IN 2006, following the death of his Go-Betweens foil and best friend Grant McLennan, Robert Forster stopped making music and, for a time, chose to write about it instead. A book, The 10 Rules Of Rock And Roll, collected the essays he wrote for Australian publication The Monthly – and introducing the collection was the list of commandments with which it shared its title. In the fourth of these rock rules, Forster declared, “Being a rock star is a 24-hour-a-day job.”
You’re reminded of this edict when you watch the video for “Tender Years”, the second song on Forster’s eighth solo album. In the kitchen of the Brisbane house he shares with his wife Karin Bäumler, we see Forster miming to the song as he commences his daily breakfast ritual, making muesli for himselfa 24-hour-a-day job, it’s a performance to which he absolutely commits, ensuring he’s chopped the papaya in time to pick up his air guitar for the solo.
