Original subtitles

Well, you can obviously see I can't play any music

and that's why I'm good at the music business

'cause I don't want to be a pop or rock star

but hell I like working with them.

We're just checking the set list here.

I'm not just a figurehead, you know.

You'd feel he's in the building.

He's somewhere. Bam!

He'd blast through the fucking door.

Who just walked in? Hang on. And then he's gone.

My first entrepreneurial gig

was we had a reasonably big sized backyard

150 yards from the Caulfield racetrack.

So, for two shillings

we used to squeeze seven or eight cars in

and that was where it sort of started.

"We're gonna make you a star, kid."

He just wanted a number one fucken record in America.

The first single I actually ever bought

was Roy Orbison's 'Pretty Woman'.

('I HEAR MOTION') # Now, let it out

# Shout to the night

# And so it goes

# I hear motion

# Motion... #

When I was about 13, 14, 15,

I started going to what we call dances.

One of the first bands that I ever saw were The Loved Ones.

And I saw so much great Australian music.

We decided to promote a couple of dances

in the school holidays.

But I was a pretty shy guy, believe it or not.

And it was exciting and as Billy Joel said,

it used to help me pick up girls.

He just loved the music business.

Loved his job.

He wasn't just the businessman. He was a fan.

I was hanging in at Melbourne High just,

and my parents let me go on the road

with a pop band called The Valentines

and Bon Scott was one of the two singers.

You would have never expected the singer of AC/DC

to come from a background like that.

I was still at home, still a virgin and to go on the road with Bon Scott

was something that you'd never forget.

My parents were in Israel, they were away for a month or so

and I was offered a job

by the biggest local dance promoter at the time.

Whenever you thought about going to Australia

you thought about Michael Gudinski.

And I left school, and I had no regrets.

But I knew that the minute my father got home

I was thrown dead straight out of the house.

And the journey began from there.

My father had a temper.

He was a very nice, very decent man, but he flared up quite easily.

So, Michael was told to go and live independently,

since he was earning money.

He was working.

You know I was definitely the black sheep, no doubt about that

and I think the hardest thing my father had to understand

was there wasn't that mentality about show business in Australia.

And I guess he thought it was just a bulldust business.

The trouble is, when your parents have envisaged

that you would start off having a full education

my father went to University

and became a civil engineer in Lithuania.

Our families had been involved in the war.

A lot of families never really talked

that much about it.

You know, I knew that I had a late sister

but I never really knew much about her or what happened.

I think she just disappeared.

The Nazis came and they took children.

So, my parents managed to smuggle my sister out.

The person looking after her bragged

that he was hiding a little Jewish girl.

My father tried to find out what had happened to her

and she'd been shot,

we believe.

My mother couldn't bear to know.

I'm very proud of my parents.

They were fighters,

and they made a good life in Australia.

And they loved Australia.

I think a lot of people from my generation

really came to Australia or were born in Australia

and had a real feeling of how lucky we were.

That's something that's driven me.

I was very proud to represent and to push

and to work Australian music and Australian artists.

He was working as an assistant to a very famous Melbourne promoter

called Bill Joseph

who was running a lot of the big suburban dances.

I worked in the cloak room.

I got busted by the police putting up posters.

And that was the beginning, that whole explosion.

Daddy Cool came along, and Spectrum,

and Thorpie moved down from Sydney

and Max Merritt was blowing it all away.

# I'm mopin' around

# Streets late at night... #

Life changed in the '70s. Well, it did for me.

I was smoking marijuana

and my partner in the accounting practice

said to me, "You either go, or that goes."

I said, "OK, I'll go."

In the late '60s in Australia there was a real cultural cringe

and people thought that imported cars,

imported clothes, imported music was what it was all about.

It certainly was a time for change, time for recognition.

I couldn't understand

why people weren't supporting their own more.

Radio had hardly any Australian content.

A lot of the international labels didn't sign Australian artists.

There were some labels

that just did copies of English hits.

What wasn't happening,

the record companies weren't seeing what was happening live.

The whole evolution of Australian music

was about to erupt.

We decided to set up an intimate club

and we called it the Magical Mushroom Mansion.

The Magical Mushroom Mansion was ahead of its time.

I remember when I first went to America years later

there was a hip cool place called Nell's

and it was exactly what the Mushroom Mansion was,

except we had a few problems.

One, we had no permit.

Two, we couldn't sell alcohol.

But we had a great concept and it was rocking.

After the second weekend, shut down.

And the coppers would come and shut you down

and he'd move on to another broken down mansion.

Well, there was another time we didn't get our licence, either.

That's when we first started our agency together.

And we didn't have the right permit to run an office

and we had to move out 'cause the neighbours.

And there were so many rock and roll

and strange people turning up at the house.

We had a company called Evans Gudinski.

It did a few international tours.

John Mayall and the Blues Breakers was the first tour I ever did.

And I worked with Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon

and I remember going to Chicago

and Muddy Waters took me out to places, man.

And I was the only white man in the room,

let alone a good Jewish boy.

Not that good, and Muddy was like the king.

He protected me.

Hanging out with him really gave me such basis

about real artists

because some of the greatest artists of all time

are not about number one hit records or number one albums.

They do it because they love it

and the blues gave me a great basis of real music.

Where are you from? Melbourne.

And how long are you here for? Three days.

Who have you come to see?

Oh, Ladidah, Chain, Thorpie.

('I REMEMBER WHEN I WAS YOUNG' BY JOHN FARNHAM PLAYS)

# Well, I remember

# When I was Young the World... #

Over three days and nights an estimated crowd

of over 40,000 people

and 41 rock bands massed in this natural amphitheatre

to turn onto 3,000 watts of rock music power.

I was the stage manager for all the Sunburies and,

you know, we all dreamt that this was our Woodstock.

We had the exclusive watermelon concession.

We just had a couple of truckloads of watermelons.

I think it was a dollar for half a watermelon.

But it was quite profitable.

We got more money off that than I think stage manager.

I ran away from home and I went to Sunbury.

I was about 16 then, I think.

My sister Linda, who was much wilder than me

her and her mates were all going

and they just all were taking handfuls of pills.

So, they gave me a handful too and said, "There you go.

Now, don't bother us."

And I didn't know. I just took them all.

And I woke up two days later

and I was in what they call the buoyancy tent.

And I went back to where my sister

and her mates were all sitting on the hill

and they didn't even know I was gone,

and I'd been away for two days.

And as I sat down, the stage went dark

and Billy Thorpe started playing.

('MOST PEOPLE I KNOW THINK THAT I'M CRAZY' BY BILLY THORPE PLAYS)

# Most people I know,

# Think that I'm crazy,

# And I know at times

# I act a little hazy... #

Thorpie goes on.

It's so loud

and the crowd are singing out "Suck more piss"

and the lights are going and the smoke's happening

and the old bale style fences, wire fences.

And it was like I was so stoned I thought I was in a prison camp.

Oh, look, it was fantastic. We had a ball.

I mean, it was naive enthusiasm.

It was a celebration of Australian music

and it really showed you could have a three-day music festival

full of all sorts of great diversified Australian talent.

Australia was coming into a new domain

and music was a very big part of that.

The first bands I managed were all blues orientated

or very music orientated.

Carson, Healing Force and The Chain

and when two of those bands broke up

within two weeks of each other I thought, "This is not right.

My life is falling apart",

and I realised then

that these guys needed to have creative control.

If you wanted to have a real artist

you had to let the creative juices come.

And that's why Mushroom started.

So, we've set up a label

which is involved with more than just the recordings

but recording and publishing, the actual management

and the agency all working very strongly together

as happens overseas

and it'll end up with a better product.

The bands presented a lot better around the country

and, you know, things like cheaper admission prices to concerts,

everything.

And that's the thing that Mushroom's going to have

over all the labels, I think.

90% of all the material on Mushroom is going to be original

and I think that the label is not going to get too big

but it's going to be a happy little family.

('12 LB TOOTHBRUSH') # Work'n in the morning

# For my hard earned bread... #

The first album that we recorded for Mushroom

was at the Sunbury '73 Festival.

It was a triple album set which was something pretty way out

and adventurous at the time and the packaging was outrageous.

I remember when I took it into our distributor,

Festival Records, at the time they nearly had a stroke.

You know, they tried to talk me out of it.

"How could you spend this amount of money?"

And what I really wanted do

was to show that the Mushroom label was here to stay

that we were serious about Australian music,

serious about artistic control.

The first years together we spent a lot of time in London

with Island Records and with Chris Wright and Chrysalis.

And they really got to support Michael.

I think I met Michael in 1972 with a guy called Alan Healey

who became quite an important part of Michael's life.

He ran a record company in Australia called Festival

which was actually owned by Rupert Murdoch.

And I think Alan took Michael under his wing.

He really took me in like a father-son thing

and really went out of his way and helped me

and advised me a hell of a lot and I really learnt a lot off him.

And there were even some people in Festival

that were very cynical about the whole thing and thought,

you know, gonna go bust.

He hung through all of that and had the faith.

I was just very pleased

that I had a business that was a fun job.

Back then, the Australian music business was very backyard.

A lot of it was very shoddy.

It wasn't looked at as a business

and that's one of the things I think my father didn't understand.

When I used to sit down and do the banking and stuff

he'd think I was playing Monopoly.

Every week we put our business on the line.

I mean, it was so tough in those days

and the number of times he and I travelled in the early days.

I think we went to New York seven times in one year,

setting up the label.

Perhaps I didn't look at it enough as a business at the time

and we had a lot of financial trouble.

And looking back on the first few years of Mushroom,

it was a crazy risk.

The one thing that we've always had at Mushroom

through the bleak times

there's always been an artist that's come through

and pulled it off for us.

('LIVING IN THE 70'S BY SKYHOOKS PLAYS)

Skyhooks came along and it was like, "Fuck, wow!

What about this?"

# I feel a little crazy

# I feel a little strange... #

I had a vision for the sort of band

I wanted to be in

and more importantly, the effect it would have on the audience.

A lot of the bands that were around at the time

were sort of blues boogie bands.

I wanted to have something that was different to that.

# I'm livin' in the '70s

# Eatin' fake food

# Under plastic trees

# My face gets dirty

# Just a-walkin' around

# I need another pill

# To calm me down... #

Ross Wilson spotted the band before my time, even.

The band was kind of rough at the time,

but I really liked the songs.

And I was like, I got excited, you know.

Everyone had a reaction to them.

They either liked them, hated them,

wanted to beat them up, called them poofters.

Whatever it was, everyone reacted to that band.

I was excited that there was a band writing songs

about where we grew up.

I was excited that there was a band that was proud to be Australian

even though they knocked certain facets of Australia

in some of their songs.

The notion of being Australian was hardly something we invented

but we coincided with Australia getting a sense of itself.

The thing I always tried to do in signing new acts

was we always looked for something different.

You can't go and listen to the radio today

and go, "That's what I want.

I'm going to find one of those."

You've obviously got to be thinking ahead

and trying to find new trends

and look to what the future landscape can bring.

The thing with Michael is he might have good instincts

but he does the market research.

He listens to what everyone else is thinking.

Michael was a punter.

He proved that by being interested in horseracing.

He was always interested in that, and they are very alike.

You've got a band, you've got a horse.

Let's give it a run.

If it wins, good.

If it doesn't win, we've got another horse.

I wasn't predisposed

to having Skyhooks signed to a major label.

I thought they would be censored.

When Mushroom made an offer I put my hand up

and said, "Well, I've been working with the guys.

I want to produce them."

OK, that seems to be coming together.

Try to keep it like you very first started off,

nice and enthusiastic.

I know it's hard to do that.

Big leap of faith on Michael Gudinski's part,

because I'd never produced an album before.

Then it became time for Michael

to suggest that he be our manager.

I had misgivings about the central notion

that he was both the manager and the record company.

Technically illegal, I think in California.

So, if he's both the manager of the band

and the record company

how did he have a meeting with himself?

Did he rush around the other side of the desk

and bash on it

shouting at himself to get a better deal?

It was really like dealing with the Communist Party.

Everyone would have a vote.

Greg wouldn't say anything

but if it didn't go his way

he'd just go wolf off into the bush for three days

and you wouldn't hear from him.

Michael was imploring us

that he was the only person to manage us and,

you know, Red wanted to think about it.

We're driving down to Frankston,

down the Nepean Highway

and this just got that intense

and before you know it, I think two or three grown men

were crying in the car.

For God's sake, I mean, how am I gonna manage

if I don't even feel wanted?

You're dealing with a Leo here.

We put out the first single, 'Living In The 70's'.

Got to number 11.

And then they released 'Horror Movie'

and that was number one.

The other thing that really happened was Countdown.

The first edition for 1975, in glorious colour.

Skyhooks!

They were just one of the most ideal bands

we could have started with.

You put them in front of a colour television

with the make-up and the bizarre looks

and the theatrics

and it was just absolutely mind-blowing.

# Shockin' me right outa my brain

# Shockin' me # Right outa my brain... #

Michael would ring up and say, "You've got to do this TV show

and that TV show."

He had a very good gut feel of promotion.

Once he got something that was saleable

he sold the shit out of it.

I remember when the Broadcasting Tribunal

banned half the album.

I mean, half the people in my office were like,

"Oh, we're sunk.

We're finished. This is the end. What are we gonna do?"

And I was laughing

and they said, "Look, what are you laughing about?"

I said, "You gotta be kidding. This is a bonus.

They can't go and listen to our songs

for free on the radio.

They're gonna have to buy them."

One of your numbers on stage,

you have a phallic mushroom which explodes.

What's the label? You know we're on a mushroom.

Just because it sits out

in the middle of the floor and goes...

And I'm thinking, "I can't believe this is for real."

And then I get a phone call at the Intercontinental Hotel

and the CIB are downstairs.

We're led to believe

that you're in the possession of a large penis."

So, I've gone to the band and said, "We can't use the dick on stage.

You mostly won't get arrested.

I'm gonna be the one that's getting arrested."

Oh, yes! Oh, hang on a minute.

Righto, everyone.

I've just had the venue management and the police on my back.

If people don't sit down there, that's gonna cave in.

There's gonna be people hurt.

We thought, "God, this album's really taken off.

We're gonna get our first platinum album.

You know, how far can it go?"

We thought, "Oh, we might get to 60,000, 70,000.

It just kept going and going.

And then all of a sudden it was 100,000,

and we couldn't believe it

let alone when months later it hit 200,000.

I mean, it was just so full-on when it was happening.

There were instances where it was quite desperate

like having members of the band getting rushed off in vans

with people smashing on the doors.

I think undoubtedly if it wasn't for Skyhooks,

Mushroom Records wouldn't exist today.

Skyhooks basically saved the company.

You could say that it was Skyhooks that saved him

but I like to think that he would have saved himself somehow.

Suddenly it was like, "Oh, that's the place

you go to have hits."

Michael was travelling overseas, selling his wares.

He was taking the Mushroom acts and trying to get deals for them.

Leaving Australia?

Oh, coming back of course, Steve.

Yeah, if we make the ten albums that are required...

Ten albums? Yeah, two albums a year.

It's gonna be a hard road

but I believe the band have got what it takes.

You've got to make the money internationally

and you've got to get records released internationally.

(' EGO (IS NOT A DIRTY WORD)' BY SKYHOOKS PLAYS)

# If you did not have an ego

# You'd just be like the rest # Ego... #

Skyhooks are coming to town.

The only real success they had

were in a couple of smaller cities, like in the middle of nowhere.

Jacksonville, Florida,

they went on stage to 10,000 screaming fans.

That was the only time I really felt

they were as big as they were in Australia.

Had I known what I know now

back then I think Skyhooks could have been

an absolutely major, major band worldwide.

Michael enjoyed the success we had

but Michael was always looking at what was next.

And if it wasn't gonna be us, it was gonna be somebody else.

# My house is sliding into the sea

# Skies are grey

# Since you've been away... #

It was actually Bongo and Red from Skyhooks

took me along to see Split Enz when they first came to Sydney.

And they were so weird,

but the Hooks were that keen on them.

They said, "Let's bring them down to Melbourne

and put them on one of our big concerts at Festival Hall."

It was like a furnace, the energy in the room.

There were 5,000 kids

and they were either Skyhooks fans or AC/DC fans.

This was wrong on every level.

We had things thrown at us.

Beer cans, cigarettes. (LAUGHS)

Yeah, afterwards we were like, you know, we were lucky to survive.

A couple of the others came in my office

and said, "We can't be signing this group.

What are you doing?"

I said, "Listen, a reaction's a reaction."

# The rats are crawlin' up # Me back... #

And I think Split Enz

were a bit shattered about the whole thing

but they just captured a visual a different musical sound

and the interesting thing with Split Enz was...

It was something that took years.

It wasn't a Skyhooks that just went bang out of the box.

Michael, I think, got it a bit wrong.

He did probably think straight away

that we were gonna be the natural successors to Skyhooks

and the teenagers of Australia were going to fall at our feet.

It certainly didn't happen.

To his credit, even though I don't think

he always dug us or got us

he believed in us and allowed us to do our thing.

We were at our most extreme in terms of performance.

We struggled to find any kind of real audience.

Yeah, I wasn't so obsessed about number one songs.

It was more of an art

and there was something about them that was so magical.

Molly Meldrum, who I love and is a dear friend,

came into the office and said,

"Michael, if you keep going with Split Enz,

you're going to go broke.

You've got to get real here.

I know you love them, but enough."

We signed Split Enz to the Chrysalis label

and we brought them over to London

and we toured them quite extensively.

And we felt we were always on the cusp

of breaking them big time here.

And every time we felt that

we were just in sight of the finishing line

they'd suddenly have to piss off back to Australia to do a tour

because I think Michael needed the bit of income

and they were big concert grossers for him down there.

The live thing allowed us to survive, really.

We weren't selling records, we weren't getting on the radio.

Phil Judd left the band and after a while of thinking

who are they gonna get to join all of a sudden Tim goes,

my young brother.

I vaguely remember getting to Melbourne

on that first tour that I did

and Michael looking at me a little bit like you know, "Who?

Why?"

"Oh, my god, he's a kid!" This is...

Like he could hardly play a guitar. He had no confidence.

For the first six months or so they were all angling to stand

on the other side of stage not near me as I learnt my craft.

But give it time, I'm sure it can develop.

We were struggling. Half the band were on the dole.

And it was Michael who said,

"Come back to Australia and play some shows."

You've gotta be patient

and you've gotta go back in the studio

and try and find the right song that's gonna carry it through

because you feel that all the potential's there.

It was exactly the right thing at the right time

because we made 'True Colours' 12 months later.

I have an actual visual image of being in Michael's office

and he was sitting at his desk which is probably unusual

as he's normally pacing the floor usually holding his balls

if he was doing a deal.

And he was going, "Oh, yeah, I don't know

if there's any singles on the record, mate, but yeah."

I'm not a good one listen person.

I like to hear a song two or three times

and you know, I've learnt.

So, I've played the whole album

and of course not being tactful or anything else

instead of saying, "I don't know which song is the single",

they've interpreted me saying, "There's no single on this album."

As it turned out one of the songs I was played was 'I Got You'.

Alright, Neil, sing a song.

('I GOT YOU' BY SPLIT ENZ PLAYS)

# I got you

# That's all I want... #

It just absolutely exploded for them.

It was like a complete re-birthing of that band.

God, as soon as he got a sniff, he was just all over it.

Oh, yeah.

There was nobody better to be with once things were humming.

There'd be an energy coming off him then in huge waves.

Titanic waves.

Album of the Year, American release.

I get goosebumps talking about that album

because I'd waited so long for it.

Could you imagine?

I would have been in therapy for years if I'd let them go.

# I don't know

# Why sometimes I get frightened

# You can see my eyes

# You can tell # That I'm not lying... #

True Colours was an album where every single song was great.

And Split Enz were a major, major influence in my whole career.

The thing that would be difficult

for people outside the music business to appreciate

is how unusual the structure of the Mushroom group

was at the time.

You know, in the music business it exists as typically

a heap of different silos.

Publishers represent songwriters.

Record companies represent recording artists.

Booking agents book live shows.

Promoters promote typically international tours.

Merchandisers print t-shirts.

These are typically completely separate businesses

run by completely separate people with completely separate agendas.

Michael had his finger in all those pies

and this was the great strength of the Mushroom group

because any one of those could be going down

and the others would be going up to compensate.

In the 21st century multinational record companies

tried to emulate this model with what was called the 360 deal

where they signed all the facets of the artist's rights.

They were never able to make it work.

Michael had 360 deals in 1975.

The lunch of 1975

was the formation of Premier Artists.

We just had a long lunch to figure out,

"OK, well, we've got to protect our business here

so the only way it's gonna happen is by all joining forces

and creating a new company called Premier Artists.

If there was ever any competition in Melbourne

Michael would effectively wipe it out.

Yeah, I wouldn't go wars

where we're shooting each other's cars up

or blowing up their backyard or anything,

but it was competitive.

It was survival.

We had all these companies working together,

but we treated it fairly.

We slowly got a dominance in the market

and that upset a lot of people as well.

I mean, Gudinski isn't liked by everyone,

I can tell you.

There was rivalry.

You know, my ego was ridiculous at times.

And so was his.

Evans Gudinski came to an end

and it really had gone through some challenges.

I went broke. I had to move home.

My father had a phone call

and I could hear him on the phone going,

"That's my bum of a son."

It was not the end for me.

It was a real lesson and I knew I'd be promoting again.

I was probably one of the main people to push that,

"You know, we've got all this.

We need a touring company."

That was my idea.

I said to Michael, "We've got to do something here.

We can't just let this go away."

I said, "Listen.

I think we should start a touring company."

Frontier was like a super company.

It sort of came in a wave of new music at the time.

It was when alternative music had just really started

and because I was travelling a lot I could see what was going on.

So, the first few tours we did,

other people weren't that keen on them.

It was UK Squeeze, the Police.

We were very much looking forward

to going to Australia for the first time.

I'd never been.

And we were met by a rather remarkable pair,

Michael and Chuggie.

Normally we'd work with promoters who were much older than us.

But these guys seemed like they were a band.

Especially Michael.

Michael had the energy of a rock drummer.

He was like this crazy guy, was full of energy and passion.

I mean, you could only understand half of what he ever said.

So, we did the whole of Australia with these guys

and they were in the band.

It was patently obvious how much he loved music

and loved musicians

and loved being on the road with them.

I always thought the record company was my day job.

I loved touring.

You'd talk to the people that made it happen

and that's the fans.

Sting and I have become mates.

I'm smiling because there's too much I can't tell you.

But Sting and that band really set the pace

of a whole new era of music.

By the time of Synchronicity, we were a big band.

That was my word, too. The Synchronicity world tour.

Sting loved the fact that I hadn't finished high school

and how I found that word.

I don't know how I found it. I must have been stoned one night.

It kept building

and we kept bringing in English acts.

Then along came Neil Young and Bob Dylan

and we started to get into those big acts

and we became a serious, serious player.

Getting an artist to come and tour for you, it's never easy.

There's generally two or three other people

that are looking to want to tour that same artist.

And so you know, you go to battle.

You'd never go to Los Angeles or New York

because you know there'd be Jack Nicholson,

there'd be famous actresses.

You'd just be you know, in a queue

and everybody who's anybody is trying to be there.

So, I worked out

that it's really good to turn up in the middle of nowhere.

And I remember flying to Sierra Smith in Buffalo

and it was absolutely freezing and I wasn't dressed properly.

And so when I got to the show they said,

"Oh, so you've flown all the way from Australia?

That's incredible commitment."

I didn't tell them I'd been in LA for a few days

but it certainly shows that you're dead serious

when you turn up in the middle of nowhere.

It was a crazy world. A lot of partying, a lot of fun.

But it was part of the gig.

I had a very strong wife. She came out of radio.

She used to work at the legendary 3XY

and then on to EON-FM.

I went in to having a meeting with Frank Stivala

about booking an artist.

I could hear this noise coming from the left of me

as I'm going up the stairs and it was Michael, bouncing around.

He's on the phone, he's banging the desk.

And then all of a sudden he sort of sees me and he's...

She was just a dream come true.

I mean, she was everything

that you wouldn't expect Michael Gudinski to be with.

They were an unlikely couple.

There's Michael, who from time to time

looked like a homeless person.

Wild and woolly, the hair all over the place.

T-shirt with food stains on the front

and he didn't care.

And then there's Sue.

He was a force of nature

but he was also a big softy at heart.

He was kind, he was caring, funny.

It certainly didn't make for a dull life.

He was full of life.

There's not a night he didn't come home

where he wasn't, "Darling!"

He was just effervescent and excited and had belief.

Michael and I lived with his parents.

His mother got very sick.

Michael really was quite young when he lost his parents.

He was 26 when he lost his mother.

And soon after, he lost his father.

And I was in London.

So, Michael was truly on his own.

Michael and I were sort of,

you know, living a very gregarious, amazing life.

We were busy all the time.

We were at gigs five, six nights a week.

('TAKE A LONG LINE' BY THE ANGELS PLAYS)

We had this pub scene which just made bands play well.

Literally the audience were there in front of your face.

You played well or you got killed.

# Get outta my sight

# Take a long line

# Reel him in... #

All those great live bands came through that pub era.

Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons, The Sports, The Angels.

The great pub live acts,

and there'd be sweat coming off the ceilings.

That was the golden era of Australian music,

I think because you could go out on a Monday or a Tuesday

and see a hotshot act in one of your local pubs.

Michael was always kicking up a storm

until all hours of the morning.

You know you'd go to gigs and he'd be there for ten minutes,

then he'd go to another gig.

He was always on the move.

But part of his constant perpetual motion

was he was always looking for something

that somebody hasn't heard yet

or something that hasn't been nailed down

that he can then get his hands on.

(BETTY'S WORRY OR THE SLAB BY HUNTERS & COLLECTORS PLAYS)

There was such a fuss around Melbourne

about a band called the Hunters & Collectors.

There was nothing like Hunters & Collectors.

They were just a phenomena.

There was queues down the road for all their gigs.

You could feel it at the pub.

I was obsessed about song the Hunters & Collectors.

Obsessed.

When I get obsessed, I don't like losing.

# Well, I was looking # To see some dreams

# Drip from your fingers... #

Very few people said no to Michael Gudinski

because he just had that gift

of being able to convince you or negotiate.

Max! It's Michael Gudinski. How are you?

How do you know when I want something?

I was in full motion,

standing on my desk in the office going,

"If you guys don't sign..."

He was definitely very animated.

It's like the guy on the back of the wagon.

You know, with the jar of oil.

"I got this stuff! Come on!"

The only way I could get that band to sign

was to make them feel

that we were setting up their own label.

So, the White Label began, with 'Talking to a Stranger'.

('TALKING TO A STRANGER' BY HUNTERS & COLLECTORS PLAYS)

# Souvent pour s'amuser # Les hommes d'equipage... #

He was very excited about the band.

He saw the band as having this enormous potential.

And it took a lot longer for them

to get big crossover success.

In fact they were real stubborn.

You could never push 'em around.

Gudinski had said, "Look,

you need to make a commercial record.

Otherwise you haven't got a future.

The song that Mark wrote, 'Throw Your Arms Around Me'

was a live recording

and Michael was pretty sort of flabbergasted

that the band would present

such a magnificent song in such a way.

('THROW YOUR ARMS AROUND ME' BY HUNTERS & COLLECTORS PLAYS)

# I will come for you at night time

# And I will raise you # From your sleep

# I will kiss you... #

The band insisted, "If you want to use that song,

that's the one you're going to have to use.'

They refused to budge.

We never got it right.

We did a couple of other versions

but 'Throw Your Arms Around Me'

has got to be one of the greatest Australian songs.

# And we will never forget it

# And you will make me # Call your name

# And I'll shout it # To the blue summer sky

# We may never meet again

# So, shed your skin... #

Alright, boys, you ready to sign your lives away?

Here we go.

Now, Rob's been over all these.

I presume he's told you at least a couple of the clauses

that are in here.

Nuh. I told them who Michael Gudinski was.

That's enough.

(CHEERING)

Welcome to the team, son.

Just try not to make too much...

Anybody tell me where the toilet is?

Don't make too much of a mess.

We've got another band to come straight in please.

The one thing people know is the artists

that Mushroom get behind we give it everything we've got.

We don't expect every act to necessarily be big straight away.

('FROM ST KILDA TO KINGS CROSS' BY PAUL KELLY PLAYS)

Some great artists, you just have to let them find their space.

I came to the notice of Mushroom Records

around 1979, 1980 and I got a record deal, you know.

Three album record deal with Mushroom Records.

So, yeah, great. Off to the races.

And that's when I first met Michael.

# From St Kilda to Kings Cross

# Is 13 hours on a bus

# I pressed my face against the... #

Similar to when I first heard Bob Dylan,

I never thought the guy could sing.

I'll certainly take that back now.

I was pretty wary

because, you know, there was a lot of big talk.

And I thought, "Mm, yeah, we'll see.

And you're very different to me."

You know, music is a commercial thing,

but I was coming from a different place.

Much more into bands like The Velvet Underground

or The Go Betweens or, you know, The Triffids

and bands not working in the mainstream.

He used to talk about Paul Kelly, like, "And he even rocks!

He knows how to rock."

And I thought, that's kind of what he needs.

You know he wants the idea that Paul was kind of acceptable

because he could, you know, he could do that if he needed to.

I made those first two records.

They didn't do very well commercially at all.

Or critically. And I didn't like them either.

And I had a three record deal.

And he said, "We'll only give you the money to make the next record

if you sign for another three albums,

or whatever it was."

I could have taken that positively

and thought, "Oh, he still believes in me."

But I felt that I was being held over a barrel.

That's blackmail.

So, I walked away.

But Michelle, who worked at Mushroom at the time,

was a big supporter.

Michelle Higgins was the firebrand

who put every single hit record on radio.

She was a force of nature.

Michael wasn't so sure he was going to re-sign Paul.

Michelle was at the Sebel Townhouse

and she said she wasn't coming back till Michael signed him

and she was going to empty the minibar every day.

Holed up at the Sebel Townhouse in Sydney,

ordering Verve Cliquot, ringing me going

"Until you sort this out, we are not losing Paul Kelly."

He listened to her. So, ah...

You know, I walked away and then I came back.

I said, "I want to make a double album",

and he was like, "What!"

Who would have let Paul Kelly at a big label

do a double album called 'Gossip'?

It made us unique as far as labels in history.

That was really, probably I guess the first

sort of penny dropped for me that I had a staunch ally.

You know Michael would talk about family.

"You're part of the family." I bristled at that.

I found that oppressive, you know.

There's always two sides to that coin of like,

"You're part of the family."

It's sort of like, you know, Cosa Nostra.

"You can't escape us. We're the family."

Over time, I started to appreciate

the loyalty that he showed to his artists

and that his talk of family wasn't just a ploy or a front.

It was actually genuine.

Name the Australian band that Mushroom Records

most wished they had signed.

(BUZZER BUZZES) Yes.

Do you want the true story? Sure.

I've had therapy for years.

Over which band?

Not once but twice I knocked back Men at Work.

In the hotel.

Frank Stivalis said to me, "You should sign this band.

I'm telling you there's a vibe on them."

So, I went and saw them and didn't like them

and as it turned out

that would have been the missing link

that I've never had in America

and, you know, that's one of the great things

about show business.

There's no-one with 100% track record.

It's like the racetrack, I guess,

except the artists can speak back to you.

Most popular Australian record, 1980, East.

Cold Chisel, in the early days,

we would have been happy to be signed by anybody.

But because we were an Australian band

and all the bands that we looked up

to seemed to be coming through Mushroom at that time.

You know, we wanted to sign at Mushroom.

I knocked back Cold Chisel and I still tell Jimmy to this day

that he wasn't singing on the demos that I knocked back.

('MY TURN TO CRY') # Pretty young

# She was young and pretty

# I was so naive... #

We were in this management stable.

A guy called Geoff Scuse managed us and he managed a band called Stars.

('LAST OF THE RIVERBOATS') # There a light

# Across the river... #

And they were very marketable, you know.

They were really pretty and they dressed nice.

And then Michael looked at this photo of us

and we were hungover.

Bloody, you know, didn't look like we were gonna do anything

he was going to say.

And then there was Stars who were like, you know.

And he said, "Yeah, I'll take Stars."

I've never lived it down

but I became really good mates with Jimmy.

And we'd just hang out together.

# You just left me here waitin'... #

Michael and I were both wild,

so we'd just go out and we'd have a great time.

We'd go see all these bands he was looking at signing

and I'd be fucking chopping out lines of coke and then you know...

He was much more of a pothead than me

and I didn't like pot.

I wanted to go fast.

# So, say you'll take a chance

# On this heart of mine

# Don't make me the one... #

I'd be away from the band all the time.

I'd fight with them all the time.

So, there was a point,

I guess, where they could have been a little bit wondering

whether Michael was being too much of an influence on me.

But there was many times

where I would be thinking about walking out on Cold Chisel

and Michael would talk me into going back.

I got a phone call out of the blue.

He said to me, "Cold Chisel's splitting up."

And I'm going, "What?"

Michael was going, "If you're sure you're out,

you've got to have a plan.

This is one of the best bands the country's made

and if you walk out of it now and disappear,

you know, you're gonna lose the momentum."

Jimmy Barnes was like, "I want it, I want it now.

I want to put a solo record out."

Michael had found his artist.

He'd found that act that he really loved the music of,

he really loved hanging out with that could keep up with him.

He had a real wit and cheek about him.

And I remember after leaving him

and Mark Opitz alone in Rhinoceros Studios

coming in to hear the tracks for his album.

He sits down next to me and I said, "Now, Michael,

the biggest music in America is country.

And I just thought, you know, that's where I want to go."

It's called Jim's Barn Band.

And I played the song. It was 'Your Cheating Heart'.

I was singing, "your cheating heart."

It was really fucken bad.

I've got, you know, five people in the studio looking at me

and I'm sitting here listening to him

playing stupid country songs.

And I was like in shock.

After about two or three songs I just went,

"Nah, I'm only kidding you."

And he said, "Oh, thank fuck", you know.

But he would have let me make the record,

because that's the record I wanted to make.

It just drew me closer to him

because I realised literally at the point

whatever I wanted to do as an artist,

he was ready, prepared to back me.

And nobody else in the world would have done that.

('NO SECOND PRIZE' BY JIMMY BARNES PLAYS)

The album was done fast.

It was pretty raucous and it came in bang at number one.

And then again.

I remember the two of us just becoming really determined.

"Let's do bigger. Bigger shows, better records.

One number one record's not enough.

Let's do another one. Let's do another one."

I think we had seven number one records in a row.

# Oh, yeah... #

Although we were driven in different ways,

I think the fact that we both wanted and had so much to prove.

We grew up as human beings together. We made mistakes together.

We met the loves of our lives around the same time.

Our girls became friends. Our family were friends.

# I heard about a person

# Who had a broken heart

# With nothing to drive him on

# No hope no spark... #

They were always there for each other,

when it came to the crunch.

When things, you know, went too far.

Whether it be scandals or the press

or, you know, they would balance each other at different times.

One would be able to pull the other back.

I think Michael knew how wounded

and how damaged I was and liked me anyway.

Most people would end up running but, "Can't keep up with him.

I'll leave him alone."

Michael could probably outrun me as well, you know.

But he was running from different things.

He wasn't like me.

He wasn't damaged and wounded like me.

But I'm sure he had his own...

Just, you know, the fact that he was out parking cars

when he was a kid.

He had points to prove.

It wasn't just about being an entrepreneur,

or a having deals going on.

He had something he wanted to prove,

whether it was to his family or to himself.

# It may be hard

# But, ooh, it's the only way

# Always remembering

# There ain't no second prize

# There ain't no second prize. #

He just wanted a number one fucking record in America.

It was the biggest market in the world

and it was the home of music.

Michael wanted just to conquer it.

You know, but I just wanted to be a part of it.

Got me with the best agents in America,

they put me on tour.

But the thing was, I sort of didn't fit in in America.

You know, I'd been in control of everything I'd done up to here

and suddenly I was in the thick of the biggest music.

The cogs were turning around me in the music business

and I had no control over it

and I had no say in what I was doing.

And you know the last thing I needed to be was,

you know, somewhere where drugs were cheaper

and, you know, booze was cheaper.

It was very frustrating

'cause Jimmy was so close to breaking America.

One of the things I made a conscious decision about

was that I wasn't gonna move overseas.

We actually set up an office at Oz Records in America.

We had a house off Mulholland Drive and I still wouldn't move away.

I liked driving past my old school.

I thought Australia was the lucky country.

I wanted to bring my kids up here.

When I was in labour with Matt, he said to me, "Darling.

Darling!

This is gonna make you feel better.

Just I'm gonna put these headphones on you

and I'm gonna play you the new Angels tracks.

No, no, no, this is gonna take your mind off everything."

Who does that?

Sue was the side of Michael that reminded him

of a full balance in his life.

You know, 'cause he was absolutely hungry

for everything he could do

and be and be part of in terms of music.

But he always had a connection to family as well.

How are you?

I'm doing a speech

but we won't put you on New Zealand microphones.

But I'll ring you straight back. How's that, son?

Love you.

(LAUGHTER)

You know, it's three hours behind, Australia.

He's just finished school so he's rung in for a report.

Don't laugh.

That could be the future of Mushroom sitting right there.

The whole show business era of that time

had people falling apart.

Had I not met Sue

and had I not had children I think there was every chance

that I could have been another one who had gone off the rails.

When I was six or eight years old,

I was already on a tour as a baby.

Constantly spending time on the road,

you know, with Jimmy Barnes, John Farnham, Hunters & Collectors.

It wasn't unusual for there to be,

you know, rock stars or pop stars in our house.

He wanted you to feel at home, Michael.

You're in Australia and you come from the States, that's a schlep.

Because you're so far away from home

and you get homesick

it's nice to be embraced by a family.

You know the first thing that I do

when I get home from a tour is I cook.

That's a way of saying, "Ah, I'm home.

I'm not eating somebody else's food."

You know Michael would say, "Go ahead.

Come to my house and do your thing."

Sting rang from Sydney

and said, "What are you doing, Michael?"

And he goes, "Oh, Billy's here for dinner."

2.5, 3 hours later, Sting's at the front door.

He decided to fly down for dinner, too.

He trusted a bunch of like degenerates

to come into his house and be around his beautiful children

and treated us like family members.

Every tour, Sue and Michael and his family hosted a party.

And it wasn't just a party. It was a fucking kick-ass blowout.

They were so fucking crazy and so good.

And who was leading the charge, was Michael.

He was wild.

I mean, (INDISTINCT) there's a few nights

I don't know how we got through the other side.

I'd been hearing Michael's name from other managers.

I'd always heard great stuff about him.

wild stuff about him.

Jon always said Mike was too wild to be our promoter

in our early excursions into our Australia.

I'm not sure what he meant by that.

Well, actually, I do know what he meant by that.

(CHEERING)

Frontier at that time

was one of the country's biggest promoters.

Michael was doing MCGs with Madonna and that was completely crazy.

No-one had ever seen anything like that before.

I imagine being a rock promoter

as the biggest fucking nightmare.

Musicians are the worst.

They're just the fucking worst.

Like they're all little babies just waiting to be cuddled

and this sweater's itchy

and that milk's not warm enough and what the fuck ever.

You get people on foreign soil

and it used to scare a lot of people.

But you'd spend time with them

and you'd take care of them most of them never forgot

and we had a good reputation of doing whatever it took.

There's been all types of situations.

You know Aerosmith, we had drug counsellors

and we had to clear every minibar.

You're dealing with venues,

you're dealing with astronomical budgets.

It's like wall after wall after wall after wall

that you have to hurdle.

4:00 in the morning,

there's a bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

"We've lost Iggy Pop!"

Gudinski went to nightclub after nightclub after nightclub.

A mate of mine rang me up. "I thought you might be interested.

He's asleep in a gutter on Punt Road."

And then Billy Idol drove a hire car

through the glass doors of the Rockmans Regency Hotel.

Imagine putting yourself in his position

every time he's gotta put on a fucking concert.

Why the fuck you would live a life

of such incredible pressure and stress.

There has to be a reason why he did it.

Frank Sinatra.

You'd never dream that you'd get it.

Frank was just a grumpy old prick.

Someone had said,

"Look, no-one is allowed to call Mr Sinatra Frank.

He is referred to as Mr Sinatra."

"Mr Sinatra to you."

So, I'm practising.

"Mr Sinatra, it's Michael Gudinski, your promoter here.

Mr Sinatra, it's Mr Gudinski.

Mr Sinatra."

So, I get flustered and sure enough I go,

"Frank, I'm your promoter."

On the back.

"Frank, it's so good to have you here.

We're in for a feast

and we're gonna have a rolling good time tonight."

I wish my father was alive for that tour

'cause it would have been the first and only tour

that I ever did that he would have gone to.

He would have been very proud.

He wanted to prove himself.

You know, make them see how good he could do things.

It was important to him.

He would have felt chuffed to have talked to his friends about,

"My son Michael is doing Frank Sinatra's tour."

And that was sad.

His mother could see

all the other great things he was doing.

Mushroom has grown into one of the biggest

independent record labels in the world.

The artists have always spoken for our label

but there's one thing that's made all the artists

and myself an incredible combination.

That's been the incredible people I've had around me.

We were very much Australia's independent rock label

and I realised that as I was getting older

all the acts that we were gonna sign weren't necessarily acts

that I was a fan of or that I liked.

('THE LOCO-MOTION' BY KYLIE MINOGUE PLAYS)

# The Loco-Motion... #

It was probably helpful

that I was unaware of anything about the music industry.

# Everybody's doin' # A brand new dance now... #

Had I known that Mushroom was a house of rock and roll

and that on paper, I would have no place there

maybe it wouldn't have ended up that way.

But I just was as green as this room and that's where I was led.

Michael Gudinski gave me a cassette

and just said, "Listen, take a look at this.

Someone's given it to me.

I don't know what you think."

Amanda Pelman and Gary Ashley badgered

Michael Gudinski to listen to this demo.

He was not a big fan of pop music

so I think they had to talk him into it.

Was I a bit sceptical about it?

Yes.

Fortunately I went to London

and I said to my niece and nephew

I said, "Do you think I should sign Kylie Minogue?"

And they didn't know what I was talking about.

And I said, "I mean Charlene."

They start screaming, yelling.

Gary Ashley, who was the guy that came up,

started as the poster boy.

He was the one that was very keen and went to England.

The decision to sign Kylie Minogue

was pretty out of the box

because Mushroom was known as the home of Aussie rock.

That's probably why Gary Ashley figured

that the relationship with Stock Aitken Waterman

was a perfect mix

because Stock Aitken Waterman in London

were creating their own pop hit factory.

I had a couple of key radio rock people

say to me, I will never forget it.

"This is the end of the Mushroom label."

Well, let me tell you,

it was the beginning of a whole wider Mushroom label.

('I SHOULD BE SO LUCKY' BY KYLIE MINOGUE PLAYS)

The palace revolt at Mushroom Records

when this teeny tiny thing from soap opera land came in

and hogged the number one spot on the charts

for ten weeks or something.

Ah, yeah, I'm sure there were a few people

out to smother me.

Established rock musicians who'd written their own songs

and been around for years

there was some jealousy and some backlash.

A lot in the press. A lot of resistance from radio.

To me, 'I Should Be So, Lucky' was a gem.

Her first album went gold or platinum in America.

That was a phenomenon,

to have a soap star have so many hits.

Kylie just exploded in England.

She was enormous.

She was the next biggest thing to Princess Di.

# I should be so lucky

# Lucky, lucky, lucky

# I should be so lucky in love... #

He absolutely loved it.

The fact that Mushroom Records was selling to the world.

After a while though

Kylie had grown out of Stock Aitken Waterman

and Terry and her came to me and they said, "Look,

you really have to get us out of this deal."

And I'm very proud but I lost some rights

but it was the only way to really free her

and by this stage she was really starting

to have a bit of opinion.

And I think she realised

that music was moving in so many different directions.

It just blew my mind to see just how she grew over the years

and is still growing and still changing.

Michael could read the room and adapt.

I mean, he was very opinionated but was malleable and could pivot.

Muddy Waters gave me a basis

where music means more to me than money.

Thank God for Kylie Minogue.

Thank God for the Skyhooks.

Thank God for the things that pay the bills.

But let us never forget

that it's about the development of great music.

It's about being a leader, not a follower.

('TOOK THE CHILDREN AWAY' BY ARCHIE ROACH PLAYS)

# This story's right # This story's true

# I would not tell lies to you

# Like the promises, # They did not keep

# And how they fenced us # In like sheep

# Said to us, # "Come, take our hand"... #

There was something about...

Something special about Michael's idea

about where he thought the real sound,

if you like, of Australian music lay.

# Then they took the children away

# Took the children away... #

Indigenous music was very important to me

at an early stage.

I was a proud Australian.

Happy to be born here.

Unhappy to see what was going on.

I was so determined

not to do Indigenous music for the sake of it.

Because Indigenous music is not a sound itself.

We're all unique artists who all have a very powerful voice

and something to say

and I think that's where

Mushroom championed all of the artists,

the Indigenous artists that came through.

Michael just thought it was good Australian music

regardless of me being a First Nations artist or not.

He knew what good music was and what it wasn't.

That's what I loved about Michael.

He was genuinely keen

on backing Indigenous artists.

That was when I started to see

that side of him that wasn't just about,

you know, commercial success.

# Breaking their mother's heart

# Tearing us all apart # Took them away... #

I get quite emotional talking about Archie Roach.

There's songs in my life

that were just songs that meant so much.

That would have to be one of them.

One thing that was so important to me about Archie

was it was real music, telling a story.

And there was more similarities than you think.

They took the children away.

My parents were very old

when they got out of Russia in the World War.

But I had a sister I never knew about.

They never told me

but I understand they took the children away.

He backed Archie, Archie and Ruby Hunter,

record after record

even though they weren't big selling records.

I know he thought they were important records.

Around that time he also started putting out Yothu Yindi's record.

A girl in my office, Jenny Hunter-Brown,

who could pick a song,

and could pick a songwriter played me Yothu Yindi.

The first album did nothing, but we kept going.

The second album comes and we hear 'Treaty'.

('TREATY" BY YOTHU YINDI PLAYS) # This land was never given up

# This land was never bought # And sold

# The planting of the Union Jack

# Never changed our law at all... #

The lyrics just said what so many of us believed in.

It was important

what Yothu Yindi was saying in their music

because the national dialogue was a very different one.

We weren't truth telling at that time.

# I'm dreaming of a brighter day

# When the waters will be one... #

Come on!

There was a club that had opened in Melbourne

when mixing and remixing

and all this stuff was really just starting.

And the guys that were spinning the discs

were passionate and I love passion.

So, they said to me, "Can we have a crack at 'Treaty'?"

# Treaty Yeh

# Treaty Yeh #

They took the original 'Treaty'

and turned it into an absolute anthem.

I ring up and go, "We've remixed the song."

He goes, "What are you doing?

The Elders.

You can't change, you know..." I said, "Well, hang on a minute.

You didn't tell me this. Can you just...

Can I send it to you and you listen to it?"

So, there was quite a process to actually go through

but everyone was happy.

We've taken the cultural element,

the Aboriginal side of the songs and dance

and we've been able to combine our language together

with the western language.

# nhe matjini Gaya gaya nhe gaya nhe

# Matjini walangwalang Nhema... #

I never thought it would make money.

It wasn't about it making money.

It just blew everyone's minds.

Yothu Yindi! Yothu Yindi.

The winner of the national Australian single

'Treaty' by Yothu Yindi.

Non-Aboriginal people are starting to buy our records

that otherwise wouldn't had any knowledge of Aboriginal people.

We've been able to build and at least open that new horizon.

Yothu Yindi really paved the way

and from that came Christine Anu.

I was in the company of some really

powerful voices, you know.

Renee Geyer and Kylie and Vika and Linda, Deb Conway.

And she's feisty.

She used to just give it to Gudinski.

And then over the course of the years

just meeting the women that he put in charge

in different departments

who were just ready to go head-to-head with him

he loved that.

He loved women who could stand their ground.

That appealed to us as well, when we signed.

Because, you know, growing up in the rock industry

we were surrounded by men most of our life.

Not a lot of female energy...

Not a lot, not a lot. ..around us, yeah.

My entire career,

I've been surrounded by powerful men.

And either they're full of dick-stroking

or they think the way to your heart is by flirting with you.

Both are equally nauseating.

Michael was a powerful man who never flaunted it

and treated everybody as his equal.

I have not come across anyone like that in my career.

Not one single male like him.

We're just checking the set-list here.

I'm not just a figurehead, you know.

Through the 1980s, you couldn't have been hotter

than Mushroom Records.

They owned the decade.

Mushroom started to have a lot of success

and he was the figurehead.

You know, so he became the iconic Michael Gudinski.

Michael became the biggest act on the label

and I tend to think

that that's-that's not a great situation.

It's completely natural

if you are dominating for that to go to your head a little bit,

and for you to get a bit complacent.

And I think by the '90s that sort of crept in.

And this big, seismic cultural change

happened underneath Mushroom and they missed it.

(I WAS CRUEL BY MAGIC DIRT PLAYS)

# I have quit you by mistake

# I have nothing more to make # To make... #

Music I think had taken a little bit of a leap to a point

where it was almost unrelatable for an average listener

who lived in a trailer outside of town

or worked their 3 an hour job.

They don't really want to hear rock stars

talking about how great it is to drink champagne

or ride in limos or fucken whatever.

And so they discovered this music

that was a bit more honest and pure and relatable.

We were very caught up in the pop thing

and I guess there was that era of bands

where you had You Am I, Spiderbait, Magic Dirt.

We were definitely late on that

and we, you know, paid the price for that.

Ourselves and Mushroom

got into a bidding war for Silverchair.

We flew to Newcastle, we met the parents

and we thought we had it in the bag.

But the big brother of Sony Records came in

and did the extra schmooze.

I was in my late 20s.

Most of the team from Mushroom

that was chasing it was probably in their early 40s.

We brought with us some live Pearl Jam CDs

that had never been released

and the band were huge Pearl Jam fans.

"There ain't no second prize" as Jimmy Barnes once wrote

and before you know it we missed out.

This was around the time

when we were negotiating to sell the first part of the company.

And I'd already met Rupert Murdoch.

And I remember coming to my sister's house saying,

"I'm talking to Rupert Murdoch."

And my sister just said,

just turned and she said, "How can you deal with that?"

Mushroom Records is an Australian icon,

as Australian as Arnott's biscuits.

Why did you sell half of it to Rupert Murdoch?

Because we really had to get more happening

and get more records released internationally

and really to break through the international market...

we needed financial back up and real strength.

You can't go and play the Americans

without a fat chequebook to meet them on their own terms,

and when the whole thing came together with Rupert Murdoch

it was obviously a dream come true.

How safe is Mushroom? He owns half the company.

Wouldn't it be a logical conclusion

that Mushroom may ultimately become part of Festival,

Mushroom no longer?

I doubt that.

It's my company and I'm still in control

and, you know, we've already set up an office in London.

Gary Ashley, my junior partner at the time

was very keen for us to set up worldwide.

I'd always preferred America

but Gary was determined to go and set up in England.

We came into England throwing News Limited's money

around as well as ours

and we had a joint venture with a guy called Korda Marshall

and he started a label called Infectious Records.

You know, starting a record label

in England at that point

it's not a cheap business, so there was a lot of money.

You know, we spent, in the early days

of Mushroom Records we spent millions of pounds.

It was a big risk

and Michael was never afraid to take risks.

Gary did a lot of great things for the company.

He was the one that found Garbage way before Shirley joined,

who was the 64th singer they auditioned.

Our managers reached out to Michael Gudinski

and to Gary Ashley and to Korda

and we signed a deal based on, "Yeah, we're gonna make this band,

we're gonna find a singer and it's gonna be cool."

There was no music.

We didn't play them anything before they signed us.

I met this force of nature.

Little did I know that he was gonna become

such a figurehead in my life, you know.

In all our lives, I hasten to add.

But for selfish reasons I speak personally

because that's how Michael was.

He forged very personal relationships

even within our group, you know.

He made us all feel like

we were each his favourite band member.

You know, each favourite Beatle, you know.

That was a gen... That was his genius.

He made us believe that we could be a successful band

when we were nobody, nothing

in the middle of the Midwest in America

with a very strange band.

Garbage took a long time

and within a couple of years we were in serious trouble.

We'd burnt a lot of the money and News Limited weren't happy

and without me really knowing about it

Gary was talking to News Limited behind my back.

I got a phone call from Michael saying,

"I've just heard what's going on. I've just heard what's going on.

I'm getting on a plane and I'll be there tomorrow."

I remember going to Korda saying,

"Mate, I'm telling you,

are you ready to take over this company?

Gary's gonna go."

It was a terribly difficult time,

I think when Michael and Gary fell out

and the relationship ended.

And in many ways, I was stuck

right in the middle of that whole process.

They'd had a phenomenally successful relationship

and Michael started Mushroom, and it was Michael's business.

But Gary had come in and created a lot of success

with Kylie and with Jason and other artists.

But Michael was quite cross and angry.

And I think when he went Michael really missed him.

He really did.

There was a critical time when I actually came over

to just shut the thing down.

And I remember a mate of mine, Chris Wright, said to me,

"Look, my daughter was talking

about one of your acts the other day."

I said, "Who?"

('MYSTERIOUS GIRL' BY PETER ANDRE PLAYS)

My daughter said, "I saw Peter Andre last week.

The crowd really liked him.

I think he could really make it here."

And Michael said, "Screw it. We're gonna keep going."

# I stop and stare at you

# Walking on the shore

# I try to concentrate

# My mind wants to explore... #

Thank God we had one more go

and that I had the guts to put up that last bit of money.

Within the next three months Garbage went number one,

Ash went number one on Infectious.

And Peter Andre, after releasing the thing

the third time went number one as well.

# And girl I wanna make you mine

# I want to be with... #

I kept giving him number one records in England

and he was like, "No, I want one in America.

Come on, let's go."

Mushroom and my work was always to be fun for me.

It had become too big business.

As much as I tried to get international success

by getting involved with News Limited

they were obsessed about control.

It just wasn't fun

and it became a big business battle

and they really wanted to take control

in order to put a lot more money into the company.

Murdoch offered him a tonne of money

to buy the rest of it.

And that was a big decision that had to be made.

Some nights I couldn't sleep.

You'd have to go to work. You couldn't tell anyone.

It's on, it's off, it's on, you don't know.

And it was very, very draining for me.

He really didn't want to sell.

But I explained to him that if he kept going he'd lose the lot.

Mushroom Records becomes a fully owned subsidiary

of News Corporation's Australian arm.

Gudinski will stay on as non-executive Chairman.

It was Michael's worst hour and my finest hour,

to sell Mushroom Records.

We got the right money, but it was wrong for Michael.

('HEADING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION' BY RENEE GEYER PLAYS)

# When you came along boy

# You were different # From the rest... #

When it finally happened,

we'd already planned an enormous Mushroom

25th Anniversary Concert

and that concert became my farewell.

My childhood dream was to fill the MCG

with Australian talent

and I've never felt so proud in my life.

# Special in your eye... #

The show's become a little bit more emotional to me

and it's become a little bit more reflective.

And I'm sure I'll go through some moments of extreme pleasure

and there'll be some moments of sadness.

But the most important things is this

that it's a celebration of Australian music

and I'm just proud if I had a little bit to do

with the fact that Australian music

as we go into the millennium is world standard.

And, you know, I'd just like to see that

more and more Australian artists get the chance to break overseas.

The time of selling Mushroom Records

was a really bad time for Michael.

Worse than I thought it would be.

Sue noticed how badly Michael was depressed

about losing his baby.

He loved Mushroom Records more than anything.

He went through, um...

I'm gonna break down.

I need a minute.

I think she tended to blame me

a little bit for that and...

I hope she doesn't anymore

because it wouldn't have worked out if we didn't do it.

I think the News Limited deal hurt him

and, you know, depressed him

probably more than anything else I've really seen.

I got wind that he was gonna sell up to News Corp.

I felt...

uncomfortable about that.

You know, he'd fought as hard as he could to keep me, and I left.

I knew it would hurt him.

I could... And he, you know...

He showed that. He was hurt by it.

What really hurt me

was the Mushroom name meant so much to me.

I wanted to stay on.

When he took Mushroom Records away from me

I was bitter and twisted

but I did make sure that Jimmy Barnes

and the Hunters & Collectors catalogues...

would become back to them.

And Jimmy was pretty shocked when I sold the label.

It was a business decision, but I fucking hated it, you know.

The last thing I wanted is have my career

in the hands of News Corp or whatever it was, or Murdoch.

He knew I was... It was like a sort of...

It was a big chink in our bond.

And he just said, "We have to ride this out.

Ride it out. Stick with me, hold it out."

And you know, it was a clause in his contract

where he couldn't make a record label

for two years or something.

And you know, he was already going, "Just hang in. Believe me.

I've got plans, I've got plans, I've got plans."

I remember my American lawyer said to me,

"If you ever set up another record label

I will personally come out and shoot you."

I was determined, I had the money from the sale

and on the rebound came back

and set up Liberation Records real fast.

Warren Costello and Michael started Liberation Music.

The first lot of acts, it was a disaster.

It was the time when within a couple of years

the music industry as it was had collapsed.

The internet had come on full on.

Technology was really impacting heavily

on the capacity to sell records.

There was a crisis in the industry, there's no doubt about it.

The label really didn't have much success

for a period of time and it was quite humbling.

But it didn't deter me.

Jimmy Barnes came back.

Hunters & Collectors came back.

The resurrection of Archie Roach,

which was all driven by Michael and Warren.

When Liberation started

they started finding the next generation.

As soon as I finished my schooling life at 17,

I moved into the business straight away.

Seems to have given me the zest to work hard again

and really there's a whole future for everyone in the building.

I was the youngest person in the company by about 20 years

and a lot of what I was listening to definitely started to influence

the artists they were working with.

('ADDICTED' BY BLISS N ESO PLAYS)

# I was born in the '80s # With that summertime love

# Then changed the whole game

# Like "what have I done?"

# Out the gutter I come

# To touch the bright sun

# And from the highest heights # Motherfucker, I jump... #

When he started, he was a hip-hop schmuck.

But what came out of it all

was his involvement with Bliss n Eso.

For the first few years, I could never work out

which one was Bliss and which one was Eso.

But, Matt, you pulled it off and they've given us a future.

Since Mushroom Records was sold

there's still a lot of confusion.

Some people don't know if we're a touring company,

a record label, a publisher, a merchandise business or an agency.

I just tell them we're them all so...

Which we are.

We started working a lot closer together

and would speak 50 times a day on the phone

and of course that comes with having some very robust

and fun conversations

and many disagreements along the way.

We've just come out of a panel of two Gudinskis together

and you guys didn't even fight.

You were very civil. Oh, look, we...

We didn't get around to it, unfortunately.

No, we need to keep...

You keep those sort of things behind closed doors.

To be successful in our industry

you have to have a competitive nature

and a strong drive.

Definitely my want to challenge my Dad

drove him to even greater heights.

You work together, then you divide up,

really who's responsible.

He's much more responsible so he'll get most of it.

Yeah, definitely more on the labels

and Dad will focus on the touring side.

When I started, a record cost that much

and a concert ticket cost that much.

And it completely now has changed.

Frontier Touring Company in 2003

was probably touring about a dozen artists a year.

If you fast forward to 2008, we were touring 100 artists a year.

Our touring business went from being a bit of a hobby business

to being the biggest touring company in Australia.

All of a sudden, live music had taken over.

It was my favourite part of the business.

I'd go on the road, I'd keep in touch

and the one thing I worked out

because I was a fan right at the start is fans.

And this is around the same time

Kylie really started to take theatre on stage

and really started to tour.

# I just can't get you # Out of my head

# Boy, your lovin' # Is all I think about

# I just can't get you... #

It was absolutely phenomenal.

She's taking theatre shows on the road

and this is where I realised how special this girl was.

Over the years, our relationship grew.

His character came out more and more, revealed itself.

I realised that you have to be able to speak Gudinski.

I could be loud.

I could be arrogant, I'm told.

But Kylie and I have never had an argument.

Michael's support just never wavered.

It was always there.

He was just constantly searching to be stimulated.

To be a part of something,

and be on the cutting edge of something.

I remember when Temper Trap came through,

he was so enthusiastic about them

and wanted them to break everywhere.

That was the same enthusiasm I'd seen when I'd seen him,

you know 35 years before.

When you've been in the business a long time

you need different things that spark you up.

And we haven't had perhaps as much international success,

particularly in America

considering how long

our different labels have been going.

And a guy that was working for us

in the old Mushroom days who came back,

a lot of my old staff came back and he took me to a Temper Trap gig.

He was just out of his mind about Temper Trap

and I'd be having meetings in my office

and I'd have to shut the doors

because the volume of the songs coming from upstairs was so loud

that the building was reverberating.

"Can you shut the fuck up about Temper Trap?, you know?"

'Cause he'd just be telling me all the time.

"I like Temper Trap!"

We should make sure we send a note out

about Temper Trap straight away to every radio station.

I went through quite a horrific time with the Temper Trap.

Couldn't get on commercial radio in Australia.

Couldn't get much support.

I think the more people said, "Oh, this isn't gonna work",

if he had faith in it, the more it drove him, you know.

We were getting a little bit frustrated, I guess

just trying to break through in Australia

and we ended up moving to the UK.

He rang me up. "There's a band playing on Friday.

You've gotta go and see it.

I'm just checking, Friday, you're gonna go."

This little fellow came in onstage

and he just opened up and sang

and he sang 'Sweet Disposition', and the voice of an angel came out.

# Sweet

# Disposition... #

I rang Michael up after the gig and I said, "We could start a label.

They're signed. I've got them signed.

We could start a label with this band.

This band is great."

# Never too soon... #

And they created something from scratch

to put our record out in the UK.

And then put all this energy behind us

to really break us there.

That's when you go, "Wow, he really, really does believe in us

and we're gonna work

and do what we can to make this come to life."

# A moment, a love

# A dream, aloud

# A kiss, a cry

# Our rights, our wrongs

# A moment, a love... #

The following spring, we had a big, big, big record.

Everyone in my office thought I was insane when I said,

"We are re-releasing that song",

because 'Sweet Disposition' is an absolute anthem.

It's all about timing and getting your ducks in a row.

Australia then realised,

you know, that maybe there's something here

in that song.

Thank God,

and had that not been so massive in England

it's a sad indictment

that we most probably would have lost that here.

It was the Song of the Year.

It's a song that's one of Australia's classic songs

that could have been missed.

It went on to have a Number 6 single in England

and a gold album in England, platinum singles in America

and it was a fantastic couple of years.

Australia has had some incredible artists.

When I grew up in Australia the import car was the rage,

the import clothes and the import record shop.

That changed.

People got proud. We're a great country.

Australia has to support its own because they're good enough

and they should be the Australian Invasion.

Please give me that before I die. That's all I ask.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

I have no doubt that Michael was a music fan.

But over time I think

the thing he loved most was the game.

He loved music as a means to creating experiences

and to being the host with the most.

Just to work at a job you love

to have fun at what you do

and you look at what's going on in serious parts of the world

and shit going down you start to feel guilty that...

Or not even guilty, you just want to do things.

And we've done lots of charity stuff but...

when Black Saturday happened I was on tour with Leonard Cohen.

Leonard played right where the fires

were out at Rochford at the Day On The Green

and Leonard came to me, he said,

Can I speak to you and can I speak to you

when we get to the hotel?"

Because I had to practise not to be too loud around Leonard.

He was very much a Buddhist. Very calm.

He said, "Look, Michael.

I really feel about what's gone on here.

I'd like to make a significant donation

to these fires."

And I thought, "Bloody hell."

Then the next thing you know, Jimmy Barnes rings me an hour later,

he goes, Michael, we've got to do something."

Success doesn't prevent you from being a citizen.

You know, and you have citizen's rights

but you also have citizen's responsibilities.

And I know Michael felt that as well, you know.

That he could do something, so he would.

It's gonna be a show that will go down in history.

I mean, realistically,

we could have done two or three MCGs.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE) Hi, Australia.

Hi, Melbourne!

Welcome to the MCG and welcome to Sound Relief.

It pissed with rain, no-one cared.

It was about musicians getting together,

generations of people together.

It was the biggest paid Australian crowd in history.

There was a sister concert in Sydney.

But Sound Relief meant more to me

than most probably anything I've done.

And the fact that we had a concert

with that many people really was the crowning point,

that music is a great influencer.

It can be such a great

and important part of people's lives.

# But we never say never

# Sitting in a sandpit

# Life is a short trip... #

Split Enz came together.

Midnight Oil got back together.

Of course the Hunters were first.

I couldn't say... You can't say no to the guy.

Well, he was one of those guys that could bring everyone together.

You know, it's a little bit like Geldof.

In many ways, Michael reminds me of Geldof.

That, you know, that very abrasive passion

and confidence to get people behind him.

He got chatting to my wife, Marie,

on the side of the stage and said to her something about,

"Oh, it's great to see Tim looking so happy

and it must be because of you."

I was quite touched because in the middle of this moment

with, you know, Herculean effort and magnificence

and, you know, the size of the crowd

and just the buzz of all having been part of that

he made a very personal comment, you know, like that.

So, I think he was able to switch in and out really well, Michael,

from big, inflamed kind of feelings

and thrills and buzz and adrenaline

to saying some little personal thing

that you go, "Oh, you know, I didn't know you noticed,

or I didn't know you cared."

Gudinski had sort of an overwhelming need

to bring people together

and he was in love with a big event

and facilitating that sense of community

and collective feeling amongst thousands of Australians at once.

There really is something to be said

for stepping out onto a stage

and singing a song

where 10,000, 20,000, 50,000, 80,000 people know the chorus

and they all join in chorus together.

You know there aren't too many things in life

that will bring that many people

from different walks of life together

and join in like harmony, or chorus.

He's the guy that put those two things together

and maybe it was the best night of your fucking life.

The trouble is, Gudinski, he doesn't like to pay.

Have a great night. Kill it, mate. Alright, mate.

It's the home of rock and roll and Mushroom.

Not as good as the home... You have a good show.

..of rock and roll.

Kill 'em, Rod. Have a good night.

(INDISTINCT)

No, it's this way. That was a good move.

That'll teach you to be a smartarse.

You would always notice Michael at one of our shows.

Either he was clowning around in the pit

or you'd see him at the side of the show going nuts.

And then you'd come off-stage

and he'd grab you and, "That was great!

Oh, my god! Go out there! Do it again! Do an encore!"

Then he'd leave the hash cookies on the table

in the dressing room and that could have ended badly.

Did, a couple of times, I think.

He loved being at shows. He loved talking to the audience.

He'd say, "You having a good night, are you?

Yeah, where'd you come from?

How'd you find out about the show?"

He'd be getting selfies with the fans.

Walking around to all the different points,

chatting with the punters.

Well, here's my theme song.

'Some Guys Have All The Luck'.

It's all about luck and good timing.

What a way to end a tour. Go, little fella.

Whoo!

Whether you were at lunch or backstage,

you know, his energy was consistent.

And that was high. (LAUGHS)

High energy.

You know, I've heard someone refer to him

as the Tasmania Devil.

He'd just be like this.

Through the room. Maybe a couple of laps.

"I gotta go."

You would see him at a backyard gig,

a pub gig like The Tote, side of stage at The Corner,

you would see him at a really obscure cafe

with maybe three or four other patrons there.

He was just excited to be there.

He turned up to my tiny little show

when I was no-one.

And then he turned up for every

kind of special moment along the way.

I'd play at the Northcote Social Club.

# I was scared of dentists... He turned up to that.

# And the dark... #

I remember coming specifically that night

and it was a little cafe and there was 12 people there.

I don't know if you knew I was coming.

He's so invested in all the artists,

no matter what stage of their career they are.

The fact that your father encouraged you is just...

As a parent, he's got to feel so proud.

Maybe it's an addiction of some sort that thirst that he has

to try to get the next artist up and never stopping

trying to make it happen for someone.

# Lady, running down to the riptide

# Taken away to the dark side

# I wanna be your left-hand man

# I love you

# When you're singing that song # And I got a... #

There's no coincidence that he took artists

from small venues to stadiums

numerous, numerous times.

It wasn't unusual for Michael to see someone play to 30 people

and then in a year for them to be playing an arena.

Stuart Cap used to work for Mushroom Records in London.

He rang Michael.

He said, "I've got this young artist I really want you to come and see."

You know I hadn't had a hit single in Australia at this point.

I hadn't released anything properly.

And there was like 30 people there, maybe.

The little redheaded fella is like my stepson.

This kid's not talented, he's gifted.

# White lips, pale face

# Breathing in the snowflakes

# Burnt lungs, sour taste... #

I actually don't think there's anyone like

Michael in the music business.

I mean, the music business is like full of eccentrics.

But the bloke had his own gravitational pull.

Like every single person from like

people that worked on my tour to my friends.

Like he would just come and hang out with me and my mates on nights out

and everyone was just obsessed with him.

He just had this aura of fun at all times.

He was just bonkers.

Dad had many great relationships from artists

he toured in the early days and artists that

were a similar age to him.

But the relationship he built with Ed Sheeran

nearly 40 years apart in age really showed to me

that probably one of Dad's biggest strengths

was his ability to connect with artists.

He was also just a grown-up kid and he loved youthful energy.

I think, that's why we got on so well.

I never saw him as older than me, he was just sort of...

We were kind of on the same wavelength

in terms of silliness.

The very talented ginger ninja Mr Ed Sheeran!

That little redhead kid that I fell right into at the start

who is without a doubt the biggest act in the world at the moment

and I love him, and he's really like family to us.

Michael was very fond and keen on family

being a key thing for everything and that's

so much where Ed's head is as well.

Gudinski, where are you? Yes!

He came to see me in a venue in Melbourne to about 12 people

and took me on from there

and we're doing our first stadium tour now.

So, thank you very much, Michael.

The touring side and the music side of it

is such a small part of my relationship with him.

We've had our peaks together.

Like we've sold a million tickets in Australia.

We've taken ABBA out, we've taken Dire Straits out.

But that didn't actually like enter into any of our friendship.

It was just sort of something on the side.

Number one and only!

It was just like, "Oh, and now we're gonna go and do the gigs."

But all the time in between was what was the fun part.

There's a quality, an emotional quality to music

that allows people to use it as a proxy for connection.

And I wonder if in Michael's own way

that was part of what music did for him.

It was his way of connecting to people.

Because he could be quite an awkward person

and I think in some ways quite shy underneath it all.

And I think that a large part of

the appeal of selling a million Ed Sheeran tickets sure,

the balance sheet would have been a very big part of that appeal.

But it wasn't just that, it was a million people.

"I made a million people excited."

He owned all the big tours in Australia, really.

He's still the record holder with Ed Sheeran.

The Stones Paul McCartney was another amazing thing for him.

The tour gets announced.

Michael's on the TV, he's on the radio.

He's already done some press interviews.

It's the man on the run.

I'm glad you gave me at least 15 minutes notice to sober up

but to be honest with you,

it was a very emotional moment for me.

You know when you get to the things on your bucket list

it's just a big few days of gonna see

the youngster tomorrow, Edward Sheeran.

Both him and the Foo Fighters.

One thing I'd like to plug if I could.

Plug if I could?

He's mentioned Ed Sheeran, Foo Fighters, Paul McCartney.

He's got 'em all out in one sentence.

He loved promoting Mushroom, his artists and himself as well.

He's playing a part.

He played the part that he wrote for himself

and he loved being Michael Gudinski.

It's like it just pulsed through him.

The love for music, the love for Australian music

and then how he would highlight Australian music and Australia.

Let's shine a light on, you know, Hanging Rock, for example.

I love it up there. It's a very special venue.

It really is something that's more special to me

than just making a buck.

We played Hanging Rock for Michael and I knew it was a special location

and that he had some deep personal connection to it

and to those shows in particular.

And they were great shows.

I was absolutely knocked out

to finally be able to work with Bruce Springsteen.

I'd wanted to work with him for years and years

and there was no question who was The Boss on that tour.

He was.

It was funny, you know, because when I first met him,

it was like, "Whoa!"

You know, he came on strong, you know.

Strong, funny and old school.

They were all things that I loved about him.

He was to me... That's an Australian.

(LAUGHS)

He epitomised the country for me.

('DON'T CHANGE' BY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN PLAYS)

Bruce played anything from 3-3.5 hours.

And I can tell you, have a good night's sleep

before you go because when you think it's got to level five

it just goes a double notch.

Michael would egg that on.

He'd want you to go out and expend every bit of energy.

You know you would try to match his, actually, you know.

We had been in

what I would call a slump with Australia

between and 2003 and 2013.

And when we brought Michael into the picture

as the promoter things changed.

The excitement, and the national excitement.

He had a way of presenting us

that maximised all of the energy that Bruce himself

would bring to the country, you know.

# Things have been Done for too long... #

I felt like he felt about music the way

that I feel about music.

That it's this sort of divine,

redemptive beautiful force in the world

and you felt that he got that in his heart

and he had that in his soul.

Michael was a very complex man

and he was a person with strong moods

and his mood could really change.

And I'd been with him one-on-one

where, you know, he could just sort of

get a little dark as all of us can.

And, you know, whatever his personal demons

were he experienced them, you know.

And you could be with him and he could just...

Where did he go for a minute, you know?

And he would lose that

bonhomie and that character.

As much as he was incredibly successful

and he, you know, worked really hard,

loved what he did, he always felt like

he still wasn't doing enough.

You know he always had this kind of guilt

that he could be doing more

as well as giving all his love and attention to his family.

We always moved at a fast pace

but there was definitely a different side to Dad

behind closed doors.

He loved being a grandfather, or a Papa, as my girls call him.

And I really found that when he became one

that kind of forced him to become more present.

Michael spent his whole life borrowing energy from the future.

What Michael didn't do is, what is more conventional is,

you get to the top of the mountain

and then you plant the flag and then say, "OK, job done."

The thing with Michael is he did climb Mount Everest

and he did plant the flag

but then went looking for more mountains,

higher ones, you know.

It was his strength and ultimately, his weakness.

I saw Michael at the sunset marquee with Chuggy

and they were obviously doing deals trying to get some tours going,

you know, just in the same way they'd always done it.

We were really excited about it

and then Covid came out of the blue.

An unprecedented emergency lockdown.

The Prime Minister has effectively shut

our borders banning foreigners from entering the country.

Gatherings of more than two people, illegal.

As the nation self-isolates from the world.

There was a really serious view in that time

that live music might stop altogether.

I was worried for Michael when the pandemic hit

'cause I couldn't imagine him sitting in one spot for so long

and not being able to travel.

The first couple of weeks I was just a basket case.

And then one day

we were sitting back under the sheets drinking

a bottle of good red wine,

mind you and my wife came home a bit early unexpectedly

and she gave me the biggest lecture that,

"You know what?

"We're lucky people.

"We could be stuck in a one bedroom apartment somewhere."

And then all of a sudden

the idea of Music from the Home Front came to me

and it was a very big challenge

because I wanted to tie it in with Anzac Day.

The Anzacs risked their lives for Australia

and the frontline workers had that in common.

It just inspired me and it's weird because for mostly 20 or 25 years

my creative juices haven't flown like they have.

"I'm gonna do a concert,

"there's going to be this many artists.

"You know, televised around Australia

"and it's happening in ten days time."

All of a sudden when I thought I was gonna be

having a downtime, there was no downtime.

All the big sketchbooks came out.

"How long can you stay up for?", and I'm like, "OK,

"I can probably do one."

That's how you have careers that last 40 or 50 years.

Everyone else goes to bed, you go to work.

# Woke up this morning

# I suddenly realised

# We're all in this together

# Come on, baby

# I don't mean to rush you... #

Music From the Home Front really, in my opinion stood out

as being an absolute triumph for him.

He wanted to support all the Australian artists

and let them know he's got their back.

I've never seen him so revved up and excited.

I've lost my voice. I've had no sleep.

And it's one of the most fulfilling tasks

I've ever been involved in.

He was so proud

and he got a number one record out of it.

The first album that I did and the only

other Australian triple album ever was Sunbury '73

so it's quite an amazing coincidence.

Michael just stood up and started to take action

and started to create job opportunities

for lots of people through,

you know, a whole host of initiatives.

One, two, three, four, five.

Fuck, I've been screaming at too many people.

The show will be shown on YouTube and Facebook all round the world

so it'll give our new artists an incredible opportunity

and ensure that we stay the music capital of Australia

and one of the music great cities of the world.

He was able to cultivate such respect

and take people of all generations along with him.

I've got everyone working hard and you'll love this.

# Is anybody real?

# Does anybody feel?

# Does anybody write The days in motion?

# They're sinking Through the ocean... #

He introduced a whole stack of new talent.

It was like Countdown days, having a show to watch each week.

It was exciting. "Who's gonna be on this week?"

Got hot water.

Half the hot water with cold water with heaps of honey.

Heaps of honey and lemon in it. Please, Simon.

(CLEARS THROAT)

Gidday!

Not only one show, straight into the next one.

And then you can communicate together.

Hopefully it'll... Michael, best behaviour please.

We'll hopefully be able to communicate clearly.

What he did for our industry during the pandemic was huge.

It was just like a tornado that just kept gathering strength

and it was really exciting to be a part of.

Something that I was extremely proud of with Dad

was that he wanted to protect and do

what he could for artists and the industry as a whole.

It wasn't about Mushroom.

It was about, "How can we make sure the industry gets through this?"

Michael basically kept everybody alive.

Who was the only promoter in Australia crazy enough to try

and put on a tour during the pandemic?

Michael Gudinski and Frontier Touring

with Midnight Oil's Makarrata project.

"You know, I've got this thing.

"I really want to do

"this First Nations concert for commercial,

"you know, live concert for commercial TV.

"I want you involved."

It was really gratifying for him as an individual

but the fact that he kept doing it for so long,

I think that amounts to this notion

he must have had this will to make a difference, ultimately.

Music's always been that...

It is a healer, it is. It's something...

It's a comfort to people. It brings people together.

And I think Michael definitely

had that view of it and yeah,

he just loved the music.

He organised that incredible concert,

Sounds Better Together.

The crowd just loved it and Dad was in his absolute element.

OK, I've known Michael for 30-something years

and I can tell you I'm so proud of him.

What you have done

to bring live music back to everybody.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

Let's have a big cheer for Mr Gudinski!

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

I actually got a chance that day to say to Dad,

"You should be so incredibly proud of everything that you've achieved.

"Do you know how amazing you are?"

And he just looked at me and threw his arms around me

and he just said, "That means the absolute world to me."

So, that was a really...

You know, that was a very special,

special moment that we had together.

He was full of ideas. Full of plans.

He had been thinking a lot more about

the past and his family and growing up.

And I saw that he was ready

and wanting to go back over it all

whereas he hadn't been like that in the past.

He'd been very much forward looking.

So, it was particularly sad

when shortly after he had begun that process...

he died.

('UNDER THE MILKY WAY' by The Church plays)

The entertainment world is mourning the loss of legendary

promoter and record label owner, Michael Gudinski

at just 68 years of age.

A very, very sad day.

I turned on my mobile phone and there was a message saying,

"MG died last night."

"What?"

And my whole heart just dropped and I go, "Fuck."

I mean, I just had to sit there and go, "Is this real?

Is this really happening?"

I woke my wife up and then rang my Mum and Dad,

who then woke up and came round.

And we sat and drunk 707 and cried and shared stories.

Certain people you don't ever think they're ever not gonna be

there because they're just bigger, larger than life,

and he was definitely one of those people.

So, that was just really odd, yeah.

Like the world shifted on its axis a little bit.

I confess I was not surprised.

People die by misadventure in their youth and they die

as they get older according to the way

they have lived their lives.

And Michael lived his life.

Even up until the point where he passed away

he was at a Midnight Oil gig the night before.

It was the last show that Michael ever went to.

I thought he was at the top of his game.

I was supposed to see him for lunch

and I got a call from his assistant saying

that he had to go back to Melbourne, that he'd hurt his back.

And then he called over the weekend and sounded really shabby.

I mean, we have abused ourselves over the years.

We did play it hard and fast for a long time.

But we also, you know, learnt

and we've all been trying hard

to really keep it together and,

you know, I thought it was really horrible, the way

that the media actually printed

the list of the painkillers and listed

what was in each painkiller to try and intimate

that he was doing all that.

He wasn't. He was on painkillers.

You know he was our rock and the heart of the music industry.

But he was, you know, he was much more than that to me.

Dad was so distraught

and I just drove to where Dad was and I said,

"Well, let's go to Melbourne."

And so he and I went straight to the airport

and got the first flight we could and went straight to see Sue.

I feel so blessed to say that Michael was my husband,

my best friend and...

the love of my life.

I would not have the career that I have.

I would not have the...

I don't know if I'd still be alive

without the support that Michael gave me.

The rock and roll flame

certainly burns a little dimmer today.

But the legacy, it lives on forever.

I will never forget just the wonderful times in my life

that came about because of Michael and because he believed in me.

Musicians from all over the world wanted to come to Australia

so that they could work for him because he loved music so much.

He took care of his artists. He cared so much.

Gonna miss you so much, mate. We've had so much fun on the road.

It's a wonder we didn't finish up in jail.

Anyone who knew him knew he was absolutely not a saint

and the reality is at the same time

behind the scenes he was one of the most

generous mensches who existed.

He just wanted to make sure

that we felt like we were a part of the family

and that's one thing that he just took

so much pride in is that family feel.

Even in the early days

when we were recording our first albums

he let us stay at his house for months on end.

He had this amazing, welcoming, beautiful,

loving energy about him that I'll never forget.

MG, your spirit is going to live on in every big giant dream

and every single person that is persisting to get there.

He sort of became

what he started as which was a promoter.

And all the other things like Skyhooks and the record company

and so on that was a lot of stuff he experienced in between.

But at the heart of it, you know,

he was the guy that was renting out his parents' spare block of land

to people to park their cars on it at the Caulfield races

and running the school dances.

But just doing it on a much larger scale.

It's that sort of,

you know, passion that he's kind of left everybody.

You know, the passion to want more and more and more and think about

what's the next thing and the next thing.

And, you know, to never sit on your hands

and to never stop, but to always want more.

To hear the story back

it's my life and it's a life I wouldn't change for anything.

With a lot of good luck

and a lot of incredible artists Australian music

is all over Australian radio.

Australian hits happening all over the world.

There's so many people that

I'd like to thank but first of all, the Australian public.

Every one of you that's ever bought an Australian record,

thank you, everyone.

Long live Australian rock and roll. Thank you.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

# Djapana warwu

# Djekulu dhurulangala

# Wolutju warwu

# Rripa Ngunhawarrtji

# Dhurulama

# Djapana. #