Larry Schwartz
IT WAS supposed to be a hastily concocted chronicle to mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of one of Australia’s best-loved rock bands. Instead, a new book on Skyhooks has become the centre of a dispute that has set musician against musician and provoked bitter outbursts against
their manager, Michael Gudinski, as well as their first record producer, Ross Wilson.
Author Jeff Jenkins, an avowed fan, said his relationship with the band changed dramatically after they had seen a draft. From then on he says he was subjected to angry negotiation over the content, culminating in a two-to-three-night negotiation over the text in a Richmond studio where
the band was recording.
“It was a stressful period … It was basically the band versus me,” Jenkins said, “the band saying, `How dare you write this? This is so negative.”‘ Tales of groupies, compiled with the help of a roadie, personality conflicts over songwriting and other exploits present a jarring reminder of an era
when they were “loud, naughty, abrasive, innovative and tasteless”, to quote the blurb on the back
cover.
Among the supporters of the book, vocalist Graeme “Shirley” Strachan – now a TV handyman on Channel 9’s `Our House’ – said members of the band “got a bit precious”. Guitarist Red Symons, now at least as well known for his `Hey, Hey, It’s Saturday’ role, conceded: “Basically, I take the
attitude that I’m not going to read it because it will only shit me anyway.”
And guitarist Bob Starkie said: “I’m giving it my support. I don’t really want to comment on whether I like it or dislike it.”
So incensed was Starkie with an early draft, he sought legal advice to stop publication of his comments. Claiming Skyhooks songwriter and bass guitarist Greg Macainsh had led him to believe it was to be a glossy “coffee-table book” and the interviews would not be quoted verbatim, Starkie
said remarks in a first draft had been made while he was intoxicated.
Although the band has agreed to work on a modified version, Macainsh said of all the rock books he had read `Ego Is Not a Dirty Word – The Skyhooks Story’, which takes its title from a 1975 album, was “probably up there with the more intrusive of them”.
The group’s manager, Michael Gudinski, allegedly succeeded in having criticism by Starkie and fellow-guitarist Red Symons withdrawn.
Gudinski, the Mushroom Records boss, has declined to comment but Ms Debbie Withers, publicist and co-publisher of the book, said some quotes had been taken out at Gudinski’s insistence.
Withers interested songwriter and bass guitarist Macainsh in the project, engaged Jenkins and contributed $10,000 to fund the 7000-copy first run. She said she and co-publisher Andrew Kelly were under no obligation to give the manuscript to Gudinski for perusal. They had done so “really
only for public relations … We did it for peace’s sake.”
An ABC television journalist, Jenkins concedes he did bring beer to his interview with Starkie. “I went over to his house and took, I think, a dozen beers and when I walked in he said, `Ah, mate, I’m on the wagon. I’m not drinking.’ “But over the course of about five or six hours he did have
about five or six stubbies, which I don’t think would make a guy like Bob drunk.”
Jenkins says he endured torrid negotiations over the manuscript with band members at their Richmond studios, including an intense altercation with Macainsh.
“I had a run-in with Greg one night,” Jenkins said. “Greg just screamed at me, `Are you a fan of the band?’ I said, `Yes, I am.’ He said, `Well, it doesn’t come across in the book.”‘ He believes that they viewed their comments on Gudinski and Ross Wilson in a different light after deciding to re-
form and record with Daddy Cool this year.
Vocalist Strachan said: “Obviously, some people started thinking, `Ah, gee, we shouldn’t be saying that about Michael Gudinski.
Otherwise Michael will get shitty about it.’ But sometimes you just need to tell it like it was.”
Jenkins remembers negotiating line by line over two or three nights.
“It would be the whole band and then a couple of guys would go off to record their guitar parts and whatever, and come back and go head to head with me.”
Jenkins, 25, first saw Skyhooks on `Countdown’ well into their career and he remains a fan. “They showed Melbourne people that Melbourne was exciting in the same way the Beatles did for Liverpool.”
Among the problem areas encountered with the band, Withers said the musicians had been reluctant to comment for a chapter on “groupies”.
The author had been helped by a roadie who had a collection of Polaroid photographs of each of its many groupies taken by Skyhooks members.
“My ears prick up when people want to dig for dirt because I don’t think that is actually particularly constructive,” said Macainsh.
“We’ve lived through a million conflicts. We weren’t interested in having a book that was purely about that. Sometimes it can just seem that the whole thing is a horrible shit fight, which it ain’t.”
Red Symons said he was too experienced with the media to have told Jenkins anything he would later regret.
Drummer Fred Strauks admitted he was initially upset “because I felt some of the quotes actually were not my quotes. Possibly I might have said those words but they were taken out of context.”
THE SUNDAY AGE, 09th of October 1994
Larry Schwartz Writer 