Anthems are sung – New Zealand gets three verses one in Maori and two in English to Australia’s single chorus. Hymns are sung with embarrassed and tremulous Australian accents. The service, my first for about 60 years, is lead without apparent irony by a Vietnamese minister; there is a moving address in a Scottish accent,…
..subject to the fashions of the day and it’s only the occasional performer who manages to transcend fashion. Dutch’s pithy advice to Geoff Achison to ‘play what you know’ is all you really need to know, but Dutch’s bigger-than-life personality surely played a part in his becoming the quintessential expression of Aussie blues. It’s a…
..for somebody who is not my uncle, my aunt or my uncle’s client. I have friends who have permanently separated but still go out together, even sleep together, although presumably only on cold nights. It all seems very modern and, as divorce impacts at least a third of all marriages, nothing unusual. It may be…
..such a hideous social faux pas that I’ve been known to clench manfully and sit on it for the entire evening, squeaking surreptitiously, no doubt.. But, back to Sleep. At a dinner party the other night I was obliged to pitch my rock opera, The Jellabad Mutant. It’s a palpable deficiency, given the business that…