Melbourne
Heading out to St Kilda from the airport we hit our first traffic jam of the trip. We skirt sluggishly around the skyline. Somebody has dumped a forest of graceless structures on the city we first fell for three decades ago. Grand theft auto. Jesus. Melbourne has been invaded by vulgar giants. Our hotel is a mite tatty but we’re at the beach, by the venue and in the thick of lots of cafes, bars and restaurants so we’re happy. St Kilda is still a two storey sort of zone. My 1st floor room looks directly onto a brick wall covered in bird shit. Two scruffy pigeons preen their oily plumage on a grimy dividing wall. Some yuccas just about reach the bottom of my window from the tiny courtyard below. Time to poke about the neighbourhood.
I walk across tram tracks down to the bay where the sun is rapidly sinking behind a smattering of masts swaying from side to side like metronomes. Locals and their canines are silhouetted against the silver sea washing onto pale sand. A gull approaches begging for chips. It has a black pupil in a white iris, giving me the side-eye. It’s warmer here than Brisbane, oddly. I’m sitting on a low sea wall that looks like it’s built from blocks of freshly cooled lava. There’s a ferris wheel but it’s not turning and metal fences demarcating a beer festival that’s not pouring. A sign reads: Beware of pufferfish. You don’t want your mutt eating one of those livers. There are windsurfers on the water and a few sunbathers flopped out on the sand. I spot the venue, the Palais Theatre and the entrance to the old funfair, Luna Park and I’m transported to 1990. I was 25 and in the throes of our first success. Did it ever occur to me then I wouldn’t be back until I was 58? And playing some of the same songs in the same venue? I met a girl here then and we went on to have an affair but illness and my ignorance eventually put paid to that. I’m not the same man. Just a shadow walking around with some other boy’s memories.
A volleyball comes bouncing across my path on the promenade pursued by a thin guy. They’re playing over yellow nets strung along a stretch of beach behind the theatre, eking out the last of the light. Wind picks up in the palms as the sun dips into the ocean. I take a few snaps of the dying day, figures black against the backdrop. I put the past back in its place and go looking for food.
What a tonic Thursday night’s concert was. A reminder to both my brother and I of a magical time, when we thought our fractious sibling relationship was the most pressing issue we would ever encounter.
Del Amitri was our common ground during those years.
We lost your music somewhere to grief, children, time or it may have been just the grind?
But last Thursday you took us with you. Transported and yet ever present. Thank you.
I’m not the same man. Just a shadow walking around with some other boy’s memories. What a brilliant phrase.
What a beautiful description of closure. I have some similar memories from that same stretch of sidewalk.
Sidelong glances of a gull kicker. DON’T KICK THE GULL!
Thanks for an amazing night, what a joy to see the mighty Dels play! The set was great and showed awesome musicianship! Thanks for coming to Melbourne.
Thank you. Last night was awesome, just as good as 1990 when I saw you guys at The Palace (now apartments unfortunately). I was 19, lonely in a new city, but blessed to have found you.
I lost my voice for a while afterwards and totally loved it. We’re all looking a bit older yes, but I think we all had a pretty great night remembering and singing our hearts out with you.
Stay well and happy
Saw you guys at the salubrious Manhattan in 1990, no license so couldn’t get to St Kilda from the outer suburbs of Melbourne. It was a strange venue, but you guys were great then. I then saw you some 10 years later at Fairfield Hall when i made the obligatory jaunt to London and was surprised that you were doing a gig in our local area. Another great tight show and with new material that was great. So its been 20 years and Justin your voice sounds as sweet as ever, the band has changed but the emotions are pure. Thank you.
Feeling nicely unsettled this morning after last night in Melbourne’s Palais. Del Amitri hit the spot. Swirling emotions between elation/nostalgia/melancholia/homesickness….Maybe I’ll move back to Dumbarton. Probably not though…Either way, how do you say thanks to a band who’ve been rocking your soul like this for >30 years. I dunno. Thanks ?
What you guys did tonight was well beyond my highest expectations. Holy shit! Wow! I don’t even have the words and that’s something I am never short of. I cried twice in utter awe of what I was privileged to witness. You guys are amazing and so perfectly on point with everything from songs, harmonies, and, well, pure in performance, little words required. I will always remember this and “cheerio”. Thanks for making my night and my never thought dream come true. Fuck I appreciate you. What a band. This will take a while to come down from. Thankyou. I want to live that again. Nailed it fellas ❤️
Thank you. An already special night became quite emotional as the songs of youthful love affairs lost washed through. I’m glad to be older, and wiser, and to have found new meanings to such beautiful lyrics. You’re right, we can’t go back. Sorry the rose was wilted, hot nights do that these days.
In 1989 I turned 18. I was a misfit who played musical instruments and loved true musicians, not manufactured pop. I fell in love with Del Amitri. Tonight I took my daughter to the concert and it was one of the mosy joyous nights of my life. Thanks to the band; don’t be so long in coming back as last time.
Cannot wait for tonight. Del Amitri was on constant turn for me. Cassette that is. Waking hours to be exact. Please do Move Away Jimmy Blue. That would make my bucket list tick! Damn, that album seems like a lifetime ago, it kind of is, but got me through much in my young years. My mums maiden name is Currie, her father from Scotland. Perhaps we are related 😅 But today, I still know every lyric from that album, and Justin, I am beyond excited to see you play live. Never thought it would happen. So enjoy the show, gritty StKilda, and know, that for some peering from the crowd appreciate your music beyond what you will ever know. Thanks for making my life 30 years on!
I too was at the Palais in 1990, so enamoured with my new favourite band that I followed you to subsequent gigs – at the Palace next door, 21st Century down the bay in Frankston (complete with revolving dance floor) and the Manhattan Hotel (doing one better with two revolving dance floors).
My friend kindly ‘borrowed’ a snap for me from a pin-up board at the Manhattan of you and the band with a mysterious young woman. I found the photo last night, some 33 years later.
Can’t wait for tonight.
Hi Justin – Yes much has changed in 33 years and the venue you played back then in 1990 “The Palace” which ironically was next door to the long standing “Palais” is now long gone having been demolished.
I saw you in September 1990 and I look forward to reacquanting with you and the band tonight.
Take Care – Matt
So from Ed Sheeran in Brisbane to Harry Styles in Melbourne. Be careful out there. Looking forward to tonight at the Palais, it’s been a long wait.