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FEATURE MUSIC

home, to see whether he’d be up for recording an album. After they left, the story goes that Archie voiced his reservations to Ruby, who put her hands on her hips and eyeballed him before teasing, “It’s not all about you, Archie Roach!” During an interview with NITV’s Living Black host Karla Grant, Archie recounts

for the very first time, Archie asked what the racket was and asked whether it could be switched off, ‘cause he found it too distracting.

Barnett and Paul Kelly, Dan Sultan and Emma Donovan, and Marlon Williams and Leah Flanagan, among others – along with four live tracks from Archie and Ruby’s 1990 Live at the Wireless performance. “I feel proud to be a part of what Briggs hopes to achieve,” Archie has said of this update, “and I really love that he used young children to play the heroes [in the film clip], because they are our future heroes.” Briggsy’s update also features Gurrumul and Dewayne Everettsmith. Took the Children Away is now available as a picture book Took the Children Away ’s deeply personal lyrics now form the basis of a picture book of the same name, which also features Archie’s recollections of his family, rare historical photographs, and wonderful illustrations by his soulmate Ruby. Of this picture book, Archie said during an interview, “We can’t just pick and choose what we like from the history of this country. We have to tell the whole history, and the truth. It’s the only way we can move forward. In this way, it’s a little gentler for younger people to process.”

A Finn and two Bulls were brought in to supply BVs Tim Finn, who was Melbourne-based at the time, was brought in to sing the

The 25th anniversary edition of Charcoal Lane

her sassy retort: “As long as I live I’ll never forget it. And I know what she meant. When we shine, when we do something excellent and good... and people see that. It’s not just about us, it’s about our people – our people shine as well.” Down City Streets was penned by Ruby After Archie returned from work one day prior to recording Charcoal Lane , he found Ruby in the bedroom. She spotted him coming and immediately tried to hide a screwed-up piece of paper – which contained some lyrics she was working on – under a pillow. But Archie had busted her in action, so she reluctantly handed the slip over, and then sang Down City Streets for him. Archie had nine songs ready to go when the time came to record his debut album, but Paul reckoned he would need at least ten. So Ruby nudged Archie: “What about my song?” And thus she scores a songwriting credit on Charcoal Lane , for this glorious autobiographical track recalling her struggles with homelessness and addiction.

high harmonies on Took the Children Away . The sublime Vika & Linda were also recruited to supply backing vocals on Sister Brother, Beautiful Child and No No No , which was also the first time Paul had ever worked with the Bull sisters. Archie finds performing Took the Children Away “healing” When people ask whether he ever gets sick of singing Charcoal Lane ’s centrepiece, Archie’s answer is always the same: “Never, it’s a healing for me,” he says. “Each time I sing it, you let some of it go.” Took the Children Away – which won an international Human Rights Achievement Award, a first for any songwriter – highlights the impact of the forcible removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from their families, and brought global attention to this awful part of Australia’s history. Briggs gave Archie’s signature song an ‘update’ Originally performed for triple j’s Like a Version segment, Briggs released a sequel to Took the Children Away in 2015, titled The Children Came Back . It’s included on the 25th anniversary edition of Charcoal Lane , which also features cover-duets by Courtney

Click track, begone! Back in 1990 when Archie entered

Carlton’s Curtain Street Studios to make his debut album, he was new to recording. Hearing a click track through his headphones

The Took the Children Away picture book, published 2020

e

We look back at the stories behind some of our favourite album covers.

Jack Ladder and the Dreamlanders, Hijack! (2021)

A s a former protégé of celebrated Sydney designer and publisher Mark Gowing, Tim Rogers (AKA Jack Ladder) was well-placed to design the cover of his sixth album, 2021’s Hijack! (a task he’s undertaken for all previous albums with his band the Dreamlanders, in fact). During the art design

stage of the album, the musician began to muck

meditative, shifting letters around and looking at the patterns. I liked how the ‘H’ made its own sort of ladder. It was just an experimentation in form. “It felt quite emotional. Giving each letter its own personality creates a sense of character, and drama, and negative space, which the record is about.”

about with the letters in its title, and suddenly little layers of visual magic emerged. “There was something that happened when I was just playing with the repeat, and different types of stacking,” Rogers told the Australian Financial Review last month. “I was finding it quite

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