I arrived here in Australia in July of 1965. Flew over in a QANTAS jet. One of the 10 quid deals. The first place we stayed was the Nunawading Migrant Hostel on Rooks Road. Lived in a Nissan Hut which was basically the shape of a tin can. 3 rooms. 2 bedrooms and a lounge room. 5 kids. Pretty crowded. Luckily the hostel had a communal dining room and bathrooms. I remember having a great time in the hostel. There were just so many kids around it was fantastic.
And the radio seemed different. It seemed to be all about sunshine. The announcers were lively and excited and yabbering away. Pretty exciting. And there were all these great pop songs by Australian artists. All of them are just as good as the ones littering the US and English charts and I could never understand why some of these songs weren't massive overseas.
One such song was Ooh La La by Normie Rowe. Number one in December of 1966 when Go-set started publishing the first National charts. It was knocked off the top by Friday On My Mind by The Easybeats. Normie recorded the song in England. Just as any band that got big in Australia had to go to the UK to make it so Normie followed that path.
Always loved this song. Never get sick of it. Just reminds me of those first few years of loving in Melbourne. Seemingless endless sunshine although I am reminded of some torrents of rain. And mud so deep one day I lost my boot in it and never found it. Walking to school through the bushland and seeing snakes and bull ant nests. It was another world.
No comments:
Post a Comment