One of the most convincing marketing exercises to target club culture swung into Melbourne this week, set for a month or so’s worth of sessions featuring all sorts of incredible music makers and players talking up their sounds and giving hands on help to up and comers. Sydney’s Some Freak is there, drinking too much Red Bull and keeping copious notes on his blog:
So anyway, we wandered around and had our minds blown and it was time for the first lecture. And Paul Kelly (yes, that Paul Kelly) took to the couch and took us through Oz music, from the 60s through to the present day, with assistance from his son Declan. We heard music from The Triffids, The Cruel Sea, The Necks, TZU, The Herd, Yothu Yindi, Archie Roach, even John Paul Young got a look in. It was quite lovely to see this very gentle man play music he loved, managing to get across a sense of Australia at the same time, choosing songs that evoked the enormity of this nation, its youth, its issues (there were audible gasps amongst the visitors upon learning of the Stolen Generation), and its future. I always figured they’d get some Aussie guys in, and I was wondering who they might get. I never once considered Paul Kelly might be one of them, and he was absolutely perfect for the job.
