2010 Melbourne 'Songs for Stories' Concert Report

Under the austere and ornate gaze of the largest pipe organ in the Southern Hemisphere, several of Australia’s best and most diverse musicians volunteered their time and voices to entertain the audience at the Songs for Stories concert.

William Barton opened with a song he’d written at 15 in Mt Isa, in language, and blew the audience away with his powerful voice and incredible guitar and didgeridoo playing. Pictures drawn by children in an ILP workshop scrolled in the background.

Andy Griffiths, ILP ambassador and children’s author, and the MC for the evening, came on to explain more about what the ILP does. “My daughter was confused last night when we were watching the election,” he said, “as to why the ILP were winning so many seats.” He gently explained to her that the ALP was a different entity altogether. “We decided not to run for a seat,” he said of the ILP, “but to take direct action.”

Griffiths has recently been running writing workshops in Wilcannia and Kununnura, where kids learned to illustrate their own stories in small picture book style. Some of these stories were read out later in the event.

Shane Howard of ‘Solid Rock’ fame, was next on stage, teaming up with the thrillingly harmonious voices of Myra Howard and Amy Saunders to perform his story-telling ballads. The closing song from his set was the stirring story of Clancy McKenna, Dooley and Don Mcleod who worked together for Aboriginal workers’ rights in the 1940s.

The kids’ stories from the Wilcannia community were read out, about going to the jumps, playing in the park and riding motorbikes. Kaz Cooke, author and ILP ambassador explained where the money from the evening was going and how it gets there. To kids in remote communities, she said, Melbourne and Sydney are the remote areas and their towns were the centre of the world. Writing their own stories down gives them a chance to show the people in ‘remote’ places like Melbourne how they live. Kaz had a wonderful explanation about how necessary it is for the books that are delivered to communities to be appropriate, saying that if somebody knocked on her door at 11pm and offered her a copy of a Joan Collins novel that she would find that culturally inappropriate. Suzy Wilson, the founder of the ILP read the sombre poem ‘Son of Mine’ by Oodjeroo Noonucal, which was taken up by William Barton on didgeridoo, and hauntingly sung by opera soprano Maggie Noonan.

Megan Washington, whose album ‘I Believe You Liar’ roared up to 3 on the Aria charts, performed her hits ‘The Belly of the Whale’ and ‘How to Tame Lions’. She was a very animated presence on stage and charmed the audiences with her bombastic songs and beautiful voice. Three books written by children in the Kimberleys were read out. Jack’s book about football (in which the other captain comically gets hit in the head with the ball), Calley Rose’s book about being chased by her pet turkey, and the audience favourite, ‘The Naked Boy and the Crocodile’, which tells the story of Alex who goes swimming naked, and the croc who regrets eating him. It was a great display of the wittiness of the Kimberley kids.

Dan Sultan, who’s recently been in the motion picture Bran Nu Day, came on with his band and proceeded to rock Melbourne Town Hall with his big band sound. His familiar songs, ‘Old Fitzroy’ and ‘Fear of Flying’ had the audience bopping in their seats.

The fantastic finale saw Dan Sultan’s band, William Barton, Shane and Myra Howard, Amy Saunders and Maggie Noonan back on stage to perform ‘Solid Rock’ together. It was a thrilling end to a wonderful evening. At least our audience thought so – to the ILP’s delight they gave over $2500 on the night! Thanks to everyone involved, most especially Kristin Gill from Penguin and her band of helpers: Andy Griffiths, Rosalind Price, Diana Kerr, Joel Becker, Tracey Brown and Anyez Lindop, who all helped to organise and promote the event and raise awareness for the project, and to all the performers who so kindly donated their time and gave it their all onstage.