You may be wondering why I’m blogging about AC/DC. I don’t even like heavy metal! Well, seeing the hundreds of fans on the train over the last few days has inspired me to write about the legendary band Acca Dacca! When I was in Year 8 or 9, I was “in love” with a boy named Ethan, he used to do BMX bike tricks and he liked AC/DC. I think that we were even “going together” for a week (or maybe that was my imagination). He did let me borrow some of his AC/DC cassette tapes, I duly played them on my Walkman and pretended to enjoy them. Anyway, more than 20 years later, they are still as popular as ever, with 3 generations of fans (so it seemed on the trains) and they’ve been following me around all year. They arrived in NZ while I was on holidays there and now they are in Sydney. Anyway, if you’re a fan, I’m sure you have relived the glory days in the past week at the concerts in Olympic Park. And I’d really like to thank them for a writing a song about me too 
Whole Lotta Rosie!
I’m going to see George Michael in concert next week. I’m very excited! I saw a photo of him leaving Catalina Restaurant in Sydney a couple of days ago. It would be awesome if I happened to see him on the street. Maybe if I hung out at gay bars (again), I would. I have loved his work since Wham, George was on the top of my list of singers I must see in concert before I die! Obviously, I’ve already crossed out a lot off this list already! I’m going to assume he’ll be at Mardi Gras this year.
I have been a long time fan of Aimee Mann, so when her first ever tour of Australia was announced, I had to be there. You may be familiar with the film Magnolia, in which Aimee Mann contributed much of the soundtrack. Dave doesn’t really get into my favourite female singer/songwriters much, so I went with my Aunty instead.
Aimee was supported by Ben Lee. I like him. I’m not ashamed. Most people I know hate him but I think he writes some cool songs. Anyway, it was great to see him live for the first time as well. You can also download for free some of his Noise Addict stuff if you like.
When Aimee Mann came on stage there was rapturous applause (I guess some of these people had waited more than 10 years to see her). She writes great, deep & meaningful, sometimes witty and sarcastic lyrics, see Wise Up. Her voice is fantastic too. My aunty said, “very pure”. I knew the majority of the songs she sang, and I bought her latest album, @#%&*! Smilers at the show. My favourite songs that she sang were: Wise Up, Save Me, Red Vines, Thirty One Today and her one big hit from the 80s when she was in Til Tuesday, Voices Carry.
Well, here are my comments on the terrible tragedy that is the premature death of Michael Jackson. I used to love him so much in the 80s! So much! Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad were on heavy rotation in my bedroom. He really was an integral part of my childhood and teenage years, fuelling my obsession with pop and dance music.
Some of my 80s memories of MJ are:
Getting Thriller for Christmas 1983.
Buying a Michael Jackson showbag at the Royal Easter Show! I can’t remember everything it contained, but I still have the little MJ address book. A quick eBay search found MJ tattoos were in the showbag.
Buying MJ badges when I went on holidays to Canada in 1984.
My cousin working for Pepsi when they sponsored the Bad Tour and getting lots of posters for the concert.
Seeing him in concert twice at Parramatta Stadium in 1987 for his Bad Tour. I’ll blog about this separately later.
I always had a soft spot for him after all this time. I still have a penchant for wearing the Bad Tour T-shirt every now and then. Every time one of his crazy antics were reported on the news, I would stop and listen. About 6 months ago, I watched a doco called Michael Jackson: What Really Happened which kind of gave me the heebie jeebies about him. The ironic thing was that someone said they hoped that when MJ died he would be remembered for his music and not being a child molester. Well, it looks like he has according to all the tributes coming in.
Do you know how many times a Michael Jackson song has saved a party? When no-one is dancing at a wedding, nightclub or whatever, all you need to do is play one of his many dance floor fillers and the next thing you know everyone’s going off. It works for me!
Where was I when I heard the news? Standing in my kitchen with the Today Show on. I think I stood there with my mouth open for 60 seconds. Luckily the Today Show kept going on and on about it for another two hours in case it wasn’t clear. It wasn’t until I came home that night and watched the 6pm news that it really hit me. Seeing the reaction of the media and people around the world really showed the enormity of the event. And yes, I’ll admit it, I shed a tear for the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.
Pretty awesome interactive web stuff here. One of favourite brands, the only trainers I wear. Join my party, I’d love to win a trip to LA and maybe I’ll take you with me. Check out my Last FM playlists to see what I play at home…
March is a special month in Australian Rozie world. My birthday is on the 2nd so I always have that to look forward to. Although I have been saying for years that I am “old”, I still look forward to my birthday. I’m not one to have a meltdown on my special day. It also officially marks the beginning of autumn, my favourite season. There’s the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras as well. I’ve been doing quite a lot this month so far, and of course taking lots of photos of everything I do. There were 3 different birthday celebrations, Mad Racket starring HMC on Mardi Gras night, Pivot’s secret gig at the Hopetoun, various meals of Sydney and Piper & Kris‘ 30th party. The majority of my photos go on my Flickr, but occasionally some will go on Facebook. The bad thing about March is it marks the anniversary of when my mum (Chinese Betty) passed away, so next week will kind of suck for me.
in a hurry before I went to bed last night. I went to iTunes and this was all I could come up with:
Hurricane – the new Grace Jones album
Situation (Hercules and Love Affair) – Yazoo
Blind (Full Album Version) – Hercules and Love Affair – I really love this track!
Dave advised me to use my Last.fm to find more of the music I like. What a good idea!
I always mean to blog about all the great gigs I go to but never get around to it. So here’s a quick post about Matthew Herbert Big Band at the Sydney Opera House. The crowd was very mixed, lots of “young” Mad Racket type folks as well as older ladies like my Aunty Gladys! After a massive round of applause and cheering when Mathhew Herbert came onto the stage, I heard the guy behind me say something like, “he seems to be some sort of god-like figure for some of these people”. The performance and music was fantastic, so entertaining. The vocalist was amazing (I wish I could sing – so do my neighbours). For some weird reason even though the music was really loud, I didn’t need to use my musician’s earplugs at all! Maybe the Opera House acoustics suit my special volume needs??? Glad we spent the $$$ on this special event, was a shame we missed The Bug/ Rhythm & Sound night at Beck’s Bar though. Actually we did see R&S, because while on the bus on the way to the Opera House, we saw Sub Bass Snarl walking down the road with Mark Ernestus and Tikiman!
I had a great time at the Days Like This! Festival at the Entertainment Quarter on January 4. The event doesn’t have the same pressure as a New Year’s Eve or NYD event, but close enough that everyone still feels festive. I have to say that the line-up was quite tremendous and much suited to my current taste in music. Before the day, I had been telling people that it was the older clubbers or retired raver’s festival. The variety of artists and the crowd made it really great compared to some festivals I’ve been to in the last few years. Also, the crap, gurning crowds have been a major factor in why I hardly ever go to music festivals any more.
I most enjoyed Flying Lotus in the Forum (hey airconditioning at a summer festival – different, unusual). It was the cross-over of live techno and instrumental electronic hip hop I’ve been looking for. I also enjoyed briefly seeing DJ Vadim, Recloose, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, A Guy called Gerald, Carl Craig and of course Public Enemy. After all these years PE still have an awesome presence and hearing nearly all of It takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back live was awesome.
The only bad thing about Days Like This! was there was not enough food stalls and there were no pass outs, so you couldn’t go into EQ to get something to eat. Sure I understand that promoters probably have some deal with the stallholders that they are going to have a captive audience but the lines at dinner time had hundreds of people in them. Could do better with the food.
See my Days Like This! photos here
You can read the Disco Dissertation review here
I have just discovered DJ Havana Brown, not like discovered an awesome new musical diversion but discovered that she exists. Apparantly, she is Australia’s number one female DJ, but I’d like to say Australia’s number one Pussycat Doll impersonator who can mix (tbc). I’ve always thought it was tough to make it in the man’s world of DJing, but obviously she took the easy route and dressed like a ho to get there. I’m jealous.
Well, it’s NYE and I was perusing the parties on in Sydney when I came across The Bongo Virus NYE Event “hosted” by Paris Hilton. Havana Brown is one of the DJs playing at the event. I was wondering what all the young folk were doing tonight.
Happy New Year’s Eve – hope it’s it an above average night. How’s this for a theory: If you have average expectations of this night of nights, you will not to be too greatly disappointed.
Recent Comments