Folks, last year, I wrote here, on this esteemed platform, about how Gladstone doesn’t have a song that captures the spirit of our region and how I should probably write one.
Then, challenged my readers to have a crack too.
The next day, having semi-committed publicly to the excercise, I sat down to put pen to paper. While I was still trying to work out which end of my biro to use, my friend Jenny messaged me with a recording of a song she’d just whipped up about Gladstone!
Right! The gloves were off.
So, desperate for inspiration, I checked the interweb again and the only song I could find was this by Redgum:
I didn’t think it did our locale justice. So, after a lot of thinking and, having put some tape on my biro to indicate which end has the ink in it and which end goes in your mouth, I came up with this song:
We recorded it in Studio 4, up in Gracemere, with our mates Merv and Bob and set it loose on an unsuspecting public.
With a bit of luck it’ll inspire someone else to have a crack and we’ll have a batch of songs giving our neck of the woods a bit of a morale boosting shot in the arm.
Another benefit was, the song helped me focus on the positives of our region and left me feeling pretty grateful to be living in this neck of the woods.
Anyway, we had a song, we just needed a video.
Doll and I attended a meeting for folk toying with applying for an Arts Council Grant, and quickly worked out it could take up to six, or more, months of paperwork and meetings to make the finals and even then, there was no guarantee you’d get a penny from the State Govt. or council.
So, we did a Gladstone ‘thing’. We rolled up our sleeves and cobbled together our own video using phones and some clips sent in from mates. Sure, the result was less than professional but, it’s what I like to call - A Bloody Good Start!
Down the track if the song takes off, we might look at applying for govt. funding (when I get a few weeks off to do the paperwork… hahahahaaa!) in order to hire an actual film crew/director/editing team etc.
But for now, ‘Thistle Do’.
Cheers,
Gb
Hey, if you’d like to check out some of the other songs we recorded, click on the link: Greg Bray Music