I went in to the Hot 30 the other day, and they’d found some old video of my old, OLD band.
It’s from our school semi-formal in 1990, when I was in grade 11.

Now, I’d watched enough 80’s teen movies to know that if you wanted the cute girl, you needed to pull of some huge sensitive-guy creative gesture at the teen social gathering, showing how much more awesome than the football guys you were, and then the cute girl would go out with you instead of them.

So with that in mind, Chris, John, Mick and I formed “the Brown Hornets” and learned side A and D of Kiss Alive!

I played bass, and doubled on Piano.
With our unstoppable ballad power, there was no WAY that the cute girls would ignore me, and they’d SO want to go out with me instead of football fuckwits.

What do you know, we played well and rocked out, but we didn’t get the girls.

Bear in mind that this was pre-Nirvana and pre-Silverchair. We had no idea that we could actually write our own songs. The thought didn’t even enter into our minds that we’d be able to perform songs we’d written.
It wasn’t something that you did back then.
Ah well, Kurt Cobain certainly changed all that!
Three years after this was filmed, I grew all that hair out and was playing in bands where we did write the songs..

I loved being in this band, it defined who I was for years.
They played rugby, we played rock. That was it. I loved it like crazy.

I was pretty large back then.
Mick’s Mullet is SUPERB.
I’ve always had this hair. I’m blessed to have so much of it.
Some guys my age have nothing, so I’ll take lots over nothing.
I actually could play OK piano back then for a sixteen year old guy.
I remember some of the rugby fuckwits being extra-fuckwitty that night. You can see me getting cranky at them, it may seem like an outburst, but months of non-stop bullying will do that to a fella.

Being pretty weird about my size and weird about girls back then, I didn’t really know how to or know who to ask to come with me.
So thankfully, my mate Shane graciously offered his super hot cousin Kristie Faulkner to be my date. I remember being terrified of asking her, and spent about 45 minutes on the phone with her before she said “Haven’t you got something to ask me?”. I was so scared! Bless her, she said yes which I’m sure was out of sympathy.. Kristie was was the hottest girl there by far. Way more “state-school” and spunky, and way less “catholic girls’ school” and straight. She sat alone while we played, getting the freeze-out from the girls-school gangs, and at the end of the night, I remember giving her my trench coat (hey it was 1990) to keep her warm. She got a ride home with Shane, I packed up the van.

Enjoy – The Brown Hornets, Live in Brisbane at the Merthyr Bowls club ballroom. October 1990. “Beth” by KISS…

I’d love to know your thoughts..

x aa

Passing Notes

Originally uploaded by Andrew Günsberg

Why say a silent prayer when you can pass a note?

Here’s a shot of notes jammed into the ancient Western Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem.

This particular stone block is about 1.5m square. This colossal structure was built by hand, with no mortar, over 2000 years ago.

For the true significance of the place, have a read of this.

The rough version and short story is that for a very long time, this is the closest that Jews have been able to get to the most Holy site in their belief.

As a result, millions of people flock to pray here every year, and from what I understand as they believe that it’s “close to G-d” and that a divine presence rests upon the wall.
So people aren’t praying to a wall, they’re praying to the presence within… It’s confusing.

Anyway. Because of the incredible sanctity of the place, people believe that if one places a note with prayers on it within the cracks of the wall, the wishes on the note are within the presence of the Divine, and therefore have a better chance of happening.

As a result, the millions of people who come here to pray also stuff tiny notes within the cracks.

Look at this photo large.
See just how many notes and prayers are within every nook and cranny..

x aa

Click the Image to View Large

john

Originally uploaded by Andrew Günsberg

This is John Foreman.
He’s our conductor/MD.
He’s fantastic.
He’s got a massive week ahead.
A child prodigy, he’s younger than me and a musical freak. He’s been on TV since he was seventeen.
A lovely, lovely man.

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Gordy

Originally uploaded by Andrew Günsberg

This is Gordon. He’s the drummer at Idol. For six years, he’s read (yes, a drummer that reads) the sheet music and bashed out the beats that keeps the band cooking. He’s a lovely man, who loves pop and metal just as much as he loves ridiculously complex 10/7 32nd note jazz riffs.

We put him behind perspex because he’s so freakin’ loud.

He calls who will win Idol without fail every year.
This drummer knows something that other drummers don’t.

He’s also a great dancer, and a great sport.

Gordy is one of about fifty people whom you never see really that make Idol such a superb show. Many, many people work really, really hard for months and months to make the show what it is.

Thanks Gordy.
See you at the Opera House.

x aa

PS: Old Drummer Jokes Home –

Q; What do you call a beautiful woman on a drummer’s arm?
A: A tattoo.

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Will Ferrell is Enormous

Originally uploaded by Andrew Günsberg

After a recent interview with one of my heroes, Will Ferrell, he and co-star John C. Reilley were kind enough to pose for a photo with me.
I was unprepared at how huge both men were.
Bear in mind, I’m 5′10" on a good day.
These men are giants of comedy, and giants of humanity.

Massive.

Click the Image to View Large

So, after a few years of putting it off, I finally went to get my hearing tested today.
Sensing that things were getting worse, I went up to see the specialist, I put the headphones on, and away I went.

Now, I already knew that things weren’t great in my left ear..
Since an ear infection that hospitalised me when I was thirteen, and way too many years as a roadie/bass player/radio announcer/TV guy I have adjusted to the situation gradually.

I sit on the left corner seat at tables to I can hear people to my right, I can’t hear people very well when I’m driving and they’re in the passenger seat, and I turn my head to get people to speak into my right ear in noisy environments. I can’t hear you if you talk to me from another room, and if the TV’s on when you say something to me, I hear “blughblughtblguhJonStewwartBLurghblugh”
The loudest noise I’ve heard in any room since I was seventeen is my tinitis.

So I knew that things were going wrong already.

Needless to say, when I put those test headphones on, and held the button in my hand, I had a calm and almost resigned feeling about what was about to happen. I knew it was not going to be great.

If you’ve never had a hearing test, you put on a serious pair of headphones, through which they play you a set of tones that increase in octaves, yet decrease in decibels.

“Just face the wall and push the button when you hear the tone” said the technician.
“Ok”, said I.

Off we go..

OOO [push]
…Ooo…[push]
…….ooo…..[push]

EEE [push]
..Eee…[push]
….eee…[push]

IIIII [push]
…..i…….[push]
………………

…………..
……………..
………………..Tech: “can you check if the button’s working Andrew?” [push]

……………..
………….
……….. Tech: “Oh..”

In walks the lovely specialist and gives me the “Oh Dear” look.
“Looking at this, and looking at your age, I’d say you worked as a boilermaker without hearing protection”.

As it turns out, at Thirty-Four years of age, I have the hearing of a 60-70 year old.

My hearing graph looks like an Olympic Ski Jump after 4000Khz.
By 6000Khz I’ve got nothing.
At 8000Khz there’s just a whole lot of white noise.

8K is where all the important speech stuff happens, “s” “t” “d” “f” “p” “k” all happen around here.
No wonder they were all sounding the same!
It’s not really that bad when there’s no background noise, but once there’s anything other than your speech there, I can get a bit lost sometimes.

Three years as a roadie, four years as a bass player, five years in radio and nearly ten years of TV in-ear monitors have taken their toll..

So I feel like Yul Brynner when I tell you this next bit:

Wear earplugs, whatever you do, just wear earplugs.

Permanent nerve damage is what we’re talking about here folks, so there’s no turning back once it’s gone.

Any environment where you can’t carry on a normal conversation without yelling is a danger.
Wear earplugs. And headphones? What can I tell you. Turn ‘em down.

I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve heard the hi-hats on a record.
Really.

So folks, I guess your loyal servant here will have to keep getting better at lip-reading, and ask you to speak
clearly into my right ear when next we meet.

Looks like the record producer career will have to wait a while, and this photography thing might have to step up a notch..

x aa

And one for Yul:

Search Engines

Originally uploaded by Andrew Günsberg

Summer’s here.
When the waves aren’t happening near you, climb aboard with some friends and go looking for some watery lumps.

Search Engines V1.0

Old School and New School.

Chloe Byron Memorial Comp, Bondi Longboard Club.
Oct 11 2008.

x aa

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Way back when, George Clinton knew what time it was.

Eric B and Rakim also knew what the story was..