Please tell me this isn't true:
Are there any other Go-Betweens fans on here? I'm stunned.
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Grant McLennan RIP
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This is an archived legacy thread. Replies are closed, but the discussion is preserved.
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Crap, crap, crap. I was just getting over two traumautic funerals earlier this week....:( Thanks so much for the great, great music Grant, so glad that you got back together with Robert for awhile. 
On Saturday 6th May, legendary Australian singer songwriter Grant W McLennan died in his sleep at his home in Brisbane.
McLennan was one of Australia’s greatest songwriters who created an outstanding musical legacy as a founder member of The Go-Betweens and as a solo artist. He was enjoying enormous acclaim for the band’s most recent album Oceans Apart, which has received five star reviews around the world and won had a prestigious ARIA award.
McLennan was born in Rockhampton, Queensland on 12th February 1958. While attending university in Brisbane he met fellow student Robert Forster and together they formed The Go-Betweens. After releasing a string of singles the band recorded their debut album, Send Me A Lullaby, in 1981. The Go-Betweens recorded a series of exceptional albums that achieved widespread critical acclaim and were fundamental in bringing Australian music to a global audience. He was an unparalleled lyricist and a prolific and meticulous composer. His auto-biographical masterpiece ‘Cattle and Cane’ was recently voted by the Australian Performing Rights Association as one of the ten greatest Australian songs of all time.
In 1989 The Go-Betweens took a ten year sabbatical and McLennan recorded four powerful solo albums including the vivacious debut Watershed and the epic Horsebreaker Star as well as forming satellite groups like Jack Frost with Steve Kilbey of The Church and The Far Out Corporation with Iain Haug of Powderfinger.
When Robert Forster and Grant McLennan reformed The Go-Betweens in 2000, the band was greeted with adulation by a new generation of musicians like Belle and Sebastian for whom, their songs had been an inspirational teenage soundtrack. The three albums the band subsequently released were universally acknowledged as containing some of McLennan’s greatest compositions.
McLennan was a passionate supporter of the arts, extremely well-read and maintained a keen interest in all contemporary music, cinema and visual art. He was an exceptionally charming and polite man who endeared himself to everyone who met him and was one of the rare individuals worthy of the epithet ‘larger than life’.
His singular contribution to music and his commitment to his craft simply cannot be understated. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him. He is survived by his mother, sister, girlfriend Emma and lifetime musical colleague Robert Forster.
Bernard MacMahon, Lo-Max Records, 6th May 2006
(from the band's site)
I am devastated...
A white moon appears like a hole in the sky, the mangroves go quietIn the Briza de La Palma, a teenage Rasputin takes the sting from a gin
Vale, Grant. You were taken much too soon. A masterful lyricist and the king of melodic melancholy.
Wonderful reminiscences here:
Lachlan Murdoch wrote: A white moon appears like a hole in the sky, the mangroves go quietIn the Briza de La Palma, a teenage Rasputin takes the sting from a gin
Vale, Grant. You were taken much too soon. A masterful lyricist and the king of melodic melancholy.
Wonderful reminiscences here:
Yeah, tis sad to hear about Grant passing on so soon. His solo stuff, collaborations and Go-Betweens stuff was all pretty good. Cattle And Cane in particular still sends a shiver through me and has some relevance to my family's life(my dad and expat Northern Irish grandad lived and worked in sugarcane farms in the Tully-Innisfail area of Far North Queensland-so in that respect it makes me flashback to times when I went there on holidays and how tough it would have been for both of them doing that sort of work in the blazing hot and steamy tropical heat). BTW- you're not THAT Lachlan Murdoch are you
FUCK ME -this is a nightmare. I read they played an intimate gig t'other day for Cate Blanchett.
Only bought their new live dvd the other week.
A very underated writing duo. A sad day.
now time for 'Streets of your town'
Lachlan Murdoch wrote: A white moon appears like a hole in the sky, the mangroves go quietIn the Briza de La Palma, a teenage Rasputin takes the sting from a gin
Vale, Grant. You were taken much too soon. A masterful lyricist and the king of melodic melancholy.
Wonderful reminiscences here:
Wonderful indeed, thanks for the link, didn't know Kilbey had a blog.
I invite you all to share your thoughts/memories about Grant on the band's site go-betweens.net. Search for the message boards, there's a forum dedicated to Grant. You don't need to register to post.
Allan, all this reminded me that I've yet to send you the Demos CD. I had a couple of weeks off, and haven't yet had the time, sorry!
Damn, this is a tragedy. I've only heard "Cattle and Cane" (it's on a really good postpunk compilation Rhino put out a few years ago), but it's a good song. 
Awfully cruel how certain musicians of the punk era and beyond don't seem to make it past fifty, for some reason. 3/4s of the original Ramones are gone, the Clash can't ever really reunite, and of course Ian died before a lot of us were born. 
fuckinell stunned. top band; top songwriter.
been listening to the radio session that came with the best of since i found out about htis.
very sad day
RIGHT HERE is one of the nicest, purest pop songs i've ever heard.
BYE BYE PRIDE is another classic!
(RIP)
Monsieur Round & Round wrote: I invite you all to share your thoughts/memories about Grant on the band's site go-betweens.net. Search for the message boards, there's a forum dedicated to Grant. You don't need to register to post.
Allan, all this reminded me that I've yet to send you the Demos CD. I had a couple of weeks off, and haven't yet had the time, sorry!
Sounds good Jorge, whenever is okay by me.
[darkgreen]Green[/darkgreen] wrote:
Monsieur Round & Round wrote: I invite you all to share your thoughts/memories about Grant on the band's site go-betweens.net. Search for the message boards, there's a forum dedicated to Grant. You don't need to register to post.
Allan, all this reminded me that I've yet to send you the Demos CD. I had a couple of weeks off, and haven't yet had the time, sorry!
Sounds good Jorge, whenever is okay by me.
Package sent today
Packaged received today Jorge only one week, not too bad. Just popped it in, sounds great.
Don't apologize for the tardiness, I've yet to post the jpgs of the R. Forster and Jack Frost albums yet (what's your opinion of 'em, Thought That I Was Over You is such a great song).
[darkgreen]Green[/darkgreen] wrote: Packaged received today Jorge
Don't apologize for the tardiness, I've yet to post the jpgs of the R. Forster and Jack Frost albums yet (what's your opinion of 'em, Thought That I Was Over You is such a great song).
That's some great news!
As for the CD's, I found Warm nights to be Robert's finest solo album. I only heard a couple of songs from the Jack Frost and liked them, particularly Birdowner.
Frankly, I'm reluctant about hearing the rest due to the latest events...
Ever since Grant died the only time I listened to the Go-Bees was the following day, when I tried to watch the DVD and just couldn't take it. Too soon, maybe!
As for the Jpegs, don't worry, taje your time!
By the way, I don't own a scanner, that's why I sent you one of my infamous custom-made sleeves...
Last but not least, have you heard the newie from our The Church pals? You can pre-listen to it (sounds awesome) on their My Space site
