A memory of Joel, written by John, his father.

As his dad, I saw Joel’s interest in music begin before his teens, he had his first electric guitar (a black lefthander …which I still have) – by the time he was 11 years old, and could play it within the first week!

We lived on a mountain in the Snowy Mountain region of Southern NSW at a place called “Bendoc” – very cold, very remote, but very beautiful. Joel was a great Kurt Cobain Fan – he had every CD and could play and sing everything Kurt Cobain ever wrote.

Next came all the pedal gadgets to change the sound, amp, rhythm – I don’t know what they are called, but I know it cost me a fortune – but I can say with a great deal of pride that Joel made great music, and had a solid handle on it.

In his teens he had his first band, with Liam Daley his best mate, amongst others (drummers were the hardest to find). I was ‘surprised’, to say the least, that Joel in particular, was very talented, and very good.

There were better, and bigger, (and even more expensive) amplifiers, always new strings – and more and more music books in tablature – Joel never learnt to read music!

However, Joel’s greatest asset and gift was song writing – this I can say yes; biased, but music is a very personal thing – and I never heard a song Joel ever wrote that I didn’t like, understand, and enjoy. Sadly they were all hand written and I don’t know where they are, or even if they still exist!

But only a few months before his untimely death in 2010 he videoed himself performing a song for his mum and grandmother.