Attending will be members of Howard’s family and his long time collaborator Genevieve McGuckin. There will also be promoter Nick Haines who thought of the campaign to honour the guitarist and songwriter (“a funny gentle man despite his goth image”) on the way to his funeral in 2009, and Cr. Serge Thomann who was also instrumental in battling red tape. Thomann said last year, “Rowland S. Howard is well loved in St Kilda and its great that people like Nick Cave, Richard Lowenstein, Mick Harvey and many hundreds of others from all over the world have mobilised,”
Addressing the gathering will be Martin Foley, Minister for Creative Industries and MP of Albert Park. Foley also played a major role in bringing the idea to fruition.
Haines began collecting 2000 signatures in February 2012 and the City of Port Phillip approved it in April 2013.
But a year’s delay followed because of regulations governing Victorian place names. The Registrar of Geographic Names twice rejected the name. First it was because its use of an initial and two names would confuse emergency services. The suggestion of Howard Lane was rejected by supporters because it could be linked to former Prime Minister John Howard, and Rowland Lane was considered too bland.
In an effort to cut through red tape, Foley raised the matter in Parliament on June 24 last year calling on the state government to “direct the relevant officers…to name a particular unnamed laneway in St Kilda after the sadly missed Australian and St Kilda rock legend and guitarist Rowland S. Howard.”
Foley apparently was aware of the works of Howard’s works, which included hose from his time in The Birthday Party, Crime and the City Solution and These Immortal Souls.
Things still moved slowly until the Labor Government returned to power last year. They accelerated after the campaign to name the two-word Chrissy Amphlett Lane was successful after pressure from City of Melbourne.
