1st day of 4th class (maybe 9yo?) the teacher was asking everybody what they wanted to be when they grew up. The usual responses went round “teacher, nurse, fireman, doctor” etc. When the teacher came round to me and asked I excitedly blurted out “I wanna be a Solid Gold Dancer !!!”
I think I was beaming when I made my proclamation and then quickly realized it wasn’t received well. The class erupted with a cacophony of laughter and giggling, the teacher was soon cross at me and ordered me out into the hallway.
I was being serious. I wanted to be the guy with blonde flicked hair and a moustache up on stage with the hottest chicks, dancing and getting paid. Why/how anyone would/could consider any other job was beyond me? I recall standing outside the class thinking “what did I do wrong?” and crying on the inside a little. I soon learned never to share what I really wished for, and took a dim view of my plebeian classmates and peers from then on.
When I was 8 I started doing Karate. In my class there was another kid Rob who had started around the same time as me and whenever the class paired up for sparring or any kind of team work we would always hang out together. Near the end of class all of our parents would huddle behind a small window to watch us train, but because the window was so small they’d have to take it in turns to look. Rob’s dad John was a really nice guy and would always offer up his spot to my mum so she could see me train. Apparently John was some kind of musician and one weekend he gave everyone at Karate a tape of his called “Whispering Jack”.
Also Spizza, I always wanted to be a dancer. I just never admitted anything in front of my school mates, I had enough issue trying not to get beaten up as it was!
I kinda miss my dance classes, the makeup, the tap shoes, all that jazz. Doing musical theatre now though, it’s more fun.
Which reminds me, auditions on Monday! Going for the part of a spunky guy who gets all the girls but is actually gay.
cannibal ox - raspberry fields (the best hip hop band i’ve heard in the last 10 years - it’s like black elvis era kool keith without the stupid sexuality meets wu-tang)
jesu - star (when i first heard the second jesu album i must have listened to it at least twice a day, every day for several months)
black sabbath - sabbath bloody sabbath (i got into music like sabbath from my mum sitting me down to watch a video she got from church that exposed how evil rock music is. i watched that video every fucking weekend until i could buy tapes and hide them from my mum. also, the riff that comes in at 3:18 of this song swing’s like god’s own dick)
… something that may help describe what shaped or influenced why you are you?
What are you trying to say Dylan?
Actually, somewhere in the 80’s we all dressed super androgynous … it was tres hip and impressed the chicks. I guess a follow on of Boy George, the guy out King, and Marylin. Nobody I knew was actually gay (I think) but we kinda pretend that we might be … to impress chicks.
Sounds kinda stupid but the rules were being re-written back then. It you weren’t a freak, a weirdo, different or something else you were nobody. To fit in was frowned upon. Reminds me of the Monty Python sketch “we’re all individuals”.
I find it kinda sad to see most kids all dress the same these days. Boring. Like walking adverts.
That video was amazing. It got shown at my Sunday School.
Custard: Singlette. Cos it reminds me of Brisbane, and the shitty school I went to and being a stupid teenager. //youtu.be/7bdEeKQWQL8
Darren Hanlon: The Last Night of Not Knowing You. The night I met my wife we talked for hours about music and bands, discovered a mutual love of Mr Hanlon and sang the above song together as I walked her home.
Johnny Cash: Drive on. Just cos I love Johnny Cash, and this song is a cracker. //youtu.be/5CtEvMIImOc
pff you guys wanted to be dancers! i did ballroom specialising in latin for 7 years, the most crushing moment of my dads life was probly when i told him i wanted to stop playing footy so i could take on an extra dance class a week 8-15yr old,
I couldn’t listen to this song for a good year after breaking up with an ex. And even to this day it tugs on the heart…
esp the ‘what might have been lost’ refrain…
Not trying to say anything spirito, I just like the role and think I could play it better than anyone else in the theatre company. Even the multiple guys who are actually gay.
I dress better than them anyway (ignore my VB drinking, Winfield smoking avatar)
I went to a catholic school. When it was time for my Confirmation I wanted to choose Sebastion as my confirmation name, after Sebastion Bach of Skid Row. But I was then told your confirmation name had to be a saints name, so I scoured what few religious history books I could access at the time (pre internet) and discovered there was a saint sebastion, who got shot multible times by arrows but didn’t die (or something). So I got to keep Sebastion as my confirmation name.
When I was 18/19, I got all my religious papers (baptism,holy communion & confirmation) & burnt them, but I still tell people my confirmation name is after Sebastian Bach (if the topic comes up in conversation).
I always wanted to play the drums since we were shown a basic beat in music in year 8. That year there was an electronic drum kit displayed at the Powerhouse Museum. All the kids were having a go just smashing the pads in no order. I hopped up and did what we were shown at school and for a few beats time stood still and the whole gallery just paused. And then I went just left to right boom boom boom boom boom! I was a rock star for just a few seconds.
Dad said I could pay the drums when I could play the guitar. I was rubbish at guitar.
