I was made for Afternoons

Feel free to play along . . .  1. O f all the bands/artists in your cd /record collection, which one do you own the most albums by? Outright winner in all categories would be Paul Weller - from the Jam through the Style Council and in to the Solo years. AND he's finally coming to Perth in August!!! :) 2. What was the last song you listened to? “Regret" by New Order, which just flicked across lastfm .com 3. What’s in your record/ cd player right now? The new Walter Becker Album "Circus Money" 4. What song would you say sums you up? Today it would be Simply Red "Money's too tight to mention" but generally I think Paul Weller's song "Into Tomorrow" pretty much sums me up getting a bit older but having a fair bit of faith in moving on up. 5. What’s your favorite local band? Eurogliders were pretty damn awesome and souly funky aussie band. Grace Knight had great pipes, and although Bernie couldn't play guitar to save himself, he knew hi...

so i leave school full of plans for music girls n more music break my arm on the holidays before so magically avoiding doing my audition for the course survive first 1/2 of semester date a lovely girl get close breakup but we're still friends even now go on a camp meet another girl get really close we go out for a couple o years she is great lots of love n well, you know wot young people do . . . lots of music besides that playing my horns during the day reading the scores and discovering debussy n saint saens n satie early music n renaissance stuff experiment with sackbuts n the like enjoy being arty farty n almost being encouraged to do so start playing on some peoples tapes n cd's not an easy gig for a young muso heres the track heres the key we want you to play something cool here no not that no not that either oh thats sort of it oh forget my ideas -what do you want to play? anyway sure you get the idea it was fun sometimes i got paid sometimes it was for love sometimes it...

yeah well the eighties you sorta had to be there I guess don't wanna dwell too much on school it was there so was i got beat up a bit usually 'cos i was a muso and not a sporty dude sang in a genuine working church choir learnt my trade there taught my ears to work to hear inside the sounds to sing harmony to love the purity of early music n chant yeah it was a good footing but also i learnt the faith through singing these ancient words of motets n masses n magnificats the eighties for seemed to be a schizophrenic moment between the classical music world of my school life choir n clarinet  n my discovery of the rock world just beginning to come into bloom it is still taking years for me to try n bring these two into some sort of harmony or maybe realize I don't need to  they can feed each other without me having to perform some sort of symbiotic dance anyway i woke up singing shout to the top one morning and that was it went out and bought the style councils cafe bleu that...

right o mid seventies becomes a shocker all disco n glitter punk comes n goes somethings remain the same i'm at school learning  sorta fitting in not so great at sport not so bad at thinking very good a la musica parents doing hippy charismaticy christian thing didn't do it for me still doesn't shocking photo of me mid seventies wedding brown corduroy flares gold skivvy brown desert boots bronze medallion no wonder I wanted to be a mod when I figured it out anyway those few years pass i dig lego start recorder playing read lots myths n legends n narnia n earthsea my faves if those names mean nothing to ya then get yourself together and by the texts dr who fills my imagination and almost suffocates me then  almost to the day i can remember  new years eve 1979 heading into the eighties my old dad and i still up latish watching the telly i'm about 10 1/2 and on comes a retrospective of "popular music" in the seventies not much I recall except  afros n gui...

I was 6 months when the super seventies began started innocuously enough i guess all nappies n bottles n terry toweling wonder suits i was probably happy then all my needs met i guess then inevitably you start to grow memories become firmer become clearer the house we lived in sorrento victoria on the coast - wild and woolly life-taking back beach summer holiday makers learning to read little bro pk turns up and so begins another adventure we lived there till 75 only real memories are of Suzy the dog a thundery night hiding under a table n doing belly flops in a little paddling pool outside not much hey? anyhoo we move to reservoir on melbournes outskirts so begins some of my obsessions working classness inner city life liturgy n church music . . . apparently we'd go to bed and then mum n dad would put on lps i'd float out of bed like a moth to a flame n lie outside the lounge room doors n fall asleep listening to the sounds guess i just couldn't fight it huh? School too...

(thanks to Kilbey for the idea...) 1969/70 man lands on the moon woodstock, mud n madness altamont, death and decay of the dream vietnam in full flight some coming home alive,  some coming home in bags in the midst of it all out I come few weeks early trying to poison mother not my best move but nonetheless it all seemed to work out... arriving on a sunday my dad racing from church to see me apparently fighting with nurses n all n sundry to get in not the done thing in those days -  men were to pace the corridors n wait with the other blokes not feel comfortable with being there but things were changing even then n my old man, the european in him always seemed to win out embrace the new regardless so there he was with  the Mr Hattam catching the end of the action. seems I was a happy enough bub ate too much even then (you should see the pictures - the michelin man in action!) born in inner city melbourne  st andrews its funny how when i get back there i always love those suburbs they a...