_{Murray Bennett photo.}

Made it through an intense year of behind-the-scenes, hatchet job betrayal, on constant alert with old stuff anxiety kicking in and an ADHD burn-out that sent me to a dark and desperate place. 

But despite all the amputations, my life was saved by Rock ‘n’ Roll….

1. The Cruel Sea
Made a new album with The Cruel Sea. Recorded in three days in a tin shed during a brutal Melbourne heatwave. A bunch of songs we barely knew and nearly all first takes with minimal overdubs and quick mixes. Relied on our old wits and it sounds pretty damn good! 

2. Robyn Hitchcock
Spent time with my dear friend Robyn Hitchcock as we both navigated dark waters, then played a wonderful show at The Great Club in Sydney with Sam and Davey and Kate that steered us straight, and we stayed up grooving on my back deck until the birds and the garbage trucks joined us. 

3. Codeine
I bought a great guitar off a really cool guy who gently insisted that he put my name on the door to see Codeine with his band A Broken Sail and Sea Life Park. It was as though he knew something. I knew nothing and went to the city by myself not looking for company. 

All three bands were a revelation. They were all what I desperately needed to hear. They washed over me and I had a dizzy feeling that I was exactly where I was meant to be, that something had led me there. 

I thought Codeine were sublime. A tight but fragile, ‘90s New York slowcore three-piece. Painfully shy but very charismatic. Their intense restraint was like a painting, like true flowers in a painted world, like a New York Van Gogh, every bold and raw and singular brush stroke a desperate quiet bid to give shape to an overwhelming out of body depression and alienation. 

I’d been going through the wringer, a convergence of things, like an exhausted painful rite of passage, maybe burning off what I wouldn’t be needing on the other side.

These guys were playing my song! 

4. The Melbourne Mafia
I married into the mob so I got to help my dear friends stage the “Pop Crimes” show. Two sets of the music of Rowland by his dear friends and loved ones. It was a masterclass by JP Shilo on the Jag and vocals. Mick Harvey absolutely brilliant on drums. Genevieve on keys. Conrad on bass. Guest spots by Lydia Lunch, Hugo, Tex, Jonnine Standish. 

My hair was on end at the maturity of their talents and the beautiful touch of their ensemble playing. I love my friends. 

 I also went to see The Wreckery at The Great Club. Cait is a St Kilda girl and so Ed and Hugo and Nick are our friends. I never saw them back when. Now, I loaned them some amps. I went expecting to see some dark, old school Melbourne ramshackle. 

What I saw was a brilliant, dynamic band with all their chemistry intact, presenting a wise new album and cherry-picked oldies, with dynamic power and control and again, a maturity that was so fkn exciting and highlighted what great songs they have. I loved stepping into their world, they blew me away!

5. The Apartments
It was a privilege to see The Apartments in stripped down mode at the amazing newly completed  People’s Republic, a tiny converted backstreet Greek church in Earlwood. Packed to the rafters on a Sunday winter’s evening, it actually was like a religious experience, with Peter Milton Walsh enthralling the faithful with songs of love and loss and dry martini stories of the heart. 

Intimate is a word that gets bandied, but wow this was that, as PMW brought the light with a lifetime of art and stage craft. Amen to that!  

6. Todd Rundgren at The Factory Theatre in Sydney
I still can’t get over how fucking amazing this show was. Davey Lane was not only across all the intricate guitar parts, backing vocals and arrangements; he was the Musical Director and put the whole thing together and assembled the most amazing band. I honestly thought these guys were American session Todd Freaks, but they were a bunch of young Melbourne cats that Davey had pulled together and they were so ridiculously good and organic and beautifully brought the intricate pop genius of Todd Rundgren to life, while making it look easy and having a ball. Todd was fkn amazing, his songs are completely embedded in him; he didn’t miss a beat, he knew exactly where every song was at and the band never let him down. 

He was funny and dry and weird and so American, in fine voice and pulled out some absolutely beautiful lead breaks. You could see during the whole gig that Todd was well happy with this great band - and he showed his great appreciation at the end. 

I couldn’t stop shaking my head all night is disbelief. It was fucking incredible and hats off to Davey Lane. What an achievement! 

7. Kid Congo and The Pink Monkey Birds at the Oxford Art Factory
A magic night. A feast of friends, all mad with love for Kid. The fkn adorable funny, cool campy, crampy vampy voodoo of him. Such a sweet, beautiful soul. Fantastic grooves. Absolutely killer band. Mick Harvey on bass, so good. Great sound. 

What a joy to be part of it and to see Kid and Cait catch up after many years. It’s a wonderful life.

8. Macy Gray at the Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Twenty years ago when I was heartbroken and shattered, two Macy Gray albums inexplicably came into my life to help me glue it back together. I had two tickets to the Enmore in 2004 but Macy was fucked up and blew out the tour. 

2024 and I hang onto Cait’s skirt as she rushes the stage and there we are, front and centre and out of our minds, the band is a funky miracle and Macy is the coolest, sassiest, most soulful and most adorable woman on Earth.

Thank you, Macy Gray for everything. I love you. 

9. Grace Cummings at the Metro Theatre, Sydney 
I discovered Grace a couple of years ago at the The Great Club when I lent the band some backline and we hung out all night. We got on great and the show blew me away, it was something I’ll never forget. Grace is also funny and sweet, swears like a pirate and can drink you under the table. 

Anyway, it takes a lot to get me out of the house but there I was on the bus, then front and centre at the Metch and again that wonderful communal mind when everyone there knew they were experiencing something really special. And again I found myself muttering ‘Oh my God’ and ‘Oh fuck’ after every song.

Grace has a talent way beyond her years. Her songs are dramatic and operatic but simple and truly earthy. And she is gifted with the most amazing voice of incredible power and emotion with a deep guttural edge, so that you feel in the presence of something. And it’s rare to see someone in such absolute command yet making themselves completely vulnerable. 

Grace is a strong and beautiful young woman with a dual masculine energy that makes her a force. But she also has the most killer band, here straight off a European tour and it was a joy to see them so relaxed and confident, so tight and loose and their camaraderie on stage gave me goosebumps.  Check out her albums and go and see her next time and you’ll see what I mean. 

10. The Dirty Three
I’ve written a lot about The Dirty Three over the years so if you know me you know how I feel, but an epic three hours at the Enmore was yet another catharsis for me, restoring my soul and my faith in humanity and something greater. 

I was moved to feel like I’d been taken down to the river and had my sins washed from me. It gave me the strength to carry on. If there’s one thing in the uncertainty of life I know to be true and certain, it’s that you’re never alone, with The Dirty Three. 

Footnote
And so a rough year ended with Cait and I finally selling Petty Cash Cafe. Which was a miracle that anyone had any money to buy it. We put our hearts and souls and backs into it for 15 years and it was an institution, but the end came not a moment too soon as we were about to collapse. 

I got to travel around the country with the Cold Chisel circus for two months (with The Cruel Sea supporting) and it was a wonderful experience and I was filled with love and gratitude for the belonging I have in my life. 

And then I returned and sat on the sticky carpet at The Union Hotel on a Sunday afternoon, looking out over my beloved South King Street, and let Aerial Maps bring me home to where my heart is.