The Day The Music Jived

The gentle thudding drums of “Run Through The Jungle” by Creedence Clearwater came on the stereo.  My mother softly hummed the song to my daughter as she gently bounced the little girl on her lap.

“Do you know I would sing this to your aunty when she was a little baby?” whispered my mother to her fifth granddaughter.

“And Neil Diamond,” she lifted her head and said to me.

After a while, she asked “Do you know I saw Johnny O’Keefe when I was 16?”

“Really?  What was it like?”

The Day The Music Jived in Brisbane

And then she told me of an amazing rock ‘n’ roll concert one night in little ol’ Brisbane Town in 1958.  Called “The Big Show”, it featured some of biggest names in rock including Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny O’Keefe, all on stage at the hallowed Cloudland ball room.

“I was 16, as I said,” she started.  “The thing with it being at Cloudland … it was a ball room and the people at Cloudland, they didn’t like you bopping around.  You could jive in one corner, in a roped off corner.

“The thing is, the floor was sprung.  You could feel it moving under you!  It was so frustrating, you wanted to get up and dance, but you really weren’t allowed,” she sighed.

This classic rock ‘n’ roll bill was staged at Cloudland as the old Brisbane Stadium was gone, and Festival Hall wasn’t up and going yet.

The big star on that February night was Buddy Holly, the crooner was Paul Anka (“Put Your Head On My Shoulder”), and the rocker was Jerry Lee Lewis.  But before they hit the stage, there was Johnny O’Keefe.

Johnny O'Keefe: in his pink suit?

“JOK was the Australian lead up act,” she recalled.  “He was just a support act.  But he just erupted onto the stage, in this pink lamé suit.

“He was lying on the ground, wriggling and screaming.  Total full-on berserk.  And everyone loved him!  The crowd didn’t want to let him go.

“You got what you expected with the others.  With him, it was totally unexpected.

“’The Wild One’ was his song.  And he was wild.

“I think it was Jodie Sands who came on after him.  It was a total let down after JOK,” she grinned.

With a soft voice and small smile, my mother then talked more of the memories she had of Cloudland.

“I remember I went to a Lifesavers Ball there.  It was alcohol free.

“Each club had a display set up into the alcoves off the side of the ball room.

“The ball was about which surf club showed the most ingenuity to get their alcohol into the ball room.

“My date’s club, North Caloundra, did it by hiding the alcohol in the middle of their surf reel,” she laughed.

My mother cried the day she heard that Cloudland had been demolished.  I distinctly remember the ABC news bulletin announcing its destruction, and my mother’s little cry of anguish.

I know she never forgave the Country Party for this destruction of a place that was a part of her life.  For so many Queenslanders of her generation, the loss of Cloudland was a personal loss.

A news bulletin, a song on the stereo can spark off a memory.  But these small vignettes, these remembered events, are more than just an individual’s recollections.

They are the stories and happenings that belong to all of us, the things that help explain who we are and what made us.  They need to be recalled and shared.

For me, I have found that a part of our history can be found in the songs sung by a grandmother to her grand daughter.

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Can We Fix ABC Kids? Yes We Can-Do.

The Federal public sector must be a-quiver with trepidation at the prospect of an Abbott government.

Imagine the urban planners and environmental protection officers in Canberra who would be tremulous at what may await them on Monday 16 September.

And at the ABC, I’m sure that children’s television programmers would be fearing the hot breathe of the axeman on their necks.

According to LNP philosophy, ABC TV kiddie programmers are probably socialists who have made heroes out of idle public servants.

Picture, if you will, that Campbell Newman and Jarrod Bleijie are sent into the ABC kids department to deal with the Labor-leaning children’s characters that have been created in that unionist hotbed.

Stop standing around and posing. Increase your productivity, Sam.

Even Fireman Sam would not be safe.  Granted, Fireman Sam is constantly rescuing people, putting out fires, which is a core public sector function.  But most of the time he is simply waiting around the fire station.

His non-fire extinguishment time can surely be put to better use, and he should take on functions of public sector workers who have been made redundant.

And what about the people who waste precious public resources by being rescued when simply lost on a walk or their cat is stuck on a roof?  Surely story lines should be included whereas they are made to pay for these services?

Just how Postman Pat has survived all these years is a mystery.  For years he has been simply walking around, delivering mail and talking to people and fixing their problems.  That is way outside his core responsibilities.  Not untypical of a union dominated public sector culture that we can’t afford anymore.

The first thing Campbell and Jarrod would do is put up his job for competitive tender.  Postman Pat can get his sh*t together and tender for his own job.  Let’s see if he can spend time finding kids’ lost toys then.

Class size is clearly not a problem in "Timmy Time"

One new show from the same people who did “Wallace and Grommet” is “Timmy Time”.  This show is about a group of young animals who are educated by an owl and a pelican.

But there are fewer than twelve students in this class room.  To have two teachers is grossly overservicing these education clients.  Is this show a ploy sponsored by the Teachers Union to promote higher teacher numbers?

Liberal hard heads would be unsure about Thomas the Tank Engine.  Are the railways of Sodor a wasteful inefficient public sector enterprise?  Or have they already been privatised, and the Fat Controller has been battling a culture of overemployment and entitlement as he reforms the railway?

Sir Topham Hat shows admirable managerial qualities, but surely he doesn’t need such a large capital investment.  How many engines are needed to deliver their core business?  Just whose side is he on?

Well may you look happy, Bob.  You're safe.

But the Libs cleaning out the children television characters would want Bob The Builder to be the new face of the ABC.

Here is a small businessman who takes on all manner of jobs, and is sensibly flexible with the hours he works.  He doesn’t employ an unnecessarily large workforce, but makes do with just the one worker, Wendy.

Most of his work is done an array of obviously happy machines.  It is clear Bob looks after them very well, and they don’t need the presence of an interfering “third party” union to take care of their welfare.

In fact, the new LNP heads of ABC children’s television could contract out Bob The Builder.  He would make a great front man for new promotional campaigns by chambers of commerce or the mining industry.

So if you are concerned about what is being taught your children by these left-leaning, union influenced suite of children’s television characters, fear not.

Tony Abbot PM must surely be talking to Campbell Newman and Jarrod Bleijie about who can bring some balance into children’s television.  Hmm, what’s Michael Caltabiano doing these days…