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The Australian Songwriter – Paul Kelly

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I have been looking to contribute again for a while and I have this Paul Kelly project in mind. I am aware that he is largely a non-entity in the UK but I also know that this place has curious and critical people.

To Her Door

Unlike most of the music I grew up with, I have no solid recollection of how I began tracking the music, the work and life of Paul Kelly. In Australia, he is regarded as the nation’s premier song-writer and he falls into a recognisable tradition of the singing -songwriting troubadour. He has a knack for the refreshed cliché . A personal favourite is “to be good takes a long long time; to be bad no time at all.”

Of course Dylan’s shadow looms large over anybody who strums an acoustic guitar, plays harmonica sometimes solo and often with a band but Kelly has sought to make a particularly Australian version of this tradition in a way that nobody in this country has even come close to. In terms of his topical range he is closer, much closer to Springsteen: dreams, travelling, love , desire , foolishness ( he’s great on » Continue Reading.

Yay! The Tories have been wiped out! *Australian version

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Wow. Six weeks ago polls showed Voldemortian Liberal Peter Dutton romping it in, to the point where he was making quips about moving into Kirribilli house, the Prime Minister’s residence. Last night saw one of the most extraordinary election results in Australia’s history as the incumbent Labour government was returned to power with a huge majority and the Libs booted into oblivion. Even more satisfyingly, Dutton lost his own seat (Dickson, where I live).

Dutton’s campaign was bizarre, the Libs being so smug and self assured of victory that they seemingly couldn’t bother stringing any policies together. Dutton had also spent the early part of the year aligning himself with Trump, then rapidly back-pedalling once the tariff wars started. If we can thank Trump for anything, it is whisking away the curtain and revealing the insanity of neo-conservative politics.

Gendered Violence in Australia: Stats vs the media

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Over the weekend there were numerous rallies in Australia against gendered violence, following a spate of murders in the first four months of the year (27 is the accepted number, although you will also see numbers in the 30s). I have a slight connection to one of these victims: she was the pre-school teacher of a close friend’s daughter.

I’m always slightly (i.e. highly) skeptical of media statistics on hot-button issues, so I decided to do a quick data analysis based on the information available (which is admittedly scant). I have the words Incident, Investigation and Learning in my job title, so I have some experience at looking for causal patterns across a range of events. I’m also VERY used to leaders/motivated individuals etc over-interpreting statistics and desperately trying to find causal commonality where none exists.

My data source included 27 murders of women so far in 2024. Of those:

– 7 were killed by partners/ex partners

– 9 or 10 were due to mentally-ill perpetrators (including the 5 female Bondi victims and 4 cases where mothers were killed by their children – three sons and one daughter. One was a patient at a hospital randomly killing another patient » Continue Reading.

Gabriel Bergmoser’s The Hunted and the rise of “Outback Noir”

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A few months back I caught Ted Kotcheff’s 1971 movie Outback (the best Aussie movie ever! If you’ve not seen it, drop everything and go and watch it!), and have been reading a fair amount of Aussie outback thrillers ever since.

Having loved both Jane Harper’s The Dry and Chris Sumner’s Scrublands, I couldn’t resist taking a punt when I saw Gabriel Bergmoser’s The Hunted for 99p on Amazon. Well worth it the book was, too!

The story concerns Maggie, a young Aussie woman desperate to learn what became of her mother following her disappearance several years before. Along the way she meets and befriends, Simon, a wimpy backpacker in search of “The Real Australia”. Persuading her gullible new friend to venture off the beaten track, the pair eventually chance upon a community of feral scavengers with a taste for what Royston Vaizey butcher, Hilary Briss, used to call his “special stuff”.

With Simon offed and her literally having bitten off more than she can chew, our badly injured anti-hero flees and is taken in by the owner of a petrol station in the middle of nowhere. Equal parts The Hills Have Eyes and Straw Dogs, the siege that » Continue Reading.

Bert Jansch in Australia – a puzzle needing a sleuth

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I’ve been searching out my original note to the BJ album ‘Downunder: Live In Australia’, for Earth Vinyl to use (with a few tweaks) on a forthcoming reissue, and I’ve found a longer draft of it with a few extra bits of info. It includes a note to self that BJ had, while in Australia in Feb-March 1998, recorded a guest appearance on a record by a female artist that I never got around to identifying at the time – Bert didn’t recall the name (his Oz bassist Pete Howell’s arranged the session), but it was Australia’s equivalent, to Bert’s mind, of Big Mama Thornton.

Johnny C, Junior, others down there – any ideas?

It’s the Shane Pacey Trio!

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Having just been in touch with the Pacemeister, late of this parish, I thought we should catch up with his activities downunder. Shane tells me he’s been doing really well in the Aussie blues chart with his Trio’s latest album, and his form band the Bondi Cigars have a comeback album on the go too.

Here he is in fabulous form a year ago. (There are plenty more recent vids on youtube, but I just loved the feel of this one, and it’s atmospherically filmed.) That Pacemaker – he’s a class act!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q87_BcC8fds

Melbourne Bar Owner Apologises For “No Poofter Drinks” Sign

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Here’s a strange story. You might expect it in North Queensland, Alice Springs, or the untamed outback of Western Australia, but not in sophisticated Melbourne, recently voted the world’s most livable city.

Can’t say I’m all that outraged by it, other than thinking such a crass sign does damage to Australia’s already rough and ready image overseas. Watch this go viral now. I’ll wager it’ll be on Have I Got News For You this time next week.

What’s a “poofters drink” anyway? Babycham? Port & Lemon? Half of Shandy?

“Australian musician and Fitzroy bar owner Steve Miller has issued an apology following outrage from punters who were offended by a menu featured at his venue, Handsome Steve’s House of Refreshment, that read “no poofter drinks”. Miller, former guitarist of post-punk ’80s band The Moodists alongside Dave Graney, Clare Moore and Mick Turner, yesterday apologised for the sign on the bar’s Facebook page. “

“I unconditionally apologise for any offence I have caused,” Miller wrote in a statement. “

http://themusic.com.au/news/all/2015/10/26/melbourne-bar-owner-apologises-for-offensive-sign/

Lynton Crosby Masterclass

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Lynton Crosby is the election strategist behind The Tories and Boris Johnson. His reputation has been considerably enhanced in the last couple of days. This video lasts an hour. It is very illuminating. It’s a pity the other parties didn’t watch it. They might have learnt something. Or, at least found out what to expect.

If you have a bit of spare time, give the video a spin….

Aust v India

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14 overs in of the Indian run chase and I hate to say it I’m tipping India.Ball going through straight ,Aussies fucked up and should have put on another 50. Stadium packed with Indians – could be Mumbai by the sound of it and the Indian team seem like they have been here for the last 5 years so pretty comfortable with the conditions.