Down Under loses its infringing flute

Men in white … a still shot during the making of the 1982 film clip for "Down Under". Photo: Bob King collection

Giles Hardie, The Sydney Morning Herald, reports

Down Under is back for the Olympics, without the Kookaburra.

Thirty years after it was released, and not accidentally, on the day the Olympics begin, Colin Hay of Men At Work has released a newly recorded version of their classic (and recently controversial) song Down Under.

The Down Under 2012 EP, which will only be available on iTunes, will include three new versions of the song – but not the all important flute riff that was ruled in 2009 by Justice Jacobson in the Federal Court to reproduce “a substantial part of Kookaburra” the children’s choral tune owned by Larrikin Music, a suggestion that first emerged out of a 2008 episode of the ABC TV show Spicks and Specks.

The new version of the song does contain a flute line, however the key riff has been altered from the version that appeared on the 1982 album Business As Usual.

Hay feels the new version will “highlight that the power and strength of the song, lies in its original words and music. It speaks for itself.”

Men at Work flautist Greg Ham, who Hay insists improvised the riff, died in April this year.

Hay said in a statement: “People kept mentioning to me, that it's the 30-year anniversary of the release of Business As Usual, and Down Under as a single around the world. I didn’t much feel like celebrating, because when I ponder 30 years ago, Greg was alive and well, more than well, was thriving.

“So, regarding the 30th anniversary of our first and fabulously successful first disc, if I were to celebrate with anyone, it would have been with him, and he has gone. I wish he was still here. Cheers!”

The new recording has come about after Telstra approached Hay about using the song in a commercial campaign over the Olympics period.

“I was happy to help and along with my friend Dorian West, created a suitable version of the song, featuring footballers, pubgoers, sailors on the Thames, school kids in Sydney, and, well you get the idea,” said Hay.

“The song is ultimately about celebration, what you feel inside, what has a ring of truth to it. I am proud to have co-written this song, happy that people still like singing along to it, and that they will continue to, long after I'm gone. I am also proud of Greg Ham, he was my friend, and in the end, that's all that really matters. Enjoy!”

Greg Ham found dead in house

Men at Work in 1983: Greg Ham, John Rees, Colin Hay, Roy Strykert and Jerry Spicer.

Paul Millar and Henrietta Cook, The Sydney Morning Herald, report

The body of Men at Work flautist Greg Ham has been found in a house in Melbourne’s inner-north.

Police were called to a home in Canning Street, North Carlton, soon after midday and are trying to determine the cause of the man's death.

They were notified of the body after a friend turned up at the house to check on the man's welfare.

The area has been cordoned off with police tape and there is a large number of police at the scene.

Police would not confirm the identity of the man as relatives still had to be notified, but said he was a 58-year-old who lived at the house alone.

Detective Senior Sergeant Shane O’Connell said there were several unexplained circumstances surrounding the death but would not go into detail.

"There are a number of issues we are trying to resolve as to how the male died", Sgt O'Connell, of the homicide squad, said.

The body was found by a friend after he went to the house and there was no answer at the door. He then returned with another friend and found the body in the front of the house.

A close neighbour said he had only moved into the street recently, and although he was a bit of a recluse he had attended a barbeque recently .

"He looked like he'd done it hard," Linda Phypers said.

"He had lived just a bit further around the corner, and I think Men at Work had their first recording there."

Ms Phypers said that Ham had been renovating the corner house and was always pleasant to everyone in the street, although he had obvious health issues.

"He talked about that riff and he was still pretty upset about that", she said.

"But he was a good guy. He used to walk the streets a bit and looked a bit daggy."

A post mortem will be held to determine the cause of death.

Forensic detectives are at the scene and pathologists will attend later today.

A neighbour said the well-known musician had moved into the house a few months ago. He had moved from another house just around the corner where it is believed Men at Work rehearsed.

A section of Fenwick Street near the house, a converted shop front, has been fenced off with police tape.

Colin Hay revels in every arena

Colin Hay has a strong work ethic. Source: Supplied

Pete Best, The Herald Sun, reports

Colin Hay is back on the road and the former Men At Work frontman is enjoying every minute of it.

Q. You're doing a long run of gigs and in some modest venues. Would you rather play before 20,000 people, or 200?

A. It doesn't matter. You play to the audience that's in front of you. I have had some of the best nights of my life playing before 200 people, and I've had some of the best nights of my life playing in front of 150,000 people.

Q. Some artists resent having to play from their back catalogue each night. Do you?

A. I have no problem with it. There was a time there when I didn't want to play the songs from Men At Work. But I developed relationships with the songs themselves. If it didn't feel good playing them, I wouldn't, but they've looked after me all these years, so I have a very good relationship with all the songs.

Q. Some songs on your album (Gathering Mercury) are influenced by your father's death. At the time, you were 20 streets away from his birthplace in Glasgow. Why were you there?

A. I was playing a show on a ferry on the River Clyde. I didn't know that he'd died. I found out after finishing playing. The whole night had a bleak Glaswegian poetic aspect to it. It was pouring with rain.

Q. Paul McCartney has said he wished he'd written Gerry Marsden's Ferry Cross The Mersey. What's a song of someone else's that you wish you'd written?

A. So many. Waterloo Sunset. Any number of Lennon-McCartney songs. I wish I'd written Blackberry Way.

Q. That's a 1969 hit by The Move, a sort of dark reply to Penny Lane ...

A. The first line goes, "Blackberry Way, absolutely pouring down with rain. It's a terrible day."

He's back in Glasgow.

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AN EVENING WITH COLIN HAY
Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne, 8.30pm Saturday. Tonight: Sale. Tomorrow: Warragul. Friday: Geelong.