The second (but worse) disappointment was on Friday 2/3/07 on the occasion of your concert????. I have been a fan since your recording with Grace Knight – a truly great album. In recent years I thought you may have left the industry as you seem to have stopped appearing or recording. It was a pleasant surprise to see you on the Zoo programme and naturally we bought tickets for the show. I think it a pity that you have lost the ability to entertain and have decided to turn to preaching. And what’s with all this humming when you introduce one of your very ordinary compositions.
Had we known the content of your concert there is no way we would have attended. Similar comments were made by many of the attendees who sat in close proximity to us. The name of the game is – ENTERTAINMENT.
For a dose of your diatribe on that evening I would in preference go to a Bob Brown political rally – mmmmmmmmmmmmmm- and that’s saying something -mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Fans remember you for the songs they know you can sing. When you’re on stage stick to the thing you know best – that’s what we paid for and what we came to hear. If you have political and social views and it’s most obvious that you do, keep them for
appropriate other occasions. It’s a logical assumption that at least 50% of your concert attendees don’t agree with you, whatever your views may be.

It looks like I am the first to comment, what an honour! I enjoyed reading your words, there are simply not enough artists standing up and saying what needs to be said, congratulations on doing so. There is indeed a growing voice of concern regarding the path humanity is taking and yet that voice remains cleverly sidelined. Your words and indeed the words I have been writing on many of these issues for over a year now, rarely see the light of day. Perhaps it is just a matter of continuing to ‘chip away’ until the message gets through.

One thing is abundantly clear to me and that is that we are not going to break through the madness unless we can come up with a better way. Not just hope for a better way, but some concrete ideas that can be used as a means of breaking down the dominance of the current system and solid ideas for building a far better way.

I am close to completing my own web site, contrariety.au.com, a site, that will be working to challenge the current world view.

In the mean time, it would be great to read more of your thoughts, in particular, the type of society you would like to see and how you think we may achieve it.

Kindest Regards

Andrew Stretton

PS, caught your show in Castlemaine a few years ago and loved it!

Vince, you’re views are a upsetting, yet at the same time a balm for a troubled soul. Most australian citizens polled recently are convinced that we are losing what was, in my lifetime, the magic of being part of australia. Where once we were carefree, open and inclusive, we are becoming a meaner society, reaching for aggression and fear more often than love and support. People are becoming more adept at exploiting the value of the market, whilst becoming increasingly dis-connected from one another – numbing the pain with McMansions, fast-food, and raunch culture. If this is pointed out to the majority, the response is swift and brutal – one is attacked now in the western world for having “liberal” values. The very foundation of modern society has now become an insult.

And yet there is an unease amongst most. Like an ill-fitting suit people can’t, despite their best efforts, make this life fit comfortably. The constant anxiety and fear (deliberately manufactured by our leaders) leaves this economic “good life” feeling stale and inaqequate. Rather than projecting this unease on the others (terrorists, foreigners) we need to understand that it is the emptiness within that troubles us. Wake up, open your heart, let the light in. (apologies to colin hay).

David