Sixteen CTV staff lost their lives that day and the community lost it's heart and some of it's most recognisable faces. By April the station was back on air and we have offered this support to them as they continue to rebuild their station and approach the first anniversary of that tragedy while still enduring major aftershocks. |
14 JANUARY 2012
Tim Finn and Lilith Lane
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| 21 JANUARY 2012 Don McGlashan and. |
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Jenny Morris
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| 28 JANUARY 2012 Jess Cornelius and Mike Rudd |
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4 FEBRUARY 2012
Ben Salter and Kimbra
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11 FEBRUARY 2012
Hayley Mary and Jon Stephens
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18 FEBRUARY 2012
Dave Dobbyn and Anika Moa
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One of the first artists to lock into this series was Amy Findlay from Stonefield, although we did have to do a bit of a date juggle to make it work because between the time Amy was booked and her scheduled appearance, Stonefield had played Glastonbury and things began to move rapidly for them.
Nick Barker has been on the whiteboard for a long-time but it was when Brian Nankervis started working with him on Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be - The Bon Scott Story that things started to firm up. Nick and Amy had met together before at a songwriting workshop so it seemed a natural fit, and the results were outstanding!
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We have had the beautiful and talented Kate Miller-Heidke on RocKwiz before, way back in 2007, and we just had to have her back on the show. Eagle and The Worm have been playing their fun party sounds round Melbourne for a while now and bat-eared fans of the American TV series Bored To Death may have recognised their song All I Know on an episode. So we put the wonderfully humble Jarrad Brown with Kate and they chose to cover Beyonce's Crazy In Love. Jarrad bought the Eagle and The Worm horn section with him as well, so we fully exploited the situation and had all horn Million Dollar Riffs for this show!
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It was great having Lanie Lane and Alex Burnett on the show. That episode was actually recorded on the first night of the new series so we were all still getting used to being back in the Gershwin Room. |
| That's me on the right |
Wandering through the growing crowd I get the feeling that everybody here wants to tell you their special music story. Wants to tell you about an album they recently heard that excited them. I overhear snippets of stories and music chat everywhere in this room. "You were at Sunbury?" "No way!” And "I saw Split Enz at the Sundowner mate! ‘75 I think. They were bloody incredible.” I even hear a woman remark, "Brod Smith’s harp sound is so unique." Against a wall some guys are having the inevitable guitar god argument, “Andrew Pendlebury is the best.” “What about Mossie? He’s the real deal”. I'm reminded how passionately Aussies take their music and how California has made me soft in the head. I'll be lucky if I get one question right.
I’m on my third gin and tonic and I’m getting a little buzz on. I start chatting to some couples seated at one of the rare tables at the venue. They like my story of coming to Melbourne to be on RocKwiz and nominate me as their representative. All of a sudden I see Brian Nankervis stride to the mic to begin warming up the enthusiastic audience. He has an easy going manner and an unassuming banter with the crowd. He’s done this warmup a thousand times before but you smile and take notice. Within minutes he has the crowd under his control. He explains that four contestants out of a possible twenty-four will be chosen for the first show. I am in the first round of tryouts. Think positive, I say to myself, as I take a huge gulp from what is now my third or fourth gin and tonic and bound on stage, slightly tripping a bit. I hope that will be the only humiliation for the evening.
I’m feeling good … but whatever good karma I had suddenly disappears. There’s one of those super cool guys, looks like a young James Reyne, spiky blonde hair, probably surfs and reads Proust in his spare time. He has a different girlfriend every week and has 40,000 songs on his iPod. I hate him. He answers about four questions in a row, two of which he guessed and then laughed about it. I panic. The next question is “James Brown had a hit in the Seventies with a song about a brand new what?” I’m so ruffled by mister super cool that I say “Brand New Key”, which I immediately recognize as the Melanie song. Brian says something like “Interesting answer, but wrong”. I’m shattered. The good-looking woman at the end of the panel answers the next few questions. Then it’s over.
