Paula From Tasmania

BY PAULA XIBERRAS

NO VANITIES WITH THIS TOM WOLFE

Tom Wolfe, of the Wolfe Brothers, shares his name with US author Tom Wolfe, famous for his novel ‘Bonfire of The Vanities’. Well Tassie’s own Tom Wolfe has no vanities. In fact Tom and his brother Nick, even though they tour the world, still maintain their homes on the farm here in Tassie. When we catch up for a chat, Tom says to me as he looks out of his farm window, the guys have remained authentic. He adds many country artists no longer live in a rural environment but in the suburbs. He talks about his group the Wolfe Brothers, although now international artists, have remained on their Tassie farms. This latest album is one of nostalgia, a trip back to the early days on the farm, the long days of summer as they rode their BMX bikes listening to 80’s music on their Walkmans, including Metallica. It’s been nearly a decade in the music industry for the guys, and the latest album, their fifth, was recorded in Nashville and some via zoom, and marks their first international release through BMG. The album titled ‘Kids on Cassette’ has achieved six in the overall charts and stands as the number one country album. As the name suggests, the album is a nostalgic look back at the Wolfe Brothers’ early life on the family farm. What the guys wanted to do with this album, says Tom, was create songs that could be heard anywhere at anytime but also songs that were part of their childhood memories. Something that makes this album a little different is that Tom says the guys have decided to explore duets and the list is pretty impressive, including LoCash. This, says Tom, was a great experience. The Wolfe Brothers supported LoCash on their tour in the American Midwest. Tom says they loved LoCash’s energy and they were nice guys to boot! Another duet is with Amy Shepherd, and also one with Jack Jones, someone the guys have always wanted to work with. Tom tells me while COVID has impacted the band in the performance and gig situation, it has also allowed them the time to concentrate on their creativity and being immersed in the music making process and remote recording. And when the boys are remote from and missing Tassie they get nostalgic just as much as the new album, craving cooking and that’s when they find themselves at the southern hospitality of US dining at Cracker Barrel indulging in country food and biscuits called ‘scones’.

‘KIDS ON CASSETTE’ BY THE WOLFE BROTHERS IS OUT NOW, AND THEY WILL BE PERFORMING SATURDAY 9 OCTOBER 2021 AT WREST POINT ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, HOBART, TASMANIA. CHECK THEIR WEBSITE FOR MORE DATES.

BRYAN BROWN: LIFE IS SWEET FOR THIS IRISH LAD

DUE FOR SOME GOODLUCK

Bryan Brown is quarantining in Queensland when we catch up for a chat. He’s looking out the window and remarks how everyone is going on about their daily lives. We are talking about Bryan’s first book ‘Sweet Jimmy’. Bryan tells me he has been writing down short stories whenever he had the time for 35 years. It happened that his friend Jenn Byrne read some and said to him they were so good they should be published. The stories were picked up by Allen and Unwin and so ‘Sweet Jimmy’ came into being. The catalyst for the stories, says Bryan, were ideas popping into his mind like “what would happen if Sam Neill was a thief?” This particular collection of stories look at the probable consequences of making the wrong choices and of crime. While he may have been penning stories for 35 years, Bryan has actually been a storyteller for the 45 years of his work in movies. Instead of writing those words in a book, it has been bringing into life in his acting words from a script. The stories are also reminiscences on what happened to the boys of the suburbs he grew up with. The image of the orchid on the cover continues the motif of flowers in the book. The title ‘Sweet Jimmy’ is also the name of a flower. I ask Bryan if he consciously or subconsciously utilised flowers in the book because they have a short life span, paralleling some of the characters due to their chosen careers. He tells me the flower theme was not intended for that purpose but rather a nod to his childhood fascination with the man who lived down the road and grew orchids. Nevertheless he welcomes readers drawing their own meanings from his writing. Bryan will be bringing one of the stories to life by his own production company and hopes that others may be optioned. He reiterates the importance of the arts to sustain people in the present COVID environment. Although Bryan tells me he has no interest in doing a biography, luckily for us this great storyteller in word and action, will continue to give glimpses of his life in the wonderful short stories he writes.

SWEET JIMMY IS OUT NOW, PUBLISHED BY ALLEN AND UNWIN.

Tassie is due for some good luck, Matt Goodluck that is. Matt is from Pink Floyd tribute band Echoes of Pink Floyd, and for him, like many of us, 2020 was a difficult year. Like countless other performers, many shows were written off and even this year saw a Mildura show cancelled in July. Matt is hoping he will have some good luck with his upcoming show in Tasmania. Matt has family in Launceston so catching up with them would be a highlight of the tour.

I recently spoke to Matt about the upcoming tour. Matt tells me the band previously toured with The Wall 40th anniversary show. Echoes of Pink Floyd was formed in 2009 by lead guitarist Danny Hunter, a big Pink Floyd fan. Over that time the band has had some changes in line up. All the guys are massive fans and put a lot into recreating the band with great detail. While a lot of tribute bands authentically adopt the look of the act they are paying tribute to, Matt says that Pink Floyd ‘doesn’t have a strong physical presence’ to replicate. What can be replicated is the use of lighting and creating a great spectacle. This of course depends on the venue capacity. One of the exciting things about this show is that local performers get to join in as part of the ‘another brick in the wall’ chorus. In this case it will be some young people from local dance and theatre groups. Matt says he has never been good at being in front of an audience with the usual warm up greetings of ‘how are you tonight’ etc, so instead he uses his vast knowledge of Pink Floyd to inform the audience of interesting facts and trivia. For example, Matt shares with me that when Pink Floyd recorded their first song in Abbey Road recording studio in 1967, they were right next door to the Beatles who were recording Sergeant Pepper at the time.

YOU CAN SEE MATT AND ECHOES OF PINK FLOYD: SATURDAY 9 APRIL 2022 AT WREST POINT ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, HOBART, TASMANIA SATURDY 21ST MAY 2022 AT ASTOR THEATRE, PERTH.

ACC principal, David Noble enjoying some fun with students Image: independentschools.tas.edu.au/

A NOBLE LESSON

In the modern world of media and the crisis of COVID 19, school can be a challenge for today’s students. ‘The Global Shadow Student Challenge’ aims to view the world from the students’ point of view, by sending a former student back into the modern day classroom. On Wednesday June 2, Tassie’s own Australian Christian College principal, David Noble, took on that very challenge. Mr Noble put on his school uniform, was driven to the bus stop by his mum and met up with his student/chum Lennon Jones to help him find his way through the experience of today’s high school classroom, including coping with being picked on as ‘the new boy’. He hoped to get some strong insights into the school experience for today’s young people so hopefully when he returned to the principals desk, he would be able to implement some improvements in the student experience. Principal Noble said he wanted to experience what it was like for students as they worked through the experience of a lesson well supported by materials and real life examples – in this case a lesson on the food chain.

Lennon says having Principal Noble as a contemporary helped him out in science class.

The school is progressive not only in taking on this initiative, but also the fact the school teaches Australian Sign Language or Auslan. This came about, says Principal Noble, because the school had a deaf student.

All in all, Principal Noble had a great time and even shared he might consider being a student again at some stage!

ANGELIC ANSWERS

The book is the story of Angelica and her husband Bill but reaches past their physical life to their spiritual one. We are introduced to Angelica when she is waiting in ICU to hear news of her husband who has been in a motorcycle accident. The mood is bleak and eventually Bill’s injuries are deemed too bad for recovery. The loss of her husband leads Angelica in a downward spiral of grief as she seeks to make sense of her young husband's death. When a butcher bird starts singing in her garden Angelica remembers Bill's desire to describe its music to her. She takes this coincidence of its sudden appearance as the sign she has been looking for. A change of lifestyle comes about when Anglica leaves the city for some housesitting to live a simple valley existence. Angelica revists her interest in painting and by doing so connects with her spiritual self. Bill visits Angelica in her dreams which also helps her healing. While the new lifestyle goes some way in calming her she continues her spiritual quest. Angelica visits a psychic who comforts her by accurately describing Bill and his continued spiritual presence with Angelica. Angelica’s spiritual quest goes on as she encounters Meditation, Reiki and other spiritual pursuits and so begins to move on with her life, including a romantic entanglement. A chat with local man Clyde, after a natural disaster in the valley perhaps sums up best one of the novel's main messages. He tells Angelica that we can't control everything in our lives and need to just go along with the flow. This comment reminds us that we can't find all the answers but must just have faith in life's meaning. There are many refreshing aspects to this book, it gives voice to LGBT relationships and also to First Nation people in a way that is quite natural and not tokenistic. It also asks deep questions about the nature of life both physical and spiritual, a topic not many novels address.

TRANSIT OF ANGELS IS AVAILABLE NOW THROUGH PILYARA PRESS. ☘

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