Charisma

..smile
and a good word for everybody does not qualify, I’m sorry. I’m talking
about real charisma, the sort that makes a room fall silent and the
hairs rise at the back of your neck.
Politics is a fertile ground for charismatics – and, of course, now that I’ve
used that particular derivation of the word, so is religion. I once saw Bob
Hawke in person late in his career with a bevy of acolytes, sleek and saturnine
in a silver suit, with his bodgie mane glinting in the sunlight. When even the
props are charismatic, you’ve got no hope. Tony Blair and Bill Clinton
are examples of politicians with charisma. Think Jack Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy.
Martin Luther King. Even Margaret Thatcher. There you go, a full house.
As the conversation went on, we wondered who was on the Oz music horizon that
possessed that indefinable something that marked him or her as a posssible replacement
for the late Thorpie – and then I remembered Tex Perkins. I met him once
at the Sydney airport and was immediately impressed with how tall he was, (TV
subtracts as well as adds), and then with his self-possessed manner and his
discreetly sonorous voice. I’ve seen him on telly a few times since, and
he’s never disappointed. He‘s in possession of a wry wit hinting
at debauchery, but you’re never quite sure. The music seems to come easy
– it doesn’t seem to be the be-all and end-all of the man. He has
an indisputable style and presence. I’m not sure about leadership qualities
though. Perhaps being so tall he doesn’t feel the need to exert his influence
like Billy the bantam did.
Then there’s Peter Garrett. I’ve met him a couple of times too.
To my recollection he spoke very little on both occasions, which made me feel
like a blathering chatterbox. He’s also very tall, but comes across as
quite gentle, in the same way as Gulliver was gentle in the company of Lilliputians.
The last time I saw him in a vaguely musical situation was at last year’s
APRA Awards. He came on stage to make a short speech and present an award. I
could feel the room collectively hold its breath. It was like an alien had landed,
and everyone was waiting for that tell-tale crack in the politician’s
veneer, or a conspiratorial wink as if to say it’s OK – I remember
where I came from.
He didn’t wink. He didn’t blink. The political camouflage was utterly
seamless. The whole thing smacked of a research department team briefing rather
than a home-coming. Too smooth by half – and it left the room totally
non-plussed, to the point that nobody could even discuss it.
But, charisma or not, Mr Garrett doesn’t speak for musicians any more,
no more in fact than he speaks for any of his other constituencies, having been
effectively gagged since before the election, so he’s not a contender
for the top spot on the Oz muso Charisma tree either.
Do we actually need a replacement? The last thing I heard Billy say (at the
Lobby Loyde benefit) was something to the effect that we needed to have a couple
block buster benefit concerts for Support Act because people’s tolerance
for benefits would only extend so far, and the certainty was that more and more
money would be needed to cope with the ageing muso population. I suspect that
Billy was the person to instigate such an event, just as he did the LWTTT tour,
the irony being that he died before he could get things moving in the right
direction (and even before Lobby, of course). Nobody has picked up the baton.
Maybe things need to get more perilous to trigger the ‘cometh the hour,
cometh the man’ scenario, but in the meantime I’ll keep my eyes
and ears open for that larger-than-life personality. Maybe you have a suggestion?