Love affairs always blaze but too often flicker and fade, forever extinguished. Sometimes, though, an innocuous spark can reignite the dormant embers.
Three decades ago The Go-Betweens released '16 Lovers Lane', an album of longevity and acclaim. Ten years ago when Grant McLennan was cruelly taken before his time, it sadly appeared the iconic album’s ten tracks would never grace a Queensland stage again.
This July, during the Queensland Music Festival, Lindy Morrison OAM takes a nostalgic wander down that lost alleyway, joining fellow '16 Lovers Lane' musicians Amanda Brown and John Willsteed, plus a core backing band of impeccable quality and a painstakingly curated ensemble of Queensland artists old and new for a live reprisal of those essential tunes.
For Lindy, her time drumming with The Go-Betweens represented a mere decade of a rich and storied life; a life and career of music, of course, but also activism and academia. For her, though, her unexpected return to the drum kit alongside two of her colleagues is the most precious experience.
“To get a chance to play those songs again, it really is a highlight for me of my entire career. I’ve been rehearsing since before Christmas because I needed to get into match fitness.”
Lindy will not be joined by founding member and frontman Robert Forster, but she has been in touch with the still prolific songwriter. “He’s said on numerous occasions to the media that he would not perform the songs again since Grant died with a group of us like this; that he wasn’t going to do that, he wouldn’t have a reunion and he’s stood by that.
“I sent him an e-mail telling him how incredible it was to be playing the songs again and what joy I was getting from it and he came back and said that he was so happy that I was having the chance to do that.”
Vocal duties have been shared between a gathering of Queensland vocalists of splendid generational diversity and stylistic assortment. Contemporaries such as Steve Kilbey (The Church), Mark Callaghan (GANGgajang) and Ron S Peno (Died Pretty) will be joined by some of Lindy’s favourites from the modern crop.
“We wanted to make sure that we crossed all the generations and I think we’ve made a pretty good go of that. I’m in love with Cub Sport, Ballpark Music, Sahara Beck and Montaigne.
“We were very lucky to get Kirin J Callinan in; although he is not actually from Queensland, his mother grew up on Palm Island.”
The set-list for the evening will extend slightly beyond the ten tracks of 16 Lovers Lane. “We’re doing ten [songs from the album] but we’re doing five others.
Steve [Kilbey] really wanted to do ‘Rock And Roll Friend’, we wanted Kirin, because he’s so theatrical, to do ‘Twin Layers Of Lightning’, Tyrone and Katie [Noonan] chose a track, and we had to do ‘Cattle and Cane’; and Ron S Peno is doing ‘Apology Accepted’.”
The core band on the evening will consist of the three original members, along with Dan Kelly, Danny Widdicombe and Luke Daniel Peacock. It is a fitting event for the QMF, given the enduring warmth that McLennan and Forster always felt towards their home state says Lindy.
“Robert and Grant never really stopped pining for Queensland; not Queensland but more that folksy, hometown feel. They were both very nostalgic romantics and so they would look back at those early times in Brisbane and they then spun those yarns.”
'16 Lovers Lane' plays QPAC's Concert Hall 14 July.
