My elder brother Greg has been writing a musical for theatre for some time now. (Maybe 10 years I reckon). And over that time and many rewrites, it has been steadily transforming into a slick little crowd pleaser named ‘Van Park’. King Curly will be performing the original soundtrack live onstage.
When ‘Van Park’ comes to the stage in November it will probably be publicised as a Contemporary Australian Musical Comedy – Sort of like King Curly being tagged ‘Country-rock’ (same genre as Johnny Cougar Mellencamp) – not that helpful but I guess it says something to the passing punter. No yartist will ever be comfortable with such ugly pigeonholing as inevitably heaps them together with lots of things they hate. But since they are a necessary evil, may I at least suggest a improvement: By adding the words ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ to any/all of these hybrid genre labels. In which case ‘Van Park’ could be distinguished as GOOD CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN MUSICAL COMEDY. Much better. Of course there would need to be some kind of special board of regulators to give out the Good/Bad tag – people with spotless reputations, beyond reach of industry bribes etc .My hand is up for such a position but I’m not hopeful.
Anyway, the good news is that John Paul Young has taken the lead role in ‘Van Park’, to be shown in early November both in Wollongong and in Sydney. I, like most people am a fan of JPY – ever since I saw him get his t-shirt ripped off on Countdown ages ago. Of course Im a big fan of his songwriters too; Vanda & Young.
At the very least the world will get to see JPY sing ‘Let’s Have An Orgy. This is such a good thing.
It is looking like King Curly will be touring to Europe/U.S not once, but twice in the near future. Like many things in this business nothing is confirmed till the last minute when all the unlikely co-incidences are lined up together but let’s just be glad the astrology (and good will of people) is looking positive as we are eager to go.
While I consider myself to be something of a mid-range greenie, I notice in the paper today (with great foreboding) that because of the fuel prices, the airlines are increasing their ticket prices and are introducing a baggage penalty which will almost certainly capture Zoe’s ridiculously big double-bass. Could it be that what remains of live music is is to die altogether – that would be a bad omen indeed for the world. In the great tradition of King Curly, I had always imagined that the crashing economy, peak oil crisis etc would mean punishment for the greedy/rich only and that struggling cockroaches like myself would be suddenly free to roam freely amongst the corpses – but alas, that is not the case and we must all pay the price. How grave the future looks for the world at present. I look to the upcoming Olympics (in the heart of Mordor itself) for some mighty gesture of good-will and direction change. (No Im not kidding)
This was a memorable show for us which by chance someone filmed. It took place in a school hall in 2007, decorated especially for us by the school children themselves with all things King Curly-ish (paper crowns etc). Unfortunately for the children, by the time their hard work was done it was bedtime so off they went.
Before our performance we were pampered at the nearby residence of the evening’s host; the Honorable Diana Lubimowski . Di and a few of her minders regaled us with lasagna and tactless stories of how great the previous act at this venue had been. It only added fuel to the fire and later that evening the gentle folk of Warrimoo left that hall (quite drunk) and with only the faintest memory of ‘Kaya’ .
Not sure why John (or my moustache) weren’t with us that night.
