The Life and Times of Peter Green
updated 28 May 2026
 Happy 3rd Birthday to Midnight (the cat) |
May 12thFogbound. Split Enz Spellbound is stuck in my head... but I've changed it to "When you are Fog Bound, once again"! It's like that pea soup thick English fog. I wonder if Nigel Griggs is walking around outside in it, feeling totally at home on the other side of the mountain. I drive down the mountain carefully as the deer are out this morning and it's still rather dark outside.The gang at the Charity have a surprise birthday cake for me. Really sweet. Lots of hugs and laughter, a fun day. The never ending Birthday. I chat to Luke the guy who picks up the recycle from the other charity. Nice bloke, I see him first every Tuesday morning. I think next Tuesday I will surprise him by buying him a coffee. May 13thFood Bank is very positive today, some new faces. Some extra chocolate blocks come in today so after we have filled the boxes we have a couple left for us so that is nice. We always put those in need first, even with my chocolate addiction.I pay the one bill and that's it debt free for the moment. It always feels good. I chat to Nigel Griggs for well over an hour. I'm sure everyone is calling him, over compensating because he isn't playing at the 2 Melbourne Enz shows. We have some laughs , as long as I know he is ok. It must be weird for Malcolm Green too , he's back for one tour and after that, not. Welcome to band life. Like a messed up marriage. May 14thI wake up stupidly early and head off and fill up the car. Cost me $48 , which is still fine for 2 weeks. Next stop Bunnings but I am early and it's not yet 6.30 am so I check out our YouTube numbers while waiting. Insane that the mini 3 minute Red Symons interview has now gone past 20,000 views.I head into Bunnings with the tradies in their hot shorts and grab a Bunnngs voucher as birthday present for someone. Next I drive to the Can Recycle machine and wait 15 minutes for that to open and give our can donation to community radio 3RRR. Finally it is nice to sit down and sip my morning coffee at the Garden Cafe. My friend Ian turns up and we talk about music and how fucked Trump is. Our 2 favourite topics. I mail off the voucher to my Sisters husband (she married a Mark too) another May birthday present off the list. I hear from Laura and we work out a time to meet at our house to go to the Split Enz show tonight. The drive to the city was fine but my super secret free car park near Rod Laver is no more as they are doing renovations. So we find this freebee spot near the Corner Hotel. I totally forget there is a fan gathering tonight and the fans never mentioned it so no harm no foul. My knee is a bit achey still but the walk to Rod Laver is fine. We grab our tickets (thank you Noel and Split Enz) and they are GREAT seats . We soon find out we are surrounded by Noels friends and neighbours. The free Noel ticket area. Laura tells me that they are $400 tickets ($800!) which seems so crazy. The gig, ok not a review as there are enough on the internet . The band were pretty good. Matt Eccles on drums just sensational. He obviously inherited the drummer gene from his dad Brent who was the drummer for The Angels. Always loved Brent and his wife Helen, they are NZ promoters now, treated me really well each time we toured NZ. The songs- Hard Act To Follow, which would normally not be in my top 5 just worked for me, loved it. Tim seemed incredibly happy, Neil played really well but was rather quiet on stage. Eddie wants to sign on up for comedy week, James on bass, I thought his backing vocals were good and as always Noel Crombie, our hero (and not just because of the $800 tickets) , well what can I say Noel is God. The special effects backing images stunningly beautiful. The "Double Happy" with all of the surviving Enz costume images just made my archival heart jump- beautiful. Laura and myself danced our arses off, laughed and cheered the Enz on. The seats so perfect, viewing the show from directly in front is wonderful. What I thought could be "just more of the same" as far as reunions really wasn't. OK the ticket prices are crazy and the merchandise prices shocking but this could be it , we may never see Split Enz again so with that thought in our heads we loved the show. I saw Andy White walking on by in the distance but he couldn't hear me call out and 5 seats down, when we were leaving there was Michael Den Elzen from Schnell Fenster so a bit of a hug. I felt somewhat guilty about the cost of the freebee seats so I bought an embroidered ENZ cap to show some return support. We walked back to the car hoping it was still in its place (it was). As we drove around the corner, there was the Molly Meldrum statue , so we illegally parked, ran and gave Molly a polish and took a selfie with "him". Home at midnight and a big shout out to Laura for a fun night. Mark would have loved it but he has injured his ear drum and we didn't want to risk it just yet. May 15thI am sipping my coffee at Olinda and I can hear Skyhooks SMUT rather loudly breaking up the silence. I wonder if I am being set up so I ignore it. Our friend Charlie walks up chuckling "I'm playing this for you" he jokes. 52 years later and Skyhooks still haunts us, but in a good way. A truly loved band has longevity. Skyhooks are such an iconic band in Australia.I'm home and changing the bed linen. My new flannelette sheets, pillow cases. Winter isn't too far away. I intend to be snug. My knee is still playing up, aching a bit. So a mate recommends Pure Magnesium oil spray and it works well. Not "cured" but a vast improvement. This one is made in Byron Bay. May 16thThe ENZ are in Brisbane tonight. I've decided to head into the charity to man the donations area while their one day Toy sale is happening. Just for 4 hours. Happy to help them out.We sign on up for Amazon Prime, it's so cheap for one year and the shows etc are great. We should of ditched shitty Foxtel years ago and gone with Prime. I make Hamburgers for dinner. May 17thI've been checking out the Australian Music Industry 60s 70s 80s Facebook page. Every year they run a lot of Polls with masses of aussie/nz bands. Basically most popular. Today Skyhooks were up against Cold Chisel. So spread the word amongst Hooks fans and we managed to bump Chisel off- Skyhooks scoring 69% of the vote. Impressive.In the evening our Crowded House boys were up against INXS. A tough fight as INXS have a huge database. Once again the fans stepped up and rallied to the cause. Crowded House 59, INXS 41. Our bands have the most amazing passionate fans. A few INXS ladies were sulking. Too bad- Boo Hoo! May 18thI go for a small hike along the ridge track on the mountain. It's overcast and spookily quiet today like some wild animal has scared all the critters. Will something eat me? I kept feeling like something was watching me, a tad eerie.We continue to enjoy the Deadloch aussie tv drama. We like its dark humour. The start of the show set the pace with a dead man on the beach, a stray cigarette sets fire to his pubes ! Close Up shot! Only in Australia. We had to laugh. Most of the Wentworth TV show cast seem to be in it. Mark and myself have noticed that a lot of our videos are getting more views today. All of them ticking past the target we set. No huge effort needed which is great. Lots of nice comments too. People are enjoying our YouTube page. We zoom past 7 million views. May 19thSo a really nice gathering at Salvo's today. Head honcho Salvo people turned up and co workers and it was a really lovely moment. When it comes to the charity I hide from attention as much as I can. Today not so, just happy to work at the place with amazing people and we hope that the time we put in, manifests as help for those who need it. My amazing boss Libby and my mate Alex put on a really lovely feast, giant chocolate cake. The Salvo's gave me an award, certificate and a $50 Coles Myer Voucher. A box of delicious chocolates arrived later. I gave some kind of speech. It was all really nice. I felt the love and appreciation. Special shout out to Bec who did the long drive. Nice to see her, as gorgeous as ever.I also reminded people that it was indeed National Volunteer Week , and if it wasn't for volunteers, charities couldn't run, nor many other organisations. We are the backbone and we make good things happen. So if you Volunteer, take a second to feel proud, you are a true hero. May 20thIt isn't true, Mark and myself are NOT Angine de Poitrine, despite the rumour that it is both of us in the video clip.I turn on the Hills radio and I hear Icona Pop's "I don't care" which I kind of love. Had a dance to it at the bakery with Polly and Annie. "You're so damn hard to please, we gotta kill this switch, You're from the seventies, I'm a 90's bitch..."! Indeed! I love TISM's caustic wit, even spelling their name wrong on their Tour posters for the "No Mistakes" tour. I remember when they first started out and were resident band at The Club where I worked, they were just these pimply Uni students. I'd see them out of their TISM disguises and I'd laugh at how wimpy they were. Saying that, they were really nice guys to me never any bullshit in the band room. I do own the TISM comic book. We watch Aussie Horror Movie "Bringing her back" and actor Sally Hawkins delivers. What a fuck up her character is. Parts of that movie fuck with my head. The kid crunching his teeth on the steel knife freaks me out. Markys YouTube Wednesday is up and we hit our target number by midnight. If you really want to lend us a helping hand, could you check out this (Audio) YouTube Wednesday of Skyhooks at the State Theatre in 1975. Just 1 song "Mercedes Ladies". It needs 160 views to reach our goal. You can enjoy it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHpvpruO3AY May 21stHappy Birthday Midnight. The Dads love our furry 3 year old child. I make some sort of cat food cake and plonk a 3 candle on it. I even make her birthday hat. Of course being a cat she hates it all and fights us all the way when trying to take a photo. Anyway- Happy Birthday beloved fur ball.I have a bit of a sore neck now, my knee has basically repaired itself- I'm guessing I slept at some stupid angle. It is annoying and will hopefully go away. Not sure I like this old age pain crap. Ouch. A million people worse off than me, I need to stop moaning. May 22ndSunshine today, which is nice. Neck still aches but the sun feels nice on it.I am loving the "Queens of Noise" -The Real Story Of The Runaways book by Evelyn McDonnell. A birthday present from Mark. So well written. It answers quite a few questions that I always wondered about. Split Enz in Perth tonight. A friend of mine says the audience didn't really get up on its feet like they did in Melbourne. Sometimes it's the venue not necessarily the band. I dare anyone to sit during I See Red! May 23rdI sleep in a bit , Midnight climbs under the covers and falls asleep when the sun is rising. She puts her little head on my arm and quietly cat snores.I wrap my neck in a scarf that my friend Sue made for me. It's nice and warm , slowly my neck ache is going away. No idea how I managed to make it so bad. I wish it was my wild sex life but I think it was buying too soft a pillow. A nice coffee at Olinda bakery and it is free. I sit with Pauline outside and we waffle on. A bit of sunshine breaking through. Andy White calls and good news, his Merri Creek Tavern show on May 28th has Sold Out. We are so happy for him, it will be a very enjoyable show. Mark photographs Greg Skyhooks silver jumpsuit from our archives. It's a hard one to photograph. We use the new lighting rig and I'm happy with the result. The jumpsuit is from 1974, so slightly glam and passable flares. Greg wore it a lot on stage with the Hooks in 1974 so it's bit "stage weary" , some patches where the silver has worn out to the gold underneath. It is cool though, Skyhook Archive Item HK010. I pop it up on Facebook for music fans to enjoy. The Finals voting has been underway for a few days. Crowded House V's Midnight Oil. Skyhooks V's AC/DC. Oils and Acca Dacca have huge databases. So for both we are the underdogs. I put the call out to our fans from both bands and they certainly respond. Crowded House beat the Oils. Skyhooks beat AC/DC- that one is the shock, looks like our Skyhook fans went for it. Tomorrow the Grand Final is underway. Crowded House V's Skyhooks. My friend Chris calls and it's been mentioned on radio a few times, playing "Balwyn Calling" and "Women In Uniform". Lasagne for dinner. All this voting has made me hungry. I devour it quickly. May 24thThe grey days are back and a week of rain on the way, says weatherman Mark. I think he's trying to "out weather" Nate.We decide to put up a live clip today. A bit of a history lesson in some ways. Skyhooks Tony Williams and Greg Macainsh , cut their musical teeth in a band called Reuben Tice. When they reformed a few years ago we filmed them at St Andrews Hall. It's nice little tune called "Dance...at the super show". Thanks Marky for all the extra effort around these videos. Really worth checking out even if you have never heard of Reuben Tice. You can enjoy it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BprFZXyi0NA I hear from Schnell Fensters Michael Den Elzen. He tells me how he was such a huge Skyhooks fan and the first album he ever bought was "Ego is not a dirty word". I love that you find out all of these things years later. As always nice to hear from Michael. But will he vote for Skyhooks over Crowded House? Well the Music Poll voting is underway, both Crowded House and Skyhooks have been neck and neck. 50% each all day. We gave the Poll a mention on the Hooks Facebook page and suddenly they are ahead 58% of the vote. Still several days to go with the voting. Another mate heard it mentioned on radio, if nothing else both bands are getting some extra airplay. Music is one of those things, we all have different tastes. That's what makes the world go round. I hope you are all happy. Love PG. |
archives * images * merchandise
| brought to you by frenz.com, the springboard for all that is frenz of the enz |