The Conversation
White Beach, Tasmania, December 2009
Better Take Cover
Men at Work have just lost a case brought by Larrikin Music, a song publisher who bought the copyright of “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree” from the Australian Girl Guides in 1990 and in July 2009 claimed that the flute riff in “Down Under” plagiarised it. Colin Hay and Ron Strykert are now facing a payout of up to sixty percent of their writers’ earnings from the song, depending on the judge’s final ruling.
Writing songs with a mate down under,
Looked around for some riffs to plunder.
Said to him, “Do you think we’ll risk it?”
He just smiled and handed me a Girl Guide biscuit.
And I said, “Ohhh! ‘Kookaburra’ is huge down under,
And one man’s ‘quote’ is a judge’s ‘blunder’.
Can’t you hear the reporters thunder?
We better run, we better take cover.”
Read More · 
5 February 2010 · 
· Music
Season's Greetings
A bit of a low-key end to a low-key year. I'd planned to do some sort of round-up of 2009 before the calendar flipped over, but it'll have to wait; been too busy enjoying the beaches on the other side of the world. Eight and a half years in Edinburgh, and I was away for its only white Christmas in all that time! Season's greetings, indeed. (Scottish pun which nobody else will get.)
Wherever you are, I hope 2010 brings you far too many good things.
Tweet Nothings, Part 4
Utter, utter, utter Popular.
Read More · 15 November 2009 · x1 · Music
A-ha! It must be Popular time.
Finally, some photographs fresh off the CCD rather than a year or more old. These are from Helensburgh, downriver from Glasgow on the Clyde, at around noon on Saturday. They aren’t tinted black-and-white shots: the sepia effect is from the camera’s cloud setting, with some minor tweaking of the contrast. Click for bigger versions.
The last few Popular hits of 1985 were up and down, but for me they evoke a particularly memorable time. What most brings back the year for me in chart terms, though, is scarcely to be found on the UK number ones chart. The Eurythmics were one touchstone, although I’ve already mentioned that Australia had the other hit from that album. Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” was another; I bought the 7”, and remember feeling slightly out of step in doing so, because it didn’t make the top five in Australia. Tears for Fears are a big gap, and there’s another band we’ll get to soon enough. I also bought and adored Simple Minds’ “Alive and Kicking”, which no doubt is too late in their discography to be cool, but sod that. (Hey, my favourite album of theirs is Real Life, so what do I know.) And although they never bothered the top ten, Killing Joke’s “Love Like Blood” and Night Time were huge for me that year, thanks to a mate at matric who put me onto them. He also introduced me to the charms of Who’s Next and Quadrophenia, so I owe him double; thanks, Sim.
A ho-hum run at Popular, with one or two exceptions.
October 2009