Geelong Football Club legend Cameron Ling and Australian rock’n’roll royalty Paul Dempsey are appearing at the Corner Hotel for Presentation Night. Presentation Night is an innovative concept devised by Andy Kerr that sees a legendary footballer team up with a legendary Australian musician to shoot the shit about footy, music, fame and a few songs from the musically inclined member of the duo.
However, Ling maybe confident on a footy field but he wasn’t too sure at first about his music credentials.
“When Andy first floated the concept to me a few months ago I was a bit hesitant because while I love music, I’m certainly by no means an expert, but my brother and I learnt the guitar and whenever we catch up we have a bit of a strum and sing,” states Ling who, after years of media training as a player and now a career as commentator, is masterfully well-spoken – he did not ‘ummm’ or ‘ahhhhh’ once during the interview.
“I’ve been totally brainwashed by Dad by ‘50s and ‘60s and ‘70s rock’n’roll – thankfully – so I was hesitant that I would kind of be exposed to the fact that I’m a bit clueless about the recent stuff [music] because I just loved the old stuff like The Beatles and The Beach Boys, but Andy assured me that was okay so I am really excited to talk about that stuff!” chuckles Ling.
This is Presentation Night No. 3, with No. 1 and No. 2 featuring Paul Kelly and Bob Murphy, and then, Tim Rogers and Matthew Richardson. They were huge successes with both compered by former triple j DJ (and huge footy fan) Francis Leech. Dempsey, who is also very excited about Presentation Night having been a punter at the previous two, discusses his feelings towards the night.
“I think it’s going to be something that is a lot of fun. I am a footy fan and I am obviously a music fan as well and that is the point of the whole thing: to get people in bands who are into footy and players and former players who are into music together.
“What I like about it is that fans tend to know what footy teams their favourite bands are into but would have no idea what music footy players are into. I went along to the first two Presentation Nights – the first one with Paul Kelly and Bob Murphy and the second one with Timmy Rogers and Richo – and it was a lot of fun. It was interesting hearing rock’n’roll types talking about their almost footy careers or their shameful attempts at playing footy and vice versa,” summarises Dempsey on the essence of Presentation Night.
Listening to music is a vital part of Ling’s preparation, with him always listening to the same album as he heads onto the ground.
“I used to drive to the games by myself just to listen to my music and very badly sing along to a few of them – my sort of quiet time before the craziness of the game. You’d be a little bit surprised to know what I’d listen to; I used to love a bit of Simon & Garfunkel and Peter, Paul and Mary. The last song I listened to before I got out of the car was Green Spandex by Xavier Rudd,” Ling reveals.
However, the last thing Dempsey wants to hear before he goes on stage is music.
“It’s part of that head-clearing thing – I don’t want to hear other music. I hum notes and scales in an effort to clear my head of other music and just think about what we’re trying to do.” Dempsey pauses before excitedly disclosing the perfect anecdote in context to Presentation Night. “A funny thing is that if we’re on tour and it’s footy season you’ll often find us ten minutes before we go on stage crowded around someone’s iPad trying to catch the third quarter!”
BY DAN WATT
