing up pretty much straight away, which set off my younger sister and we vomitted our way across the Bass straight non stop. (I laugh about it now but it was so horrific Mum put us both on a plane as unaccompanied minors for the return..my first plane trip..yet another scary story in a Foker Friendship).
Arriving we headed straight for 'Tea Pot Gully' outside of Devonport to one of Mums cousins (she had 50 first cousins but it could have been a second cousin).
He had built a huge white geodesic dome out in the bush and that's where we stayed for the first 4 days....us kids didn't get the rustic futuristic luxury of parsimonious pleasure staying in the dome as, as usual we were sleeping in our staked out spots in the kombi.
My Mother was a proponent of Buckminster Fuller and that obviously ran in some of her extended family and I have to seperate explaining my Mum and her influences/references into a seperate post as they are extensive and adventurous.
One of the books I grew up with was the Whole Earth Catalogue** which was just one of the many books she bought into the house in 1974. I believe this was also the first time it was available in Australia. I was facinated as was my brother, for me it was more with the illustrations and weird ads for him it was how stuff worked.
As to Mums adventure trips and there were many, practically every school holidays as well as weekends, they always were a little scary, as she would always be looking in Real Estate windows wherever we went and we would always be subject to ideas of pulling up sticks and moving there. We came close, so very, very close to moving interstate...TAS, NSW, SA & QLD were on the cards let alone elsewhere in Vic. It's a running joke between all of us now but the move actually did happen one too many times and we started revolting against the 'Free Gypsy' leanings in our early teens.

*Family's second kombi and first brand new car in 1970 Chrome yellow with a white roof 'Deluxe Micro Bus' model reg; LDK 391
**The original I have packed away somewhere, plus the updated last edition copy (photos) plus a thinner 'suppliment' copy and the also rarer alternative school manual they published att.
The 'Say You want A Revolution?' 2019 exhibition at the Melbourne Museum had only a 'Suppliment' edition on show, with the label that it was the original version....Phftt.

Kraftwerk Autobahn 1974. Single version (revelation is the full version)
This is a concurrent out there on the avant garde road linkage;



The Whole Earth Catalogue Access to Tools
The Whole Earth catalogue 1968-72 Vol 2 1974-75
First Publication of the Earth as viewed from Space

Access to Tools.
(Kind of as there was no way of getting that stuffor service as advertised in Australia then)

"American counterculture magazine and product catalog published by Stewart Brand several times a year between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. The magazine featured essays and articles, but was primarily focused on product reviews. The editorial focus was on self-sufficiency, ecology, alternative education, "do it yourself" (DIY), and holism, and featured the slogan "access to tools"
Steve Jobs compared The Whole Earth Catalog to Internet search engine Google in his June 2005 Stanford University commencement speech.
“When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation ... It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along. It was idealistic and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.” Steve Jobs Ref; Wiki

They talk about it being Google before Google but how about it’s also the prototype of Amazon.

Op-Ed: The invention of Google before Google — a radical mail-order 'Catalog'

Original
Front Cover 'Access to Tools'
Ground breaking as it's the first time the image of the Earth from Space is used anywhere.
“The broad interpretation of "tool" coincided with that given by the designer, philosopher, and engineer Buckminster Fuller,’ Ref;Wiki
Back Cover 1974 ‘Stay hungry. Stay foolish”

View attachment 1887732 View attachment 1887734


The Updated Last, last one
Really?
Front Cover; The Earth shadowed by the moon. With 'Evening Thanks Again' at the bottom in fine print.
Back Cover; "We Can't Put It Together. It Is Together'
(Positivity Spin, as the world was spinning out.)

View attachment 1887735 View attachment 1887736

Lots here … but I want to say “JINX” on first plane flight. Mine was 1974, Melbourne to Devonport and on a Fokker Friendship. I was playing in a basketball tournament.

 

[Pamcake1]

Lots here … but I want to say “JINX” on first plane flight. Mine was 1974, Melbourne to Devonport and on a Fokker Friendship. I was playing in a basketball tournament.

View attachment 1887889

And I could have said Jinx on more than a few tunes on your latest top 25 list.
The flight was scarier than the boat as we had really rough weather, my little sister was fine and I was not. Then I got locked in the toilet because it had a dual locking combination system on door, that I could not figure out try as I might. I was knocking on the door till the stewardess realised and could tell me how to get out. There were tears for fears.

 

[Pamcake1]

1983 Compilations
A collection of 4 production values range from the slick to the bargin basement.


The Breakers '83
Produced by Polygram Records
This Compilation 1983 Produced by Polygram Pty Ltd Distributed in Australia by Polygram TV Merchandising Division.
Each photo on the back has a copyright of the year, either 1982 or 1983 and the individual record companies representing the artist.
CBS, WEA, WEA Iternational, Inner Vision Records, Regular Records, Sire Records.
Three have instead 'Album Soon to be Released.'



Hit After Hit
Concept Records Rare Double LP.
Concept in Pyrmont Sydney.
Strong & obvious Copyright warning on back cover.
Produced in Association with C.B.S Records Aust, EMI Aust. Limited, Polygram Records, Virgin Recaords and Mushroom Records.
Songs identified on back with up to 4 asterisks and key 1984, 1983, 1985 CBS Inc & 4 1983 Grammofoon Platten GmbH Holland (The last "Only Shooting Love" by the Time Bandits).
Inner fold has each song listed in plain black and white type with the writers names and full lyrics.
Weirdly there is no order or numbers to these song lyrics or LP side breakdown.





Women Of Rock
K-tel 'limited collectors edition' (on inside label)
Strong & obvious copyright label warning on back.
Manufactured under licence in Australia RCA, EMI, Polygram & Festival Records.
K-Tel International based in Pyrmont NSW.

This is the first Women only compilation I know of.
By 1983 Feminism had become a marketing oportunity.




Go For It. 2
J & B Records Australia.
The fine print on the licencing agreement is so fine as to be redundant.
You would need a strong magnifying glass to read it but it's there.
This is the cheapest design and production but has rarer or different tracks than the others. Absolutely no cover appeal.
A weird mix so was this a random top twenty selection, a licencing availibility selection or possibly what JB HI-Fi noticed was popular and selling.

.

 

[3KZ is Football]

Great work Pamcakes1. I have the first one, which I picked up in an Op Shop a long time after 1983. I’ve never seen the others.

 

[3KZ is Football]

- The Border Mail
PM OF THE PEOPLE: Bob Hawke on his visit to Wodonga in January 1988 for the opening of the Australian Bicentennial Exhibition set up near the racecourse. PICTURE: ANDREW GREVIS-JAMES






1988 - Playlist

Looking back, 1988 was a year that gave many Australians a brief cultural sugar rush in the form of the Bicentennial celebrations, but left me and many of my peers feeling distinctly unimpressed. Samuel Johnson proclaimed that "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel" in April 1775 and he was getting no argument from me 213 years later. At times the media gave me the sense that we were living in a very long and very pervasive margarine commercial, where we ‘ought to be congratulated’ ad nauseam for being the ‘come on Aussie’-est place on the planet.

What actually cut through all this hoopla for me was the willingness of some journalists, a small number, to revisit the plight of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through the lens of the Bicentenary. Many of us heard the voices of First Nations people who made it clear they had nothing to celebrate.

Looking back, it was a year of flux … for me at any rate. Out of and in love again, taking a leave of absence from my post-grad studies, Fitzroy didn’t make the finals and I was still recovering from The Smiths breaking up in June the previous year. It was a year where there was a lot of oscillating between having it all worked out and being dazed and confused, in a quizzical kind of way.

I actually had a mix tape I made that year called “1988 SPINNING HARD” - many of these songs were on it.

1. Suedehead - Morrissey
2. Everyday is like Sunday - Morrissey
3. Destroy the Heart - The House of Love
4. Freak Scene - Dinosaur Jr.
5. Crash - The Primitives
6. Sidewalking - Jesus and the Mary Chain
7. Gigantic -The Pixies
8. Victoria- The Fall
9. Pop Song 89 - REM
10. Get Up - REM
11. Stand - REM
12. Teenage Riot - Sonic Youth
13. Streets of Your Town - The Go-Betweens
14. Ana Ng - They Might Be Giants
15. Elephant Stone - The Stone Roses
16. Peek-A-Boo - Siouxsie and the Banshees
17. Carolyn’s Fingers - Cocteau Twins
18. Mountain Song - Jane’s Addiction
19. Motor Crash - The Sugarcubes
20. Just Play Music - BAD
21. If I Should Fall From Grace With God - The Pouges
22. Waiting for the Great Leap Forward - Billy Bragg
23. Sexuality - Billy Bragg
24. I’m Interested In Apathy - TISM
25. The Mystery of the Artist Explained - TISM
26. Punk Rock Girl - The Dead Milkmen

 

[Pamcake1]

1988 The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane
Released Aug 1988 on Mushroom Records Aust. & on Beggars Banquet Eng.
6th & Final Album




Single; Streets of Your Town
Original Video (There is another)



The Song that blew up the Go-Betweens.
The Song that was the distillation between two lovers in love at the time of writing it.
The Song where only one of those writers is credited because that was 'the deal'. It wasn't a fair deal.
The Song that is blamed for causing a bitter rift between the two former writing partners. Where one feels betrayed by the other because the other has found someone else to write a gem with. The woman gets blamed even though the drift to the rift was already well underway. The 'wronged' party didn't see it at the time, didn't see the evolution of his writing partner, didn't want anything to change and couldn't accept it when it did.
The Song that blew apart the lovers who wrote it. The relationship could never survive the outside pressures in the band, let alone the usual industry pressures of survival of creative production in the cold hard realities of a shark infested marketplace.
The Song that is so sweet to the ears, that you would be forgiven for misinterpreting the intended message of the writers and believe that it is about your/their town and the longing for the lost love/place. Nostalgia Hooks SHIIIINNNNEEE. Why wouldn't you interpret it in your own prism of understanding or linking it to a time and place in your own life. That's a natural human trait.
The Song that signals the dichotomy and the irony of 'Nostalgia'; nothing's changed everything's changed.
The Song who's video above has stepped over the divide of which town is it in Australia that you identify with. I can see Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane Streets. Are there any others, I can't tell because of my lack of familiarity of place. Streets in your past, in your own memories of the nostalgia one holds for self anchoring.
'They' were pulling down our towns all over Australia in the 1980's and it hasn't stopped.


'The Streets of My Town When Melbourne Became Only A Facade' 2000.
I have been taking photos of what's disappearing in Melbourne for a long, long time. This photo was taken on my daily walk from home in Carlton to my studio in the Nicholas Building (37 Swanston Street Melbourne). This was what is left of the Myers facade in Lonsdale Street when they gutted it. Leaving just the 'facades' I consider that it is a special torture of memory and place. A lot of Melbourne has become a 'Potemkin village' that has doubled in size in my short life span and lost so much of it's specific 'home town' comforts and essential quirks under the weight of exploitive financial development and hot-housing of 'designed' planning.

The Go-Betweens a band that was brilliant and a band that self imploded under it's own brillance.
In one way that is a shame but nothing lasts forever so enjoy it while you can and the Art /Songs survive and are forever alive.
The Below is referenced from an article by Andrew Stafford in the Guardian.
I have picked out the only surviving writers quotes the other writer Grant drank himself to death.
The Double JJ article is also a good read.
The Book by Robert Foster I recommend.
It's very good but it is his take. Lindy Morrison has a totally different take that is just as relevant.

The writing
"Streets of Your Town was written in Sydney shortly before the recording of the Go-Betweens’ sixth album, 16 Lovers Lane, in 1988. Grant McLennan was in a relationship with multi-instrumentalist Amanda Brown when he wrote it. It was unusual in that the band’s co-founder, Robert Forster, had not heard the song before it was brought to the group. McLennan died in 2006.
Amanda Brown (violin, guitar, oboe): “Grant and I were living together in Bondi Junction in Sydney, and that song was written very quickly in our sunny top-floor flat … It was written in, I would say, 10 minutes. I was singing along and I sung that ‘shine’ line, which is like the call and response answer in the verses, and that’s pretty much it – that’s how it came about. And I don’t collect any songwriting royalties for that song, because that was a condition of my joining the band.”
Amanda Brown: “Well, I’ve got a few things to say about that. Firstly, is it important? It’s quite a universal thing, which is how the controversy or perhaps the misconception has come about, because everybody thinks it relates to their town.”
Amanda Brown: “There’s reasons for and against. First is the title, Streets of Your Town, the possessive noun there being, I think, in relation to me. But the song’s bridge – They shut it down, they pulled it down – Brisbane people of that generation would feel that keenly, with Cloudland and other beloved buildings being torn down in the dead of night by the infamous Deen Brothers. In Sydney, it was the beautiful Regent Theatre. There’s also the line I ride your river under the bridge, and I take your boat out to the reach – it could relate to Brisbane, of course, being a river town, and Sydney more commonly being known as a harbour town, although it does have rivers as well.”
Amanda Brown: “It’s a widely misunderstood song, in the same vein as something like [Bruce Springsteen’s] Born in the USA – people think it’s that kind of patriotic, parochial sentiment. It’s actually very dark, with the lyrics about butcher’s knives and battered wives. There’s a lot more awareness of domestic violence now, so it’s a very relevant song.”

Guardian
‘It’s a widely misunderstood song’: how the Go-Betweens made Streets of Your Town


ABC Double J:
16 Lovers Lane should have taken The Go-Betweens from cult favourites to household names - Double J

Book;

Grant & I by Robert Forster

Grant & I is the story of the friendship and collaboration of Grant McLennan and Robert Forster, who gave Australia The Go-Betweens, one of our best and most influential bands. It was named Book of the Year 2017 by Mojo and Uncut magazines.

www.penguin.com.au

 

[3KZ is Football]

1988 The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane
Released Aug 1988 on Mushroom Records Aust. & on Beggars Banquet Eng.
6th & Final Album

View attachment 1888200


Single; Streets of Your Town
Original Video (There is another)



The Song that blew up the Go-Betweens.
The Song that was the distillation between two lovers in love at the time of writing it.
The Song where only one of those writers is credited because that was 'the deal'. It wasn't a fair deal.
The Song that is blamed for causing a bitter rift between the two former writing partners. Where one feels betrayed by the other because the other has found someone else to write a gem with. The woman gets blamed even though the drift to the rift was already well underway. The 'wronged' party didn't see it at the time, didn't see the evolution of his writing partner, didn't want anything to change and couldn't accept it when it did.
The Song that blew apart the lovers who wrote it. The relationship could never survive the outside pressures in the band, let alone the usual industry pressures of survival of creative production in the cold hard realities of a shark infested marketplace.
The Song that is so sweet to the ears, that you would be forgiven for misinterpreting the intended message of the writers and believe that it is about your/their town and the longing for the lost love/place. Nostalgia Hooks SHIIIINNNNEEE. Why wouldn't you interpret it in your own prism of understanding or linking it to a time and place in your own life. That's a natural human trait.
The Song that signals the dichotomy and the irony of 'Nostalgia'; nothing's changed everything's changed.
The Song who's video above has stepped over the divide of which town is it in Australia that you identify with. I can see Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane Streets. Are there any others, I can't tell because of my lack of familiarity of place. Streets in your past, in your own memories of the nostalgia one holds for self anchoring.
'They' were pulling down our towns all over Australia in the 1980's and it hasn't stopped.

View attachment 1888206
'The Streets of My Town When Melbourne Became Only A Facade' 2000.
I have been taking photos of what's disappearing in Melbourne for a long, long time. This photo was taken on my daily walk from home in Carlton to my studio in the Nicholas Building (37 Swanston Street Melbourne). This was what is left of the Myers facade in Lonsdale Street when they gutted it. Leaving just the 'facades' I consider that it is a special torture of memory and place. A lot of Melbourne has become a 'Potemkin village' that has doubled in size in my short life span and lost so much of it's specific 'home town' comforts and essential quirks under the weight of exploitive financial development and hot-housing of 'designed' planning.

The Go-Betweens a band that was brilliant and a band that self imploded under it's own brillance.
In one way that is a shame but nothing lasts forever so enjoy it while you can and the Art /Songs survive and are forever alive.
The Below is referenced from an article by Andrew Stafford in the Guardian.
I have picked out the only surviving writers quotes the other writer Grant drank himself to death.
The Double JJ article is also a good read.
The Book by Robert Foster I recommend.
It's very good but it is his take. Lindy Morrison has a totally different take that is just as relevant.

The writing
"Streets of Your Town was written in Sydney shortly before the recording of the Go-Betweens’ sixth album, 16 Lovers Lane, in 1988. Grant McLennan was in a relationship with multi-instrumentalist Amanda Brown when he wrote it. It was unusual in that the band’s co-founder, Robert Forster, had not heard the song before it was brought to the group. McLennan died in 2006.
Amanda Brown (violin, guitar, oboe): “Grant and I were living together in Bondi Junction in Sydney, and that song was written very quickly in our sunny top-floor flat … It was written in, I would say, 10 minutes. I was singing along and I sung that ‘shine’ line, which is like the call and response answer in the verses, and that’s pretty much it – that’s how it came about. And I don’t collect any songwriting royalties for that song, because that was a condition of my joining the band.”
Amanda Brown: “Well, I’ve got a few things to say about that. Firstly, is it important? It’s quite a universal thing, which is how the controversy or perhaps the misconception has come about, because everybody thinks it relates to their town.”
Amanda Brown: “There’s reasons for and against. First is the title, Streets of Your Town, the possessive noun there being, I think, in relation to me. But the song’s bridge – They shut it down, they pulled it down – Brisbane people of that generation would feel that keenly, with Cloudland and other beloved buildings being torn down in the dead of night by the infamous Deen Brothers. In Sydney, it was the beautiful Regent Theatre. There’s also the line I ride your river under the bridge, and I take your boat out to the reach – it could relate to Brisbane, of course, being a river town, and Sydney more commonly being known as a harbour town, although it does have rivers as well.”
Amanda Brown: “It’s a widely misunderstood song, in the same vein as something like [Bruce Springsteen’s] Born in the USA – people think it’s that kind of patriotic, parochial sentiment. It’s actually very dark, with the lyrics about butcher’s knives and battered wives. There’s a lot more awareness of domestic violence now, so it’s a very relevant song.”

Guardian
‘It’s a widely misunderstood song’: how the Go-Betweens made Streets of Your Town


ABC Double J:
16 Lovers Lane should have taken The Go-Betweens from cult favourites to household names - Double J

Book;

Grant & I by Robert Forster

Grant & I is the story of the friendship and collaboration of Grant McLennan and Robert Forster, who gave Australia The Go-Betweens, one of our best and most influential bands. It was named Book of the Year 2017 by Mojo and Uncut magazines.

www.penguin.com.au

View attachment 1888205

Brilliant post Pamcakes1

I love The Go-Betweens. It’s hard to know where to start. I seem to remember hearing “Lee Remick” on 3RRR when I was still at school and when “Your Turn, My Turn” was released that was it for me. I was all in. The attraction was amplified by the fact that The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley was, and still is, one of my favourite novels.

The album, Send me a Lullaby was released just as I was finishing first year at uni and it was an incredibly affirming record. I recognised a band I could engage with on an intellectual, experiential and musical level. The six albums they released in the 1980’s were each unique musical gems. So many great songs. So much joy.

Naturally, when they played The Ballroom, I was there, but I didn’t see them live as much as I would have liked. The last time I saw them was in Feb 1989 when they supported REM at Festival Hall in Melbourne.

I love the Go-Betweens. I’m heading to the beach for a week on Saturday and I am going to play each album, from Send me a Lullaby to 16 Lovers Lane straight through as a joyous form of immersion therapy.

 

[3KZ is Football]

February 1989 - The Go-Betweens and REM on the same bill was an amazing gig. It was absolutely boiling in Festival Hall.

The cab ride to the gig was wild, but that’s another story.

Here is REM’s Setlist. They were brilliant. Three ‘Encores’ - Thirty songs!

R.E.M. Setlist at Festival Hall, Melbourne

Get the R.E.M. Setlist of the concert at Festival Hall, Melbourne, Australia on February 12, 1989 from the Green Tour and other R.E.M. Setlists for free on setlist.fm!

www.setlist.fm

 

[Pamcake1]

Brilliant post Pamcakes1

I love The Go-Betweens. It’s hard to know where to start. I seem to remember hearing “Lee Remick” on 3RRR when I was still at school and when “Your Turn, My Turn” was released that was it for me. I was all in. The attraction was amplified by the fact that The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley was and still is one of my favourite novels.

The album, Send me a Lullaby was released just as I was finishing first year at uni and it was an incredibly affirming record. I recognised a band I could engage with on an intellectual, experiential and musical level. The six albums they released in the 1980’s were each unique musical gems. So many great songs. So much joy.

Naturally, when they played The Ballroom, I was there, but I didn’t see them live as much as I would have liked. The last time I saw them was in Feb 1989 when they supported REM at Festival Hall in Melbourne.

I love the Go-Betweens. I’m heading to the beach for a week on Saturday and I am going to play each album, from Send me a Lullaby to 16 Lovers Lane straight through as a joyous form of immersion therapy.

Indeed, that's a good question, where do you start on a band that IMPACTED and spoke intellegently to us at the time?

Mined the coalface of culture that was both local and universal in references.

A unique 'voice' that rang out clear and loud for some, cutting through the dross, signposting an individualist identity as well as incapsulating an Australian identity at that time.

The fact that people still wonder why they never had commercial success, that it was an example of & a distilation of, the cruelty of Australia's cultural dessert....that Australia would prefer to keep funding and fostering sport over art...keep it simple stupid, whatever you do don't let them be entertained and question the fundementals....that might cause dissention, doubt, disillusion, disolving the social pact of ignorence that keeps everyone in-line and entertained.
I will qualify myself here to say I believe sport has a place and it should not be a one or the other situational argument.
I can only engage and live with debate that isn't an us or them, black or white...that recognaises the 'positions' but goes beyond to explore territory of thoughts and can live with paradoxes, because 'things' are complex.
Shoot me or don't...I'm not going to nourish the lowest common denominator or pretend that I am even interested in pretending to be other than wearing my sophisticated bolshie intellectual costume (perfection isn't part of the fabric of said costume).
If I wanted to fly under the radar I would but back to where I was now.

The horrors of loves gone wrong. Thats multiple because there were so many layered one on top of the other.
The shafting of the women.
Again that's a multifacited thing.......can I be bothered to explain the saying "beware the feminist man" ? No.
Do I want to get into a debate about it when people may stake out territory in defense misunderstanding that I will debate from a humanist point first and then a 3rd generation 'feminist' point following that....and it would be too long and I would waste precious time dwelling on old fallow ground......so again No.
These women were shafted and shut down and are still being so, the current rising of the new 'misogyny' is so very frightening, so I will shut down right here on that morsel of thought.

There's a few 'reads' from me..there could be so many other prisms that I could read it through...so many more shades to the rainbow of the mind...............'time it's trick is you and me'
And now I'll do a costume change into my street clothes....cause I've got to get out and about.

Enjoy your aural nostalgia trip down at the beach.
The gift of music that I find to be magically wonderful is that songs while holding memories are always alive to new ones.

 

[3KZ is Football]

“Indeed, that's a good question, where do you start on a band that IMPACTED and spoke intelligently to us at the time?”

Songs like this are universal and timeless. Both on the masterpiece, Tallulah (1987)

 

[Pamcake1]

1962 The Southern Cross Hotel
Crn Exhibition & Bourke Streets Melbourne
Closed 1995 Torn Down 2003

This is personal; I am affronted that they trashed the mid century gem of Melbs, they trashed 50 years of history and memories. Not just my memories everyones memories of 50 years of Melbourne.

My most favourite building in Melbourne that is no more.
Built while I was gestating, opened the year I was born, I was born less than 2km's away from the geographical place, so many memories of being there through the decades.
Going ten pin bowling underneath as a young teen. Continually crossing the plaza always as a short cut through. Hanging out in the plaza as it was alwys a centralised meeting point.
And the Bar.
I loved the bar.
The peacocking of the midcentury design the luxury of stylised 60's atmosphere that was built in and didn't change on whims of do-overs.
From 1980 to the end this was my bar of choice in Melbourne.
Quiet (though I had an outrageously crowded party there for a birthday...vague on which one, I'll get back to it if the memory file is accessable)
Roomy, clean, you could smoke (and the air was still fresh) you weren't hassled by creeps, the service was classy and the sophistication of the orignally designed acoutrements all in place...branded and well designed coasters, matchboxes, serviettes, menus the lot. Price Point it always was excellent affordable value for money.

I introduced so many people to it...it was the perfect time capsual... my perfect bar...central to everything...and totally fine to have sandwiches and tea at...drinking alcohol was not obligatory....my kind of place.....the cocktails were perfect....everything was perfect and they pulled it down.
I could cry even now at the shortsightedness of kicking out the gold tooth of Melbourne........but instead you are going to get my non judicious tour of the joint, not in an order of perfection because this format isn't that designer friendly for me to spend hours right now getting it right but here you go a go to whoa tour, not everything I have more (it's a long loved object/subject).


Memory Lane Files; The Southern Cross
A selection of photos with some minimal commentry.
Et Voila......

Architectural Model



Post Card Shot



View From the Plaza




How It looked in the 80's




MY Favourite Melbourne Bar Of All Time




The Monolithic Modernism Facade Shot




Main Design Logo..on Drink Coasters etc.



The Company that conceived and built it.
And Yes, my middle name is Anne so this is also one of my AKA's.




The Matchbook (I still have one from back then)




These shots are part of a postcard book as are the interior ones. Slick Original Merch.



Construction shot 1961





What was on the site beforehand melbourne's Eastern Market...My Dad remembers this back in his day.




The Plaza
Bowling alley entry to the right and then down another floor
(I might be a little wrong in exactness there but hey I'm not infallible I'm human)




1964 the Beatles on the terrace Exhibition St.


They tried to stop a heritage listed building being torn down, they lost, the battles are still going on eg. Queen Victoria Market...and we are still losing the cities soul.



Opening Publicity.
Newspaper Article commemorating the opening by Keith Dunstan who wrote for all the Melbourne newspapers in his career and was a unique Melbs voice.

‘This new building is certainly different. How can I describe it? In drab Exhibition Street the Southern Cross stands out like something imported from the Gold Coast, or Florida.
The bedrooms look most comfortable. As a special concession to Australians, one can open the windows, in defiance of the air conditioning. The passages on alternate floors are in blue and gold, and there are 7 different colour schemes in the rooms.
As you walk through the concourse of shops, inside there is a courtyard, away from the madness of the streets. In the centre there is a garden and a waterfall sculpture. It is really its own city, on Exhibition Street.’
– Keith Dunstan, ‘Walkabout’ magazine, July 1962

General Information in just the one article for futher reading
Australian food history timeline-Melbourne's Southern Cross Hotel open

Interior Designer Neal Prince
Southern Cross Inter-Continental Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, Mr. Neal Prince, International Hotel Interior Designer.

 

[Pamcake1]

If I had to attach just the one song to my Southern Cross Post it would be this classic:

 

[Braklet]

If I had to attach just the one song to my Southern Cross Post it would be this classic:

Them had a high ginger quotient, I've heard your people use the term "ranga" (which for the longest time I thought had something to do with 'ranger' ... )

 

[Pamcake1]

Them had a high ginger quotient, I've heard your people use the term "ranga" (which for the longest time I thought had something to do with 'ranger' ... )

That or they used to call anyone with red hair Bluey.
Not a bluey but named them individually that.
As in the contrary...another Australian way say the opposite...just for laughs. And we are a contrarian loving lot....it's the Irish bones down here that inform a lot of the why.

 

[3KZ is Football]

Released yesterday - The Jesus and Mary Chain ‘Chemical Animal’. Brooding.

 

[3KZ is Football]

Book and DVD

THE LOST CITY OF MELBOURNE

www.thelostcityofmelbourne.org

I’ve got a Readings Bookstore voucher that is burning a hole in my wallet and I notice they stock the book. The documentary can be streamed through the website (above).

Seeing I’ve started my day in librarian mode, I’ll continue.

If you are a member of a local library or university student, I recommend downloading and joining ‘Kanopy’. It is free and you join with your library card / student card number and details. You then have free streaming access to the aggregated film and documentary holdings of our public libraries and universities. It is fantastic for documentaries, foreign and art films, old film noir classics and lots more.

Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries

kui

www.kanopy.com

 

[3KZ is Football]

For the Go-Betweens’ Robert Forster, the beat goes on despite ‘The Situation’

He lost his best friend and Go-Betweens co-founder in 2006. Now the love of his life has cancer. Their creative response has produced his riskiest album yet.

www.smh.com.au

A good read. From January last year.

 

[3KZ is Football]

 

[3KZ is Football]

I woke up at 5am this morning, which wasn’t my plan, but I have been productive. Finished a song and dusted this off.



It was a ‘reading’ from my undergrad course and I seem to recall enjoying it. The fact that it’s still in the personal library says something.

 

[3KZ is Football]

Book and DVD

THE LOST CITY OF MELBOURNE

www.thelostcityofmelbourne.org

I’ve got a Readings Bookstore voucher that is burning a hole in my wallet and I notice they stock the book. The documentary can be streamed through the website (above).

Seeing I’ve started my day in librarian mode, I’ll continue.

If you are a member of a local library or university student, I recommend downloading and joining ‘Kanopy’. It is free and you join with your library card / student card number and details. You then have free streaming access to the aggregated film and documentary holdings of our public libraries and universities. It is fantastic for documentaries, foreign and art films, old film noir classics and lots more.

Kanopy - Stream Classic Cinema, Indie Film and Top Documentaries

kui

www.kanopy.com

Re: The Lost City of Melbourne - I went to Readings to buy it and they advised that there are issues with the text in the current print run. They have used gold type on black paper and for whatever reason, there are numerous pages that are unreadable. I had a look and it is really bad. Strange that it is still on the shelves. New edition (readable) is coming out in March.

 

[Pamcake1]

 

[3KZ is Football]

Today …