WAITING ON A FRIEND by THE ROLLING STONES. Story by Jim Roberts
We play a lot of good music, drink far too much, eat fabulously. Most of all we keep stoking the fire to keep the old house warm and our friendship ablaze. A good red helps with that.
HELP! by THE BEATLES Story by Aimee Chan
One of my strongest memories is the pure joy we got out of making each other laugh. Belly laughs that happened while you hung upside down on the monkey bars were even more hilarious.
A MOMENT’S GRACE by BOY & BEAR Story by Jesse Maskell
…the crash site, barrel-rolled down the hill at 100 Ks an hour, a miracle we both walked away over a year ago now, sorry for the van, I hate Grafton now…
Almanac Music 4: friendship and The River
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.
WOULDN’T IT BE NICE by THE BEACH BOYS. Story by Lucia Nardo
We engaged Joie's Mazda 818's unofficial air conditioning—two windows down and eighty kilometres an hour—and raised our voices in chat and song over the wind streaming into the car.
Moondance by Van Morrison
In a clandestine operation my wife had left me and took everything but my beloved stereo system in the lounge room (including 500 or so records and a CD collection that was rapidly catching up) and, in the spare room, a single bed.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John. Story by Maria Majsa.
21 Swan Crescent, Pakuranga 1974Under all the fairy floss, trouble is lurking. There are wrong turns, regrets, situations that are easier to run from than face. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is about escape and it wasn’t lost on me that the first place I heard it was my favourite place to escape to
Words From Robin To Batman by The Kill Devil Hills. Story by Anson Cameron
Anson Cameron Basement Discs, Melbourne, 2012Rare times, a hole opens in a life and a song appears from nowhere to fill it, explain it, exploit it… a fluky medicine - the voice you needed to hear at the moment you needed to hear it. Sometimes you blunder onto a song that fits the need.
Wide Open by The Chemical Brothers
Fiction by Jesse Maskell Falls Festival, Victoria, 2016The best moments are supposed to be ahead but this is it. In five hours I’ll be head-in-an-ocean Chemical Brothers play Wide Open 40 minutes into their set and I’ll look around for Karti, Caitos, through the dim flashing crowd seeing iconic hero friends in moments.
Wavelength by Van Morrison
Vin Maskell Geelong 1979, Melbourne 1982We were talking and Van was singing. Tom, maybe you talked about your family, whom I’d never met. And maybe about your father, your distant, distant father.