Friday On My Mind,
Sunday, ABCTV, 8.40pm
In a world where there was no Australian sound, just bands re-hashing music from the UK and the USA, came a group of immigrants who met in Villawood migrant camp in Sydney in the early ’60s and changed Australian rock music.
Friday On My Mind is the story of a couple of Dutch teens, a young Scottish guy and a couple of English lads who formed a band called the Star Fighters and influenced Australian music for decades. Though by the time they made the big time they were called the Easybeats.
The two-part mini series, written by Christopher Lee (Howzat, Paper Giants, Gallipoli) and directed by Matt Saville (Seven Types of Ambiguity, Please Like Me, The Slap), has been timed to screen in Australian music on the ABC but has become even more timely and poignant with the death of both Easybeats founder George Young and his younger brother and AC/DC guitarist Malcolm in recent weeks.
Starring AACTA award winner Ashley Zukerman (The Code, Manhattan) as Australian music industry pioneer and record producer, Ted Albert it also stars newcomers, Christian Byers (December Boys) as Stevie Wright, William Rush (Waterloo Road) as George Young, Mackenzie Fearnley (Dance Academy: The Movie) as Harry Vanda, Du Toit Bredenkamp (Molly) as Dick Diamonde and Arthur McBain (Blue Eyes) as Snowy Fleet.
While some of the accents slip from time to time, this is a well-acted piece of nostalgia that pulls you back to the early ’60s, a time when musos had to be just as good with their fists as their guitars and Australia was coming to terms with a huge influx of migrants.
It is very much centred on the band, how it was formed and how they became successful, with very little time dedicated to the personal lives or to fleshing out any of the characters outside the band.
It’s all about the music, its creation and recording but given the Easybeats’ back catalogue that’s not really a bad thing.
– Tania Phillips
