First off , thanks for putting this all together - it was a big part of my past which I was beginning to feel didn't exist anymore - this website brought it all back!
Also thanks to Garry (Sam) for pearls of wisdom in the field of music editing which you were king, followed by prince Peter of Palankayovich and Sir Tony of Kolodzywotsits...
I was there for about 2 years, '77 to '80 and joined as a sound assistant - I've still got the 'yes' letter, with
the salary @ $67/week- (still getting the same) and then moved into Music Editing on Sullivans, Young Ramsay,
Bluey, Cop Shop etc.
It was my second job ever , and I'd written many times to Diana H. - only to find out after a few months that my
mum had rung up and told her I wasn't interested - this she did in my best interest, so as to keep the job I had,
and that she thought I was too naive / sensitive for the land of TV, which is of course the playground of Satan
and others as we all know..(she was right).
I quickly explained to CP admin. and within a few short months unbelievably I was in! I had the best time there,
all care and no responsibility, and if Crawford's taught me anything, it was that you actually had to WORK and BE
GOOD AT WHAT YOU DO, not just bask in the glow of being part of an industry which was perceived to be glamorous
and special by the general public. Luckily my education was in the hands of Bob Gardiner, a fine and gentle man,
and I was in great company on the sound floor of the ex-kodak factory in Abbotsford, with the likes of sound guru's
Steve Lambeth, Frank Lipson, Glenn Martin, Peter Burgess, Terry Rodman, Dean Gawen, music maestros Tony Kolodziejczyk,
Peter Palankay, Wayne Robinson and Garry Hardman, with Mark Howell and Peter Ferris keeping Pultecs, Rola's and
Nagra's from exploding...
Memorable Rites of Passage:
I remember wild trips into the city when we got sick of Wrigley's pub lunch, and the way the sound team would playfully
pretend to throw Wayne R. over the car park wall. (I was not involved as too innocent). Random trips down to Tooradin
to record the pelicans for Young Ramsay with mad Phil Adams at the wheel of a borrowed Homicide Valiant, (with a quick
stop off to 'refuel' at his girlfriend's on the way). Also remember a lunch ride on the back of his motorbike where
Phil proceeded to run over traffic cones on Victoria St. and keep going just fast enough so we had half a dozen road
workers chasing us on foot behind...
Joining Ken Sallows lunchtime searches for rockabilly at the Hound Dogs Bop Shop, getting to hear all sorts of new?
music like Pink Floyd and Yes, courtesy of Terry Rodman's tape loops - this combined with Mark Howell's obsession
with ELO and Supertramp formed my earliest musical influences.
Tony Kol's words of wisdom, Peter P's guidance and questioning "What in as?" which I still don't understand,
only know it's funny.
Of course all these were shadowed by my innocently joining Frank Lipson, Peter Palanky, Glenn Martin, Dean Gawen and Steve Lambeth on a dirt-bike weekend where I witnessed the partaking of strange smelling cigarettes, and, having safely locked myself in Glenn's 'Tojo" Landcruiser overnight, awoke to the horrific prone forms of the cream of the Sound Dept., face down in mud, having passed out where they lay the night before, some of them recalled Frank Lipson having drunk straight from the bottle, his snoring carcass surrounded by Blackberry Nip empties.......
Other people of note - Harry Brett, David Harrison, Peter German (great bass player) and Mal (?)whose surname I can't recall, Phil Reid, Graham Moore, Diana Howard and Henry Crawford.
So many others , and so sad to see so many have passed on.... actually I'm feeling a little sick myself - must hang on until the next reunion!
11th Oct. 2004