Five hundred and eighty people perished this morning when two jumbo jets collided on the tarmac at Tenerife Airport, in the Canary Islands. One was a KLM aeroplane, the other, Pan Am.
KLM, a Dutch carrier, is the world’s oldest commercial airline. Qantas Airways, is the second oldest. The name, Qantas, is an acronym of its original title: Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited.
At 7.30 p.m., on ABC-TV’s Channel Two, we watched a programme of “This Day Tonight”, which is a series based upon current affairs. “A Big Country”, another local series followed, from eight o’clock, on the same channel. It examines ‘Monte Cristo’, the mansion which is situated near the town of Junee in the south-west of New South Wales, because it is allegedly haunted.
The tenth episode of “Rich Man, Poor Man: Book 2” screens from half past the hour, on ATN Channel Seven.
It is another delightfully sunny morning. I bought a can of the relatively new ‘Stud’ cola, to sample its taste. As I drank I joked to Tiki about how much more irresistible she would find me once I had finished it.
“I doubt it.” She muttered, without so much as a hint of a smile.
Peter Finch has been awarded the first posthumous Academy Award, for Best Actor in the motion picture, “Network”. Faye Dunaway was named Best Actress for her role in the same film.
Sammy Davis Jr., appeared on “Willesee”, at 7.00 p.m., on Channel Seven. He lost an eye, in 1954, as the result of a car accident.
At half past the hour, with “Charlie’s Angels” on Channel Nine, we watched Channel Two. On Bill Peach’s “Holiday”, at eight o’clock, Lord Howe Island, Noumea, and the Wrest Point Casino, in Hobart, were featured.
A portion of “Willesee”, this evening, is devoted to the subject of the growing numbers of minors who are obtaining tattoos. A “Paul Hogan Special”, at half past seven, on Channel Nine, features the strongman, Paul Graham.
Sydney’s maximum temperature was twenty-nine degrees Celsius.
An equine dentist appears on “Willesee” this evening. My father-in-law (“Dad”) is really depressed. He owns a factory and maintains that the company tax is too high and that he cannot get men who are willing to work.
My chest feels really tight and I suspect that it might be something to do with my lungs, perhaps trapped wind. Tiki and I are living with “Mum” and “Dad” at present. It was at their suggestion and while we are grateful, there is no place like one’s own home.
Sydney experienced a maximum of twenty-eight degrees Celsius.
Johann Holzel was born in February of 1957, in Vienna, Austria. He was raised by his mother, after his parents divorced.
Johann departed from school at the age of sixteen and occupied himself by doing odd jobs, until he was called up to compulsorily serve in the military. It was there that he learned how to play the bass guitar.
The explosion of punk, imported to Europe from England, in the late 1970s, enticed anyone with a guitar to become a member of a band. As ‘Falco’, the band Johann joined was the Austrian group, Drahdiwaberl. He wrote the song, “Ganz Wien” (“All Vienna”), which the group performed. Falco’s music was also influenced by German bands such as Kraftwerk, as well as the first rap tunes of the American Kurtis Blow, and Grandmaster Flash, an American hip-hop group.
Falco’s first successful single, “Der Kommissar” (“The Inspector”), sold seven million copies; even entering charts in countries where few people spoke German. His first album, ‘Einzelhaft’, from whence this single came, also sold extremely well.
Falco collaborated with the Dutch producers, Rob Bolland and Ferdi Bolland, and it was this triumvirate that was responsible for the release of the single, “Rock Me Amadeus”, which immediately began to make its presence felt on the charts locally. The album, ‘Falco 3’, was released, in 1985, and spawned the highly successful singles, “Vienna Calling” and Jeanny”.
http://youtu.be/_5-XF_pnXX4
Just when Falco’s career appeared to have reached its zenith, “Rock Me Amadeus”, burst on to the global scene, due to the popularity generated by the Oscar-winning film, ‘Amadeus’. Falco became the only singer whose principal language was German to have a No.1 single in America. Riding on its success, ‘Falco 3’ reached No.3 there, this in spite of nearly every track being sung in German.
Although Falco continued to release albums, his personal life had become tumultuous. His marriage was an unhappy one and to make matters worse he learned that his ‘daughter’ was not his.
Eventually, he moved to live in the Dominican Republic. It was there that a car accident would claim his life, in February of 1998.