So, after finishing the first half of ‘Brimstone’ in Germany (Mulhausen and Berlin) I headed home to Melbourne, to again face the strange reality that had occurred back in January - my 18 year marriage coming to an end. It took some accepting but by August I was starting to see some light and was beginning to feel that I hadn’t actually lost Kate from my life - Things were just different but would be ok………..
I was pretty busy straight away with our new ‘Jack Irish’series which was great to be working on again. I love playing ‘Jack’ with all his clashing commitment and ambivalence.
I also got to spend time back in my recording studio, working on new material - Songs I’d begun writing at the start of the year (for obvious reasons) I had a lot to process in 2015, and nothing better than song writing for that – as well as therapy of course.
I did get to experience some rather funny and nostalgic events too, thankfully – One being our ‘Geelong College’30 year school reunion in August, and then funnily enough the next night was our 50year birthday bash for G.S.O.D.A (Geelong society of Operatic and Dramatic Art) - the theatre group I’d been in when I was a kid. Both were fun and silly. I may have consumed too much alcohol both nights.
Drinking, in fact became a bit of a habit through 2015. Not something I encourage, or am particularly proud of…….
After finishing ‘Jack Irish’in October and re calibrating my perspective on the world our lovely band ‘The Octobers’reformed for a couple of gigs in WA. It was a treat to play with that almost fully Librangang again. Unfortunately Shannon was unavailable but we were lucky enough to have Roger McLachlan step in to play Bass. We only did a couple of shows and I was very rusty but the gigs were fun. I was reminded of what hard work musicians face constantly.
We also all celebrated our birthdays throughout the month too of course - Darren the 4th, Me the 5th, Kelly the 15th(The night of our Perth gig), Shannon and Talei the 21stand Marty the 27th………Ah ‘The Octobers’ – What a beautiful bunch of people. So nice to reunite and actually be in a better headspace than I’d been in February when we originally toured. Those guys really looked after me.
I knew I was heading back O/S in early November for part two of ‘Brimstone’ and so was going to miss my sister Tracy’s 50thbirthday on the 21st.
I organized an early party for her and it was brilliant. It went off !! Mum didn’t quite understand what was going on cos of her Alzheimer’s (It continues to progress as expected) I was also going to miss her 80thbirthday on December 30 so my duties as brother and son fell a little short, but I think I was forgiven after the rocky start to 2015 I’d had.
Anyway………I then headed back to Europe to continue the frosty section of ‘Brimstone’, filming in Austria and Hungary, which was spectacular.
We had unbelievable locations, fantastic crew and of course an amazing tale to tell.
2015 truly, has been the biggest year of my life…….
Fingers crossed for a smoother 2016 !
xGP