Charlie McMahon facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Charlie McMahon
Charlie McMahon playing the didjeribone in 2002. The microphone going into his mouth is the "Face Bass," a seismic microphone that captures the subtleties of sound inside his mouth while he is playing.

Charlie McMahon is a famous Australian musician. He plays the didgeridoo, a traditional instrument. Charlie started a band called Gondwanaland. He was one of the first non-Aboriginal people to become well-known for playing the didgeridoo. Charlie also invented the didjeribone. This instrument is a sliding didgeridoo. It is made from two plastic tubes. You play it a bit like a trombone, which is how it got its name.

Early Life and Inspirations

Discovering the Didgeridoo

In 1955, a movie called Jedda came out. It was the first Australian movie filmed in color. Charlie McMahon's family lived in the Blue Mountains near Sydney. They were among many families who watched it. This film was special because it had Aboriginal actors in the main roles. It also showed the importance of Indigenous culture.

The movie's story was about an Aboriginal girl named Jedda. A white station owner's wife adopted her. Jedda was kept away from her birth family. She felt unsure about who she was. Then she met Marbuck, a tribal Aboriginal man. He was in trouble with the European justice system. Jedda was deeply moved by his didgeridoo playing. They ran away together into the wilderness. However, Marbuck's tribe rejected him. He had broken their marriage laws. The movie ended sadly for both Jedda and Marbuck.

The film also showed amazing outback scenery. It mixed real-life documentary parts with fiction. A plane crash destroyed the last part of the film. So, the ending had to be re-filmed. This happened in the Blue Mountains, where Charlie lived.

After seeing the movie, young Charlie McMahon was very inspired. He was only four years old. He tried to copy the didgeridoo sound. He blew into a garden hose and hollow household items. He also became very interested in Aboriginal people and their lives. This was unusual because no Aboriginal people lived near him. Charlie often ran away and explored the bush for long times. As he grew older, he would live off the land. He enjoyed connecting with nature.

In 1958, when Charlie was seven, his family moved. They went from the Blue Mountains to Blacktown. This was a busy suburb near Sydney. But Charlie still found ways to go "bush" regularly.

Overcoming Challenges and Education

In 1967, Charlie had an accident. He lost his right arm while experimenting with a homemade rocket. This happened in a friend's backyard. A newspaper reported that his friend also lost some fingers. Both boys were likely holding the rocket when it exploded.

During his recovery, Charlie got a new metal arm. He wrapped it in goanna hide. He started playing the didgeridoo again. This time, it was a way to help him heal. He also focused on his schoolwork. During study breaks, Charlie would relax. He went to the sand flats of the Windsor River. He went with his brother Phil, who played bongos, and some friends. They would dress up and paint their faces. They would have their own "corroboree," like a traditional gathering.

Charlie balanced his wild side with his studies. He won a university scholarship. He earned a degree in Arts and Town Planning. For a year, he taught Town Planning at The University of Sydney. Charlie wanted to study town planning. He hoped to fix problems he saw in Blacktown. He wrote about his ideas. But he became disappointed. He realized that politics and special interests stopped good ideas from happening.

Meeting Peter Carolan

One important weekend was in 1973. Charlie went to the Nimbin Aquarius Festival. This was like Australia's Woodstock. He was fascinated by a group called The White Company. This was an experimental theater group. It included Peter Carolan, a 25-year-old actor. Peter had been in TV shows like Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. He came from a musical family. His mother played classical piano. His father was a professional jazz musician. His grandfather was a composer for the BBC. The Carolan family moved to Australia from England when Peter was 18.

At the festival, Peter played the lap dulcimer. Charlie noticed Peter's talent for creating beautiful melodies. The dulcimer's simple sound appealed to Peter. It had a "primal drone" and a rhythmic strum. Charlie and Peter didn't talk directly at the festival. But they both noticed each other.

In 1974, The White Company had an arts festival in Sydney. Charlie McMahon performed there. After his show, Charlie and Peter improvised music together. They played dulcimer and didgeridoo on a dome roof. They realized they shared many musical ideas. Charlie liked music with "atmosphere." Peter wanted to compose music that felt like a "place." He was inspired by the film score for Lawrence of Arabia. The two musicians vaguely promised to make music together in the future.

New Paths and the Outback

In 1974, Charlie was growing tired of his university job. He felt there was "too much talk" and not enough action. One day, during a boring lecture, Charlie and his assistant did something impulsive. They encouraged students to paint the bare walls of the library basement. The University Chancellor saw this as a challenge to authority. Charlie was fired.

He decided to do something more practical. He bought a 40-acre property. It was in a thick forest valley in New South Wales. He and his brothers built a house by hand. Charlie learned a lot about bush craft. He also learned about living in a natural environment. These skills would be very useful later.

In early 1978, Charlie jumped on stage. It was during a Midnight Oil concert in Sydney. He added his didgeridoo sounds to their song "Stand in Line." This started a long friendship between them. Midnight Oil was a new band at the time.

After two and a half years, Charlie finished his bush home. He was lucky to get a job. It was with the Federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs. He became a Development Coordinator in the Northern Territory. He supervised grants for tribal people. They lived hundreds of kilometers west of Alice Springs. These settlements included Kintore, Kiwirrkurra Community, Western Australia, and Papunya. Papunya was where the Australian Aboriginal dot painting revival began in 1971.

Charlie's work involved building a store and meeting place for local people. He also helped level an airstrip for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. He helped build a 400 km chain of windmills and water bores. These were in the Great Sandy Desert area. He often drove a three-ton water truck. He used his "thrown right hook" to steer in rough terrain. Because he was sincere and worked hard, tribal communities sometimes invited him. He observed traditional ceremonies under the stars.

After 18 months, he took time off. He played gigs with Midnight Oil. He learned about stage presence and talking to an audience. He watched their lead singer, Peter Garrett.

1980s: Music and Fame

Adventures in America

In 1980, Tony Walker from Triple J radio encouraged Charlie. Charlie sold his Toyota Land Cruiser work truck. He went on a two-month trip to the United States. He started in San Francisco, then went to Los Angeles and Fresno. He was offered work on a film soundtrack in Hollywood. It was for a 1981 film called Wolfen. But a musicians' strike delayed the recording.

Returning to San Francisco, Charlie had bad luck. He missed his flight home. His wallet, with all his money, was stolen. He urgently needed to earn money for his trip back to Australia.

He found gigs in San Francisco's punk clubs. He performed a solo act. He played original didgeridoo music. He also told stories about his desert experiences. He played with other musicians on stage. He even joined Timothy Leary's lecture tour for some shows. Charlie formed a band called The Yidaki Brothers. He played with Mark Isham, Kurt Wortman, and Pat Cooley. They played their own improvisational music. It was based on Charlie's stories. He also played with an electronic group called Indoor Life. Their songs were about city life. They used a trombone sound through a synthesizer.

After five months, he was earning about $500 a week. He was gaining fans. But he had reached his money goal. Now he wanted to be creative. For Charlie, this meant recording an album. He felt he could only do this in Australia. That was where his musical inspiration came from.

Forming Gondwanaland

Charlie returned to Sydney. In 1981, he got his first big publicity in Australia. An Adelaide music paper published an article about him. It had an interesting title: "This Years Thing? One Armed Didgerdu Players? It's No Joke! Says Miranda Brown."

Charlie realized he wanted to work with a great synthesizer player. He tried playing with a few people in Sydney. But their style was too limited. Then he remembered Peter Carolan's playing from ten years ago. Peter was now playing synthesizer. Charlie knew Peter was the right person to create the melodies for Gondwanaland. They worked on their first song, "Pulse." It was inspired by the sound of a heartbeat.

In the next few months, Peter created perfect music for Charlie's didgeridoo. He expanded on Charlie's ideas. These included an emu running, a drought, an eagle flying, and a vast landscape. Peter used simple but powerful melodies. His arrangements were emotional. They captured poetic moments when "time stops and the joys, and mysteries of life are felt."

In 1984, Charlie and Peter formed a small studio band. They recorded the first Gondwanaland album. It was called Terra Incognita. It was released on a small independent label. It became a success with both critics and the public.

Desert Encounters and Global Performances

In October 1984, Charlie went "on the swag" again. This means he traveled through the outback. He became part of a media story. A group of nine Aboriginal people, known as the Pintupi Nine, were found. They were near water bores Charlie had been overseeing. These bores were between Kintore and Kiwirrkurra. A journalist made the story very dramatic. They called it "finding of the lost tribe." But these people were not "lost." They had "gone walkabout" after rejecting attempts to resettle them. This happened in the 1950s. The small tribal group lived off the desert's natural resources for decades. They followed their traditional rituals. Then they "came in" and met their relatives. Charlie's diary noted, "Tomorrow [16 Oct 1984] we will find the two men's tracks and maybe they will spend their last night free of the modern world."

In April 1985, Charlie flew to London. He performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This was for the soundtrack of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

When he returned a month later, they looked for a drummer. Only one person replied. It was Eddy Duquemin. He was a talented percussionist. He could play electric drums and acoustic drums. He joined the live Gondwanaland band. Charlie decided to make the group his full-time job. Eddy was very energetic on stage. Charlie nicknamed him "Brolga." A brolga is an Australian bird known for its dancing. Peter Carolan was already called "Lizard," but this changed to "Professor."

In November 1985, Midnight Oil started a tour. Gondwanaland opened for them. This gave the new three-piece band experience.

In 1986, Gondwanaland's second album, Let the Dog Out, was released. It had energetic songs. It also had two longer pieces. One of them, "Ephemeral Lakes," became popular for calm, meditative music.

Midnight Oil's "Black Fella/White Fella" tour happened in July 1986. It went to remote Aboriginal settlements. Charlie McMahon helped coordinate the tour. He managed camping and guiding. He also brought common sense to the group. A book called Strict Rules and a video "Black Fella White Fella" were released. Charlie is featured in both.

In 1987, Gondwanaland released their third album. It was also called Gondwanaland. They had toured a lot in Sydney. They also did an Arts Council-sponsored tour of the Northern Territory. The album took many months to record. The touring helped make the songs tighter. But recording each instrument separately in the studio sometimes made the live energy less intense. Despite this, the album won an ARIA Award in 1988. It was for the best Indigenous album. One song, "Landmark," showed off Charlie's didjeribone. This instrument was a multi-tone, slide didgeridoo.

In November 1988, Gondwanaland performed in Sydney Harbour. It was for the "Tomita Sound Cloud in Sydney – Hymn To Mankind." This was a huge light and sound show. It was part of Australia's Bicentennial celebrations. Over 120,000 people watched. This was a record for a live music event in Australia.

1990s to Present: New Sounds and Legacy

McMahon at Pine Creek, Northern Territory, Australia, July 2007

In 1991, Gondwanaland released their album Wide Skies.

In 1992, Charlie McMahon appeared in a film. He was with Indigenous didgeridoo master David Blanasi.

In 1994, Charlie formed a second band called Gondwana. This band focused more on rhythm. It had strong bass and experimental didgeridoo sounds. Gondwana released three albums: Travelling, Xenophon, and Bone Man. The last two albums featured a new invention by Charlie. He used a geologist's seismic microphone. He held it to his mouth. This amplified the deep, rumbling didgeridoo sounds. This new approach attracted a new audience: the trance/dance crowd.

In 2005, Charlie had a strange experience. It felt like something that had happened before. Twenty years after working on the Mad Max soundtrack, he was in Russia. He had a new manager linked to a "Mad Max Smash and Crash" theme park. This event was featured in a TV report in March 2006.

In 2006, Peter Carolan released a CD called Overland. It collected examples of his music.

In August 2008, Charlie McMahon released a DVD. It had over 800 music samples. It was called "Rhythm Organism."

On April 24, 2012, Charlie released a calm Gondwana album. It was called Didge Heart. Sadly, on July 28, 2012, Peter Carolan passed away at age 64.

Discography

• ''Long Way My Country Journey Home; Blue Wren at Waterhole; Swooped By Eagles; Spirit Dawn [McMahon]; Trek; Campsite [McMahon / Yidaki Brothers] Recorded San Francisco US Various Venues December 1980

See also

• Gondwanaland (Australian band)
• Modern didgeridoo designs