That Time Gudinski Tried To Break Up The Go-Betweens

According to Robert Forster's memoir Grant & I: Inside And Outside The Go-Betweens, there was a time when his flamboyant frontman phase didn't sit well with everyone involved with the band.

The book, released late last month, explores Forster's relationship with the late Grant McLennan, his singing-songwriting other half in legendary Aus indie outfit The Go-Betweens.

Forster explains that in the late '80s he decided that band needed a frontman who could get them noticed. He took it upon himself to be the one getting noticed, trying a variety of tricks including dyeing his hair grey ("I want to look like Blake Carrington," he told his hairdresser, referring to the silver-haired patriach of super soap Dynasty) and wearing dresses on stage (he notes this was long before it was made cool to do so by Kurt Cobain and Evan Dando in the '90s).

It was during this period that The Go-Betweens were signed to Michael Gudinski's Mushroom label (through which they released the 16 Lovers Lane album) and went on the road in Australia as the support act to rising US indie stars REM.

Forster writes: "The dress had made one appearance after Perth, in Sydney.

"There Michael Gudinski took Grant aside after the show. 'You run the group, right?' 'Yeah,' said Grant. 'Get rid of the guy in the dress.'"

McLennan didn't get rid of Forster and Forster was to roll out the dress again in LA where he describes the reaction of the band's label there as "one of shock and displeasure."

Years later when Forster and McLennan began separate solo careers, Forster notes that "Grant was signed after the band's break-up to the White Label, a boutique branch of Mushroom Records. He now had the platform to make hits, and could count on the confidence of Michael Gudinski. I was out of the way..."

Grant & I is out now through Penguin.