Back in the early 80's, I took some overseas friends to the Port Fairy Folk Festival (4 hours drive from Melbourne, Australia) to hear some real music. This was prior to it being the huge commercial success it is now & more a gathering of a few thousand fans rather than the 25,000 tourists it now gathers.

On the Saturday night, we had consumed many beers & heard a great gig from Eric Bogle who had really impressed the visitors. As we drove back to the motel, I played a cassette (genuine bootleg) of a gig he had done at The Troubadour the previous Thursday which pretty well duplicated what he had just sung.

It sounded just as good so when we got back to the motel, we left it going & sat there listening. After a bit, I went to the boot (or trunk) of the car to get another round of beers from the cooler. As I was opening it, a well remembered scottish voice said "Dave, how about that beer you were promising me last Thursday".

Ghastly moment.....

Thinking fast, I handed Eric a beer, reached into the car & shut down the stereo, making some remark about a live album & then got the others (+ Eric & John Munro & Brent Miller) into the motel and let the party proceed.

I woke up next morning to a room littered with empty beers & a bad hangover. So I got dressed & thought of heading down town for coffee etc. Woops - no car keys!!!! This was going to be a real problem as I was working for a certain German car company & had as my company car a brand new 300E. But those keys were not in my room.

In the end I went down stairs & out into the street where I had parked. Yep - it was still there!!! And what's more, it was still there with the keys in the ignition & all the windows down!!!!

So I wound up the windows, locked it and pocketed the keys & (up till now) kept my mouth shut. Twenty years on I can still feel those two moments of terror - once when Eric materialised at the car, and again when I saw the keys in the ignition.

Still it did do one good thing - I don't think I've made a bootleg tape since.

Dave