– • david ross macdonald • extras and journal

So I am playing to the barflies at this open mic in Melbourne, it is late and I am gazing beyond the casually disinterested drinkers to the TV set above the cigarette machine. The tube never sleeps in bars, they hard wire the power into the wall, there are no controls on the face panel for the punters to screw with … there is a remote, but that lives in the managers safe along with the hash and girly magazines. I see that the medico-drama HOUSE is playing and I am cruelly reminded that tonight was supposed to be the most important night of my musical career. What happened?

Well, weeks prior to this bitter and empty open mic night I received, completely and utterly out of the blue, an email and contract from the good folks at NBC/Universal in LA who make the afore mentioned series HOUSE. I couldn’t believe it. They had somehow discovered my version of Waltzing Matilda on Youtube or iTunes and wanted to place it in the show. Fantastic! Couldn’t be better, but it was. They didn’t just want to place a 5 second instrumental sound-bite during a fade-out, they wanted to place the music and song beneath the finale episode closing montage that ran for two and half bloody minutes, incredible!

Once I had established that this wasn’t some elaborate hoax perpetrated by my high-school-hater, one thing led to another. Late night international phone calls, transfers of hi resolution audio files to the video editing suites in LA, back and forth of contracts, copyright and licensing issues resolved, and everyone was very happy and this was my magical mystery ticket and ride to musical infinity and beyond. Show airs Wednesday May 20, 9:30pm.

It seemed too good to be true… and it was. What happened?

Well, I don’t know. Somewhere, high up in the chain of Universal command the NBC powers that be decided a splash of the Rolling Stones’ ‘As Tears Go By’ was the perfect fit for the poignant conclusion to the series. Right. So, just like that my golden Willy Wonker chocolate bar ticket to Universal stardom is snatched from my fumbling fingers by the most fickle and fateful of warm LA breezes and I can only watch in bewildered astonishment as it wafts and shimmers it’s glinting, taunting and mocking way down through the alleyways of Hollywood boulevard and across the smoggy LA valley through the outdoor workout gym on Venice Beach and into the high bacteria count of the Malibu surf. It smelt of Cohen brothers cruelty, it tasted like crow pie but I was having seconds and thirds.

There’s a proverb out there that says something about eggs hatching but it escapes me as I am playing to the barflies at this open mic in Melbourne, it is late and I am gazing beyond the … 

Bela Flak! With Simmo on Banjo

Just click on the gift box above to open/download the MP3