Category: I love Sydney

ABBA fan club features in newspaper article

Article in today's The Daily Telegraph.Yay! I’ve been an ABBA fan since 1975 (34 years!) and was contacted by the competition, the Daily Telegraph, to organise something for their Mamma Mia promotion. They also ran a full-page Mamma Mia photo too.

I couldn’t appear in the photo or article, but my friends are in it, and I was at the Gourmet Viking dinner. Later, we got 18 free tickets to Mamma Mia for our efforts (worth $100 each!). Which we greatly enjoyed.

One of the fans emailed: “We look so old in the pics.” Cause we are!

I have a pic of me there too, will dig it up.

I'm in there somewhere.

Vale Hakoah Club

hakoah-club-476x317The Bondi Hakoah Club is closing. It was a Jewish club where all the high-flying Jewish people and their friends hung out. Over the past decade or longer it was mainly frequented by oldies.

I used to go there in the early 1990s when I was living in Bondi in Jacques Avenue and watch the free movies for members (my flatmate was a member and it was cheap to join.) Though the club is gone, there is a strong Jewish community around Bondi — there is a fence (“eruv”) running around the beach which Jewish people are not supposed to venture past on the Sabbath. It cost a lot to build and took many years to get Waverley Council permission to erect it.

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Goodies review: Cockatoo Island

Tim Brooke-Taylor, Cotton Ward, Graeme Garden
Tim Brooke-Taylor, Cotton Ward, Graeme Garden

They’re brilliant! Went to three of the four shows.

What I enjoyed most is their wit and on-the-spot improvisation and changes they made between the shows. There’s so much subtle physical comedy too (especially from Tim) — the glances and postures; the timing of each phrase. So much confidence gained from years committed to comedy. Watching two masters of the art in action who are still great friends.

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Alexei Sayle

Cotton Ward, Alexei Sayle, Alisdair Finnie
Cotton Ward, Alexei Sayle, Alisdair Finnie

Alexei Sayle was in a reflective mood at the Cockatoo Island Comedy Festival. He’s now an author but occasionally scores gigs, such as Miss Marple, which his agent said he’d got cause his new beard makes him look intellectual.

Sayle commented frankly on the comedy scene in the UK and the disparity in various people’s fortunes. “Ade Edmondson doesn’t have to work anymore cause he’s married to Jennifer Saunders. The money just streams in through the letterbox every day.” He says he “hates” Ben Elton for inviting him to his Rod Stewart musical, Tonight’s the Night, and there were three tiers/floor levels at the after-party and Sayle was placed in the middle level, “stuck with a saxophone player from the Clash in a closet”.  You can’t take any anecdotes literally — he said he still gets on with Ben Elton. He exaggerates for effect and it works.

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Gordon Boyd dead at 86

Gordon Boyd
Gordon Boyd

He had a lovely deep voice. He hosted the talent program Showcase from 1965-1969. The musical director was the famous Hector Crawford. For Showcase, they travelled around the country, looking for the best acts. It was vastly different to the approach and attitude of Australian Idol! Showcase also ran again in 1974.

(I sound like I should be in the Masters Games, which are on in Sydney now.  It looks like they’re all having fun. Prince Frederick got dumped in the Harbour during the yacht race. A competitor has died —  in his late 40s. )