You Either Love Or Hate It

Sometimes it's hard to get a handle on whether Melbourne's more passionate about its footy or its music, but new initiative Presentation Night digs deep into this most local of conundrums. How do footy and music interact, and how do they relate to life's finer mysteries? The premise is that host Francis Leach – a lifelong Saints fan – holds court with a prominent music identity and a renowned sportsman to hopefully get to the bottom of some profundities, whilst having a laugh along the way.

This was certainly the case on the inaugural event, held last month at the Corner Hotel – one of the city's live music meccas and only a couple of torps from the 'G – and starring renowned sports lover (and aspiring songwriter) Paul Kelly matching wits with the AFL's current renaissance man, Bulldogs star Bob Murphy. This week's incarnation features You Am I frontman, and avowed Kangas acolyte, Tim Rogers crossing swords with former Tigers star (and current commentator) Matthew “Richo” Richardson – did Leach get to the bottom of any mysteries concerning footy and rock'n'roll first time around that he can bring to the table for the second instalment?

“Only that each would like to be the other,” he smiles. “Most footballers are wannabe rock stars, and it's the other way around as well. Which is nice, because it's kind of a shared experience – they both live for the moment, and they both often play in front of big crowds and they're celebrated for their success, but if you make a shit record you get canned too – so it's kind of the same.”

“You'll know when the rock star will get sick of it though,” Richo interjects, “they'd change their mind at the first ice bath, I'll give you the tip!”

“That's never been on the rider of a rock'n'roll show yet!” Leach laughs. “Maybe Henry Rollins has an ice bath, he'd be the only rocker up for it!”

While he's these days passionate about his bands, Richo's own musical upbringing can best be described as sparse – he's certainly not scared to confront his inner bogan.

“I grew up on the north-west coast of Tassie, and we had one radio station which didn't play the greatest selection of music,” the key forward remembers. “We didn't have anything other than ABC and one commercial TV station so you got a little bit of Rage on Saturday night and maybe an hour of some video clip show on Saturday morning, so it was pretty hard to get right into the thick of music at an early age down there. That was one of the great things about moving to Melbourne – I suddenly realised about all this great live music that was going on.

“But my musical taste was probably pretty narrow growing up – whatever I could get my hands on basically. I had a lot of mates who were really into heavy metal in high school – I'm talking stuff like Slayer and king Diamond – so I got into that a little bit in late-high school. Probably a little bit of Metallica. When I moved to Melbourne I got to branch out, but I always loved my music.”

Anyone who's heard Leach on the radio over the journey knows that he's passionate about both music and footy, but he too had his hurdles along the way.

“Yeah, it's kind of funny, but when I was growing up you really didn't like both,” he remembers. “Melbourne's amazing like that now, where you can have a footy team and be into rock'n'roll and music you like, but in the early-'80s it was much more tribal. I was right into the modern ska scene – that was my thing – and you wouldn't be seen dead going to the footy, because footy was bogan. I grew up in Broadmeadows and was passionate about playing footy and going to the footy, with my Mum in particular – she was the matriarch of the Saints fans in my family – but then I rejected that and got into the music scene, but you eventually find your way home. But there was a period there where I wouldn't be seen dead at the footy, but that's changed now thankfully and you can be both in life.”