Learning as you go
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 free summer concerts, we had a mobile stage on hire from Orana Truck Rentals. I had a car trailer towed behind, with a big generator. My PA truck would back up to one side of the stage and we would have the amps and stage monitor desk inside. A fete stand tent out front would be the mix position. With a crew of four, we could set this thing up in 80 minutes, and we would do two shows a day for 14 days straight.
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Recent Posts
17 July 2023
In a tragic tale, ex-pat Australian sound engineer Gerry Georgettis took his own life on board a United Airlines flight from Washington to Los Angeles in early February. The flight was diverted to Denver, after crew discovered Gerry in the lavatory, ...
21 May 2023
'I don't do interviews' he said. But he did, and he spoke of Tina, Pink, Joe and Olivia. This is a story about a back-room operator who is one of the most successful and respected managers in the global music industry. Yet most people don't know who ...
30 January 2023
It wasn't until 1972 and Led Zeppelin. Or it may have been The Arts Factory in Goulburn street Sydney. The seeds were sown from the trippy days of psychedelic lightshows, and then Sunbury showed us scale. Rock music had arrived, and people suddenly r...
22 January 2023
It was 2004 and I was flush with cash, having sold ENTECH and just completed a Government funded training tour of the top end with Crocfest. My registered training organisation had just moved into our Rydalmere campus, freshly accredited and were run...
29 December 2022
What do you say to someone who has been crushed by reality? Partner split? Death of someone close? Loss? Chances are you'll say nothing because I've had stunning lows and I did notice at the time the sight of many 'friends' rushing out the door. Let'...
23 December 2022
My book, now available free to read here. Download PDF File Here...
13 November 2022
This was one of my best expose's..... published in May 2012. Summer holiday season the USA has more than 70 large State Fairs, most offering concerts. For country rock act Sugarland it was peak touring time, and rolling into Indiana on August 13 last...
13 November 2022
At the end of 1976 I sold my lightshow business Zapco to Roger Barratt who was soon to be acclaimed as Australia's greatest lighting designer. We met in late 1975 after Roger told Rob Nicholls at Strand Electric that he needed someone to look after h...
12 November 2022
The strengths of a good business partnership outweigh the challenges, but the weight of differences that arise can fast drag everyone down. I've had some great, some passable, and a couple of deadly toxic disasters – most recently with a couple who I...
03 July 2022
It's the morning after an Oz Icon's gig with feature artist retired cricketer Mike Whitney. Arriving at suburban Sydney pub mid arvo in the biblical downpour of July, the manager is very pleasant. This aspect of my Gig Life (V4.0) is deeply appreciat...
24 December 2020
It was late 1981. NSW faced petrol shortages due to 'industrial knuckle' as Kurnel refinery workers went on strike. So like some people who really needed it, I hoarded petrol. This photo is in the photo gallery of my book, illustrating the chapter 'S...
17 December 2020
My brothers and I had zero interactions with relatives - there were none that our parents chose to know. They were all back in the United Kingdom in any case. The notion of grand parents, aunties and uncles was simply never discussed. It was just us ...
12 December 2020
At the inflection point Australian government planners were scouting every cold store and ice rink, to plan for a possible 150,000 pandemic deaths in 2020. Police chiefs were meeting with defence planners to strategise the breakdown of soci...
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
My current gig is Community Transport, driving older clients around. We help other community organisations like Addison Road Food Pantry. They distribute and sell food, often things near expiration date but also fresh fruit and vegetables. This day I...
10 November 2020
Back in 2011, long after I'd sold ENTECH to a big-box tradeshow conglo, they co-located it with SMPTE. That is the film and TV tradeshow. Both were in decline, so they reasoned running them together would save money. They could have shared the saving...
08 November 2020
My book doesn't dwell on a crappy upbringing, but sure does tell it like it was. I just saw this - a report that Balquhain at Blackheath has been sold. It was re-purchased by a Fairfax, as that family first built it as their weekender. We had a ...
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
My editor Graeme Hague gave me some feedback at the end, after I'd paid him. Frankly I expected more of a critique but he was accurate with a few observations. "Some people will skip over the aviation chapters", he said, "and you didn't really explai...
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...
Recent Blog Posts
Chapter One - I Was A Roadie
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