Shirley Strachan with Skyhooks in a 1977 concert in Melbourne.
People have long wondered what stories might come to light if the walls of Michael Gudinski's office had ears, and if those ears would give up their secrets. Soon, thanks to an exhibition slated to open at the RMIT Gallery, we may finally get close to knowing.
The exhibition, Music, Melbourne + Me: 40 years of Mushroom and Melbourne's Music Culture, will include a reconstruction of the Mushroom Group founder's office as one of its key exhibits, complete with selected items of documentation, including, perhaps, the ledger entry showing a payment due to AC/DC being reduced from $250 to $150 for reasons unknown, or at least obscured by the mists of time and/or substance-induced memory loss.
''If we can get [the display] to evoke the times I've had in that office it will really show a hell of a lot more than just business,'' Gudinski said at the launch of the exhibition on Tuesday.
RMIT chief curator Suzanne Davies, Gudinski and Dr Kipps Horn. Photo: Penny Stephens
It would, he said, also reveal ''a lot of heart and soul, and the greatness of the people who've worked with me''. What else it might show is best left to the imagination, perhaps, or some yet-to-be-published rock'n'roll memoir.
There is more to Melbourne's music scene than Mushroom, of course, as curator Dr Kipps Horn pointed out. But there's no denying the role played by Gudinski's empire (which was in fact founded in 1972, making this technically Getting on for 42 years of Mushroom).
The exhibition will include a booth in which to record your own memories and a jukebox stocked with the 40 songs chosen by Melburnians as most loved. ''We want to invite the audience to contribute to the sense of Melbourne being an incredibly vibrant centre of music-making in Australia and the world, and Mushroom of course is a very, very significant part of that,'' Horn said.
Jimmy Barnes and Michael Gudinski in the 1990s. Photo: Unknown via Aperture
There will be posters, props and costumes, and even occasional live performances. But, insisted Gudinski, it would not be simply a collection of artefacts. ''I'd been approached before but I needed it to be something much more than a memorabilia exhibition,'' he said.
He said the exhibition came as a great honour, but submitting to academic rigour doesn't come easy for an old rock dog, it seems.
''We're on a wild ride with Mushroom,'' said gallery director and co-curator Suzanne Davies. ''Different cultures, similar energy, singular focus. It's going to be great.''
Paul Kelly and Michael Gudinski.
Music, Melbourne + Me: 40 Years of Mushroom and Melbourne's Music Culture will be at RMIT Gallery, 344 Swanston Street, Melbourne, from November 19, 2013, to March 3, 2014.
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