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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Grant and I is the story of the friendship and collaboration of Grant McLennan and Robert Forster, who gave Australia The Go-Betweens, one of our best and most influential bands. The 1980s songwriting partnership of McLennan/Forster was a little like an Australian Lennon/McCartney. The pair wrote all the band's distinctively original material and, like their more famous counterparts, shared the credits and alternated on lead vocals; both also played guitar. They formed The Go-Betweens in Brisbane in 1977, in possibly the quirkiest of all rock-band beginnings, before disbanding in 1989. A second incarnation, with Robert and Grant the constant in both lineups, endured from 2000 to 2006, the year of Grant's premature death. a Grant and I is an extraordinary portrait of an intense, creative, sometimes fraught friendship that represented a genuine meeting of artistic minds. Robert and Grant were arts undergraduates at Queensland uni in the seventies, where they bonded through a shared passion for literature and film. ' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Dedication: To Loretta and Louis
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Epigraph: 'In him morality is discovered far from its official haunts.' – From Allan Bennett's Eulogy to Peter Cook
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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The Band We Might Still Be Waiting For
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 20-21 August 2016; (p. 17)
— Review of Grant and I : Inside and Outside The Go-Betweens 2016 single work autobiography -
Inside the Go-Betweens
2016
single work
essay
— Appears in: Underline , December no. 1 2016; (p. 20-21) 'Five surprising facts about The Go-Betweens, from Robert Forster's unforgettable memoir Grant & I.' -
Striped Sunlight
2016
single work
review
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 386 2016; (p. 36) 'Long before earning a place as one of Australia’s best-loved bands, The Go-Betweens sprang from the close creative pairing of Grant McLennan and Robert Forster, who met as students at the University of Queensland. As Forster makes clear in this tender memoir, he wanted McLennan in the band not because of his musical ability – he had never played an instrument – but because of their intense friendship and shared appreciation of literature and film. ‘We’d come to The Go-Betweens as romantics, me teaching my best friend bass,’ writes Forster. When they began playing together at the end of 1977, McLennan was much more interested in cinema than in music (‘He burnt for the screen’). But McLennan quickly mastered the bass before graduating to guitar and authoring many of the band’s most enduring songs (including ‘Cattle and Cane’ and ‘Streets of Your Town’). The Go-Betweens went on to release nine studio albums. Forster and McLennan were working on a tenth when McLennan died after a sudden heart attack in 2006.' (Introduction) -
Review : Grant & I
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 1 October 2016; (p. 36)
— Review of Grant and I : Inside and Outside The Go-Betweens 2016 single work autobiography -
One Tank Of Gas
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , November 2016;
— Review of Grant and I : Inside and Outside The Go-Betweens 2016 single work autobiography
-
The Band We Might Still Be Waiting For
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 20-21 August 2016; (p. 17)
— Review of Grant and I : Inside and Outside The Go-Betweens 2016 single work autobiography -
Robert Forster, Grant & I
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 10 September 2016;
— Review of Grant and I : Inside and Outside The Go-Betweens 2016 single work autobiography -
Pop Goes the Bromance
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 1-2 October 2016; (p. 20)
— Review of Grant and I : Inside and Outside The Go-Betweens 2016 single work autobiography -
Grant & I Review : Robert Forster's Record of Life with the Go-Betweens
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Brisbane Times , 6 October 2016;
— Review of Grant and I : Inside and Outside The Go-Betweens 2016 single work autobiography 'There's a song on Robert Forster's latest record called I Love Myself and I Always Have. "I hold myself in high regard," he sings in his tender deadpan way. "And loving yourself shouldn't be that hard." He's knows it's funny, but he's not joking. ...' -
Lunch with Robert Forster : 'I Wouldn't Write about Anyone's Drug Use but My Own'
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Brisbane Times , 10 November 2016;
— Review of Grant and I : Inside and Outside The Go-Betweens 2016 single work autobiography 'There may come a time when the ghost of Grant McLennan does not sit at his side, but for now Robert Forster is keeping him right here. "This is a line in the sand, but I'm not looking for a cut-off," he says of Grant & I, his touching memoir of a 30-year friendship and artistic collaboration. "I can have Grant in my life right until the end. I don't want to deny that." ...' -
Striped Sunlight
2016
single work
review
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , November no. 386 2016; (p. 36) 'Long before earning a place as one of Australia’s best-loved bands, The Go-Betweens sprang from the close creative pairing of Grant McLennan and Robert Forster, who met as students at the University of Queensland. As Forster makes clear in this tender memoir, he wanted McLennan in the band not because of his musical ability – he had never played an instrument – but because of their intense friendship and shared appreciation of literature and film. ‘We’d come to The Go-Betweens as romantics, me teaching my best friend bass,’ writes Forster. When they began playing together at the end of 1977, McLennan was much more interested in cinema than in music (‘He burnt for the screen’). But McLennan quickly mastered the bass before graduating to guitar and authoring many of the band’s most enduring songs (including ‘Cattle and Cane’ and ‘Streets of Your Town’). The Go-Betweens went on to release nine studio albums. Forster and McLennan were working on a tenth when McLennan died after a sudden heart attack in 2006.' (Introduction) -
Inside the Go-Betweens
2016
single work
essay
— Appears in: Underline , December no. 1 2016; (p. 20-21) 'Five surprising facts about The Go-Betweens, from Robert Forster's unforgettable memoir Grant & I.'
Last amended 29 Nov 2022 14:40:16
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