Its really interesting, when you have a million stories to tell, figuring out where to start.
I was going through some songs tonight and working on the web site and I told my daughter Amelise the story behind the song Come Back Soon. She said to me, start with that one Dad. Hmmm. Thanks for the advice Ammi!
So, OK! It was September 1999. And tensions were really high in East Timor due to the Indonesian led violence that was occurring after their vote for independence. The decision was made to send in our troops as peace keepers. Send them into the unknown. No one really knew what to expect.
Now, in hindsight there are a hell of a lot of questions our politicians need to answer. In hindsight the whole exercise has a smell of oil and gas around it.
But while this maybe a smell hanging over our soulless politicians, it must be clearly stated that most of the Australian public, and more importantly in this case, all our military personnel, smelt of genuine sincerity. We and they - were genuinely concerned for the East Timor people. They had supported us in World War II and democratically decided on a new vision for their future. Yet militia backed by the Indonesia military were murdering East Timor people.
And this was not new. We had even had some of our journalists murdered by Indonesian military in ET in Balibo as far back as 1975. We had turned a blind eye even as far back as then.
In 1999, the mood of the nation was - “no more”.
So that was the national mood as I turned up to my regular gig at The Wharf Hotel in Mooloolaba one Saturday night in September 1999.
Before we started the gig, I got talking to one of the security guards at the venue. He did this security job on the side. He was actually in the Air Force and was on stand-by for going to East Timor. And it was a really intense conversation. On the surface he was very stoic. Underneath I could tell he felt really unsure and was concerned about whether he would be coming back to his family!
Wow! I had never experienced the level of intensity I saw in his face and read in his voice. My life had been pretty sheltered. Definitely never had to deal with that level of uncertainty.
Now don’t get me wrong. I had experienced some pretty intense moments in my youth. I may not have grown up on the gun riddled streets of Compton and the Bronx, but there were challenges on the streets of Wilston and the Grange in Brisbane. We had to survive Church youth group socials!! Yes Stevie, I remember you spinning out in your really cool Honda in the rain on Maygar Street, ending up on the crest of a hill facing on coming traffic. And yes Ken, I remember you pushing your car to 100 miles an hour on the way to Boys Brigade Camp, just as your hood (bonnet) flew up. (Sorry Mum and Dad, you probably don’t know those stories). But hey I jest. I thankfully have not known what its like to face gun fire.
I played music and generally that was pretty safe, with most people clapping us and wanting to be friends. Although - I can remember one intense evening. We had finished playing at Mooloolaba and were working our way through the crowd to the back room, when I heard a commotion. I turned to see my long time mate and percussionist, Mark Chomyn, pinned against the wall by an Amazonian! She was berating to all around, the things that she wanted to do to Mark that evening. He actually looked very scared. And with good cause. I am sure that some of the things she was saying could not be survived by a mere mortal! We actually protected Mark out of the venue that night :):).
But back to the story!
On the night of talking to the security guy, after our first set, I went backstage and wrote Come Back Soon. Actually it wrote itself.
I came out after the break and played the song. The crowd loved it. It touched a nerve.
Later that week I jumped into Red Zeds studio and recorded a solo version of the song and put it on my web site, simply in honour of the troops heading to ET.
I was lucky that legendary Qld radio personality Dave Daly was on my mailing list! At this time he was doing the morning show on HOT FM in Townsville, where most of the first wave of troops came from. He played it on his show and they were inundated with calls. There were wives calling in tears having pulled off the road because of the emotion.
I actually didn’t know about this until Terry Johnson, called me to let me know. TJ was the head of Queensland’s number one brewer XXXX in north Queensland. XXXX is an iconic part of Queensland culture. It did not surprise me when TJ said they would put forward some funds to record the song and let’s see how it could be used in a positive manner.
The Queensland Premier at the time, Peter Beattie also endorsed the song.
And used positively it certainly was.
Firstly, it was adopted by numerous family support groups (of the troops) and numerous supportive events were arranged.
The Defence Department set up a project called Images of INTERFET which documented the whole ET experience. Come Back Soon and a film clip shot by WIN TV was an integral part of that project. It raised funds for two orphanages in East Timor.
About a year later, troops from the 6th Battalion in my home city of Brisbane were heading to ET, Many of the population did not know that families were still being separated from their serving loved ones. Public support was not diminishing in genuineness, its just that the media were not covering the situation that closely anymore. I felt this was wrong.
So I presented to the radio network AUSTERIO (MMM) a proposal to run a campaign called Adopt a Digger. We got Australian Defence Force approval, as well as the support of General Peter Cosgrove.
The concept was that MMM would play the song and we would encourage schools to fund raise ($50 each) to adopt a digger. They were given the soldier’s first name and photo. The kids then did projects that they sent to their soldier. All funds raised were paid directly to the Red Cross. It helped a new generation understand the work or diggers were doing and let the soldiers know that people were caring.
I had the honour of singing the song at many events, some attended by General Cosgrove and the then Prime Minister John Howard.
I got to meet many of the families of the troops and was even sent poems written by soldiers which I turned into songs. https://nikphillips.bandcamp.com/track/chocolate-mr
In Come Back Soon, I was blessed to be given a song that wrote itself and blessed to meet so may wonderful people through the whole process.
Well, that’s the Come Back Soon tale.
n
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