Jimmy Barnes pictured with Michael Gudinski in the 1990s.Credit:Fairfax Photographic
In that Perth winter of 1990,I was only vaguely aware of how this guy had already dominated my life. I’d had my glam-rock radar zapped bySkyhooks and Split Enz as a kid;my first slow dance to an Ol’ 55 album at 15. I found my life-changing escape from suburban oblivion when The Sports blasted out of my lime-green transistor and beckoned me on to pub rock salvation.
Gudinski’s Mushroom Records logo was on all of them,and so many more as the decades rolled on that I’m still sometimes aghast. As my passion veered into my job,it often seemed he was laying down half the tracks. The copious hits and misses,the chancers and the stayers,the awards and tours are all in the history books – in the obits,now,as we reel fromthe terrible news of his passing.
Though his greetings grew warmer over the years,we were never friends. Michael was too professional for that. Chance encounters at gigs were gruff,aggressive,one-way pitches for the artist at hand;shoulder-slapping encouragement to writethat. In his Albert Park empire,journalists were welcome by invitation only. I relished being summoned,though I dreaded transcribing the conversation. “An attention span the size of a bee’s dick,” as The Sports’ Stephen Cummings once noted about him.
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“I am a sentimental guy,” Michael confessed one time as I admired the smattering of memorabilia framing the panoramic view of the Melbourne skyline behind his desk. “I get emotional talking about Skyhooks . . . I get emotional with everything I see about Kylie.” When he showed me the homemade St Kilda jersey Barry Breen wore when he kicked the winning point in the 1966 grand final,I think he actually shed a tear.
Another time,after his umpteenth award as the number one power player in Australian music,he snapped,“If you want to talk about the past,you should move on. The past is the past. Bob Dylan had that great film,Don’t Look Back. Giving awards,giving titles,all that is the past. I’m excited about the future.”