Gone, But Not Forgotten By All.

I worry sometimes that we're losing our past, our heritage.

Carson, Ross Ryan, Buffalo, Sid Rumpo, Co. Caine?

None of these will mean anything to most of you, and even if you are Australian the chances are you won't know them, or at least not have heard of them in a very long time.

These were all musicians in the early 70s. Well known at the time, and some of the members went on to other things. But now largely forgotten.

My last foray into an Australian music store had none of these available. Most of them have never even had their work released on CD. Even if it was, it was generally on a specialist re-issue label for a very short time.

I'm lucky to have a few friends who remember these acts. I also have a group of friends who have ripped their vinyl to CD and share them, as long as the music is well out of print and not available in any format. Yes, their first aim is to protect and support the artist. And that is exactly how it should be.

My dad played a lot of older music when I was young, so I have a love of crooners, big band, brass band, and even some country music. But having taught for a number of years it seems as though the past is largely forgotten by many young people. They were never exposed to it. Occasionally I has a student who would approach me when no one else was around to tell me they'd discovered some amazing "new" artist, such as Hendrix or Nirvana, and wondered if I'd ever heard of them. But these are big names, and I very rarely hear anyone mention any of the artists above, although I Am Pegasus gets the very occasional spin on Australian radio.

We need to make sure we don't lose our Arts heritage, whether it's a novel by George Turner, a Smiley film, or an old album by Blackfeather.

Explore the past. There are some real diamonds in there.

Range.

Last week, while playing some music in the car, a friend asked me who I was listening to. I told them it was a Jimi Hendrix album, and they seemed surprised because it wasn't the raucous noise they'd expected from Hendrix.

I suspect this merely showed that my friend had never really listened to much Hendrix. But I also realised at that moment that like Hendrix, a writer needs to have range. It's important to have your own voice, but it's equally important to use that voice in different ways to keep your readers on their toes.

I've recently tried experimenting in my writing. Not only on 'subject', but in genre and style too. Not all these experiments have worked, but I've been rather pleased by some of the results. Some will be rewritten, some have been subbed out, at least one has already sold.

I consider myself to be a Sci-Fi writer, but when I look back over my writing I can already see a number of horror stories and a few urban fantasy pieces. And, having recently re-read some of them I can usually see where they originated and the influences contained there-in.

Jimi Hendrix only released three studio albums in his lifetime, but  his development and experimentation is clearly obvious to anyone who takes the time to listen to those works with a critical ear. When he died he had plans to move into new areas, recording with Miles Davis for example, and no one really knows where he would have gone had he survived.

Develop, experiment and have a range.  Those are my goals in writing.