The Life and Times of Peter Green
updated 17 August 2025
 Midnight the Cat showing her amazing ladder balancing skills at Kalorama. |
July 28thIt's rare that I sleep in but today I do. Maybe my body needed it, maybe I'm in hibernation mode, I do have a couple more chest hairs, am I turning bear like? Grrr.My sister calls and my Mum is back in hospital again, after only a week at home, this is terrible news. I spend most of the day in contact with Sis dealing with it all. I suspected the hospital sent her home way too early last time. We shall work this out. Fifty years ago the Skyhooks "Ego is not a dirty word" album debuted at #1. Half a century and musically and lyrically it stands up so well. An Aussie classic. I go in search of small plastics near the look out and fill half a bag, less plastic into the animal kingdom. I'm really here to sit and chill, thinking of Mum. It's good place just to sit, breathe, think. July 29thI head to the charity and drop cans into the recycle machine, I randomly pick a charity So they get my $3.10. I love Victoria's can recycle system.I'm sipping my morning coffee at the Garden Cafe, and checking our Youtube page. My daily look at the numbers. My strange obsession is that all 814 videos on our page get past 1000 views, even the really weird shit with me in it. So far 95% have, some like "Don't Dream It's Over" from Rockarena are past half a million views. Those with a few views to go I send out the odd "can you help us" emails or FB message and music fans (bless em) always respond. I'm sure most people reading this have had a request from me to give something a helpful view-so thank you. Emails coming in from those connected with Split Enz. I've stepped right back these days and the amount of good will I've given that band , I think they forget such things. So I dare say I'm kind of not interested, maybe that's not the right phrase. I've done a few things already, sent the UK images etc for the upcoming re issues. But I think it's ok to say "NO" which may well freak a few people out. A big part of me has moved on. Totally the band is always in my musical heart but you get a bit sick of the assumption that we will do everything. I spend the late afternoon wrapping Maddies birthday presents, all fun stuff that a 12 year old will love and a $50 voucher. We are good uncles. Great to see Fantastic Four debut at #1 one the Aussie movie charts, Superman now at #2 . It remains at #1 for a second week too. So far around $15 million for Oz, which isn't too bad. Superman at $22 million but it has been out for 4 weeks. The FF fan boy in me is excited. July 30thLots of excitement as we put up not one not two but THREE Skyhooks clips that are nearly 50 years old from a missing episode of Countdown. Two of them are what was broadcast, the third a rehearsal technical "clip" which is brilliant.My Press Release starts with : "Working around the Skyhooks Archives I've come to accept that what we think is lost & gone forever can sometimes bubble to the surface and surprise us all" . (Peter Green). Noise 11 and The Music, the 2 main music paper run with it. Within a few hours they both have major articles up. Our Skyhooks Press becomes the most trending music article in Australia for four days. Exceptional. The phones are running hot, the fans are so excited. Enjoy the article here and it's so nice to see they spelt Marks surname correctly. By clicking on the link you may well send the article to #1 again so please just give us a click. (HA-that sounds a bit sexy). I chat to Mum, she sounds so sad, I beg her to stay brave, this will all work out. I forget at times she is 87 years old and mostly blind. This stuff must be so scary for her. I want to go up but it's better for me to wait till she goes home down the track as I can help her at home. An 8.8 magnitude earthquake happens off Russia's far east coast. That's a half decent quake. July 31stI call into Woolworths and buy a few things. Your work make Shadi is departing and I bet the charity has not made an effort, but we the volunteers will. So I buy some food, and other bits and pieces. There will be a send off.I catch Tassie senator Josh Deluges address to Queer youth in his maiden speech in Tassie's Senate. He is the first openly gay Labor senator from Tasmania. I grab my partner in crime Deb and we sneak into the mens room and inflate the giant PARTY balloons and take over the kitchen, I make guacamole and the table is covered in munchies. We even have a dancing cactus. Shadi comes in and she is so surprised, close to tears. It's a fun gathering. We have our own "cactus dance" -don't ask! Home to lots of emails around the Skyhooks clips. People are excited. Who would have thought that half a century later this show has appeared. August 1stFriday and I have the day off, well so I thought. The phone calls start, RADIO is beckoning me. ABC is first -I am on air with Brigitte Duclos- ABC Melbourne. It's a quick cameo but it's' cool. As I go to air, Andy White calls and Brian Nankervis is looking for me for his radio show I guess. Two more radio stations kick in. I am starving I missed breakfast/lunch. Marky, so wonderful brings me a toasty which I wolf down before the next radio phoner. A girl from there ABC calls and says I must of been good, messages on their FB page that I should have my own show. Gotta love the internet.The counter jumps again for the videos and we go from #5 to #1 trending again bumping Guy Sebastian off (he sucked at the Logies). I help out some disaster mates in NSW, they've had 1500 calls around the floods. I find some free accomodation for a few families. It's token but everything helps. August 2ndOur gorgeous Vali Myers would have turned 95 today. When Vali died I stepped back from everything around her. She told me, "when I die burn all my art". I just couldn't but without her it's just not the same. My crazy gypsy friend. I think of you a lot today, I find myself chuckling at silly memories. You burned as brightly as your fire red hair.I owe the bakery 10c, I find 5c outside, I owe the bakery 5c. I never owe money, I guilt, I am a moron, I owe the bakery 5c. Should I prostitute myself for 5c just to be debt free.? August 3rdThe annual "Bitch Fest" is on, the Logie awards. We have nice food and settle in, and it's mostly atrocious. Magna the exception, she was brilliant. With her chemo she looks like a bald Bert Newton (she would laugh at that). I remember her at Hessie's Shed and we talked for awhile, we laughed, we love the same music. She told me how she was this huge Skyhooks fans and when Split Enz were bottom of the bill at the Skyhooks 75 show (Enz had just arrived from NZ) and the audience were booing them, she secretly loved the ENZ. Bless her. Good to see "Return to Paradise" win Best Drama too.We call Maddison for her birthday , a nbit shocked that she is almost a teenager, she is 12. High school is approaching fast. She's a great kid, my sister and her husband, such excellent parents. August 4thI mail Bongo Skyhook a next day envelope for this 1975 Skyhooks costume that he is sending us. I don't trust Aussie Post with regular mail and want it to get here safely. We start photographing everything next week -Skyhooks, Split Enz, Crowded House and band T-shirts. It will take awhile but good to have it all documented.August 5thThe Skyhooks Facebook page just clicked over with its 17,000th follower. Which is really cool. A nice bunch, so passionate around the band.August 6thJim at Woolworths comes to my rescue today, a completely useless checkout person who totally stuffed everything up, after that she starts coughing, like Covid coughing, I dodged the spit and christ knows what else. I kept thinking if you have given me Covid I will be your worst possible nightmare. So fucking selfish , if you are sick don't come to work and spread your shit everywhere., Anyway Jim, a hero , where would Woolworths be without him. I call the manager and suggest they make him employee of the month, the least I could do.Markys YouTube be Wednesday goes up. Our last piece of footage from the Finn Brothers in Los Angeles. I filmed this in the rehearsal studios before the tour and it's really good. In July 2004, shocked it's now 2+ decades old. So here is "Where Is My Soul" , so check it out. August 7thI spend the morning paying all our bills, happy to say we owe NOTHING to nobody. It's hard to be 100% debt free in life.Jim Lovell dies at 97, best known for the infamous Apollo 13 moon mission , a failure to land but truly inspirational. August 8thI keep waking up with a small nose bleed for the last few days, not massive but rare I ever have them. A bit strange.We start photographing the stage costumes and tour t-shirts today. First cab off the rank is Skyhooks. Just a few every afternoon as it's forever fiddly with Richard the mannequin, legs, arms , hands off, and being a seventies band the guys are so thin. I have to really work the costumes over the torso and yet be very careful considering how fragile they are. I love working with Marky on this-we are a great team. Miss Midnight freaks me out. She climbs up the ladder I use for the backing material in the photo area. Sits on the very top. Next she stands upright for ten minutes on her back legs, yes like human. I manage to take some photos -she is incredible, such balance. August 9thThe Zultar numbers win again on lotto, less each time, enough profit to buy me a coffee. The Universe now telling me to stop while I am ahead.I have Greg Skyhooks silver jumpsuit on Richard the mannequin. I lay him down on the bed while I attach hands etc. He looks like a Klaatu, interplanetary sex android! August 10thEvery so often some fans shit me for being selfish knobs. Thankfully not many but some do not appreciate just how good they have had it for many years. Like I said not many but a couple you just want to go "go fuck yourself"… and of course I don't. We've been fortunate to have so many brilliant fans, some dear mates.Wow 7.30 tonight A very bright meteor crosses the sky, parts of it crash near Ballarat. For an instant it lit the sky up. Watch the UFO reports start flooding in. Klaatu the interplanetary sex android has landed!!!!!! Great that the filming of the pilot for the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer show has started. Sarah Michelle looking rather gorgeous in her red dress. Ryan Armstrong will make a cool slayer. I bet this new Buffy will get a hell of a lot of viewers. So does that mean our original Buffy costume from the show will quadruple in value? Woo! Woo! Sorry the diary was a bit late, side tracked, mostly around Mum being in hospital. Love to you all. Peter P.S. the latest Markys Youtube Wednesday just went up . Mark managed to rescue 2 Split Enz songs from a decaying cassette tape from 1981. Recorded in Adelaide in March 1981. POOR BOY and SHARK ATTACK and they sound great. Eddie Rayners really going for it. |
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