I came back from the shops. I had to cross the river for the Medjool dates. They had them at the BJ’s in Wappingers. I got some dates but I didn’t get a BJ in Wappingers… Sorry, I couldn’t help it. That’s about all the official business I have today so far. I got my axe back from Eric yesterday. It sounds good.
I’ll probably get him to give the old Jazzmaster a spring clean next. The guy has a meticulous shop. Imagine Phil Collins in a tiny workshop where everything is in it’s place and always will be, that’s what it looks like. I’m having a delicious latte that I made myself. Apparently they don’t have espresso machines in the ISIS bride camps, hence the overwhelming desire to repatriate back to Australia to enjoy one.
I don’t care. This morning an email from APRA lobbed into my inbox like an IED. I noticed that there is a national music office for Aboriginals and Torres Straight Islanders . The news from that place among other things, was that First Nations artists celebrated the 100th anniversary of the APRA Awards, representing mob in music. That’s nice. There was a link to a Facebook post where there was a music video. The dude in it didn’t look particularly Aboriginal or Torres Straight Islander, but whatever. It came with a warning, so naturally I didn’t watch it.
Elsewhere, there was another video which was from the 2026 APRA music awards. I went to a couple of these years ago. I was never invited back, probably because I annoyed some people there. I ridiculed Glenn Shorrock’s hair and told everyone that I thought (insert name of a major record company executive here) looked like a degenerate. There was visible shock, horror and distress at my remarks at the table where I was seated.
I was probably very, very drunk as well. Too bad. I would have enjoyed seeing this year’s Midnight Oil tribute which started out with two guys performing the Oil’s hit song “The Power and The Passion”. This was essentially a stripped down cover band. The singer looked for all the world like a Peter Garret impersonator, and the drummer was doing his best Rob Hirst clone.
The middle part of the song features a drum solo (Wikipedia says “it is the only studio recording by Midnight Oil to feature a drum solo”) The stage went dark, and all of a sudden, there were multiple drummers of all races and genders banging away. It was quite a cacophony.
Then as the music kicked in again, lo and behold, who should appear on the stage but Garret himself. He looked for a moment like he was going to pick a fight with his doppleganger. In fact as he stepped up onto the riser he bumped the guy out of the way either accidentally or on purpose. It may have been staged, but it looked weird. Garret looks weird at the best of times, and this wasn’t the best of time by any means.
Should have shaved ya head for authenticity, mate
The song itself is kinda lame, but then in my opinion a lot of the Oils “protest” songs fall short of the mark. The famous “Beds Are Burning” for example is self loathing, self righteous, offensive cringe central in my opinion. I thought it was so fucking stupidly annoying that made a parody version. It’s there below.
But since I know nothing, in May 2001 the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), as part of its 75th Anniversary celebrations, named “Power and the Passion” as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time.
The Presets. Are they the new Wiggles? I think they’re the new Wiggles.
One day I’ll get around to dissecting some of these classics. That will be fun I’m sure. Apparently the band doing the Oil’s impersonation are not a cover band. They’re called the Presets. I have no idea what they do and I don’t wanna know either.
No doubt I’ll have put myself in some music hate crime database down there after all the sledging I have done today. The Power and the Passion song clearly needs an update, but I don’t think there is anyone writing protest songs Downunder anymore. Indeed they are all on the Progressive Woke train, to question any of the absolute fuckery that is going on is pure heresy at this point.
Good Day
Don’t take my word for it. See for yourself