21 February 2019., Hyde Park, Sydney, Australia
This was a statement read aloud at the rally, which Paul Kelly couldn’t attend.,
I first started playing in Sydney in the late seventies.
French’s Tavern on Oxford Street was the first I remember.
Bondi RSL, The Trade Union Club, Graphic Arts Club, Kardomah Cafe, The Manzil Room.
Fuck we never got out of the Manzil ‘til after dawn.
Later on the Strawberry Hills Hotel, the Hopetoun, Dee Why, Salinas, The Annandale, War and Peace.
Many of these places have gone but their legacy lives on in the venues and the festivals under threat today.
You don’t learn how to write a song in school.
You don’t do a TAFE course in How to Play In Front of An Audience.
These places were my universities.
I still go to music festivals, pubs, clubs, and cafes all the time to do extra study.
Take a little refresher course.
Listen and learn.
This is where we grow and thrive, love and hate, compete and cooperate.
This where we make our communities, carve our sound, and develop our unique art.
Fight for it!
PK.