Where no wrinklies fly*

Andrew Bolt has led a miserable and frustrated life, which explains why he became a conservative grouch. You see, being a prominent columnist and TV compere is second-best and nothing like what he hoped to achieve with his life, which was to become a professional drummer. That is not the Professor's opinion but that of groovers with their own music website:

You might not know, but Andrew Bolt was once in a band.

Apparently a passable drummer at the time, Bolt used to play all manner of engagements with his band in his final years of high school and, surprise surprise, he apparently did so in order to receive financial gain....

....In his piece this morning, Bolt referred to musicians as “lounge lizards”. Such a negative term to use for people trying to make a living the same way he did way back when and his use of it reeks of bitterness.

 On another page at the site, Dave Faulkner, a former member of the Hoodoo Gurus, tries to think, but all that comes out is feedback:

Andrew Bolt's glib dismissal of the need for any involvement by the government with the multitude of issues that currently face our live music industry says more about how out of touch he is with the real world and modern Australia than anything else. This is a country whose people support live music to the tune of a billion dollars a year, netting our economy $650M million which goes towards paying the equivalent of 15,000 full-time workers annually. Just how big does an industry have to be before a blowhard like Andrew Bolt thinks it is one worthy of attention from the Australian government?

So, the music industry generates lots of jobs and money, and that means that -- like wow, man --  it needs taxpayer support.

It is a long time since the Professor was a hep cat, but no matter how late it might have been or how stinky the bong water had become, the youngsters of yore could not have been so stupid. Could they?

And don't forget, come September 7 (or whenever). Dave Faulkner will have the right to cast a vote, just the same as people whose brains have not been shaken loose by thunderous amplifiers.

* If you get that, you're older than you think.

UPDATE: How did an older generation ever have this much fun without government support? There was more hair (and fewer chins) back then, but a young and welcoming Bunyip is briefly visible in front of the stage at about 1.40 into the clip. Dr Yowie, dirty bugger, didn't make the cut. He would have been down at the creek, pursuing his lifelong interest in anatomy.