“I was born to Irish parents in the north of England in the little town of Hexham which is about 30 miles from the Scottish border. I don’t remember that time as we came to Australia when I was 15 months old with Mum, Dad and my big sister Julia. We lived in a migrant hostel in Port Melbourne with shared amenities. I do remember playing with lots of kids and from there we moved to South Melbourne. My mother left my father and we finally found ourselves living with ‘uncle George’ in a flat in Elwood. Uncle George was actually her boss and not really uncle George. They stayed together for 24 years.
George was a pedophile which is why he liked our family. There were children and his children had grown up. Fast forward to the mid 90’s and we were in court in Melbourne where he was found guilty of 14 counts of rape. Due to a technicality he only spent two weeks in jail. There was supposed to be a retrial but my sister couldn’t go through with it. I copped some of that but my sister copped more. My mother knew, but she lied in court and that’s why I don’t like her very much. She didn’t protect her children like a mother is supposed to. George was born in 1927 so I can imagine he would be gone now.
My sister didn’t speak to my mother for many years but toward the twilight years of my mothers life, she reconnected with her and looked after her till the end, whereas I didn’t.
When I was 5 we moved to Brighton where I went to school and then on to Brighton Grammar School. I fled and left home when I was 15 because I couldn’t cope any more. I found a way to still do music which I loved and legally leave home which was by joining the Army. I went to the army school of music at 15 so in 1979 I was the youngest soldier in the Australian Army. I remember cutting the Army’s birthday cake with the General in charge.
I started playing piano at 8 but sacked my first piano teacher because I just wanted to play Moonlight Sonata and Beethoven but my teacher wanted to do all these little exercises. I never had a teacher after that. When I was 12 I started at Brighton Grammar. My stepfather was a brass player which I was drawn to but because he was a trombone player I didn’t want to know about brass.
I asked my friends at school what the easiest instrument to learn was and they said …the clarinet I suppose, so I took up the clarinet. I remember playing something simple to my new teacher and he said I’ll see you next week. I went home and learnt lots. He told me not to get ahead of myself so I left him too.
I decided I wanted to play saxophone so I went along to a guy called Bob who was in the ABC show band in Melbourne that Brian May was running. He wanted to train me to be a pit musician. I said, I really want to play sax but he told me to get the clarinet down first. He said you can play sax when you’ve done Grade 5 Ameb so within 6 months I did my Grade 5. I said… Great, I can play sax now. He said, No! You can play Flute first so I got to a proficient level with that and asked again. He said No, you need to play a bit of oboe. I put my foot down at bassoon. Eventually I got to play saxophone.
My parents didn’t pay for my lessons or any instruments. I was expected to earn it so I did paper rounds from the time I was 10. I bought my own clarinet, flute, sax, paid for my own lessons and paid for the bus to get there.
I played my first professional gig when I was 15. I learnt Woody Hermans Golden Wedding so when my parents had parties I’d bring out my Clarinet and play it but then I couldn’t stand home life so I ran away.
I had to pay the army back some time which I did. At the end of my deployment it was 1986. I was in Melbourne playing principal clarinet and they announced there would be a huge Tattoo for the Bicentennial so I signed on for another term and ended up being a Composer and Arranger in residence for the Music Director David Atkins. There were 1500 in the cast. It was massive. I left after the Tattoo.
I was then recruited by the Victoria Police and the idea was to turn their brass band into a concert band. They wanted more modern stuff to play for schools and community. We started a rock band and I spent a couple years with the police.
I had an electrical accident. I took 3 phase power which is 720 volts in through my left hand and out my left foot and we’ve only recently discovered that at some stage of my life I had a stroke. I was in a fog for 18 months so the doctors think that I had a stroke the same time I was electrocuted. I should have died but I didn’t. That made me focus on doing what I wanted to do which was write music. “
George was a pedophile which is why he liked our family. There were children and his children had grown up. Fast forward to the mid 90’s and we were in court in Melbourne where he was found guilty of 14 counts of rape. Due to a technicality he only spent two weeks in jail. There was supposed to be a retrial but my sister couldn’t go through with it. I copped some of that but my sister copped more. My mother knew, but she lied in court and that’s why I don’t like her very much. She didn’t protect her children like a mother is supposed to. George was born in 1927 so I can imagine he would be gone now.
My sister didn’t speak to my mother for many years but toward the twilight years of my mothers life, she reconnected with her and looked after her till the end, whereas I didn’t.
When I was 5 we moved to Brighton where I went to school and then on to Brighton Grammar School. I fled and left home when I was 15 because I couldn’t cope any more. I found a way to still do music which I loved and legally leave home which was by joining the Army. I went to the army school of music at 15 so in 1979 I was the youngest soldier in the Australian Army. I remember cutting the Army’s birthday cake with the General in charge.
I started playing piano at 8 but sacked my first piano teacher because I just wanted to play Moonlight Sonata and Beethoven but my teacher wanted to do all these little exercises. I never had a teacher after that. When I was 12 I started at Brighton Grammar. My stepfather was a brass player which I was drawn to but because he was a trombone player I didn’t want to know about brass.
I asked my friends at school what the easiest instrument to learn was and they said …the clarinet I suppose, so I took up the clarinet. I remember playing something simple to my new teacher and he said I’ll see you next week. I went home and learnt lots. He told me not to get ahead of myself so I left him too.
I decided I wanted to play saxophone so I went along to a guy called Bob who was in the ABC show band in Melbourne that Brian May was running. He wanted to train me to be a pit musician. I said, I really want to play sax but he told me to get the clarinet down first. He said you can play sax when you’ve done Grade 5 Ameb so within 6 months I did my Grade 5. I said… Great, I can play sax now. He said, No! You can play Flute first so I got to a proficient level with that and asked again. He said No, you need to play a bit of oboe. I put my foot down at bassoon. Eventually I got to play saxophone.
My parents didn’t pay for my lessons or any instruments. I was expected to earn it so I did paper rounds from the time I was 10. I bought my own clarinet, flute, sax, paid for my own lessons and paid for the bus to get there.
I played my first professional gig when I was 15. I learnt Woody Hermans Golden Wedding so when my parents had parties I’d bring out my Clarinet and play it but then I couldn’t stand home life so I ran away.
I had to pay the army back some time which I did. At the end of my deployment it was 1986. I was in Melbourne playing principal clarinet and they announced there would be a huge Tattoo for the Bicentennial so I signed on for another term and ended up being a Composer and Arranger in residence for the Music Director David Atkins. There were 1500 in the cast. It was massive. I left after the Tattoo.
I was then recruited by the Victoria Police and the idea was to turn their brass band into a concert band. They wanted more modern stuff to play for schools and community. We started a rock band and I spent a couple years with the police.
I had an electrical accident. I took 3 phase power which is 720 volts in through my left hand and out my left foot and we’ve only recently discovered that at some stage of my life I had a stroke. I was in a fog for 18 months so the doctors think that I had a stroke the same time I was electrocuted. I should have died but I didn’t. That made me focus on doing what I wanted to do which was write music. “