Freak out in a moonage daydream: Sean M Whelan on Liner Notes

The Liner Notes spoken word event (run by Babble) is always a festival highlight for me, and this year a bunch of writers, poets et al are set to rock our worlds with an interpretation of David Bowie’s album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. *Excitement!* Previous Liner Notes have included Michael Jackson’s Thriller, INXS’ Kick and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. Liner Notes has actually been running a lot longer than it has been part of MWF, and I got in touch with Babble/Liner Notes founder and regular performer Sean M Whelan to ask him some questions about the event:

Sean, can you tell us how Babble and Liner Notes came to be? What was the first album that was ‘interpreted’?

Liner Notes literally came to me in a dream. I was half asleep one night and the concept of it all just kind of materialised in my head. I remember shooting up in bed and searching for a pen and paper to write it down because I’ve had those experiences before where I’ve had a great idea in the middle of the night then gone back to sleep and in the morning I’ve remembered I HAD a good idea but can’t for the life of me remember what it actually was! This time I secured it safely in writing before going back to sleep. I’ve always been a big fan of music and poetry so this seemed the perfect way to combine those two great loves. I loved the idea of it being vaguely built around the model of a tribute night, but unlike other tribute shows all this original material comes out of it.

The first album we interpreted was actually David Bowie’s Hunky Dory! With coming to Bowie again after ten years it feels like we’ve come full circle. Also Liner Notes has developed a lot since our first show at Bar Open in Fitzroy. We were still figuring things out back then. For example, we didn’t have a full band for the first show, Michael Nolan performed with just a solo guitarist. Since then we have had a full band play at every Liner Notes event and for the last three years we’ve performed sold out shows in conjunction with the Melbourne Writers Festival. This year we’re also very proud to be taking the show interstate for the first time. We’ll be appearing at the Brisbane Writers Festival at the Powerhouse on Sept 8. I’ve always thought the show was perfect for touring as it’s very easy to source the performers at whichever location you take it to. Taking it internationally is just a matter of time, we already have two copycat events in North America, we might as well take it over and show them the real thing!

Why Ziggy Stardust? (So many of his albums are classics, after all.)

Well, you’re right, there are SO many great David Bowie albums to choose from. Which is one reason why we wanted to revisit Bowie. There is also the fact that this year marks the 40th anniversary of Ziggy Stardust, so that seemed like a good enough reason to choose Ziggy above the rest. There’s so much glamour and showmanship around that album too, which is naturally appealing to the tiny little rock stars living in all our hearts.

Michael Nolan has been doing an excellent job as MC for Liner Notes over the years, researching the band, the album and each track before the night (not to mention being able to sing). Can you ever imagine doing it without him?

Michael Nolan pretty much IS Liner Notes. I came up with the original concept for the show but right from the start it’s been a joint effort between myself and co-producers Emilie Zoey Baker and Michael Nolan. But Nolan is such a crucial part of the show, from liaising with the Melbourne Writers Festival to source the performers, to the amazing amount of research he does on every album, to singing with the band on the night; he really is indispensable. Now that the model has been built I can easily imagine Liner Notes going on without me but it would be a very different show and much poorer for it without the mighty Michael Nolan at the helm.

The performers at Liner Notes are usually a mix of poets, authors, comedians and musical types—faces both familiar and new. How do you go about selecting the artists for the show?

When Liner Notes first started it was strictly poets who made up the performers for the night, as one of the reasons it was started was as a way to bring wider audiences to poetry events. Ten years later we have expanded it to nearly anybody that we think will have something interesting to offer. For example this year we have Tim Flannery, environmentalist and First Dog on the Moon, cartoonist, both who don’t fit into any of the categories above.

The only brief for our guests is that we hope they will bring something engaging to the stage. Some people think they need to be a fan of whatever album is being highlighted to contribute but that’s not the case at all. The songs, that each guest are asked to provide a response to, are only meant to act as kicking off points for inspiration. Right from the start we have never intended Liner Notes to be a serious literary dissection of popular music, which some fans might expect. Some of our guests are hearing the albums we present to them for the first time. Irreverence is really the name of the game, but so is to expect the unexpected. Part of the thrill of Liner Notes as producers is that we don’t vet any of the work beforehand, so, along with the audience, we see everything for the first time on the night.

Can you tell us what track you’re interpreting from Ziggy, and maybe even give us a small preview?

My challenge this year is to provide a response to Track 3. Side A. Moonage Daydream. Definitely one of my favourite tracks from the album. I wish I could give you a small preview but I seem to be on track for doing what I do every year, and that is to leave it to the last minute and have a total panic attack about it in the few days remaining before the show. The only preview I could possibly provide at this stage is that in the spirit of the song I will most likely ‘Freak out in a moonage daydream oh yeah!’

Liner Notes: Ziggy Stardust is on Saturday 25 August at 8pm. View the full list of performers and ticket details here.

Melbourne Writers Festival program launches tomorrow

Yes, that’s right: the Melbourne Writers Festival program will be available in your copy of the Age tomorrow morning, or online at our website. You’ll be able to stop making your dream author wishlist and start compiling a real one.

The MWF team have been working tirelessly for months to put together a sublime 2011 program. Running for 11 days, the program boasts over 300 sessions and 400 guests, including some of the most exciting, most respected and most beloved writers the world has to offer.

If you feel like even a day is too long to wait, you can already check out our Schools Program online. Tickets for the 2011 Schools Program are already available; book in to see literary superstars ranging from acclaimed fiction writer Maile Meloy to local heroes Peter Goldsworthy and Steven Amsterdam taking residence in Federation Square haunts, ACMI cinemas, ArtPlay, the Wheeler Centre and the Immigration Museum.

We’re unbelievably excited – less than a month to go until our first events. You can expect some fabulous opportunities to eat with your favourite authors, discover literary Melbourne, and discuss the future of reading and writing. Whether you love fiction, journalism, poetry, graphic novels, crime, music … and more, or all the above, we think we’ve got you covered. And stay tuned for our Keynote Events: trust me, you’ll want to be there.

Poetry, music, fire!

Who’d of thought a quiet little writers’ festival panel about poetry and music (Reading Music) would be so full of discord – clanking symbols, a low note sounding beneath some of the words, loud feedback from the audience… It was quite exciting, and Classic FM’s Emma Ayres did a solid job as conductor. On the panel were poets Les Murray, August Kleinzahler, and πO; and author/pianist Anna Goldsworthy.

The panel began with some questions around music and influence. Anna Goldsworthy’s breakthrough pieces included Chopin (and we were treated to some Chopin over the speakers later – where I became quite melancholy and lost); August Kleinzahler’s siblings played badly; πO got all his early music off the jukebox – a combo of Greek music and rock ‘n’ roll; Les Murray enjoyed music as live performance as a child but as he grew the radio became ‘just noise’ and actually turned him off music a bit. Goldsworthy noted then, that there’s a difference between hearing and ‘listening’, though, to which all nodded.

The questions was raised re pulse (which in my notes looks like pube, heh) rhythm, cadence, melody – some properties of music and how they apply to the work. Murray doesn’t consciously use any musical tools like this, but ‘does it by touch’ and when he later read a poem about bats, imitating the sounds of their way of seeing, it was certainly musical. Kleinzahler has been ‘stimulated by a piece of music’, but many things come into the mix when he’s writing – music, musac (that’s popular, noise music), visual arts, emotional states and more. πO demonstrated the way rock and blues came into his work by performing a fantastic poem about work (to which Kleinzahler tapped his foot). It was here I first noticed a kind of antithesis between πO and Les Murray – it seems πO resented something Murray once wrote about ‘ethnic’ writing… and admitted they were on ‘different planes’.

But πO also disagreed with any suggestion of raw talent, of genius – he said it’s all hard work. He said you ‘bathe’ in influences, yes, you learn, but you go through that and then you work hard. Kleinzahler did not agree (tapping πO on the leg). He said ‘you can persist all you like, but if you don’t have talent you’ll persist until you disappear’. What do you guys think?

The last bit of conflict came from an audience member, who, on the way in gave us flyers about a deceased poet whose works had been turned into song. He put up his hand and criticised the panel for not mentioning ‘rhyme’ and folk music – which he said is poetry sang. πO thought he was being very reductive (I think most of the audience agreed). And I’m not sure he really did his friend on the flyers a favour by being so cranky.

So, an entertaining song and dance. And it was a treat to hear each of them read such different, definitely rhythmic, pieces.

Parley with Nathan Curnow

Nathan Curnow

Nathan Curnow is braver than most people. He spent a year visiting Australia’s most haunted sites and survived to write a book full of poems about them. He performed poems from his book The Ghost Poetry Project at MWF’s Festival Club last night and on Thursday will do a rendition of a Michael Jackson song at the sold out session Liner Notes: Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

Your book The Ghost Poetry Project took you to haunted places all over Australia. What place do ghosts have in the Australian imagination?
Australia certainly doesn’t acknowledge or celebrate ghosts (or death) on a national level as in some other countries. And yet there are so many who claim to have had experiences with the after-life. We carry these in private, mostly, as opposed to as a nation, which means there are few opportunities to discuss it.

Not that people aren’t willing to. Many need to.

I remember a young teenager who came on a ghost tour at Picton (NSW) because he could still hear his deceased grandfather in the house at night. He poured out his story to me, a complete stranger, because he had to talk to someone, and the ghost-tour was the only place his concerned parents could think to bring him.

What makes ghosts such a powerful inspiration for you?
I was interested in exploring how language and story can both terrify and embolden us, and I guess the thought of staying at haunted sites made me particularly nervous.
As a child I was terrified of the dark, and now that I have kids (who are scared of their own particular monsters) I want to know what can be said about fear, about how it operates and plays upon us. As a parent, and as a poet, I wanted to know what could be said about it.

Performing poetry seems like a very different mode of expression to writing it. How intertwined are the two, and how separate?
Writing a piece and seeing it evolve is a very intimate process. I get to sit alone in the joy, anguish and company of concentration. I see it come to life on the page. When I perform it to others it becomes something else. It reveals other aspects of its potential. The performance knits me to the audience as I share it and we all become part of something bigger. So there is a mystery to both writing and performance. It’s confusing and wonderful.

Performing Michael Jackson covers is a totally different thing altogether. Discuss.
As part of Liner Notes at the MWF I’ve been given the task of responding to a track from Michael Jackson’s Thriller album. It turns out that I’ve been assigned the track of Thriller, which is quite a daunting prospect. After my ghosts adventures I guess they thought I’d be fine with zombies as subject matter. The night has a great line up including, Linda Jaivin, Nick Earls, Emilie Zoey Baker and Sean M Whelan.

What are you working on at the moment?
After visiting so many historic locations I have collected some amazing tales. So with further assistance from the Australia Council I am currently writing a new play based upon convict stories and escape myths.

Relive the Demi Moore-Patrick Swayze action with Nathan here: Blog Eats Poet.

Estelle Tang, 3000 BOOKS
Festival Blogger

Release your inner poet

RMIT University is calling on the public for mobile phone based poems, to be sent out during the Melbourne Writers Festival.

Here’s your chance to get your poem read by the thousands of people who attend the Melbourne Writers Festival, with selected poems Bluetoothed to their mobile phones.

Poems need to be 140 characters in length or less, including spaces, and you can enter as many times as you like.

Submitted poems can be in any style, can use mobile-friendly symbols or mobile shorthand, for example LOL, ROFl, FTW, and TMI.

Selected poems will be sent out during the Melbourne Writers Festival at Capitol Theatre at RMIT, BMW Edge at Federation Square and online through RMIT’s poetry-specific twitter account

Mobile phone quick facts:

• 10 billion text messages sent in 2008
• The first text message was sent in 1992 (source)
• Australians send the most text messages on Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Day, Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, and St Patrick’s Day (source)
• World’s fastest text message was created in 43.24 seconds (source)

What: Enter your poem into Mobile Textualism at the Melbourne Writers Festival

Entries close: Friday, 31 July, 5pm

Where: www.rmit.edu/news/poetry

Cost: Free

For interviews or comment:
Dr Francesca Rendle-Short, program director of RMIT Creative Writing,

(03) 9925 9052