My workmates were all well and truly on the Razor's Edge in one form or another. Ex druggies, pregnant at 15, split multiple marriages, wild Lebanese girls on the run from strict families in the southern states...
During our correspondence in 1988, the Church’s Starfish LP came out. We both fell in love with it immediately, especially the song, Under The Milky Way.
We didn’t always talk about music as I sensed a history there Stephan was keen to let rest, but it was fun when we did.
It was a typical example of a poky old corner pub with a strong local identity; often, it was packed out on band nights. Usually, we’d play from 8.30 till 11.30 pm, with a couple of small intervals, and the price of entry was $2 – yep, $2!
Life on the river, people rarely understood me. Transistor radio, Rod and Imagine. In just a few short years I could be doing something I don’t believe in.
Summer Love is a glorious example of perfect power pop. This is what a breaking ocean wave sounds like when represented musically.
Deirdre quoted from a hit song of the period in a letter the four girls wrote to me, passed on by Joan on one of those afternoons walking home from school.
Given the strength of his own story-telling, it’s not surprising that Paul Kelly’s songs have inspired several Stereo Stories.
Greedy Smith was the biggest dag in a band full of dags. They looked like they didn’t take anything seriously, yet they made some ripper records.
Split Enz were considerably more interesting in their earlier period.