20 + 20 years
I spent 20 years with Caroline, with whom we share a daughter Jess and my step-daughter Sarah. Clearly she features in my book, 'this Could be Serious' as she was part of the start of a lot of my enterprises and a very powerful business partner. This crazy year 2020 marks 20 years since we split up, thus the 20 + 20 in the title of this blog.
While the years with Caroline were busy, frantic and often fantastic, the 20 since have been similar. I kept the media company and the trade-show we created, eventually selling both. I started my college and ran it nine hard years, then in 2011 dreamed up the roadshow that became ENTECH Roadshow when I bought the name back. And I had three marriages in 16 years, which I never would have imagined for myself.
Caroline passed away a few years ago. I know if she were still here we would be mates, and we would share a lot of memories - some of which just flash into my mind. Like the start of our touring production company, when she helped me lug and set up the first PA which we conveyed in our Orange F350 pantech. We did a gig at the Bluegum Hotel in Hornsby, it was summer and she had some short shorts. Some idiot goosed her, and she whipped around and flogged him with the end of the multicore. 19 XLR connectors made short work, the punters were cheering as he scurried out the door.
Then there was the time we did sound for Kim Hazanic's band at the Jolly Frog in Windsor. They wanted a pyro blast, and we had it set up, Caz misunderstood the cue and fired it off as the singer (or guitarist, I can't recall) ran across the top of it. It was disastrously funny, moreso since the guy was slightly singed and not hurt.
She was a good stick, and loved by many.
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Recent Posts
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My book, now available free to read here. Download PDF File Here...
13 November 2022
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13 November 2022
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12 November 2022
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03 July 2022
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24 December 2020
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17 December 2020
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12 December 2020
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05 December 2020
My daughter would follow me around like a puppy. We are very close, and I'm always having little heart leaps thinking of her, now mid 30's, down in Wollongong running that little church with Nathan. Her kids are my grand kids. I'm super fortunat...
26 November 2020
n 1985 we wanted a child. Then one horrible afternoon up at the Chatswood shops, Caroline went down. Sarah stood there crying. As the ambulance raced them to Royal North Shore I got the call. She had an ectopic pregnancy – a fertilised egg implanted ...
22 November 2020
After you have your book ready to roll, you enter the tedious phase. For me this was firstly about whether to self publish, or to find a publisher. The discussions I had revealed a publisher would 'legal' the manuscript and I know that would demolish...
21 November 2020
It's November 2020, the year that is seared on us. I'm fortunate with work, health, love and a welded-on optimism that keeps me happy. Best of all, I am now packing and mailing my book every day to people who have often contributed more than the cove...
20 November 2020
I completely skipped talking about our CX TV studio in my book! Between 2011 and 2017 we had some amazing fun in there, shooting a weekly show 'The Hump' every Wednesday, and doing heaps of video reviews of (usually boring) inanimate lumps of equipme...
19 November 2020
With Caroline and I lurching towards marriage, we doted on her daughter Sarah and started planning our own production business. This picture shows my mate Glenn Bolton with his then gf Jane. Glenn's band Top Kat was where I learned to mix sound, usua...
15 November 2020
Back in 1993 I had to confront the truth and grit of journalism. Rick Doolan called and asked me to come out to his house. To talk before he died. Over the past 30 years, the obituaries, the funerals and the grind of our trips around the sun wore me ...
15 November 2020
Did a few years as the personal lighting director to Leslie Walford, a flamboyant, gay interior designer. He had a society column in the Sydney Morning Herald, and a large shopfront in Double Bay. Lovely guy, he ran the Art Gallery Christmas Party. T...
14 November 2020
Photo's by Bob King. Click to see Gallery....
14 November 2020
He's on one of my ACT Concert W's, 5' x 3' x 3' and 110kg. 2 x 15" drivers. MASSIVE low end! (Click to see more). Pix by Bob King...
14 November 2020
Security guy at right is now quite deaf...... (Pic by Bob King) ...
14 November 2020
An outdoor gig we did with The Saints. He has a nice carton of goon....... (Click to see more). Pix by Bob King...
14 November 2020
In 1997 we took ENTECH to Melbourne, and had an excellent event despite much organisational chaos. We were full of ourselves, Caroline and I. Having the big guy from PLASA visit the show, wanting to buy it. Swimming in money. Upgrading the BMW. Buyin...
13 November 2020
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10 November 2020
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08 November 2020
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08 November 2020
An email landed the other day from a guy I haven't seen since 1988. David Glover had read my book, and reached out to share some strangely common threads. We had some beers last night to compare life notes, from when we both started as young lig...
07 November 2020
New York is my favourite American city, and features in my book when I took Australian Monitor amplifiers there in 1987. But it was dangerous back then - I met a colleague at a coffee place. After I left, (with Kev the koala - read my book for ...
03 November 2020
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02 November 2020
I spent 20 years with Caroline, with whom we share a daughter Jess and my step-daughter Sarah. Clearly she features in my book, 'this Could be Serious' as she was part of the start of a lot of my enterprises and a very powerful business par...
01 November 2020
This Blog is everything that is NOT in my new book. It's a collection of very random, un-edited pieces. Gives me the chance to let you hear my voice, and see some pictures.
01 November 2020
Julius Grafton's much anticipated memoire; 'This Could be Serious' covers a life well lived, from the slums of Darlinghurst to a career across the music industry as a roadie, production owner, and publisher of industry journal 'CX Magazine'...
01 November 2020
It was just after lunch on Saturday, I picked up Chloe in Lillyfield for a trip to Potts Point. She was waiting, dressed in a shimmering blue shift, high above the knees with a deep spray on tan. Straight up it was chats-ville, 'I'm on my way to a he...
01 November 2020
Yolanda was there too, and the ring was a strip of black PVC tape from the roll my stepson left in the car. He uses it to hold up his soccer socks. We were all debating the possibility of a drive-by wedding, but this was not really practical as we we...
01 November 2020
It's almost peak hour in Sydney, the city the designers gave up on because of its harbour. If they'd filled in it in and put roads on the top, a driver could navigate without a mapping mind meld. But I found the building in Broadmeadow and it had a ...
01 November 2020
I was just cleaning up the archive and I found these false starts. This first one is downright melancholy. Not sure who I am lamenting here. Try as I may the detachment is longer than I wanted. To lose her love was a wound that while stitched and sca...
01 November 2020
The repartee stays imprinted. 'My sister and I are orphans' said the guitarist with a tone of melancholy as the much younger vocalist strutted around in an awesome leather jumpsuit, holding a riding crop. 'We were raised by gypsies in Romania. I have...
01 November 2020
I've had four - and they were all different! At home in Chatswood Caroline and I were married by a celebrant. It rained so we moved inside and did the ceremony in the front hall. Her dad Frank gave her away, which was sweet. Janelle and I h...
31 October 2020
Like almost every other roadie, I learned on the job. The easy way and the hard way. By the time this picture was taken it was January 1983 and hot as can be. I had a contract with 2SM, the AM radio station under threat from 2MMM. They were hosting ...
31 October 2020
Perm rake. Can of Brut 33 spray. Six cassette mix tapes. Wrigley chewing gum. Condom (small fit). Hipflask of Southern Comfort. November edition of Penthouse with centrefold stuck together. Cheque book. Biro. Diary. ...
31 October 2020
Kate and I were talking as we drove to work on Friday. It was early, I had a 7am start at my Community Transport gig, and I drop her at a nearby school down the road where she teaches Year 3/4 composite. Her students are suspended if they hit each ot...
31 October 2020
With a rough draft of 61 chapters, I sent the 412 pages to Officeworks for printing. Stuart Coupe had told me he prints his drafts - many of them - for editing. It did make it easier - seeing the chapters in sequence I went to work with highlight pen...
20 October 2020
I choose the most difficult process to write my debut memoire, 'This Could be Serious'. Grounded by the pandemic, I opened up my archive of hundreds of articles, outpourings, notes and blather. I chose a preliminary batch of 40, deemed suitable. I ha...
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Chapter One - I Was A Roadie
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