Colin Hay

And then I'd finished singing the song and then one of them said, sing that again.

And I thought, this is for me.

I'd been writing songs.

I'd been performing by myself for a number of years, all through university and

I'd been doing things like the Balmoral Folk Festival and I'd played folk music, but I was a solo performer.

So I was at university and I was trying to figure out... My friend who I went to school with was Kim Gingell, a famous comedian and actor, still my friend, and he was responsible really for Men at Work coming together because...

He introduced me to Greg Hamm when I was still at school, introduced me to Jerry Spicer, who I went to university with, but I met him through Kim.

So Kim introduced me to a couple of different people who were very important in Men at Work.

But in 77, when I finished university, I got this job in the male chorus of Ned Kelly, this musical that was happening in Adelaide.

And just before I left to do that show, I met this guy in West Melbourne at a friend of mine's backyard.

And he was sitting there playing 12-string guitar and he was a beautiful guitar player.

Ron, Ron Strykert.

And he just opened a door in my head and I thought, oh, this is the guy that I've been looking for to write songs with.

And so I said to him, when I come back from doing this musical, you know, I want to work with you.

And so he said, yeah, okay, let's do that.

So that's what we did.

So that was the nucleus of the band was Ron and myself because we had, you know, a product.

You know, we had songs.

which I'd figured out that you could be the best band in the world, but you've got to have good songs.

And you can turn up to a rehearsal room and you can have the best musicians in the world, but then you've got to go, well, what are we going to play?