This is Evan. He is a drummer and generally naughty boy. It was hard to choose his photo because he looked interesting in all of them. Zoe told me later than he had not slept for 2 days when we did the shoot which explains his appearance. (Photos by Alex Craig. Treatment and manipulation by Beth Pickworth)

To his eternal credit, John didnt blink when he saw his Doomsday Piano portrait.

And he might well have – given he looks like a real retard in it.

I was worried about his reaction given his mercurial personality: a heady mix of melancholy intellectual and flighty drama queen – so I encouraged our artwork producer Beth Pickworth to blur the ugly features as much as possible.

We are left with the endearing elephant-man-like image you see in the photo today.

This photo is one of my favorites.

(Mr Hibbard brings trombone, piano, percussion, accordion and backing vocals to the equation.)

Introducing Mr Elmo Reed.

Everyone in the world knows that Elmo is the finest natural axeman to grace the blue planet, but not many know that in additional to his supernatural guitar powers he is also a Doctor of Philosophy. This lends our outfit some much needed class and intellectual heft. When you need some heavy lifting done with a brain, Mr Reed is the go-to-guy.

In this portrait shot, Elmo appears to be channeling Clint Eastwood by way of one of Dickens’ minor villains.

One day I shall ask Elmo the story of how he attained his Guitar Powers: currently I imagine a Mephistophelean pact involving a gypsy, the Devil and a perilous voyage to the Antarctic. It could well be, however, that it was a result of talent and practice. How disappointing would that be?

(All “Doomsday Piano” portrait shots by Alex Craig. Design, layout and photo-manipulation by Beth Pickworth.)

Zoe Hauptmann is, of course, King Curly’s rhythm section for live performances – on the Doomsday Piano recording sessions her talented brothers Ben (on anything with strings) and James (on anything hit with sticks) also did some wonderful things.

And so it was a happy thing to be able to photograph all 3 of the Uncanny Hauptmann Triplets together for the album shoot.

The triplets come from an apple farm in the region of Pialago near Canberra and for some reason Mr & Mrs Hauptmann have allowed all three to pursue musical careers. It all seems like a nice idea but where will it end? Whatever happened to one for the church, one for the navy etc…?

Another slightly creepy footnote – we have discovered by chance that my father (Mister Appel) – who used to deliver babies – was first in the world to lay hands on all 3 triplets. It’s something none of us was comfortable with for some time but have now worked through with therapy.

My boy Cornelius can be a trial.But thankfully he’s easy on the eye just like his daddy was in his prime so we put up with it.

The photo on the left shows him refusing to leave my side during the “Doomsday Piano” photo shoot.

As an Interesting aside: Mr Creighton (pictured to the right) is Godfather to Cornelius – so as you can see, we are all

ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY.

All “Doomsday Piano” portrait shots are by Alex Craig. Art direction and design for “Doomsday Piano” Beth Pickworth.

Zoe is always looking to Improve herself. Here she is enjoying one of the greatest prison story’s ever – or is she hiding from one of John’s tour bus monologues?

Another time Zoe attempted The Iliad but finding it tiresome had John read it aloud.

This was a bloody torture for the rest of us, but Zoe just went right on learning.

The Curly tour vehicle is always a hotbed of ideas and solutions. Here however, John seems to be momentarily lost for words. (By now you ought to be getting a pretty good understanding of the two major components of touring.)

This photo of Elmo and Zoe captures the gentle pleasure of being drunk. Taken shortly after a show on the Sunshine Coast at Joe’s Waterhole/Eumundi. The 4 of us shared a bottle of something in the gloom of the garden of our unpleasant accommodation. Imagine also the din of the tropical bushland and the occasional cane toad hopping by on the lawn.

We drove a lot on the Doomsday Tour and consequently otherwise dull things become interesting- like stopping at petrol stations. Nothing much going on here except the cashier refused to be in our photo. Zoe is drinking coffee and I’m paying for the petrol. One time we stopped at a remote station where a borderline-attractive girl told me she was “B.O.R.E.D” in a suggestive way. That made me happy for ages.