But school was fun, I was always the class clown, so I suppose I spent a lot of my time standing outside the classroom, or in the corner of the room… even then I still got into mischief… sorry Mum and Dad…

But needless to say it was fun, and back then fun was just that, and you knew when not to cross the line tho…

I mean how times have changed…

When I was in grade 1 (5 years of age), we played catch and kiss, these days, if you did that sort of thing, you’d be banned from school…

And the school we went to, we used to have punch up fights.. but it was just that, there were no weapons involved, and at most you might’ve gotten a black eye or blood nose… nobody was out to maim or kill someone… how times have changed..

I know this sounds weird, but fighting was for fun or respect, not about initiation like it is now…. For example; we’d even have a bunch of us mates hanging around my Mum & Dads place, we’d put the punch gloves on and with Dad as the ref, we’d go a few rounds together. But it was never serious stuff, we were all best of mates, that’s just the way things were back then… I mean those days you would have lots of best friends, these days you might have one best friend… Trust, honour, respect & morals… On public transport you actually stood up for senior citizens or pregnant women … You said ‘Thank-you’ and ‘Yes please’… Manners were a thing we used back then… You used the words Mr or Mrs when you talked to adults…
 

In those days when you went to school, you generally got a sandwich (peanut butter, vegemite or jam, or maybe the odd soggy tomato and cheese), a piece of fruit, and a biscuit and a cordial… And one day a week you would get tuck-shop.. And tuck-shop back then was like jam pikelets, chip rolls, mince rolls, mixed lollies, softdrinks, iced buns, or if you went all out you’d get a yummy lady-finger (a long sweet bun with cream in the middle and jam on top), a chocolate custard donut and a chicken burger (chicken patte on a roll with lettuce and mayo)…

Huge stuff… okay that’s maybe generalizing a bit, there was a little bit more choice, but that’s generally the way things were back then at schools and at home for lunches…

The choices weren’t huge, but I think that was a good thing, because you really learnt to appreciate things, and if you noticed I have underlined the word appreciate to emphasize the word…

People of today have everything for choice, we are just too spoilt, and appreciation has gone out the window…

We don’t appreciate anymore, we expect!

And this lays part and parcel why we are like the way we are today..

Anyway, I think you get my point, and this is supposed to be about my bio, not a lecture is it… Good onya Mick!!!!

But you also got value for money…

I remember in primary school when we used to go golf ball hunting in the creeks at the golf courses and sell the golf balls back to golfers, and we’d have competitions amongst ourselves to see who’d make the most money… But never the less, we’d still have plenty of money to go off to the local fish and chip shop to buy some goodies…

This is where the value for money part comes in…

Back then you could buy $1.00, yes that’s right, $1.00 worth of hot chips, and mate…. you got enough to feed a family… and they even threw in the sauce for free…

So with the chips and a soft drink, we’d still have plenty of money left over, that we could get extra tuck-shop days in at school…

These days, they would laugh at you if you walked in with a dollar and asked for chips… I mean what’s the minimum now, $3.00 isn’t it, and you get like a small cup… what a joke… I mean after all, it’s only potatoes sliced up and cooked in fat…

I also remember the biscuits back then were much bigger too…

Example; one of the famous Aussie biscuit’s here is called an iced vovo – a sweet biscuit with jam in the middle and a sweet pink marshmallow on the sides with coconut sprinkled on top… and you got a good sized biscuit with plenty of topping… Now when you buy a pack, the biscuits are half the size, and you wonder why they even bother putting the topping on, as it’s so thin…

What’s gone wrong here people…

I mean a bag of mixed lollies was like 30 cents I think… Now it’s like $3.00 isn’t it…

But that’s the way money was back then, you actually got your dollars worth…

I also remember 1 and 2-cent coins were around back then… so when you see something worth for example $1.98, the eight cents actually meant 8 cents, not rounded off to the nearest 5…

Then there was Dad’s Bryll Cream, well it wasn’t just my Dad, many men used it…

They would also put it in our hair as kids…

Bryll cream came in a red container with a white lid, and it looked like an oily white cream, and they put it in their hair…

This is a better explanation of what Bryll Cream is from wikipedia on the net;

Brylcreem (pronounced brill-cream) is a brand name of a men's hair grooming product. It was created in 1928. Brylcreem's purpose is to keep combed hair in place while giving it a deep shine or gloss. It is essentially an emulsion of water and mineral oil stabilised with beeswax.

Talking about hair… I remember the ‘Mullet’. Yes, it’s true… I did have a ‘Mullet’

You can knock it all you like… but some people did look good in a ‘Mullet’. Think John Farnham…Whereas other people, I’m not even going there….

I also think I hold the Australian record for the longest years of braces on my teeth…Seven years! That’s right, seven years… Boy was that fun trying to kiss… and then after they were taken out… I had 3 years with a plate and bands… Lucky it was mainly my real young years…

But I certainly remember that…

And nightclubs were called disco’s back then…

Roller and Ice skating was really big back then as well…

But it was fun back then… and the music…

This is what music I remember in the 70’s and 80’s

This is in no particular order, and doesn’t necessarily mean I liked it either…

In saying this, as a kid tho, I remember Mum & Dad used to have a B.B.Q. every weekend, and heaps of family and friends would come over, and Dad would put on the rock’n’roll records… Yes kids, that word was records (vinyl), there was no such thing as cd’s or dvd’s back then…

There was tapes tho…

Anyway, Dad would put the records on… and when I say Rock’n’Roll, I mean of the 50’s and 60’s kind; Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Johnny’O’Keefe, Jerry Lee Lewis,etc,etc…

There was heaps of songs, and everyone would dance, and have a great time…

Brilliant memories…

But we’d also listen to country as well; Charlie Pride, Roger Miller, Slim Dusty, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, etc,etc..

Most of all, Dad and I loved Elvis Presley ‘The King’…

Mate, we would sit in that poolroom for hours and listen to Elvis…

Dad loved his ‘Moody Blue’…

And with Elvis, you couldn’t go wrong, cos you didn’t have a shortage of songs to listen to when it came to Elvis… he could just sing anything… he was ‘The King’

Getting back to the music… it was great to reminisce then tho….

I’m not going to get into every single act there was, but these are ones that come to mind, or even those ones that stood out due to being a one hit wonder… like Joe Dolce for ‘Shaddupa Your Face’

There was AC-DC, Quiot Riot, Twisted Sister, Split Enz, Adam Ant, John Farnham, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Wham, Whitney Houston, Dragon, The Bangles, Prince, Bon Jovi, The Eagles, Toni Basil, Joe Dolce, Billy Ocean, Genesis, Boney M, Wickety Wak, Skyhooks, Village People, Little River Band, Men At Work, Kids In The Kitchen, Cold Chisel, Jimmy Barnes, Inxs, Cliff Richard, Billy Joel, Elton John… so much great music, and much much more…

Oh, and of course there was the music show ‘CountDown’. And who can forget movies like ‘Footloose’, ‘Dirty Dancing’ & ‘Eddie & The Cruisers’

So please don’t write to me saying I have left such and such out… I already know this, and like I said before, it’s generally what comes to my mind now…

The main point from me is, that the 70’s and 80’s hold some great memories for me…

And Television was a lot different back then…

High Definition… well, what the hell was that…

Black and white tele’s were a normal thing then… You were privileged to have a colour Tv… And Channel 10 was Channel O then…

My favourite programs as a kid were Cartoons like; ‘Hong Kong Fuey’, ‘Scooby Doo’, ‘Magilla Gorilla’, ‘Space Ghost’, ‘Astro Boy’, ‘Tom & Jerry’, ‘Transformers’, ‘Spiderman’, actually pretty much all the superhero cartoons…. ‘Speed Racer’, ‘Voltron’, ‘He-Man & The Master Of The Universe’, ‘The Jetsons’, ‘Popeye’, ‘Quick Draw McGraw’, ‘Mr Magoo’, ‘Smurfs’, ‘Fat Albert’, ‘Bananaman’, ‘The Flintstones’, ‘Rocky & Bullwinkle’, ‘Top Cat’, ‘Dastardly Races’, all the Disney stuff, ‘Shazam’, ‘Danger Mouse’, ‘Rojer Ramjet’… there was just so many favourites…

As for Tv shows; ‘Sons & Daughters’, ‘Prisoner’, ‘Monkey Magic’ – my fave… ‘The Don Lane Show’ – as long as it had Bert Newton in it… ‘Lucille Ball’, ‘Happy Days’, ‘Mork and Mindy’, ‘Peter Russel Clark’, ‘Big Foot’, ‘The Kenny Everett Show’, ‘George and Mildred’, ‘Mind Your Language’, ‘Love Thy Neighbour’, ‘Mother & Son’, ‘Rock’n’Roll Wrestling’, ‘Gilligans Island’, ’Get Smart’, ‘Dr Who’, ‘Lost in Space’, ‘The Brady Bunch’, ‘The Partridge Family’, ‘Different Strokes’, ‘Family Ties’, ‘Beverly Hillbillies’, ‘BatMan’, ‘The Twilight Zone’, ‘The Goodies’, ‘Thunderbirds’, ‘Star Trek’, ‘Battle Star Galactica’, ‘Buck Rogers’, ‘Grizzly Adams’, ‘The Greatest American Hero’, ‘Gomer Pyle’, ‘Land Of The Giants’, ‘The Time Tunnell’, anything with Elvis, ‘The Flying Nun’, ‘I Dream Of Jeanie’, ‘Munsters’, ‘The Adams Family’, ‘Kingswood Country’, ‘Paul Hogan Show’, ‘My Favourite Martian’, ‘Bewitched’, ‘Little House On The Prairie’, ‘Skippy’, ‘Flipper’, ‘Lassie’, ‘WKRP In Cinccinatti’, ‘Welcom Back Kotter’, ‘3 Stooges’, ‘Banana Splits’, ‘Sesame Street’, ‘Play School’, ‘Chips’, ‘Starsky & Hutch’, ‘The Cosby Show’…

Oh my God, I’m stopping right there… I think all that has proved is that I watched a lot of bloody tv…

So much entertainment there tho…

I didn’t watch a lot of sport, mainly rugby league and cricket, and for some reason lawn bowls and ten pin bowling… I wouldn’t have a clue why, and that is such a huge contrast, but the lawn bowls and bowling shows just simply intrigued me…

But to me, sport used to be a lot more enjoyable to watch then… It alls seems to be about money and advertisement now…

And cricket back then was the days of (Dennis) Lillee and (Rod) Marsh… And the West Indies and England were real competition then… And as for rugby, the only rugby back then that was huge, was Rugby League… Good ol ‘King Wally Lewis’…

And back in those days, you actually fed the ball into the middle of the scrum, where it did prove who the stronger team was in a scrum situation… not this crap of today, where you feed it to your own side… what’s the point… And biffo was a thing of the matches then as well… Nearly every rugby match was guaranteed of a blood nose somewhere

Speaking of sport…

When I was at school I played nearly every sport there was known to man…

I did Rugby League, Basketball, Soccer, Handball, Squash, Tennis, Martial Arts, Boxing, Gymnastics, Tee-Ball, Golf, Netball, Volley Ball, Swimming, Softball, Athletics – that included running, walking, long distance, short distance, shot putt, javelin, the hammer, discus, high jump, long jump…

Mate… I had a go at bloody everything…

Most sports I was pretty good at, but I certainly excelled in the running department, especially in the long distance..

I actually am quite proud of being athletic champion in Year 12; 3rd in the 100m, 1st - 200m, 1st – 400m, 1st - 800m, 1st - 1500m and 1st in the crosscountry…

Banyo High School was a well respected school for their sports/athletics back then… We always made ‘Lang Park’ (Suncorp Stadium) in the Rugby for the finals… I was very active back then, I must say…

How the years have changed, and priorities, for that matter..

Whereas the late 80’s and 90’s got a bit too serious, with High School, and then of course finishing year 12 (Senior) and joining the Navy…

Let me tell you what a bunch of fun I had there… Not!!!!

I really do wish I could erase that part from my life… too many bad things happened for me in the Navy… probably things that have or will scar me for life…

So to you the reader, I’d like to move on…

Thanks…

Through the 90’s to our present day (2008) I have held many many jobs, too many to mention… My problem is I get bored easily, so if the job wasn’t holding my interest, I was out of there… I mean there was some jobs that I’d start, by morning tea, I was gone… Other jobs I did, just weren’t for me, so I moved on…

And at the end of the day, normal jobs have always been an ends to a means for me, while I have always on the side worked on my vocal and performance skills to lead to that goal and investment of ‘Fame & Fortune’…

More of that soon…

I will say tho, that on May the 11th 1995, my very own flesh and blood was produced… being in the name of Kristy-Lee…

And for someone like me that is adopted, and at the time I had never met any of my blood relatives, it was a feeling of such pleasure and emotion that Kristy-Lee was born… She to me was my ‘First Blood’…

And to think that Kristy is turning 13 this year… She’s a bloody good looking kid as well, and takes after her father in the full on energy and motormouth department… Love you Kristy…

Me and my music…

What got me into singing and music…

A girl of course…

She heard me singing and said I had a nice voice (it was crap), so I kept my singing up, and then a manager/promoter liked my energy and told me I had some great potential, and if I was serious about it, I should take up singing lessons and handed me a phone number of a teacher… and so I did…

So thanks Mark…

My first teacher was Colin Keats, who specialized in classical, I spent about 3 years with Colin…

Then there was Irene Bartlett, and anybody who lives in Australia and is serious about their voice knows about Irene…

Irene’s probably classed as the best in Australia, and a well deserved title…

While her specialty is Jazz, I learnt modern through her…

And to this day I still keep in contact with Irene, just to touch base with her, and ask her technical questions or why such and such is happening with my voice, etc..

I also studied through correspondence the Seth Riggs, Jeffrey Allen and Kim Chandler techniques…

Why so many teachers you may ask?

I call this the ‘Bruce Lee’ method or principle…

Bruce Lee did many different martial arts styles, and then took what worked for him out of each style and formed his own style…

And the principle works with singing as well…

Every teacher has something to offer, and it has also made me very versatile as well, by having such a broad range of teachers with their different styles and techniques…

Aiming to be a great singer, or to have the respect for my voice has always been very important to me, so all that emphasis on my voice was never a problem…

But it’s essential…

Any great athlete doesn’t get to where they are without their training, discipline, and way of life…

As for the performance factor, that has been just as important to me as my voice…

I think I have been lucky there tho, to have a natural repoir with my audience…

Because not only do I love to sing, I also love to chat to my audience…

After all, it’s not called a show for nothing… you are there to put on a show, if they just wanted to listen to you sing, they could’ve stayed home and played the album…

I mean you can have the best voice in the world, but if you can’t deliver a song to your audience, then you have failed as a performer…

Plus I also think it’s a bit ego-maniac to just sing to your audience and not talk to them…

And I love a good chat, I think you have gotten that by now anyway…

Is that why they call me motormouth!

If I can offer any bit of advice to singers out there;

As you go on your journey of discovery with your voice, make sure you get your voice recorded from time to time…

Not only will it put you into reality as to what it really sounds like, it is also good as a guide to progress…

Listening to friends and families, peers or anyone else for that matter can just be detrimental to your progress…

Because by listening to them you’ll either get an unrealistic ego, or a completely flattened and depressed one…

And I kind of figure that generally we are our own worst or hardest critics, so it’s best that you be the judge, not anybody else…

So please get yourself recorded and go by that…

Once again tho, this is a guide, and some people I have met over the years, even after they have heard them selves back, even when it did sound awful, still thought they sounded great…

These sort of people have something generally more deep seeded going on inside, and require some form of therapy…

Over your journey you will also get many people that will use the word ‘constructive criticism’ alot…

As far as I’m concerned this word is over used…

Because as much as some of them mean well, at the end of the day, it is just their opinion…

Just stop and ask yourself; what sort of credentials does this person have, how many hits have they had, or how many successful clients have they managed,etc..

But even then, if they are the bees knees, what worked for them, doesn’t mean it will work for you…

Always remember this…

There is no secret ingredient to make it in this industry…

If you are passionate about what you do or want, then that’s a start…

Because as much as I would like the ‘Fame and Fortune’, I absolutely love what I do to and passionately believe in what I do…

Believe me, the amount of people over the years that have told me I’m wasting my time with doing covers… I mean even you might be thinking the same thing…

And that’s fine, that is your/their opinion…

Once again, I love with a passion these songs that I sing, and I really believe what I’m singing…

With that sort of thing going on, means I can deliver the songs to my audience…

I have many reasons why I sing covers…

Look, I totally understand the ‘original song’ theory, I really do…

But to me, I do write originals, and one of them is on the album ‘Tried & Tested’…

But I find that originals are very personal and sacred to me, and also maybe to the ones that I might’ve written it about…

And to gain fame and fortune out of my personal deep down feelings is a bit hard to

overcome…

But I‘m only speaking for myself… each to their own I say…

Just because I don’t write a song, doesn’t mean I can’t relate or feel the song as if it is mine when I sing it…

The same can be said for people that buy songs, or listen to them, you feel a song, because you do…

Just because didn’t write the song, doesn’t mean you don’t have the right to sing it or like it…

I mean, should there be rules for this sort of thing…

But to tell me, that I’m wasting my time with covers… really!

Well what about these artists…

Elvis Presley; Elvis never wrote one song in his extensive career, most of the songs he made famous was a cover song…

But Elvis did it his way, and we loved it…

And those facts, my friends, you can’t argue with…

Some other artists you may be familiar with that have made a living out of covers;

John Farnham
Michael Buble
Michael Bolton
Ronan Keating
Leanne Rimes
Paul Potts
II Divo
Tom Jones
Robbie Williams…

In the year 2007 alone, these Australian artists released cover albums;

Guy Sebastion
David Hobson
Young Divas
David Cambell
Human Nature
Marcia Hines
Tina Arena
Kate Celebrano

So please, don’t tell me that you can’t make a living out of covers…

And why is it so wrong singing somebody else’s songs..

Don’t kid yourself ladies and gentlemen…

All the time you listen to or buy songs by artists that were written by other people and you don’t even know it…

What, did you think that Celine Dion wrote all the songs she sings or Whitney Houston…

I use these two, because on record to date, they are 2 of the most successful female recording artists of all time..

I mean Whitney’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ single sold multi millions, and it wasn’t even Whitney’s…

Dolly Parton wrote the song…

Look… I’m not going to go through song by song, the point is… ‘DOES IT MATTER’

And if anybody says yes, or says cover artists suck… Well I have this to say to you…

You can’t argue with record sales!!!

And that my friend, is all it comes down too, especially from the record companies point of view…

If it sells mate, they are interested…

Here is a little blurb from my album as to why I have done the album I have…

 

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Tried and Tested…

What would happen if you grabbed a bunch of very successful songs covering a period of 30 years in a country like Australia, recorded them in your own voice and style… Then take them to another country like, for example; America who is unfamiliar with some of the songs or even the success of them, and released them there…. How do you think they would go? Well, my way of thinking is that music is universal… in other words, great songs are great songs… And I truly believe that these songs deserve the credit and recognition throughout the world other than Australia… So this is my goal… taking these ‘Tried and Tested’ songs all the way to another country and beyond…

And as far as I’m concerned, I sing these songs like they are my babies, like I wrote them, that’s how much they mean to me…
 

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Moving on…

Over my journey in this industry I have had the pleasure to work with some great musicians…

And performing live with them, has even given me more passion for a song, if that is possible…

So thank-you to those musos who gave me extra inspiration…

So here we are… 2008, my new album ready to go... and this is the plan, overseas and beyond…

Hello world…

To you the reader, I appreciate the time you have taken out to read my mini novel… So thank-you for that…

And any comments or feedback is welcome anytime…

Cheers…