Grant McLennan dies.

[Leaping Lindner]

Go Betweens founder dead

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/com...5E1702,00.html

07may06

SINGER-songwriter and frontman of The Go-Betweens Grant McLennan has died at his Brisbane home, aged 48.

McLennan died in his sleep yesterday, The Go-Betweens website has reported.

The Go-Betweens became heroes of the Queensland music scene with songs such as Bachelor Kisses and Through the Streets of Your Town.

McLennan and Robert Forster formed the band while attending university in Brisbane during the Bjelke-Petersen days of the 1970s, when McLennan was arrested for participating in protests.

The Australian Performing Rights Association (APRA) recently voted his autobiographical song Cattle and Cane as one of the 10 greatest Australian songs of all time.

McLennan also won an ARIA award for Best Contemporary Album last year for the band's most recent offering, Oceans Apart.

"McLennan was a passionate supporter of the arts, extremely well-read and maintained a keen interest in all contemporary music, cinema and visual art," the website said.

"He was an exceptionally charming and polite man who endeared himself to everyone who met him and was one of the rare individuals worthy of the epithet larger than life.

"His singular contribution to music and his commitment to his craft simply cannot be understated. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him."

McLennan was raised by his mother on a cattle-station in Rockhampton in central Queensland.

Yet another of music greats dies well before his time. Very sad news Saw them live a couple of times in the late 80's and they were great. Also have most of their CDs.
RIP Mr McLennnan

[ca]

I just read this, terrible news. Any Australian music lover would have appreciated the Go-Betweens, just a great band with a very loyal following. Funny I was close to throwing out my Go-Betweens t-shirt a few weeks ago as its getting a bit old but decided to put it back in the draw as a keep sake. Unfortunatly due to my age I only got to see them when they had reformed but will be sadly missed.

[ca]

(cut and pasted from another forum)

6th May 2006

Grant McLennan

On Saturday 6th May, legendary Australian singer songwriter Grant W McLennan died in his sleep at his home in Brisbane.

McLennan was one of Australia’s greatest songwriters who created an outstanding musical legacy as a founder member of The Go-Betweens and as a solo artist. He was enjoying enormous acclaim for the band’s most recent album Oceans Apart, which has received five star reviews around the world and won had a prestigious ARIA award.

McLennan was born in Rockhampton, Queensland on 12th February 1958. While attending university in Brisbane he met fellow student Robert Forster and together they formed The Go-Betweens. After releasing a string of singles the band recorded their debut album, Send Me A Lullaby, in 1981. The Go-Betweens recorded a series of exceptional albums that achieved widespread critical acclaim and were fundamental in bringing Australian music to a global audience. He was an unparalleled lyricist and a prolific and meticulous composer. His auto-biographical masterpiece ‘Cattle and Cane’ was recently voted by the Australian Performing Rights Association as one of the ten greatest Australian songs of all time.

In 1989 The Go-Betweens took a ten year sabbatical and McLennan recorded four powerful solo albums including the vivacious debut Watershed and the epic Horsebreaker Star as well as forming satellite groups like Jack Frost with Steve Kilbey of The Church and The Far Out Corporation with Iain Haug of Powderfinger.

When Robert Forster and Grant McLennan reformed The Go-Betweens in 2000, the band was greeted with adulation by a new generation of musicians like Belle and Sebastian for whom, their songs had been an inspirational teenage soundtrack. The three albums the band subsequently released were universally acknowledged as containing some of McLennan’s greatest compositions.

McLennan was a passionate supporter of the arts, extremely well-read and maintained a keen interest in all contemporary music, cinema and visual art. He was an exceptionally charming and polite man who endeared himself to everyone who met him and was one of the rare individuals worthy of the epithet ‘larger than life’.

His singular contribution to music and his commitment to his craft simply cannot be understated. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him. He is survived by his mother, sister, girlfriend Emma and lifetime musical colleague Robert Forster.

[zipzap]

Wow, I just found out here. I am totally in shock - just posted on the GoBs forum. Words fail....

My best memory of GW was at the Flinders Uni bar one lunch time in the early 90s - this little shy fella strode in unannounced, took out his acoustic guitar and started belting out 'Was there anything I could do' to about 10 people. I felt like the only one there or at least the only one who appreciated what was going on. Stunning...

The Go-Bs meant a hell of a lot to me, I have everything plus the solo & Jack Frost stuff. I flew to the Sydney BDO a few years ago just to see them play. Still have the setlist on the fridge! Just came back from a holiday in Brissie which turned into a GoBs pilgrimage of sorts. We stayed in Spring Hill for starters. I read about GW attending Beth Orton's gig the night before we arrived in the Courier Mail. I laughed at the way 'Streets of Your Town' is the theme for Courier Mail ads on TV. I bought the new DVD at Rocking Horse. We then listened to the live CD while driving our little hire car around Qld. We were driving around Bribie Island listening to it when Robert Forster namechecks Bribie during 'Surfing Magazines'. A funny little moment.

RIP GW. A hugely sad day that probably won't get the mainstream dues it should. The GoBs were never the most fashionable band around but they were a bit like the Velvets in that it was said that anyone who got into them formed a band. Life changing. Heart breaking.

[ca]

Just another release about Grant, with some good information about some of the musicians who appreciated their music.



The last six months of Grant McLennan's life were his happiest. He was in a good relationship, and reaction to the Go-Betweens' 'Oceans Apart' had "given him a spring," according to writing partner Robert Forster. The Go Betweens are now no more, Forster confirms.

Just what were his major contributions? Having grown up on a farm in Rockhampton, in Far North Queensland, his writing had a strong appreciation for landscapes and colour. But as a young radical uni student in the 1970s who was arrested at an anti-John Bjeke Petersen rallies, he intertwined that with poetry, art, literature (contemporary US writers Cormac McCarthy, Richard Ford and Raymond Carver), movies (he once programmed the movies at the Schonell Theatre in Brisbane), politics and current affairs. His melodies were exquisite because he was as much a Monkees fan as he was of Dylan and Springsteen. Out of this came gems like Cattle & Cane and Bachelor Kisses.

The Go Betweens found international success without waiting for Australia to give them the thumbs-up. Fans included Michael Stipe (who took the Gobbies on a world tour), Bono and The Edge, Nick Cave and Lloyd Cole while Belle & Sebastian and Franz Ferdinand said they grew up listening to the band's music. The American TV show "24" refers slyly to a sinister organisation called McLennan-Forster, an in-joke from its producer Evan Katz who is also a big fan. Grant McLennan died in his sleep, aged 48, before a housewarming at his house in Highgate Hill on the weekend. He is survived by his mother Wendy, his sister Sally, brother Lachlan, girlfriend Emma and a son, Nathan.

[Mr66]

And Kylie Minogue lives.
There is no god.

[zipzap]

The last six months of Grant McLennan's life were his happiest. He was in a good relationship, and reaction to the Go-Betweens' 'Oceans Apart' had "given him a spring," according to writing partner Robert Forster. The Go Betweens are now no more, Forster confirms.

I think Oceans Apart contains some of GW's finest songwriting of all time. Robert has become a bit too much of a caricature of himself really, but Grant's music is timeless

[Gilly]

GRANT MCLENNAN TRIBUTE

SAT 13.05.06, 5pm
This Saturday at 5, we pay tribute to one of Australia's most cherished songwriters. Grant McLennan from the Go-Betweens. From their beginnings in Brisbane in the late '70s, the Go-Betweens quickly became one of Australia's most unique pop bands. Though mainstream success evaded them, Grant was responsible for some of this country's most loved songs, including the classics 'Cattle & Cane' and 'Streets Of You Town'.

In 2005, the reformed Go-Betweens released one their most celebrated albums,
'Oceans Apart', and the band had been touring the Australia & the world.

LISTEN LIVE @ http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/listen/default.htm

[zipzap]

There's a Rage special coming up too I notice

[Mr66]

Beaut avatar ZIPZAP!
I just twigged.

[zipzap]

Beaut avatar ZIPZAP!
I just twigged.

Heh heh!

A GW McLennan tribute is about to be aired on Sunday ch9. (it's currently 10am Sunday)