Due to some confusion in communications, I think it’s necessary to state somewhere that I’ve resigned from writing music criticism for The Age. A message went out to all on my email address book, but clearly that move didn’t spread the information far enough.
My first review appeared on March 20, 1978, the last on October 22 this year; quite long enough, I think. All those luminaries on the paper who brightened my reviewing life – Kenneth Hince, Neil Jillett, Leonard Radic, Michael Shmith, Ray Gill, Gina McColl, Robin Usher – have passed on in one way or another and I can tell you emphatically that there’s no joy or triumph in being the last man of my generation still standing.
I intend to keep this blog running, not least because it allows more spatial freedom than the inexorable 250-word limit imposed by the paper, but also because – as intended from the start three years ago – it’s a means of celebrating and encouraging musicians and composers who get precious little attention elsewhere.
O'Connell the Music 