Chapter 15: New Experiences

Party Night

September 14, 1976

Over breakfast, Lori and I put together a short shopping list. Just a few things for me to get when I got home that afternoon; vegetables, bread and butter, cheese, milk, plus whatever meat looked reasonable at the butcher’s shop.

“Get some more of those great sausages we had the other week if they’ve still got them,” she said. “And maybe a roast; we could have that tomorrow night when Megan’s here. Get a leg of lamb if the price isn’t too outrageous, or a rolled roast of beef. Just see what looks good.”

The day at University went by quickly; even the dreaded Chemistry lab session was moderately successful. I still had no real idea of what it is we were meant to achieve, but as far as I was concerned, any chemistry lab session that ended with results that looked as if they were in the same order of magnitude as the expected values, and no equipment was destroyed was in my mind a success. Once I got back home, I grabbed the shopping list from the board in the kitchen, and headed up the street to get the items we needed. The butcher shop had more of the great sausages in; so I got a kilo of them, along with a nice looking rolled roast beef. I had just arrived home and was putting the groceries away when Lori arrived; she was impressed with the meat.

“That roast will be good for tomorrow night; we should even have some left over,” she said.

With the groceries put away, we started on dinner; the sausages done in brown gravy with onions and some vegetables. The recipe was one I had got from my grandmother; Lori had modified it by having some capsicums (which she called ‘peppers’) to the mix; I liked the colours and the sweet taste of the sautéed capsicums. After eating; I got dressed, and headed out the door for the ALP meeting at the Rose. I was actually twenty or so minutes early; inside at the main bar I saw Peter, Dennis, and a few others of the committee members, so I wandered over to them

“Will, great to see you, Comrade,” Peter greeted me. “How’s the music business going?”

I ordered a beer, and told him how our group just had a live double album out this week, and how in a few weeks’ time I would be recording the album with Megan.

“There’s talk that there might be a single released from that album, too, with luck it might do well on the Top Forty.”

“That’s great; I’ll have to listen to them. Listen, can I ask you a favour? The main item of business for tonight’s meeting is the upcoming State conference; we need to vote on some of the main resolutions that will be up for debate at Conference, so Dennis and Kevin know how we want them to vote.

“There are two fairly contentious ones; the rest are just pretty normal procedural ones; but I was hoping that tonight, you could second a motion that we support these resolutions. The one I’m particularly worried about is the proposal from the Premier to amend the State’s Summary Offences Act and Crimes Act, to decriminalise homosexual acts between consenting adults. There’s a lot of resistance from some of the right-wing unions and members; I’m hoping that if people see that there’s support for that from the younger members, it might change some minds.”

“Not a problem, I can speak to that motion if you want,” I replied.

“Great; the other one that’s getting a lot of pushback is the Federal Government’s approach to accepting the Vietnamese ‘boat people’; refugees from Indo-China. There are the arguments from some union sections that these refugees will take jobs from Australians, and a resolution that the party oppose the resettlement of these refugees. Pretty much the usual xenophobic stuff; I would have thought most of that would have disappeared along with the ‘White Australia Act’, but still...”

“I’d be more than happy to speak up on that, too. Just give me a signal when you want me to speak up.”

“I pretty much guessed you would support those resolutions; we need to get you signed up as a member of the Left faction.”

We moved up to the main meeting room; I found a seat next to Nick. After what seemed like the standard meeting preamble, Peter called on Kevin, who was our branch’s State Conference Delegate, to talk about the various resolutions that would be up for voting at the Conference early next month. Most of the resolutions were pretty innocuous; restating long-standing party policies, or various obscure procedural motions. When the resolution regarding the decriminalization of homosexual acts came up, Peter addressed the meeting.

“Now, this resolution has been put forward by the Parliamentary group; before they go ahead with what is seen in the community as something controversial, they want to have the full weight of party policy behind them. I propose that this branch support the resolution; do we have a seconder?” He looked at me.

“I second the motion,” I said, raising my hand.

“I move that we oppose the motion,” someone said from the other side of the room.

“I second the opposition,” another member called out.

“We have a motion to support the resolution proposed and seconded, and opposed and seconded. Does anyone wish to speak for the motion to support the resolution? Comrade Morris, you seconded the motion?”

My moment of truth; I gathered my thoughts, and stood up.

“Comrades, fellow members; this party has a long and proud history of standing up for the oppressed, supporting out fellow countrymen against the tyranny of the bosses and the authorities that try to put us down. That’s why I joined this party, and I’m sure why many of you did too.”

“Hear, hear,” a few of the others called out.

“So, why am I proposing we support the Premier’s resolution to decriminalize behaviour between consenting adults? I believe any law that leaves the discretion into what is and what isn’t illegal behaviour up to the police investigating an incident leaves things open for favouritism and corruption. Do we want to leave our State open for the next generation of Bob Askins and Norman Allens to give favours for their mates, turning a blind eye to the real criminal actions while collecting brown paper bags stuffed with money? I think not.

“There are countless examples of how these acts have been used to persecute the political enemies of the powerful, on trumped up charges, all at the discretion of the police. Now, do we really care what two adults do in the privacy of their own bedrooms? What concern is it of the State about peoples’ private lives; unless they are looking for a way to pull down and persecute people who they disagree with? We need to take a stand against anything which gives them an excuse to victimize people; any avenue for the stench of bribery to take hold again.”

I sat down; a number of people clapped and called out words of encouragement.

“Thank you Comrade Morris,” Peter said. “Is there anyone wanting to speak against supporting the resolution?”

One of the older members stood up; I noticed he was sitting over next to the shifty Tom Domican.

“Comrades, despite the worthy pleadings of Comrade Morris, I oppose us taking steps that would somehow legitimize the disgusting and sinful behaviour of a bunch of pooftas. Already, the Archbishop has spoken against the lowering of the moral standards of our society; we need to show that we as a party stand with them, for what is right and moral.”

Several others shouted out their disagreement, comments like “We don’t tell the local priest what hymns to sing or what to put in his sermon; the church needs to mind their own affairs first.” “What does the archbishop do about all the child-molesting priests? They never get brought to justice!”

The room degenerated into heated argument; until Peter was able to restore some degree of order, banging his gavel on the table, and shouting out ‘Order! Order!’ I suspected this wasn’t going to be an easy vote for either side to carry; there were very strong opinions on either side. Eventually a vote was held; a show of hands, with two people counting each side. It was carried, by around two-thirds of the members in favour.

“If this goes ahead and conference supports it, it’s going to cause a huge split in the party. My union won’t stand for any of that crap, we’ll quit the party!” one of the supporters shouted out once the votes were in.

“No great loss,” Nick whispered to me. “Those fucking shoppies are a pain in the arse.”

“Shoppies?” I asked.

“The Shop, Distributive and Allied Union,” he explained. “They are the power force on the conservative right.”

Eventually, the meeting settled down, and Kevin went through a few more less controversial resolutions. All that was left was the resolution opposing the resettlement of the Vietnamese boat people. Two of the members said the party should support the resolution; a motion was moved and seconded. When Peter asked if anyone opposed the resolution, one of the other Left members moved a motion opposing the resolution, and I put my hand up to second the motion.

Those supporting it – that is, those against Australia taking in more refugees – spoke to their case; saying that in times of high unemployment, why should the country bring in more people, who would pay to feed and house them, and weren’t these the very people that we had sent troops over there to fight? The fact that they were non-Europeans, non-Anglo-Saxons, non-whites was also mentioned in passing. Peter then asked if anyone wanted to speak against the resolution.

“Comrades, I look around this room, and I’m saddened by what I just heard,” I said. “I see that many of you here, either directly, or your parents, were given refuge in this country after the devastation in Europe, after the Second World War. At that time, there were similar arguments, people said ‘we don’t want those reffos coming here and taking our jobs’. But because our country; and the union movement in particular help them get back on their feet; giving them a secure home after their world had been torn apart; they became productive members of our society. We work alongside many of these refugees; they are our neighbours, friends, and in some cases, our employers. Our country is much the richer from their contributions to our country; we have become a true multicultural society.

“Beyond our obligations to help our fellow human beings; we have an extra obligation to help these refugees from Vietnam and other places in that area. If we, if Australia, had kept our nose out of a civil war that didn’t really concern us; if we hadn’t kowtowed to the Americans and gone into the war with them, maybe there wouldn’t be the flood of refugees. But all because the Liberal government here wanted to curry favour with the US; we were ‘All the Way with LBJ’, we have a moral obligation to help out. That’s why I oppose the resolution as it stands.”

My remarks earned more applause; the vote was even more convincing; there were only five people in favour of supporting the resolution to oppose more refugee intake. That pretty much wrapped up the meeting; there were a few announcements regarding members who were sick or injured; once that was done, Peter declared the meeting closed. On the way out of the room, Peter pulled me to one side.

“You spoke really well, I’m sure what you said convinced a few others to vote our way,” he said. “Have you thought about going for an office holder position, or delegate? We really need someone with your intelligence and views in a position of influence.”

“Thanks, but, well, with everything else I’ve got going on, I’m not sure I could put the time into it. But thanks for the offer; maybe in a couple of years, I might see.”

“Understood; but keep the offer in mind. Now, you’ll really have to join up with the Left faction; you’ve made a few enemies on the Right. Just be a bit careful, some of them are rather unpleasant types.”

I thanked him, shook his hand, and headed off home. Just outside the pub, Nick caught up with me.

“You spoke pretty well in there, mate,” he said. “I was going to vote to support stopping more refugees, until you compared it to my situation after the War. You made me feel guilty and selfish about stopping others from getting the help and assistance I got. Thank you for that.”

“I just said what I thought; I wasn’t trying to embarrass anyone,” I said.

“Well, you spoke well, and managed to piss off some of the right-wingers, I’m sure. And the Catholic right in particular will target you. They have a lot of power, and connections in all the right places. Did you hear the comment that someone called out about child-molesting priests?” I nodded. “Well, a cousin of mine is a police detective in the Hunter Valley, up in Singleton; a while back he got complaints about one of the local priests had been molesting; actually, raping, young boys in one of the Catholic boarding schools in the area. He had a long history of abusing young boys, aged from ten to fourteen; there had always been rumours, but finally he got an actual complaint; the parents of one of the victims had lodged a formal complaint.

“Well, he followed it up, interviewed other kids, and when he was about to call the priest in to interview him; he got orders from the police HQ to drop the whole case. He was directed in no uncertain terms not to pull in the priests, not to talk to anyone from the church, and to destroy all of the case material he had. It was implied that if any of the evidence he had gathered became public, then Internal Affairs would start proceedings against him. It’s well known that the Justice Minister – Mulock – has strong personal ties to the Catholic Church, and people are pretty sure that that Archbishop contacted him directly to kill the investigation.”

“So, nothing can be done? That’s really bad; sick guys like that need to be locked away where they can’t do any harm.”

“Guess what happened to that priest? The church moved him onto another diocese, up around Armidale. My cousin called one of his mates in the police up there, to warn him. But there’s nothing that they will be able to do, either, because if they start anything, the bosses will crack down on anything likely to cause embarrassment to the Catholic Church. Now, if you or I were to try to do anything about it, like make that knowledge public, then we would be likely to get lots of unwelcome attention from the police. You can bet our cars would be followed everywhere, ticketed for trivial things, our family and close friends investigated. They know how to make people’s lives hell if you try to cause trouble for them.

“That’s why getting rid of all of the legal avenues for police to harass those people they don’t like is so important. The right wingers don’t like it, because it takes away one of their tools to wield their power. But I’m sure eventually we will win over them, and one day, all of those corrupt guys will get what’s due to them.”

We had now reached my front gate; I thanked Nick for all of the information, and told him to wait a minute, while I went inside to get him something. I grabbed one of the promo albums from the bunch I had been given, then back outside, gave him the copy.

“That’s our group’s latest album,” I said. “It has just gone on sale, but I thought you and Maria might enjoy it.”

He thanked me profusely for the gift, and we parted ways, each to our own house. When I got inside, I undressed in the bedroom, and joined Lori in the study. She asked me how the meeting went, and I filled her in on the various votes and my speeches.

“So you spoke up in favour of homosexual law reform? Good for you, that’s something that really needs getting done. I’m not sure how much will be achieved in the next few months; there’s a lot of vocal opposition to it, but eventually, things will change. I’m very proud of you for taking a stand and speaking up for it.”

I then told her what Nick had said about his cousin and investigating the kiddie-fiddler priest; and she was outraged that the police force would allow such a thing to happen. She tried to think of a way to bring all of this information out in the public, but without drawing unwanted attention to us, our families or friends. We couldn’t come up with a possible safe solution, not without the potential for us being sued for libel.

“Even if it is true, we could still get taken to court?” I asked.

“Yes, just because something is true doesn’t give you defence in court.”

“Well, that sucks big time. I guess an organization as rich and powerful as the Catholic Church would tie things up with court cases and expensive lawyers for years, with the intention to bankrupt any critics, rather than own up to what they had done, and fix things.”

“Maybe you can just continue to work the way you are, trying to get the process changed in the political arena? I can just see you one day there in Parliament house, arguing for changes in society. My boyfriend, the radical!”

“You make me sound like Cathy!”

“No, you’re not like her at all; she’s so uncompromising in her approach, she would just ignore anyone else’s opinions, and steamroll straight ahead. Are you ready for bed? I think I need to reward my sexy radical.”

Lori led me to our bed; she had me lie down on my back and she sucked my cock until I was hard enough for her to ride me. She took my prick in her hand, and swung a leg over me.

“I have a special ‘local member’ here that I can petition to get some relief for a problem,” she said, laughing. “Do you think he will be able to stand again after this parliamentary session?”

She rose up and down on my shaft; her hands pressing down on my shoulders.

“If I ask the honourable member to spurt into my cunt, would that be classified as ‘unparliamentary language’? I would hate to have this stopped on a point of order.”

She kept up a stream of bad puns; including ‘answering a division in her chamber’, saying that I could be the ‘usher of the pink rod’, and similar comments. When she came, she cried out ‘the motion has been carried’, before collapsing on my chest in a fit of giggles.

“This political process is a lot of fun,” she said, as she started riding me again. “Now let’s see if we can get you to propose a motion into my cunt.”

She rode me faster, forcing herself down hard with each thrust, and grunting softly as she slapped herself down on my cock.

“Mr. Speaker, I move that so much of the standing orders be suspended as would permit the Honourable Member for Fornication to fill my wet cunt with his hot come,” she said, groaning each time my cock reached the top of her cunt.

As crazy as it seems, Lori’s words were incredibly erotic; she was turning me on even more. I held her hips, and thrust up hard into her; my orgasm was only a few seconds away. As I erupted, spurting into her, she groaned loudly, and ground her hips down into my groin. When I had finished, she rolled off me, and lay next to me on the bed.

“The Honourable Member for Fornication? Moving motions to suspend standing orders? The Usher of the Pink Rod? Where did all that come from?” I asked her.

“In Journalism 1B we’ve been going to State Parliament, in order to understand how the process works, so that we can properly report on political proceedings. I just got into it maybe a little too much...”

“It was fun; it seemed to be getting you really worked up and horny. That always gets me extra horny as well. The only one I didn’t get was ‘The Usher of the Pink Rod’, what’s all that?”

“That’s a play on the name of the person who maintains security and decorum in the upper chamber, the Legislative Council. His official title is ‘The Usher of the Black Rod’; but since your rod is pink...”

We took a nice long shower together; with lots of touching and cuddling, which quickly turned into more sex. We managed to get water all over the bathroom floor; at least there was a drain in the centre of the floor. Finally, we decided to dry each other off, and get to bed and sleep. It had been a long and exhausting day.

Megan’s Train Ride

September 15, 1976

Wednesdays were my favourite day of the week at Uni; despite having a Chemistry lecture just before lunch; I was able to work the frustrations of it out of my system afterwards in the gym, and the afternoon included an Elec Engineering lecture, followed by two hours of Computer Programming lectures. The other things that made the day so good was the knowledge that as soon as I got home, it was into the city to pick Megan up for our weekly rehearsal session, followed by an evening at home with her.

Megan was waiting for me outside the Conservatorium; when she slid into the front seat, she asked if we could go via her place so she could drop off her stuff, and collect an overnight bag. There was no real problem in doing that; her apartment wasn’t all that far out of the way to the studio. It took her less than a minute to collect her bag; I guessed that she had packed it before leaving in the morning.

When we arrived at the studio, George was waiting for us; two other guys were with him.

“Will, Megan, I’d like you to meet two of my colleagues; Glenn and Jim. They were with the Masters Apprentices, if you recall that group.”

“Great to meet you,” I said, shaking their hands. “I think somewhere in my record collection I have a well-played copy of ‘Turn up your Radio’.”

“George has told us about this great duo he’s about to record; he said we really needed to listen to you,” Jim said.

“Weren’t you playing with a blues / rock group earlier this year?” Glenn asked. “I seem to recall seeing you guys at the Lifesaver, supporting AC/DC one night.”

“Yeah, I went through school with some of them, and played with them – Salamon – over the summer, we recorded an album. If we all hadn’t had commitments with university and all that, we would have toured more to promote the album.”

“They were impressed with the Roberttones’ album, too,” George said. “I’ve asked them to sit today in as backing musicians, and they’ll probably have some suggestions for arrangements, and all that. You don’t mind them sitting in?”

I sat at the piano; with Megan on the seat next to me. George was on drums, Glenn on bass, and Jim on guitar. After a brief discussion on what we would start with, tempos, keys and the like, we started on the track list, playing through in the order they would be on the album. Having the others backing us made a huge difference; for once I had no problems at all with my pitch or the timing. When we finished what would be the first side of the album with ‘You’ve Lost that Loving Feelin’, we took a break.

“You were right, George,” Glenn said. “They are something special together. They are even better as a duet that they are in the larger group.”

“Listening and watching the two of you give me goose bumps,” Jim said. “I know it’s a pretty personal question, given we’ve just met, and barely know each other, but are the two of you, um, romantically involved? There has to be something to explain the emotional connection that comes through when you sing.”

I looked at Megan, and we both smiled.

“It’s sort of complicated,” I said.

“We are sort of involved,” Megan said at the same time.

“I guess that’s a ‘yes’,” Glenn said. “It shows in the way you perform together.”

We got back into the second half of the album, and when we had finished, George asked the other two what they thought.

“Don’t get me wrong, guys,” Jim said. “I think the two of you are great musicians, you are fantastic together, there’s magic when you sing. I just don’t think that album has ‘top forty’ written over it. You need to have some more original work; not just covers of old standards.”

“There are too many tracks where you alternate taking the lead vocals,” Glenn said. “Some of the tracks really need that treatment, but with it being done on almost every track, except your two solo ones, it’s overdone, and it starts to lose its impact. We need to rearrange some of them so it’s a true duet; maybe work out a harmony for you, Megan.”

“Somewhere I’ve got a couple of songs, back from the Masters days, that we never performed, let alone recorded,” Jim said. “They just weren’t the right style for how we were going, but they would be perfect for you. Let me see if I can remember one.”

He started to pick out some chords and notes on his guitar, then started singing.

Take this ring, the preacher said,
As a token of your love.
Wear it something something something
With blessings from above.

“I’ll have to dig around in my old papers at home; I’m sure it will come back to me.”

“Wasn’t that something you wrote for your girlfriend at the time,” Glenn said to him. “Man, you were so soppy around her.”

“Hey, don’t knock it,” Jim replied.

“Seriously though, I do remember that piece, I’m sure we can work it up into something that would be good for the two of you,” Glenn said. “If you don’t have any objections, George, I’ll chat with the other guys in LRB, I’m sure Shorrock and Goble have a bunch of songs that don’t fit into the group’s style.”

“Sounds good, Mate,” George said. “Now, I’m planning on recording the album in the week starting the twenty-seventh; that’s a week and a half away, do you think we can get those songs whipped into shape by then?”

“Not a problem, have you got the backup musos lined up yet? Jim and I would be happy to get back in the studio with you, and I can probably talk the other guys into helping with back up music and vocals. We owe you a couple of favours, anyway.”

“Sounds fantastic guys; if you can dig up some music for next Wednesday, we can go through it in detail, work out arrangements,” George said. “What do you to think, Will and Megan, I mean, after all, you’re going to have a shit load of work, learning and getting some new songs up to speed?”

“We can do it, I’m sure,” Megan said. “It’s not the first time we have had to work on new material to a tight deadline; it just means pulling our fingers out, and getting down to it.”

“If by next Wednesday we can get the music and all that, then every night until the twenty-seventh, we can work on it at my place,” I said. “I’m really appreciative of you two guys, giving us stuff you’ve written, helping out on the album, I feel guilty, like we’re getting all this help.”

“Are you worried that you ‘haven’t paid your dues’ or something like that?” George asked.

“I guess so; I mean, you’re talking about getting guys from one of the top groups in Australia as backing musicians, plus giving us some of their own songs to record; and it’s a little intimidating for two young people just starting out.”

“Bullshit” Jim exclaimed. “How long have you been playing in that band of yours? Three years almost, a gig every week, plus you’ve done stuff with other groups, played solo, worked as a backing musician for some groups. Same with you, Megan, you’ve been playing and performing for years; you’re studying at the top music school in the country. Just because you haven’t been ripped off by greedy producers, or played in venues that turned into an all in brawl, that doesn’t mean you haven’t earned where you are.”

“Don’t let anyone try to tell you that you haven’t earned what you’re getting here,” Glenn added. “In this business, talent talks, and bullshit walks; if you don’t have the ability, then you don’t last long. You certainly don’t get asked to work with other groups as session musicians, or get offers to work with them a second time.”

“All three of us know the hard work and perseverance to make it in this industry, there’s a lot of people who try, but don’t have anywhere near the talent you two have,” George said. “It’s not like everyone will be doing it for free, out of the kindness of their hearts; these two scoundrels know they will get their cut of the profits. If the others play as session musicians on the album, they will be paid for it; besides, these two owe me some favours; so they are just paying things back. That’s the way things work in this industry; you help other people, and others give you a hand when you need it. It’s a big brotherhood; you wouldn’t believe just how many other musicians and groups these guys have worked with, or have had others work with them.”

“Well, as long as you all know we are really appreciative of everything you’ve done for us,” Megan said.

“Just sing well, and we will all be happy,” George said. “Now, I think that pretty much wraps things up for tonight; next week we’ll start to thrash out the new songs. See you then, everyone. Will, before you go, did you want to grab the albums for you to sell on Saturday night?”

He gave me four boxes; each had twenty-five albums in them. There were also some forms to make a note of how many copies we sold; they would have to be returned to the office every Monday morning, so they could be compiled into the national record sales system. Megan was full of excitement on the drive home; I had to admit I was pretty stoked with how things were progressing, too. We would be working with some of the legends of Australian rock music; guys who had won awards for best Australian album, group, songwriter and musicians. Despite what they said about Megan and me, I still felt that somehow we didn’t deserve the things that were coming our way.