Well, today your nickname is DJ Albo, which is as good a nickname as any politician can hope for.
And I saw one of your recent playlists at an event you DJ’d and we have The Pixies, The Smiths, The Cure.
All great stuff. I assume these were bands that were pretty close to your heart growing up?
Can you talk a little bit about, I guess, your love for music and what those
bands meant to you.
They were. Part of it, you’ll note, if you look at my playlist from the Trades Hall function
that I did in Melbourne. Part of music is politics. In the early ‘80s of course was
a time of Margaret Thatcher in Britain; a really radical, right-wing Prime Minister.
Reagan in the United States. Here in Australia we had conservative governments.
One thing about right-wing governments is they can produce quite good left wing music.
At the time, The Clash, The Jam, The Buzzcocks, a lot of bands who had a critique of the sort
of policies that Thatcher in particular was implementing. Here in Australia, bands like
Midnight Oil were providing a critique of Australian society. I think part of my musical
influence is that. Part of it is just good music, that I find.
During the last election campaign, I hosted Rage. I was doing Tom Tilley’s program on
Triple J, Hack, one afternoon, and I was talking to the people who do Rage afterwards.
Talking about music. They said, “You know a lot about music.” I was like, "Oh yeah, I’ve always been interested.”
They said, “Would you like to host the show?” I of course said, “Absolutely.”
Coming up is Nirvana, who I got to see what was then this obscure band but there was a
real buzz about them, at the first ever Big Day Out.
That’s one off the bucket list, absolutely. Hosting Rage.
What’s the one video that you knew, “Oh, I’ve got to put this one on”?
Oh there were a few, so hard to pin down to one, but The Pixies, “Here Comes Your Man”.
Great.
That was a highlight. The Smiths. “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”.
There was a lot of Australian music, I had. Hunters and Collectors: "The Slab"
Unfortunately, they picked the wrong video.
Oh, did they go with the live clip instead of the official video.
They went with the live clip.
Oh, Rage!
Which is, you know…
The whole point of “The Slab” is Mark Seymour walking down the street in Melbourne
with a slab on his shoulder and then playing pool in a pub and dancing daggily around the
pool table with the band and some women. It’s just a great, simple film clip for what’s
a great simple song with an amazing beat.
It was quite good. The gig came out of an idea from one of the colleagues who said,
“Oh, would you do a function for us at Melbourne’s Trades Hall?” I thought, “Oh yeah, why not? A bit of fun.”
250 people turned up and they quite enjoyed it. It was quite good.
The people of your generation coming up to me afterwards and saying things like
“What was the song between The Sunnyboys and the Falling Joys, or what have you?”
They really liked The The. Yes, that is the name of the band. The The.
I played “Infected” and that’s a great dance song. A lot of the songs that I played would have been the first time
people would have ever heard them, I think. Some of the more obscure Australian bands like
The Hummingbirds and Falling Joys, that I played, were quite good I think for people to recognise too.
That music’s in a continuum. Nothing’s really absolutely new.
It comes from blues originally, through to rock and roll, through to, if you hear the early versions
of Joy Division that went on to become New Order, you hear music that fits pretty readily
with techno music today. You can see that transition of what that Manchester movement
became over a period of time.
So, I think it’s just a bit of fun. I’m not very good at… my musical taste tends
to be, very much, the end of last century rather than this century, but I did play some newer music
as well, like The Killers and some other tracks.
There’s nothing wrong with the last century. You can be the Minister for 24 Hour Party People.
The Madchester Scene, if you like.
Before we wrap up, you mentioned The Slab, we have to talk about the beer line that’s
been named after you. How did that come about?
That came about through a local brewer. There’s a lot of boutique breweries now.
Willie the Boatman based in my electorate of St Peter’s; they name their beers after local identities.
So, they – unbeknownst to me – I started getting this issue come through on social media.
“I just drank an Albo.” I didn’t know what people were talking about. Unbeknownst to me, they
decided to name a beer after me. Fortunately, it’s a pretty good drop.
It is? That helps.
It is indeed. We had an official launch just last week, which was a good bit of fun.
It’s good. It’s employing local people. It’s on tap in local pubs here, which is a novel
way I guess to spread name recognition. I’m not sure I need name recognition after all
this time in politics but it can’t hurt having a beer named after you?
Definitely not.
A proud moment.
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