Melbourne Tour October 2007 - Part 1

St George slaying the dragon, outside State Library, Swanston St

A Little About Melbourne

After a week on remote and windswept King Island, arriving in Melbourne is always a bit of a shock. I got to my accommodation (Victoria Hall in Russell St) about 6pm Sunday evening, and felt quite overwhelmed by the number of people wandering around the streets in the CBD. By Monday I was acclimatised and totally engaged in it!

To my eyes, this is a much more European city than Sydney. I lived in Melbourne back in the mid-80's and although it's changed in many respects since then - just as all Australian cities have - in many others it's very much the same. In amongst the steel and glass of homogenised late 20th century architecture, one can find gems like the statue of St George (above) outside the State Library building on the corner of Swanston & LaTrobe Streets, on the edge of the CBD.

The pace of life has always been quite different in Melbourne too. Unlike Sydney, which never seems to stop these days, Melburnians in my experience, work just as hard but are more inclined to stop and relax with just as much intensity. After all, despite the protestations of many interstate fans, this is the home of Australian Rules Football and an institution.

I didn't get a lot of time off while I was there but took a few pics of things that grabbed my fancy. I also managed to catch a great exhibition at the RMIT Gallery in Swanston St, "Living Elvis", celebrating 30 years since the King's earthly demise - brilliant!




The Gigs - Singers Workshop with Sweet Sassafras

Monday afternoon, I got on the Belgrave train and travelled to the end of the line, up in the beautiful Dandenong Ranges. There I was met by the wonderful Deidre, Jennie and Kerrie from Sweet Sassafras Community Choir, ready to run a singing workshop with them that evening. I felt like a princess - treated to cake and coffee beforehand at a wonderful little cafe in Belgrave and a chance to chat and get to know these amazing women a little better. Kerrie was my contact for the choir and frankly, without her the workshop wouldn't have happened - she is a powerhouse of positive energy!

The hall where the choir meet every Monday night is at Sassafras Primary School on the Mt Dandenong Tourist Road. It's big enough to accommodate everyone but small enough to be cosy and a good space to sing in. I had a hoot with these folks, some of whom were attracted by Kerrie's very organic-looking posters and not regular members of the choir. I know some of them joined the choir that night and I wish them all the best in their personal journey of song.

There's a tremendous celebration happening across Victoria at the moment, a resurgence of the power of massed voices and community singing, and many beautiful songs being performed. As a songwriter, I see another strand to this tapestry.

So many times I hear people say "I love that song, gee I wish I could do that" and when I suggest that they can, they close up and say "I can't write songs". Digging a little deeper, it's often the vulnerability that one feels, the sense of exposure that holds us back from taking the quantum leap from interpreting other people's music to composing our own. There is also a very big underlying notion that songwriting is the domain of the individual. What I set out to do with the Sassafras mob was show that it's in all of us and guide them through a very simplistic shared songwriting model.

By the end of the night (a brief two hour session) we had an original harmonised round and a lot of yellow envelopes strewn about with lyrics for future songs that came from the group. It was wonderful and I really look forward to hearing more original work from this choir in the future.