ICONIC Australian rock musician and former local Dave Graney launched his second memoir Workshy at the Mount Gambier Library this week.
Attendees were treated to an intimate and insightful conversation with Mr Graney on Wednesday evening as he spoke candidly about his life and career and reminisced about his formative years growing up in the South East.
During a question and answer session, the indie music legend reflected on his early life as one of six siblings in a blue-collar household in Mount Gambier.
“My mother never told me to do anything or not do anything,” Mr Graney said.
“It was annoying, because when I was getting into punk rock I would order Sex Pistols singles from Fox’s Audio on the main street – a shop that sold white goods and records.
“I would take it home and play it and mum would listen too because of course the record player was in the lounge room.
“She would go ‘yeah this is great isn’t it, sounds like The Stones’ and that would instantly deflate my feelings of teenage rebellion.”
Mr Graney said it was a “different world” growing up in Mount Gambier in the ’60s and ’70s.
“There was the men’s social scene and the women’s social scene in many ways,” he said.
“I would go and visit my dad at the Gambier Hotel to get pocket money on Saturday’s and there were certainly no women in the front bar, they still had ladies lounges and all that kind of thing.
“It’s difficult to imagine the limited ways a woman could express herself socially in those days.”
Though Graney reveals in Workshy he has avoided anything that feels like work, at 58 the singer/songwriter still books regular gigs nationwide.
“I get in the van and drive to play gigs, I present a community radio show in Melbourne and write articles for the Adelaide Review every once in a while,” he said.
“There is no retiring in music – I intend to continue being a player for the duration.”
