David Oke
Anglesea, 1984 and 2010
Anglesea β Victoria. The population is about 2500 but swells to about 10,000 over summer. Itβs famous for beaches, kangaroos on the golf course and being a very popular coastal holiday destination.
Brian Cadd, the elder statesman of Australian rock and roll piano playing, said that he played his first professional gig at the Anglesea surf club back in the 1960s. In the farewell performance of Crowded House on the steps of the Sydney Opera House in 1996, Paul Hester gives a shout out to Anglesea. More recently band members from King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Forever Son and Jarrow all have connections with Anglesea. Back in the late 1970s I had one of my first public music performances there too.
From late 1978 to late 1986 I was on a βbeach missionβ team called THEOS. Run by a Christian organization called Scripture Union we regularly set up a coffee shop, initially in the old corrugated iron scout hall near the camping ground. The purpose was to provide a safe alternative to the pub, to share some conversation, provide refreshments and perhaps share a little of our beliefs with people who were interested. The overhead netting, smell of raisin toast, sea grass matting and the salt air on a warm summer evening provided a good backdrop to the nightly live musical entertainment. THEOS had also set up at other nearby resort towns such as Lorne, Queenscliff and Torquay, our rival neighbor (give or take 20 kilometres).
My first performance, back in β78, was to provide some guitar accompaniment to a young lady singing John Denverβs Country Road. We used to get big crowds in every night for the ten days, from just after Christmas till early January. It was a popular meeting place. There was a great vibe.
We were careful in selecting music that had appropriate messages in the lyrics. There was lots of Neil Young, James Taylor, Dylan, Cat Stevens and a smattering of gospel too. We always tried to include something from the popular charts.
In about 1984 one of our favorites was Goannaβs Razorβs Edge. The melancholy, but crisp, guitar introduction and sentiment in the lyrics about being careful with life decision-making and not living dangerously, matched our philosophy. It was an appropriate song and Goanna was an almost local act. Shane Howard, the main songwriter and lead singer, was a couple of years ahead of me at Deakin University studying education. Goannaβs Spirit Of Place album was very well known.
Got a letter from Davie just the other day
‘nd the note just read, “Please come to Byron Bay”
Well the heart says ‘Go’ ‘nd the head says ‘Stay’
‘nd the big wheels just keep turnin’ everyday…
Don’t go livin’ on a razor’s edge
Or tryin’ to touch the sun
‘Cause you’ll just fall for that same old trick again β
There has always been a bit of rivalry between Anglesea and the neighbouring town Torquay. I think that it is more than the local netball, football and lawn-bowls competitive spirit.
Torquay is βflashyβ, bigger, has the shire council offices, lots of surf shops, restaurants and sure gets more attention at Easter when the Bells Beach surf carnival is on. Anglesea people pride themselves on the facts that it has maintained a βsmall-townβ and close-knit community feel, it has a natural beauty and βbush meets the seaβ character that Torquay has lost and has many attractive visible natural features such as kangaroos, wildflowers, ducks on the river and parrots. As Anglesea is land locked by the sea, national park, reserves and camping grounds there are fewer opportunities to reside there.
Taking all this into account, you can see why the third verse was always our favourite:
βLuluβs too tired of living down beside Torquay
Sheβs getting herself together financiallyβ¦.β
When singing the song at THEOS we would always, in our tongue in cheek style, change the lyric to:
βLuluβs too tired of living down beside Torquay
Sheβs getting herself together to come to Anglesea β¦β
That always got a laugh.
Roll on about thirty years to 2010. Every year the Anglesea Music Festival had a name artist to finish off the weekend proceedings on the Sunday arvo: Joe Camilleri, Ross Wilson, Brian Cadd⦠But the first one, in 2010, was Shane Howard.
In the crowded marquee my friends and I stood shoulder to shoulder not too far from the stage listening to some great songs from the Shane Howard Band, anticipating that he would perform Razorβs Edge. My friends had always enjoyed our colloquial change of lyric.
When Razorβs Edge commenced we looked at each other and sang along. In the third verse our singing got louder and our hand gestures got Shane Howardβs attention. He smiled. Even if he didnβt really hear what we were singing our collective memory of that song and the summer of our younger years sure made us smile too.
Β© David Oke. More stories by David Oke
David Oke
David is a Melbourne musician, retired music teacher and primary school teacher and member of the Sleepy Hollow Blues club. His debut Stereo Story was about playing Great Balls of Fire at Sun Studio in Memphis. He has assisted in the organisation, and leading of gospel music workshops and Sunday gospel celebrations at the Anglesea Music Festivals, and is a member of The Seddon Jammers. His son Dan is the creative force of the band Jarrow.
Wow, David, I had almost forgotten about THEOS, that tin shed we would all call into on our way back to the caravan park from the pub.
I spent plenty of time over summer in Anglesea from 1981 through 1986, so it is likely that our paths did cross at some stage.
How great was Spirit of Place? It was a soundtrack through those summers.
That’s amazing Smokie! Great times, great memories and great music in Anglesea, so much so that my family are still down that way a lot. The THEOS team lived in the caravan park too. We had a big marquee and tents next to the oval. THEOS now operates on the riverbank during Summer providing something to do for teenagers. I am not part of that program. Spirit Of Place is special to that era but I also have great memories of acoustic covers of Men At Work and Mondo Rock songs too.
Thanks for the interesting story David. I’ve taken the ‘Anglesea’ reference on board.
They were great Summers on the Great Ocean Road and Anglesea, as you say, has retained its small town, bush charm. The trio spent several weekends at a beach house in Anglesea working up my most recent album, Deeper South. It’s still an important place with a great spirit.
Shane thanks for taking the time to read my stereo story. I am feeling quite honored. I hope that my change of your lyric in Razorβs Edge was not too offensive!
Thanks also for the way you have, and continue to entertain us with your music but also challenge our thinking about the environment, our world and the way we treat others through your wonderful songs. It was delightful to read that you too enjoy the beauty and spirit of Anglesea. Given your musical talent and experience Iβd love to read a stereo story from you that gives an insight into either one of your songs or a song from someone else that has been significant in your life journey.
I too have great memories of Goanna band and their music. A Goanna band groupie perhaps traveling between Melbourne gigs from Richmond and Lower Plenty, it was the music of my late teens early 20’s. As was many Melbourne bands. The Live music scene in Melbourne was vibrant in the 80’s. And fun to be apart of. But here I am living in Anglesea, with vivid memories of Theo’s at the caravan park . I know Dave Oke and his family well now, did I back then, perhaps? My favorite Shane Howard gig was also the Anglesea music festival. Certainly relived some memories but still just great music. His music still gets played in my car and I will enjoy the new album as I drive our beautiful coast knowing it was inspired down here. I love the thin threads of life.
Maz, my earliest Goanna memories would be from my university days when they would play in Geelong at places like the Valley Inn Hotel. I shared some Deakin music experiences with a guy who was once a bass player in Goanna. Isnβt it wonderful that Shane does not seem to be relying on the βnostalgiaβ gigs but is still a prolific songwriter who still appears in various festivals and performances across the country. I too feel that the best Shane Howard concert I have attended was the same one you mentioned at the Anglesea Music Festival a few years ago.
I’m from a hippie town in Far North Queensland. I used to listen to this all the time in junior high school. Up there, Shane Howard’s views were the norm and not something revolutionary like they probably were in the burbs at that time. Anyway, I worked weekends for eight years as a waitress in a dive tourist restaurant where you could get away with recycling the salad garnishes for 6 weeks straight (and we did) by rinsing them and storing them in ice water until the following weekend because nobody from Japan or anywhere else that frequented that joint ever visited again. Well I was the youngest on staff and the crew I worked with all reminded me then and now of the characters in Razors Edge except my workmates were all well and truly on the razors 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 … that’s just a few of them. I wanted out of that town and didn’t want to end up like them and I did leave and go on to better things. But 35 years down the track it sort of looks a whole lot different. They had a freedom that very few of us have now even those who live outside conventional mindsets.
Like a lot of songs from that era I believe this song plays quietly at the back of the national consciousness. Here’s an example. Tonight my husband was tinkling on the guitar. He’s a conventional boy from the burbs so the likes of Huey Lewis and Van Halen were on his playlist back in the day and definitely not Goanna. Anyway he’s strumming away and all I could hear was a variation on the Razors Edge guitar intro. I asked him what he was playing and he said he was just experimenting. Then I put Razors Edge on Youtube and he looks up and says “Gee, that sounds like what I’m playing doesn’t it.” So there you go.
Can’t believe I’m a 44 year old Australian who has only just heard Razor’s Edge. Making up for lost time by having it on repeat for about a week as I work away. Captures a lot of the feeling of 2020 I reckon.
I am sure there are others out there that are unfamiliar with this song Mitch. If you get a chance have a listen to the other Shane Howard stuff. Heβs a great songwriter. You are right that it is relevant to when it was released all those years ago and relevant to life now.
Iβm 68 now.
When the song came out I thought it was catchy not really absorbing the lyric content which is always a diabolical flaw. I rediscovered it about ten years back. Itβs now a weekly staple, bordering on βclassicβ by my own rating. I hope Shane Howard and all other members of the band are doing well.
Lindsay, I too have had Razorβs Edge grow more on me over the years, and I too include that song on my regular playlists. Iβm just a few years younger than you. I too consider this song a βclassicβ due to its musicality and the memories that it brings back to me. Goanna had a huge number of members over the years. According to his website, Shane Howard is still writing, recording and performing where possible in these COVID times. I play a bit of saxophone and last July turned up at a jam session at a pub in Rokewood, Victoria. In the house band on the day was a guitarist named Graham Davidge, who played in Goanna at the time of their Spirit Of Place album. He certainly was doing well and still playing beautifully.
We opened our MEMO Music show on Sunday 9 January with my story about Solid Rock. When the gig finished, and we were packing up, Razor’s Edge was playing over the PA. The sound engineer, a youngster, said he’d always liked the Spirit Of Place album, so he found Razor’s Edge for the post-gig music. Nice touch!
Loved reading this David. Quintessential Aussie summers and music, with heart and Spirit.
Thanks very much Peter. As I wrote in my story Razorβs Edge certainly stirs up summer memories from an earlier time. Likewise, youβre spot on with the heart and spirit aspect too.
I thought Torquay is the one at Hervey Bay as Living in Queensland and Byron Bay is mentioned so I thought the song was about those locations, not the Victorian Torquay?
Fair point, Karl! Whereas, growing up near the Victorian Torquay, and knowing Goanna were from south-west Victoria, I assumed the song referred to the southern seaside town. I didn’t know there was a Torquay near Hervey Bay. Let’s see what David makes of it! Cheers. Vin M.
Hi Karl
Like Vin, I hadnβt ever considered the Torquay in the Hervey Bay area as a location in Razors Edge. Geographically, it makes sense as it is way closer to Byron Bay. However, as already mentioned, Goanna sprouted from the Victorian surf coast and the pace and culture of Torquay (Victoria) at that time equally matched the sentiment suggested in the song. Likewise, for the purpose of my story I had always considered it to be Torquay, Victoria. Thanks for bringing this to our attention Karl. It is a worthwhile piece of information to ponder.
Maybe we should ask the songwriter himself!