Ocker Cheese!


[Peter Russell Clarke. In Australia, we serve cheddar cheese in cubes on top of salad. You’ll have to read to the bottom to find out why this mad snake is featured here…]

To get you in the mood for the Bon Scott Exhibition, have a listen to this funny advert that is running on radio RTR right now about the show!

Oh, and while we’re on the topic of ocker/bogan/radio connections, this morning Jasmin and I went into the studios of ABC radio (again!) to do an interview for a very genteel arts programme. While we were waiting for the erudite Amanda Smith, our host, in the sound-proof-booth (which the ABC affectionately calls “the Tardis“) an unexpected disembodied male ocker voice came through the headphones, like an Aussie poltergeist.

This is how the conversation went:

Disembodied Male Ocker Voice: “Hello?”
Jasmin: “Hello.”
Ocker Voice: “Hello?”
Me: “Hello.”
Ocker Voice: “Hello?”
(as there was no evidence that the Ocker Voice was actually hearing us, we stopped responding to his “Hello?” which continued for a good thirty seconds…)
–then–
Ocker Voice: “ANSWER ME, YA WANKERS!!”
–somewhat shocked pause–
(we look quizzickly through the glass at our producer. He shrugs and gives us an “I have absolutely no idea!” look).
Me: Who is this?
Ocker Voice: This is the Ghost of Christmas!
Jasmin: Well, Mr Ghost of Christmas, you’re a bit late!
Ocker Voice: Waddayamean late, ya wankers? It’s only five past ten!
–pause–
Jasmin: Excuse me, but is this Peter Russell Clarke we’re speaking to?
–silence–
–silence–
(The voice vanishes…)

How utterly bizarre…

And as it turns out, Jasmin was right! We had, in fact, just been radio hacked by Peter Russell Clarke, the mildly famous Aussie television chef who taught us all how to cook eggs in the early 1980s. He also did ads for cheese like the cheesy one above, where he would repeatedly declare the cheesy phrase, “WHERE’S THE CHEESE?”

I never knew this (but somehow, Jasmin did): Peter Russell Clarke is now actually famous for a swag of bloopers from his early 80s cooking show, which, thanks to good ole youtube, are now plastered all over the net…

And so it seems that our morning’s ambition, humble as it was (to discuss a dead Aussie icon in an articulate and intelligent fashion) was thwarted by a very much live and inarticulate replacement.

We were both rather stunned. But strangely, it left us both grinning. It had been something of a privelege, I guess…

2 thoughts on “Ocker Cheese!”

Leave a Reply to birdmonkey Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *