This was Franco’s Spain. The military dictator had brought in laws to limit freedom of association and groups of more than two people were not allowed to gather. We were in constant danger.
It was a restless, fitful time. At one or two or three in the morning I’d carefully ease out of bed and head for the loungeroom, well away from the sleeping family.
Andrew Starkie reflects on friendship, growing up, and The River: Pat introduced me to Bruce Springsteen in the garage at Monash Avenue. We couldn’t have been older than 12 and 13.
By the late 1980s, United We Stand had definitely moved into the extremely daggy category but there was just something about it that got the crowd going at The Candy. During the first verse, Irene would swan through the crowd trying not to strangle patrons along the way with what the girls deemed was the longest microphone cord in the history of the world.
I was on the verge of adolescence without sports or hobbies to keep me busy. All I had was my old anxious self and this new secret love.
Sometimes it’s only when you see a girl for the second or third time that you realise how beautiful she is. A song is a bit like that.
Dear Sgt. Pepper, You were released 50 years ago. That is more years than for which I have breathed this air.
Chisel got in the groove and just after the ninth repetition of ‘Saturday Night’ I yelled out the famous line: “Well if you don’t like it what are you doing standing there for twenty minutes for?” You should have seen the stares I got.
Darlene Zimbardi February 1992, New York City The cab stops; Peter runs around to open my door. Even though the doctor told me that everything was going to be fine, here we are just a couple of months later; I can’t even stand. Received: diagnosis. Lost: everything else. Pete bends over, gently lifting my body [...]
Thank you, Williamstown, for being so much a part of our show at the Williamstown Literary Festival on Saturday 17 June.