November 2003

Hello,

Has been a little while since one of these... been a bit distracted, holiday in PNG as well way laid me... been trying to write of late... doodling at the piano and putting words together... Haven’t done much writing for a while after the hectic 2002 of doing a Cake record and Hotel Radio and Nautical Forlorn and Tempted and Morning Star... loving the warm Melbourne weather... playing a bit of park cricket with my suburban team... gets me out of the studio and is a welcome respite from the music industry, other little bits and pieces... protecting my liver for the festive season.

Went to Rabaul and Bougainville in PNG last month... as always very life affirming... the latter for the first time staying with drummer Ben Hakalitz at his village in Selau on the northern part of the main island south of Buka. Tis an amazing story Bougainville... Still some catching up needed in regards to power, health and the like, but considering it was in civil war not that long ago, the reconciliation process and the resilience of the people is quite amazing. And even the much maligned PNG Government deserves some credit after their initial flirtation with the Sandline Mercenaries and dumping bodies from Australian helicopters. They have sought compromise and held talks with a wide range of the Bougainville people and pursued a path of peaceful reconciliation promising a referendum in fifteen years time. The CRA company however, who ran the Panguna Mine, and our Australian Government who supported their business should be feeling as guilty as hell for the blood they have on their hands. It was their greed and lack of respect for indigenous land rights that led to Francis Ona and Sam Kauona taking up the battle and forming the BRA.

Whilst there I listened to Fred Smith’s “Bagarap Empires” - I so recommend this record, some amazing lyric writing, and production that nails the experience of being in the Solomons and in Bougainville during the crisis. This is one of the great Australian records me thinks...

I caught up with this amazing guy from Arawa (near the Panguna mine) William Takaku, an actor and musician. William’s claim to international fame is that he played Man Friday alongside Pierce Brosnan’s Robinson Crusoe. William has recorded an album called “Chants from Morahe” which is one of the finest recordings I have heard come out of PNG. I am hoping to get it released on Blunt, the idea being to release the Black Paradise Stringband (the band from West Papua who came down for the Morning Star Concert), Telek’s new “AMETTE” record that Tim Cole and I are producing presently, and the William Takaku record at the same time. Three Melanesian releases advertised together... Maybe give a bit of presence to the music of our region...

Stayed with Glen Low in the Bainings, an hour and a half from Rabaul. His house, ten metres from a beautiful bay, right next to rainforest and mangroves... so beautiful... eating turtle, clam and coral trout, damn fine. Glen has opened up a recording studio at Kerevat called Southern Cross... going some way to replacing the wonderful Pacific Gold Studios that was destroyed by the volcano in 94, and giving a place for the many Tolais musicians who live in and around Rabaul.

On the way back from PNG I did a few gigs in Cairns including a great support with the Waifs at the infamous Kuranda Ampitheatre. Good bunch of people the Waifs, and things are working well for them... presently playing the states with “his Bobness”. Did a solo gig at Mission Beach... seaside bar, tres cool... If it wasn’t for their newspaper the Cairns Post, a regular to media watch, Cairns would be a great place top live... There’s enough culture there to offset the One Nation voters (and there’s a whole bunch of them) and Scandinavian ice cream shops!

Nautical Forlorn...
Yes the CD is out, via the web site link, or at selected stores... The photo (the don’t anchor here sign) was taken in Portugal, it’s a bit of a bookend to Projects... am happy with it... the mood, the sequencing, the collaborations with Helen and Phil and Byron and Bart Willoughby... Tracks 14 and 15 are arse about, so bear that in mind... It includes selections from “The Man Who Sued God,” “My Brother Jack,” “Cold Turkey,” “Yeperenye Festival” instrumental; orchestrations that are the basis for some of the tracks off Hotel Radio and a few other Enormodome fiddly bits.

The ARIA’s were priceless... So enjoyed being placed in the adult contemporary category alongside John Farnham... This has redefined my musical career and all subsequent work will reflect this… Expect bagpipes and the tossing of microphone from left hand to right... I think the Go Betweens and the Blackeyed Susans agree with me on this career change… The voting at the ARIAs made me think that it was TV week readers who voted not music industry peers... Especially loved Sony CEO Dennis Handlin being asked up on stage by Delta as a measure of thanks... Oh well, there was $25 million made on SMS messages from Australian Idol... Australian rock... is there anything it can’t do?

The plan for the continuation of the Hotel Radio story is to release a final single (On A Day Like This probably... tho Come Around is in the picture too) in March and tour the country in a number of different guises, that is solo gigs to full band and visuals shows... I promise we will play Perth and Tasmania this time.

Rik has already compiled the Act of Free Choice DVD, and we are about to start working up the Hotel Radio DVD and will release them as a joint package next year... am tres excited bout this... as those of you who have followed this wonky wagon around will know, the plan was to release the Act of Free Choice DVD from the beginning... We did surround mixes, films, the works... But for reasons unknown (apart from economic rationalism) this didn’t happen... I hope the films will make a good presentation... There’ll be a few little odds and sods both audio and visual to appease the trainspotters. Am playing Spiegeltent in Sydney next week and Queenscliffe festival Saturday and the Hepburn springs gig is being re-placed as we speak... shall inform of proper date.

Hotel Radio gets released in the UK, France and Germany in April and I’ll be playing shows over there in August/September next year... I look forward to that...

My Friend The Chocolate Cake are recording a new single at present and an instrumental to accompany a compilation cd for Australian release and tour in mid year next year (June /July) Cake will also be heading to UK and France doing the Edinburgh festival and Budapest.

And yes Not Drowning, Waving... we had a wonderful dinner the other night, all the crew... planning a remix album to accompany the remastered box set... tho maybe not released as a box set... if anyone has any suggestions for artists who would be appropriate to remix an NDW track... send em in, we’d be interested to hear... I’m tempted to remix Willow Tree off Claim myself and get rid of that f***ing 80’s snare drum that pompously sits over what lyrically is a rather humble song about back yards! We’re probably going with the vinyl mixes not the remixed cd ones... Except in the case of “A Selling of a Rock.” We’re going to do a tour that will include Homebake, one theatre/pub show in major cities and finishing at Womadelaide for good 2005.. We’re all looking forward to it... also I’m amazed at how big NDW are in PNG... At least we’re famous somewhere!!!

Scored a short film called Sweet Dreams and I am about to do a short French film directed by Bruno Andoque

Recorded a spoken word Australian verse poetry record with John Clarke this week... very amusing... the schtick is that most of the great world poets were in actual fact Australians... poets such as Gavin Milton, Very Manly Hopkins, Ted Cruise, Derek Benaud, Alain Frost and Stewie Smith... He’s a genius John, and an extremely pleasant gent... am still indebted to him for his piece that he did with Brian Dawe for the Morning Star concert.

The Dumb Earth recorded part of their record at the Enormodome... great band worth checking out... lots of piano in there... and Dave writes haunting chords and words

Attended the BHP AGM... part of John Hoard’s nation of shareholders now!... what can I say... board of directors earning pornographic sums of money snow jobbing the investors who I must admit are probably more interested in their dividends than the moral issues of how that profit was extracted. Having said that Andrew Denton, Jason Mcleod, Techa Beaumont from the Mineral Policy Institute and myself asked repeated questions about the Gag Island Nickel mine in West Papua and OK TEDI in PNG and I think it was effective shareholder activism and hopefully we have cut them off at the pass... Andrew is quite a formidable opponent... very eloquent and persistent and Don Argus (the CEO) knows that he has opposition here... watch this space... however it was pleasing to follow up from the Morning Star concert... thanks to all who came along and lent moral and practical support

International Day of People with a Disability show - 12-2pm 3 Dec 03 at Melb Museum... I’m doing a duet with Michael Ward from the Big Bag band...

Recommended... Been reading “Death of a River Guide” by Richard Flanagan and a book by his brother “Sport in the Time of War” by Martin Flanagan and David Marr’s book Dark Victory... I’ve been drinking Tanqueray gin, listening to the Langa Vibrations Stringband from Talase, Arvo Part, and the eponymous Orchestral Manoevres in the Dark cd, Fred Smith’s Bagarap Empires, The Catherine Wheel by David Byrne, Ruth is Stranger than Richard “Robert Wyatt,” Let me fuck your mind by DUFFO (Jeff Duff from Kush!), the remastered “Adventure” by Television... I think I would have preferred the all blacks to win the world cup... Australia is winning too much these days, it’s not healthy for us... and my eldest daughter is a kiwi… have enjoyed the world cup, reckon fiji and samoa played the best style of game to watch, (and would have done better if they were allowed to have all their players) but the irish, scots and welsh were pretty good too... but who ever coined the phrase “the game they play in heaven” is related to the dill who wrote “Oh the premiership’s a cakewalk!”

Saw the doco “Spellbound” which I’d recommend and the new Coen Brother’s “Intolerable Cruelty” is tres amusing especially the rabbit season duck season bit with wheezy joe at the end...

Stay well... til next time,
db