Grant McLennan

I was saddened to hear the news this morning that Grant McLennan, singer and songwriter for Australian band The Go-Betweens, died yesterday. I was mostly oblivious to the band during their first incarnation, when they took the UK by storm and were hailed as one of the finest bands to come out of this country. In April of 1999 McLennan toured Australia with fellow Go-Betweens leader Robert Forster as Forster & McLennan. On the 28th of April Russell Farr dragged me along to a show they were putting on at the Greenwich, a tiny and rather seedy bar located in the basement of His Majesty’s Theatre in downtown Perth. The duo ran through a string of Go-Betweens classics like “Head Full of Steam”, “Cattle and Cane”, “Spring Rain”, and the sublime “Streets of Your Town”. It was powerful, funny, moving stuff, and one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to. I’ve followed them through the three reunion albums which peaked with last years wonderful Oceans Apart, and have come to love their music. Six years seems to have slipped by in no time at all. Vale.

Other people’s links

I’m a pretty lazy webbrowser. Can’t be bothered spending hours looking for cool stuff. Can’t be bothered checking and re-checking old places, while searching for new places, that can produce neat links for the blog. So, I’ve stolen a couple. From Locus: Online comes news that Scot Edelman is Blogging the Nebulas.  For those of us with our fingers crossed for Margo, Kelly, Geoff and the gang, Locus or Scot will probably be the first to break the news on the Nebs. Second, Gwenda reports that she and Jeff Ford have done a podcast interview with the unlikely Bat Segundo Show. Check it out.