Thanks so much to Jean-François Champollion for the interview! I wrote about The Border Boys, the band he started in the 80s with Louis Philippe and who released one wonderful 12″ titled “Tribute” and then another CD under the name The Arcadians. I was always thrilled by their music and hoped to get more details about the band and their releases. Happily Jean-François got in touch and was keen in answering my questions! Hope you all enjoy this interview!

++ Hi Jean-François! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?

Thanks for having me! I’m just great, thanks! Yes, I’m very much involved with music! I have 5 gigs lined up as we speak, all on the French Riviera!

++ I am hoping to chat about the first period of The Border Boys, maybe afterwards we could do an interview about The Arcadians, which I understand is essentially the same band with an expanded lineup, is that right?

Well I guess we will chat about the Border Boys mostly, since the Arcadians were an artificial creation for the Let’s Pretend album. I discovered that band’s name when I saw the CD!

++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what your first instrument was? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen to at home while growing up?

Hmmm, first music memories, let’s see, let’s go back in time. I guess it was thanks to the radio. There was a programme on France Inter, the state-owned radio, from 8 to 10pm, can’t remember the name. The great thing was that they played a lot of rock from the 60s and 70s, Allman Brothers, Rolling Stones, Lou Reed… The intro to “Sweet Jane”, you know. I could not believe rock music could be so good!
At age 14, my first instrument was a cheap guitar that one of my older brothers got for Christmas. He tried to play it and quit after a couple of days, so I picked it up and did not have a clue as how to play it. Luckily, another brother showed me the basic chords and I picked it up from there. I’m self-taught, really. I tried to copy Chuck Berry, the Stones, Lou Reed… The big break came when I teamed up with another guy who was much more advanced than me. He could play a lot of those great songs and even wrote songs! A wizard! So we played together and that’s when I learnt the “drum-bass-guitar style”, that is, emulate basic bass drum+snare+bass+rhythm guitar!

++ Had you been in other bands before The Border Boys? What about the other band members? Are there any songs recorded by these bands?

Yeah well I followed the standard path, I guess: a band in high school butchering Status Quo, Beatles and Stones numbers. We played the school dance in my final year. I was in a Catholic school and that priest was watching us, he said : “no more than 2 slow numbers”, so we did “Angie” and “Let it be”. I sang because nobody would. No recordings. The band name was “Ball Bearings”.

I then spent a full year in the US as an exchange student in Wisconsin. I bought a red Gibson ES-335 to emulate the great Chuck Berry and played around with high school bands.
Later, I formed another band called “Pôle Sud” (South Pole). We played the famous first unofficial edition of what would become the “Transmusicales” festival in Rennes, one night in a venue packed with 600 drunken Bretons. My first real stage experience! That when I realized I really loved the stage!
The bass player with Marquis de Sade (“Kris Kardiac”) joined us for an encore.

Later, I reunited with my former guitar mentor and we formed a proto new wave band. We played one gig at a Boys Scout event and then I left Rennes to move (back) to Paris.

I spent another full summer in the US, traveling along with my guitar on Greyhound buses, from Boston to Dallas and San Francisco, to Milwaukee and New-York. Fascinating experience and a source for good songs!

I then moved to Plymouth, England. I was miserable at first, so I wrote excellent songs😊. I met a guy who had a “home studio” with a reel-to-reel Akai machine and that is where I learned rudimentary multi-tracking.

Then I was drafted in the army. Conscription, you know. In the end it was great because that’s how I met Philippe Auclair (aka Louis-Philippe – more below).

++ Where were you from originally?

I was born in Paris but the family moved to Britanny (that’s the Western part of France) when I was 4 so I guess I really grew up there, in the city of Rennes, which became a hub for new wave bands in the late 70s (such as “Marquis de Sade”).

++ How was Paris at the time of The Border Boys? Were there any bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

Ah well, we are talking early 80s. Social unrest, punks, skinheads, new-wave posers, post-hippies, reggae, urban violence, high unemployment, great record stores (“Nuggets”, “FNAC”), great music stores in Pigalle where I would spend whole afternoons trying guitars I could not afford. As to venues, the place to be was le “Gibus” where all new bands (local and foreign, mostly from the UK) would perform. No music in pubs, actually no pubs but cafés, you know. We had some squatted houses and warehouses where there would be wild parties, à la Factory.

++ Were there any other good bands in your area?

Oh, yeah, French punk and new wave bands, quite a few, copying music from England mostly, but with a local flair (Bérurier Noir, Pigalle, La Mano Negra, Warum Joe, Lily Drop…).

++ How was the band put together? How did you and Louis Philippe know each other?

Ah well as I was saying, in the army I met those bright kids from the best state universities and they told me they knew that bloke Philippe who wrote songs. So, when I was discharged in 1982 I met Philippe and we started working together on his songs, and ultimately formed The Border Boys when we got signed.

To make a long story short I had purchased a Tascam 4-track cassette multitrack machine. A true revolution! At last you could record a proper demo and not spend a fortune in a real studio!

++ What instruments did each of you play in the band?

Philippe kind of played bass and I played the guitar for the first demos, and programmed a very basic drum machine. After our first EP came out, we decided we needed a rhythm section to play live. That’s when Jacques Delorenzi joined on bass. Then Philippe David on drums.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

Creative process? Very simple: Philippe wrote the songs, then we would do demos on the 4-track machine, so I suppose I gave some input for the arrangements, but Philippe pretty much knew what he wanted from the start. We rehearsed very rarely.

++ What was the inspiration for your songs?

You’ll need to ask Philippe.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?

2 French guys signed by a Belgium label and singing on English = Border (Boys).

++ As The Border Boys you released one record and it was called “Tribute”. This name has always been an enigma for me. Was it actually a tribute in some sort? Or what’s the reason behind that name?

That’s a great question and to be honest I don’t remember clearly. I’m not sure who decided on the name, Philippe, the label, was I even involved? But yeah, a tribute to the great songwriters who inspired Philippe, I guess.

++ The record came out on the Belgian label Les Disques Du Crépuscule, a legendary label now. How did this relationship happen? Did you send a demo to them? They reached out? And how was working with them?

When we finished the first demos with about 5-6 songs, Philippe gave it to an aspiring journalist (and friend of his) who worked for the biggest rock magazine in France (“Rock n’ Folk”), who in turn gave it to Michel Duval, the head of Les Disques du Crépuscule. Legend has it that he listened to it on his car radio, was not impressed, but his wife told him that he should sign us instead of those dark esoteric English bands! So maybe the Border Boys own a huge debt to the wife!

One day Philippe comes to my place, very excited, and says: “We are signed! We are going to record in Brussels!” And I say: “Who’s “we”? He replied: “You and me”. Wow. It was a dream.
However, we never signed a proper contract (well at least I did not). But true enough, 2 months later we were booked in a big studio in Brussels to record the 4 songs for “Tribute”.

++ Them being in Belgium, you being in France, quite close, did you meet with them in person? Maybe ended up traveling to Belgium?

Not very much. I remember seeing Michel Duval a couple times, and then a young woman doing PR. We exchanged a couple letters.

++ The record has a sleeve that for me is quite iconic, a Mickey Mouse who looks surprised listening to an old radio. An illustration by A. Pepermans. Did you request this illustration? Did you art direct it? Or was it all done on the label side? And how do you like it?

The label did it all, we had no say in the matter (unless Philippe did, but never mentioned it to me). I quite like it, actually!

++ The 12″ record had four songs, all of them produced by Andy Paley who had previously produced The Ramones and The Modern Lovers. How was that experience working with him? What did he bring to the songs?

Fantastic! I learned more during those 2 sessions than for years before (and after). We had limited time booked in the studio (2 days to record and 1 to mix). Andy was working during the day on a Plastic Bertrand single (for which he borrowed my guitar to overdub a solo) and would come in the evening, say 7 pm and we worked until 2 am approx.

Now listen to this, that’s what you call great production: The label had hired a session drummer, who was technically very good was not suited to our style. We ran through the songs with him a couple of hours, with Andy watching. At one point he told the drummer: “Hey man you’re great, but you see those 2 guys from France, they’re really punks (i.e. they can’t play) and you’re far too good for them. So let’s not waste precious time, this is your money, thanks and have a nice day”.

Andy sat behind the drums and started pounding away. We did approx. 3 takes for the 2 poppy songs (“Sorry”, “This picture is nailed in my heart”), another did not really have drums (“When will you be back”) and the last (”When the party is over”) was recorded live, Andy on bass and bass drum, me on Spanish guitar and Philippe on vocals, sometime around 2 am.

Andy taught me pragmatism; get the job done with the time/budget you have, do not hesitate to disrupt your habits.

++ One thing that I am curious about is that I read that you engineered and played on The Border Boys’ first demos. Are these demos the same songs that appeared on the record? Are they other songs? Were they released in any form, maybe as cassette tapes to be sent to radio, labels, etc? Is the song “My Kind of Girl” from this period?

I engineered all the demos that eventually were featured  on “Tribute” and “Let’s Pretend”. I engineered others, and Philippe did some more on his own after we split. I lost track of what he published. I understand he published an album with a lot of the I engineered demos like “Mad, mad world”, “Let’s fall in love again”, the sound was not too good since it was done on a 4-track cassette with Dolby-B. You can hear my guitar on those demos.
The song “My Kind of Girl” is the only song we recorded as an extended band (same studio in Brussels) that made it to the “Let’s Pretend” album under the name The Arcadians. You can hear a clear difference in sound quality, it was recorded on a 16-track Tascam recorder by Marc François. The guitar solo is me on a Gibson ES175. I remember the piano player telling me some of my notes were “wrong” (i.e. out of scale) but I stood my ground, of course they were “wrong” that was on purpose!

++ Care telling me a little bit about these demos, where were they recorded, did you produce the songs? Do you remember the names of all these songs? Any favourites that you think should have been released in some form?

Oh well, the first demos were recorded in my room in Paris. Then we spent a week at Philippe’s family property in Normandy (his father was a gentleman-farmer producing… apples) and we recorded in a cold storage space for apples.
We also went to les Vosges (eastern France) together with Jacques Delorenzi (bass) to record some of the songs that came out on some Japanese labels (see links below). It was very productive, just the 3 of us recording as friends, drinking excellent wines.
Later, I bought a 4-track reel-to-reel Tascam machine and a nice desk and we recorded more demos in an abbey in Saint Germain near Paris. We were drifting towards a more pop-rock style and I guess that’s when Philippe (or the label) decided to stop our collaboration. I suppose I have cassettes somewhere, I’m not sure…
You can check this:
https://www.discogs.com/ja/release/2847308-Louis-Philippe-I-Still-Believe-In-You
https://www.discogs.com/master/438910-The-Arcadians-Mad-Mad-World

… although it does not give much information.

++ Your songs also traveled, appearing in a few compilations, most interestingly in Japan. I suppose this was the label’s work, but I do wonder, as many 80s bands got quite a following in that country, what’s your take on it? Maybe that’s where your biggest or one of your biggest fanbase is?

Ah, Japan. Well it happened after the band split, and the label kind of folded and sold/licensed the masters to whoever in Japan. I did not even know that was happening, did not know we were part of a Japanese craze about “poetic” pop from Europe, did not get any money or credits or whatever. I did not really care, to be honest. This is corporate stuff you know, licensing abroad…

++ Aside from the early demos that I asked about, and the 12″ are there more songs recorded by this first period of The Border Boys? 

No, not really. Philippe completed some demos we recorded in the abbey and maybe some ended up on some record, I don’t really know anything about that.

++ My favourite song of yours is “This Picture is Nailed on My Heart”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

You have to ask Philippe.

++ If you were to choose your favorite The Border Boys song, which one would that be and why?

I loved them all, and particularly all those we recorded as a full band during the second session in Brussels. I really thought we had something there. But it wasn’t to be, Philippe did not feel comfortable as the leader of a pop band.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many?

Oh no… we played a gig in Paris to promote “Tribute” and it was a bit of a disaster, and another in Brussels in a restaurant. Like I said, Philippe was not comfortable on stage.

++ And what were the best gigs that you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

I can’t, since we were not a live band at all!

++ When and why did The Border Boys stop making music? Were any of you involved in any other projects afterwards?

Not sure about the timing. Must have been summer of 85. There was no real split, we just drifted apart… Philippe was lured by El Records to become a solo artist in England, did not tell anyone, last thing I know he was recording his songs in the UK. There was no discussion, no reasons given, no parting of ways… a bit sad, really.

I suppose the real reason was our musical differences. Philippe loved pop with harmonies (Beach Boys…) and I was (and still am) more into rock. My true influences besides classic rock are The Kinks, The Clash from “London Calling” onwards, Elvis Costello, The Undertones… and I love performing live.

Since then, Jacques Delorenzi has been playing with various bands, such as The Carts, they very close to signing with Virgin, but they wanted them to sing in French, however the singer only sang in English.

A bit disgusted, in the 90s I formed a rock n’ roll band to play live, something I missed during the Border Boys. We recorded a couple albums that we sold at gigs, you know. Fast forward to 2005 when I decided at last to be a front man/singer and started recording and performing my songs, which I still do to this day, under my name (“champollion”, see below).
Since 2009 I decided to go the extra mile , and created an indie label (“Routes Productions”). I have been organizing festivals, I have produced numerous artists and albums and I regularly work with different bands etc.
My latest project is the setting up of a new label (“La Vida Music”) together with my partner Anabel.

++ Was there any interest from the radio? TV?

Nope as far as I know.

++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?

“Tribute” was reviewed in Rock n’ Folk, only because we had that friend in the magazine. That’s all I know! Japan, maybe?

++ What about fanzines?

Probably in Japan, I wouldn’t know.

++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

Recording in a professional studio and seeing your record in a record store!

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

Football (soccer, particularly the English Premier League), cooking, reading, traveling, meeting new people…

++ I’ve been to Paris a couple of times, but I still would love to ask a local. What do you  suggest checking out in your town, like what are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?

I am a true Parisian and the only advice I can give you is to walk, walk and walk. There are 20 districts in Paris, walk one district per day and just keep your head high and your eyes wide open. So many things to see!

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Well if you want to listen to my songs, here are a few useful links:

My label

YouTube:
“Dream” (English)
“Gray-blue-eyes” (English)
“L’égyptien” (French)
“Seul” (French)
“My house” (English)

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Listen
The Border Boys – This Picture is Nailed on My Heart

Thanks so much to Darren Rowe for the interview! I had written about Moonscope months ago after discovering one of their songs on Youtube. I thought the song “Coming Back” was wonderful, and I wanted to learn more details about the band. I knew himself and Phillipa went to be on Burning Winter, who I had already written about, but didn’t know a thing about Moonscope. Happily Darren got in touch and was keen in answering my questions!

++ Hi Darren! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?

Hi, very happy to talk about my old band Moonscope and thrilled you have taken an interest all these years later. I am well, considering I’ve just hit my mid-fifties but things are good. I had a long break from music after the mid-2000’s, hardly picked up a guitar for nearly 20 years, but started playing again around 2022 and have been recording in my home studio set-up in Melbourne since my old band Doradus reformed last year. The first new song in 25 years, called “Live To See The Day”, is just about to be released.

++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what your first instrument was? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen to at home while growing up?

I was a child of the 1970’s and I remember my mother would have the radio on a lot. The big AOR hits of the time were my childhood soundtrack, but I definitely absorbed it and was captivated by music. Mum loved music and had a moderate record collection which included the likes of Elton John, Rod Stewart and Elvis Presley. When I was around the age of 11 I requested my first ever record and that was “Destroyer” by Kiss and, like a lot of my peers at school, I was into Kiss, who at the time were the shit! Around this time my parents took me to guitar lessons but for some reason I didn’t take to it at that time and soon quit. The first instrument I learned to play properly was bass guitar at the age of 15, after me and a couple of school friends, including Moonscope drummer Drew Mellor, got into Sex Pistols and punk music and decided to get a band together. I went to a few bass lessons and after a few of them the teacher said, “I can’t teach you any further”, I seemed to pick it up very fast.

++ Had you been in other bands before Moonscope? What about the other band members? Are there any songs recorded by these bands?

Drew and I had our little three-piece punk band during the latter years at high school called MBC (Mutant Birth Control), it was fun but we were probably pretty crap. At the same time I was discovering the Beatles catalogue and a began to feel inspired to write songs and go beyond a simple punk band. I found a ‘bassplayer wanted’ ad stuck up in Foleys Music store and soon found myself playing bass for a 60’s psychedelic-inspired indie band called the Hipslingers, who had already released a number of singles and were quite well known, especially in Newcastle. I ended up recording a full album with the Hipslingers called “Panoramic” and a couple of singles before I left that band to concentrate on Moonscope, but the experience I gained was valuable. As far as I can remember, the other Moonscope members were new to being in bands when we started.

++ Where were you from originally?

I was born in Belmont, just south of Newcastle, next to the great Lake Macquarie, but grew up in Merewether, an inner suburb of Newcastle, near the ocean beaches.

++ How was Newcastle (NSW) at the time of Moonscope? Were there any bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

Newcastle in the late 1980’s was a city in transition from largely industrial working class and there was, as it is now, a large proportion of university students who made up the majority of punters who went to underground or indie venues. Some of these venues are legendary, such as the Uptown Circus, The East Room and the Air Force Club, the latter of which Moonscope probably played at the most. It was a great venue with a grungy, dingey vibe, and the stage was just a makeshift arrangement with boards covering pool tables. A lot of bands got their start there. As far as record stores goes, there were some good ones around town but my favourite was Rice’s Bookshop, which always had a huge collection of second-hand records and cassettes. I spent a lot of time in there but the owner was a grumpy old git!

++ Were there any other good bands in your area?

There were plenty of good ones and plenty of less than good. I really enjoyed seeing the Crying Suns playing at the Air Force Club, they were a great noisy pop/rock four piece with good original songs along the lines of the Sunnyboys and Radio Birdman. The Embers were a cover band playing The Kinks, Easybeats and other 60’s rock who I enjoyed seeing live. Bark were a great band, a little bit reminiscent of The Smiths and for a while I lived with Karl, the singer.

++ How was the band put together? How was the recruiting process?

While I was in the Hipslingers, a fellow called Matt Laver came to our gigs and I got to know him pretty well, he played a Stratocaster and was into U2 and eventually we decided to try starting a band. This was late in 1987. He brought along a friend of his called Phillipa Rees to play flute and I roped in my old mate from school, Drew Mellor, to play drums.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

++ Where did you get inspiration for your songs?

I’m not sure where Matt got his lyrical inspiration from, his lyrics tended to be a little bleak, like early U2, whereas mine were more about relationships in those days. In the song, “Almost Over”, Matt wrote some dark lyrics about a war scene where women and children were killed, cheery stuff, you know! We recorded that song at Trackdown studios and I hope to release it soon if the master tape is in good condition.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?

In the early rehearsal stage, we were writing and playing music which could be described as ambient or atmospheric rock so we were trying to think of a name which fitted the sound. We thought of Moonscape which eventually changed to Moonscope.

++ And are there more songs recorded by the band? Unreleased ones?

The only unreleased songs are two songs, “Almost Over” and “Pink”, recorded at the Trackdown session mid-1989. “Almost Over” is an anthemic U2-style song and “Pink” is an atmospheric ballad featuring lovely flute lines and Phillippa on lead vocals. I’ve recently uncovered the beta master of these songs as well as “Coming Back” and “Bitterness” and, provided the master is in good condition, hope to release them soon. The versions already on YouTube were converted from a copy of the vinyl single and the quality isn’t great.

++ My favourite song of yours is “Coming Back”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

The song started in rehearsal with Matt’s opening jangly B to A chord riff, from there we developed the song as we usually did, shaping it during rehearsals. It was an unusually upbeat, even happy, sounding song for us. I came up with the words and melody and Phillippa pitched in with a catchy flute riff and some verse harmonies. Lyrically, the song is about falling in love with someone and searching for confirmation that they feel the same way about you.

++ If you were to choose your favorite Moonscope song, which one would that be and why?

++ What about gigs? Did you play many?

We played a gig on average around once every 2-3 weeks, from memory. We had a small but loyal following, but enjoyed the live experience even though I wouldn’t say we were the tightest band around.

++ And what were the best gigs that you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

The best ones were the Air Force Club, in the dingey atmosphere there. For some reason some of those gig were kinda crazy, and there was so much energy. Drew, in particular, would suddenly do bizarre stuff like run off the stage and, pretending to be an out-of-control robot, deliberately crash into someone in the crowd, or jump off the drum kit, run to the mike and yell out random things. One time during a song, I turned around to cue him only to find he had stripped down to his jocks, without missing a beat! He enjoyed shocking people, he was a larger than life character. Sadly, Drew passed away in 2019, he had been living in Adelaide for some time and regrettably we had fallen out of touch.

++ And were there any bad ones?

There were bad ones, mainly because of technical issues with dodgy leads or mikes or some other equipment. Sometimes it would completely derail a performance and one time we got halfway through the first song and had to abandon the gig because of a faulty power circuit.

++ When and why did Moonscope stop making music? Were any of you involved in any other projects afterwards? I know some of you were later in Burning Winter… Any other bands? I had read of Hipslingers and Doradus?

++ I had interviewed Craig Beck about Burning Winter and learned lots of interesting details about the band. But I do wonder what your take on Burning Winter is? What were the main highlights for the band?

Yes, I saw the interview with Craig and it was interesting to read his recollection of events. Burning Winter was a band that opened doors for the Newcastle indie scene, but was never really given acknowledgement. In 1991, we took our demo tapes to Sydney to knock on doors, the four of us staying overnight in a hellhole hotel. One demo was given to Jules Normington at Phantom records and he phoned us a few days later to say he loved the songs and wants to keep in touch. This led to the future compilations of Newcastle bands , “My Beautiful Pigeonhole” and “The Corridor” released by Phantom, that we were included on, and gave local studio engineers like Rob Taylor contacts which lead to their later successes with bands such as The Whitlams. There were big highs and big lows for Burning Winter but as far as highlights goes, the biggest would have to be the launch for the “My Beautiful Pigeonhole” CD at the Cambridge Hotel in 1993 and seeing the room packed with people really enjoying our set. Looking back I think this was the band’s pinnacle moment. I really enjoyed doing those early four-track demos too, there was no pressure and it was a lot of fun!

++ Back to Moonscope, was there any interest from the radio? TV?

We were played on 2NUR-FM, which was the Newcastle University radio station, but apart from that very little.

++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?

The local music press did feature articles on the band occasionally and I remember the single release got some favourable reviews.

++ What about fanzines?

Not that I remember or was aware of.

++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say was the biggest highlight for Moonscope?

For me without a doubt was the recording at Trackdown, it was an amazing day where everything seemed to fall into place and we have something we can look back on and be proud of. It was a creatively intense and highly satisfactory experience. But there are great memories of gigs where things seemed to verge on chaos.

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

One hobby that I’ve discovered in recent years is photographing trains. I’m a bit of an enthusiast in my old age maybe because of where I live not far from a major rail corridor where you see a big variety of trains. My young son introduced me to trainspotting. There is something deeply relaxing about watching these machines winding through the land on rails. Maybe I should get myself a large train set!

++ I’ve never been to Newcastle (nor Australia) so I’d love to ask a local. What do you  suggest checking out in your town, like what are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?

I often take my family down to the Mornington Peninsula, which is a great destination for a hot summer’s day. On one side of the peninsula are the calm and beautiful bay beaches (Melbourne is built around a massive bay, Port Phillip Bay, from the shore it seems like a calm ocean), on the other side are rugged and wild ocean beaches, a completely different, but amazing, vibe. We love to grab our fish and chips and enjoy the beaches! It’s worth driving up into the Dandenong Ranges for spectacular views amid rainforest and giant tree ferns. Melbourne has everything as far as cuisines from around the world, but Lygon Street in Carlton has a high concentration of great Italian restaurants if you’re into Italian food. A Barossa Shiraz goes very well with a Fettucini Matriciana!

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

I think I’ve probably said enough, I hope my answers haven’t been too long, but thanks so much for the opportunity to revisit my young muso days in Newcastle, there are some great memories! I hope you found it interesting and keep up the good work with your fine blog! Cheers!

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Listen
Moonscope – Coming Back