One of Australia’s most treasured acts, the Go-Betweens have been experiencing a revival lately, thanks in part to a new best-of compilation, Quiet Heart: The Best of The Go-Betweens, compiled by the surviving members of the classic line-up (Robert Forster, drummer Lindy Morrison, violinist/vocalist Amanda Brown (violin, vocals) and bassist Robert Vickers) released late last year.
Now the band have earned even more recognition, with drummer Lindy Morrison, who was part of the key lineup from 1980-1989, has been awarded the coveted Order of Australia.
As Noise 11 reports, Morrison was handed the award on Australia Day this past Saturday for “service to the Australian music industry as a performer and advocate.” The Clovelly, NSW resident is currently a member of various music community groups, including the Support Act Ltd where she is director of the Junction House Band, a group of intellectually disabled musicians.“A huge congratulations from all at PPCA to our long-time Board Member and tireless Artist Representative Lindy Morrison.” – PPCA
Morrison is also a board member of the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA), who recently announced a record payment year of royalties to artists. The PPCA distributed $29 million to registered Australian artists and record labels for the financial year of 2011/12, which marks a 13% increase on the $25.6M that was distributed in December 2011.
PPCA’s Facebook also applauds Morrison on her award, writing: “A huge congratulations from all at PPCA to our long-time Board Member and tireless Artist Representative Lindy Morrison (OAM) who was today awarded an Order of Australia medal.”
Morrison’s tenure as the drummer and occasional singer for the Go-Betweens first began in 1980, where she was living in Brisbane and first met the famous pair of Robert Foster and Grant McLennan when she was part of punk band Xero.
“I really wanted to play with them. Who wouldn’t? I could really see that those songs were just going to be gorgeous,” Morrison recalled in her interview with Tone Deaf upon the release of Quiet Heart in September 2012.
“They were really ambitious. Not to be mainstream pop-idols, but to produce authentic music, authentic art. And that’s what I was into, that’s what I wanted to do. We were very similar culturally,” says Morrison.
Though Morrison, alarmingly, was not asked back when Forster & McLennan reformed the band in 2000, Morrison says that any bad blood between former bandmates is now water under the bridge. Quite literally in fact, when in 2010, the surviving members of the classic era met together for the opening of Brisbane’s Go-Between bridge, named in tribute to the musicians.
“I never drive over the bridge” says Morrison, “but I always look at it and often walk down to it, because it’s the most elegant and beautiful bridge, and there’s actually a picture of it on the back cover of the new album,” says the Go-Betweens’ award-winning drummer. “The opening the bridge was fabulous, it was great when we all got together again.”
Morrison is pictured at centre below with Cathy Green of Aussie punk legends X (left), and Clare Moore of the Moodists, Dave Graney’s various musical collictives, and many more bands. Taken at the Rock Chicks Exhibition at the Arts Centre in Melbourne last November.
