There are moments in your life when dates and times become etched in your head and if someone you have known and admired who is no longer around, these become a time to reflect and so it is across this weekend that we think of TIM HEMENSLEY, who passed away 15 years ago and is a much missed individual within the worlds that a lot of us inhabit .
A versatile musician, a great writer, a man with an opinion and not afraid to share it, someone who was constantly on the trail of knowledge and who added fire to his cannon on a daily basis. Tim was an individual force & a hoot to be around as time spent with him was always colourful and you could walk away feeling invigorated & a little bit more worldly...
As I've said before on times where I have written about Tim, his influence on me personally is quite strong as the DIY spirit he carried within was always in line with mine and he was someone that i saw getting shit done and always seeking to create. Through a very free spirited schooling to having cool as bohemianesque parents, Tim was always going to be set on a wild course and from a super super young age (like TEN) he was incredibly producing his own Punk fanzine and already well ahead of the game in picking up instruments and forming a band (ROYAL FLUSH) so from having such a killer jumpstart to life in a unique and underground culture it was always gonna be decades of incredible output from there....
SICK THINGS, MORBID DREAD, GOD, BORED!, POWDERMONKEYS... with loads of mini add-ons and deviations in between, whether he was helping someone with a demo, organising a record to come out overseas and experiencing thousands of wild live shows on both the stage and down the front as a audience member all around the world and being a deep lover of music and subculture....there was always something on the go with Timmy.
I often think "what would he be doing now" if he was still with us..... He'd be recording bands on the up and coming which he loved and who he saw had true R'n'R attitude, he'd be paying out on those who he saw as horrid and be calling bullshit on them in a hot minute, he'd be involved in areas of Australia's music history, being interviewed, helping out, being a contributor to archival projects and he'd of course still have a guitar in hand and be gruffing it out up close into a microphone. With his folks being heavily entrenched in literature, my guess also is that he would of penned a book or two about things that were close to his heart and which held immense interest.... all these things would of been amazing to see and live amongst & it's an eternal shame that we all cannot experience these active and productive years that would of spewed forth from the great man had he still been with us to this day and reality can be a bummer hit if one thinks about it all too much, as we know there is no way we can rewind and have things turn out in a different light.
So all of us miss people who were in our lives, whether they were ultra close or a friend in passing who left indelible marks on our psyche and it does feel good to slow down, stop and remember them sometimes in a life now pushed to the hilt with information and pressure.
He would love the next few 7"s we have coming up and i would of loved to of been able to pass a copy over and have him blast it from his stereo so we'll be thinking his way and as the calendar swings to specific dates in our lives (or not) we take time to remember our good people's influence and how they help to shape our day to day, so thanks Tim (23-11-71 / 21-7-2003) myself and many hundreds of others within Australia and across the globe raise our glasses to you and carry what we have seen and heard from you FOR LIFE.
Scotti - BCR July 22nd 2018