Hey Rhinestone!

Mrs GDF and I were at Browns Mart on Friday night for the relaunch of the Darwin gig and arts guide “Off The Leash” featuring the cover photography by yours truly, now and ad infinitum (fingers crossed) ,

we were enjoying the bar tab and grooving to “Barry Brown and the Get Down” when I was introduced to Sue Camileri , the publicist for the other Glen Campbell THE Rhinestone Cowboy.
Sue was doing media liason for Glen on his recent Australian tour and told me that when younger Gen Y journo’s came in for interviews , they didn’t ask him about the hits , or the Wrecking Crew , or playing guitar for Frank Sinatra , they asked him about his hobby…Photography!
Now why would they think Glen Campbell was into photography?

Now I have had a character building to say the least , childhood, teen years and adulthood because of the coincidence of the name and more than once have contemplated a name change, perhaps to a single monniker CAMPBELL had a nice ring to it, the photographer formerly known as Glenn Campbell? Growing up in the bush It seemed that every time I introduced myself , out it came
” I see you have your cameras, but did you bring your guitar? ” or
“Are you playing tonight or just passing through?”
And my personal fave as a 8 year old swimmer lining up on the blocks as all the competitors were being announced,
” now in lane 5 we have Glenn Campbell , give us a song Glenn!”,
I won that race and I think I still hold the record for the under 9’s 50 meters freestyle, I was that steamed.
When I moved to Sydney I did’nt cop it that much, as Glen was on the nose career wise , getting into trouble, drinking, doing drugs, driving fast and knocking things over ( never been there myself and it all depended on how far west I went , the inner city hipsters I was hanging with didn’t do country music , all House, Northern Soul and Funk, so the name was never an issue but once I was past Paramatta it all came back.
But now that I have moved back to the Territory I get it at least once a week especially in remote communities where country is still king but now I can see that there’s no malice in their intent , there is only an opportunity…my reaction is the key , I can get my nose out of joint or I can join in the joke, take the piss out of myself and make them feel a little more witty and entertaining …meanwhile I have been offered an express train ride into their confidence and will be rewarded not only with a more successfull shoot, but another opportunity to get over myself.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 at 3:40 pm and is filed under New Press, New Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.