RIP Grant McLennan (Go-Betweens)



  • 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 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 Ian 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 overstated. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him. He is survived by his mother, his sister, his brother, his son, girlfriend Emma, his bandmates Adele Pickvance and Glenn Thompson and lifetime musical colleague and friend Robert Forster.

    Bernard MacMahon, Lo-Max Records, 6th May 2006

    Because the door is open wide
    The door is always open wide
    The door is always open wide



  • 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 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 Ian 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 overstated. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him. He is survived by his mother, his sister, his brother, his son, girlfriend Emma, his bandmates Adele Pickvance and Glenn Thompson and lifetime musical colleague and friend Robert Forster.

    Bernard MacMahon, Lo-Max Records, 6th May 2006

    Because the door is open wide
    The door is always open wide
    The door is always open wide



  • "Grant's funeral service will take place at 1.30pm on Friday 12th May at St John's Cathedral, Ann Street, Brisbane."

    Si tuviera dinero cogía ahora mismo un vuelo hacia Brisbane, y me disolveria en alcohol en un descapotable rojo delante de la iglesia.

    Y me rio de todos los grupos habidos y por haber, los Go-Betweens son los más grandes.





  • Perdona tio, soy nuevo aqui, ya me extrañaba a mi que no se hubiera comentado nada. Grandes entre los grandes, si señor.



  • Tranquilo, no hay nada que perdonar.

    16 Lovers Lane (1988)

    http://download.yousendit.com/85A3BCED41AE5352

    Sobran las palabras. Lo hermoso debe ser conocido.





  • @sideral:328ubuc3:

    Perdona tio, soy nuevo aqui, ya me extrañaba a mi que no se hubiera comentado nada. Grandes entre los grandes, si señor.

    …con todo el cariño...

    …aunque està claro que Grant McLennan se merece un hilo y màs para él sólo...

    <pre>Because the door is open wide
    The door is always open wide
    The door is always open wide </pre>



  • Ayer cumplí 25 años de mierda y pasé parte de la tarde solo en casa, bebiendo Beefeater con fanta de limón y hielo, oyendo 16 lovers lane tres veces seguidas y pegando cromos de futbolistas en un álbum Panini semillorando.



  • @Marniello:vcpsymrp:

    Ayer cumplí 25 años de mierda y pasé parte de la tarde solo en casa, bebiendo Beefeater con fanta de limón y hielo, oyendo 16 lovers lane tres veces seguidas y pegando cromos de futbolistas en un álbum Panini semillorando.

    …muchas felicidades
    ..anteayer fué el mio y también me puse a escuchar a Go-Betweens …cumplí bastantes màs que 25 aunque tampoco soy tan mayor juasjuasjuas...



  • FELICIDADES A LOS DOS…

    MARNI 25 AÑOS???????? LO SIENTO HAS ABIERTO LA VEDA PARA QUE DEJE DE RESPETARTE JAJAJAJA

    Y CUANTOS CUMPLE LA DAMA DEL FORO???????



  • @DIANA:2sq7s4p0:

    FELICIDADES A LOS DOS…

    Y CUANTOS CUMPLE LA DAMA DEL FORO???????

    …suficientes cómo para darme verguenza comfesar-lo …y gràcias

    ..però porfavor,no convirtàmos el tópic de Mclennan en "una fiesta"





  • Gracias, Murnau, There is a light that never goes out.