31/10/2026
Always fun to catch up with Mark Seymour someone I have known for 30 years who just gets better and better
TARAGO DIARIES #72
‘IRONY’
(Pic by Nathan Kelly)
Strictly speaking, ‘irony’ is the difference between expectation and reality. I find irony funny. Many don’t. They just get confused, or even angry. But hey, each to their own.
It’s a good policy in life I think, to accept the fact that there are some things you can’t control. Let me ponder some examples. The weather, the outcome of the Grand Final, traffic lights, earth quakes, Donald Trump,
And.. Mark Seymour playing new songs.
There was never any doubt in my mind than when I left Hunters and Collectors I would write new songs. Otherwise why leave? Just keep playing the old stuff into retirement but hell, maybe I should’ve warned people. There’ve been ructions. Not often but still..
All those golden years back in the hallowed ‘hunnas’ tent, before the big leap into the void of unknowing, I wasn’t just singing meaningless lyrics. There were actual words coming out of my mouth, which I wrote. Words that described things. Feelings, stories. And some of those stories were taken to heart. So, when the crunch finally came, driven by forces ‘beyond my control’.. I thought to myself.. ‘What have I got now?’
No band but hey, there was still the guitar, notebook, pen, a korg dictaphone and the couch. I had a few runs on the board by then so I decided to back myself. I think most of my audience probably gets that by now but hey, maybe not all.
When I first ‘went solo’ back in 1996, yes, it’s been that long, I’d pull up at suburban pubs armed with one acoustic guitar and the banner outside reading..
‘Mark Seymour from Hunters and Collectors, Solo acoustic’
Now which part of ‘solo acoustic’ punters didn’t get was never clear but irony quickly followed. At first the rooms were packed because of the other bit that read.. ‘Hunters and Collectors’ .
A lot of punters thought that’s what they’d be getting until maybe the third song when the penny finally dropped. S**t! There was no one else coming on stage to share the load. No thundering bass, no tower of brass and dare I say, I was even singing songs they didn’t know.
Oh the outrage. That’s when the throat cutting gestures started.
And guess what? I paid for it. The outraged stopped coming, well at least the first few hundred or so but then gradually, over the years, through sheer bloody mindedness most likely, I kept at it until other punters turned up, hung around or arrived young enough never to have seen Hunters and Collectors making a big noise.
There I was in a crushed shirt, playing rock music and all these new songs. ‘Hmm, maybe I was on about something’. Like you know? Feelings? Life? People? So what was it with this guy? Was he mad? And who was he anyway?
Of course there is still an expectation, thirty years and eight albums later, and here comes more irony, that punters will get to hear certain songs that remind them of the past and that’s ok too. I really like some of the older songs. I play them with great pleasure. Routinely about six. ‘Arms’, ‘Grail,’ ‘Say Goodbye’ ‘River’ ‘Do you see what I see?’ ‘Hangin’ ‘round’, sometimes seven... if you throw in ‘Dog’ or maybe ‘Tears of Joy.’
Problem is though, they don’t sound anything like Hunters and Collectors. And there’s a good reason for that. Different musicians, different strokes. Incredible really, when you think about it. At risk of labouring the point, it’s a completely different band!
Thing is, I really enjoy my work. As I said to my kids years ago, do a job you like and walk away from what you don’t while you still can, which I did, in ’98. But one thing’s clear..
No throat cutting gesture is going to stop me from writing new songs and putting them in the set. Even in FNQ
x
