I went to the ABC’s 75th birthday celebrations at Ultimo today. It was a pretty good event (especially being free) with some personal highlights being seeing the Catalyst team, touring the studios, and especially the “Big Gig” where a stage was set up on Ultimo Road and music, comedy, and fun was going on. After the Chaser boys were on, I guess a lot of people obviously decided they’d seen what they had come for and left, not realising they were going to reappear a short while later as part of a debate. The debate was a lot of fun with a topic of interviews are more important than music, including Richard Glover, Guy Noble, and Craig Reucassel arguing the affirmative, and Kerry O’Brien, Myf Warhurst, and Chris Taylor arguing against. Other highlights were The Sandman and Flacco, Jane Rutter playing the flute and tin whistle (the very first instrument I ever learnt at age 6), and Andrew Denton.
There were a few thousand people there, and I was actually “celebrity spotted” for the first time – twice! A lady came up and told me how much she enjoyed the show (Nerds FC) and asked whether I still played soccer, and later on my way out another lady stopped me to also say she loved the show and thought I was very brave. I have to say it’s quite unusual to be walking along and having people stop you because they recognise you, but they were very nice. From this statistic I am concluding that the show is popular with 50+ year old women… 🙂
Chris Anderson 