G&K Hodgson wrote:

Hi Pat,
I am just writing to thank you for emailing my brother in Timor.  My sister Kate wrote to you and was so wrapped that a "real live famous person" (Her words) spent the time to write such a caring letter.

I have been a fan of yours for over 15 years now and have always admired how genuine you are - this letter that you wrote has only confirmed it.

I had to write as tonight I received an email from my brother - telling me of your email- and how it had really made a difference to his day.  He also has been a keen fan of your for years and had me tape all of your albums to send to him in Timor so he could listen to them.  He says that listening to your songs about real people makes him glad for what he's got and appreciate the small things in life.

Your letter may have been small but it has had a HUGE impact - thanks again for spending the time to write it.

Thanks again

Karen Hodgson

On Saturday, August 11, at 10:14 PM, TIM SHEAVES wrote:

JUST A QUICK THANK YOU FROM AN OLD FAN WHO YOU DONT KNOW BUT HAS FOUND YOUR MUSIC A NICE REMINDER OF A COUNTRY HE CAN WAIT TO GET BACK TO.

MY NAME IS TIM SHEAVES AND IM CURRENTLY SERVING IN EAST TIMOR WITH UNTAET TO TRY BRING BACK A NOTION OF PEACE TO A COUNTRY THAT DESERVES BETTER.

WE HAVE VERY FEW LUXURIES FROM HOME AND LIMITED CONTACT WITH WIVES AND CHILDREN AT HOME BUT YOUR MUSIC IS SOMETHING I CAN LAY IN MY MOZZY DOME AT NIGHT AND LISTEN TO AND REMEMBER HAPPIER TIMES IN HAPPIER PLACES WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

I HAVE BEEN TO SE YOU PERFORM ON NUMEROUS OCCASIONS AROUND THE COUNTRY ALL THE WAY BACK TO A LITTLE PUB IN MILSONS POINT MANY MANY YEARS AGO . ALL WERE GREAT GIGS , ALL BRING BACK MEMORIES OF DIFFERENT TIMES OF MY LIFE, MANY SONGS I CAN HONESTLY RELATE TO.

ANYWAY SORRY TO BABBLE ON BUT KNOW YOUR TALENTS ARE MAKING A DIGGER IN TIMOR FEEL LIKE HE HASNT LEFT EVERYTHING BEHIND

TIM SHEAVES

On Monday, April 2, at 06:30 PM, CHRIS EDMONDSON wrote:

G'day Pat,
 
Just a note to say I've finally been able to access your webpage after working on my poor, ailing, aging and thankfully now my second ( as a result of the new one arriving last week) PC.
 
I wanted to say thankyou for your time at the festival & to let you know I have enjoyed "Laughter Like A shield" and have got a real kick out of "Geordie Johnson."
 
Being from WA, I feel I have to have as many of those fact finding conversations as possible in when I land in the east, so it comes as great relief to come across someone who is not at all backward in the imparting of their knowledge & experience.
 
 
Thanks yet again
 
Cheers
 
Chris Edmondson
edworks@cmeworks.com

Subject: I wondered what happen to you !

TGAS <tgas@dingoblue.net.au

Dear Pat,

I wondered how far you'd go in the music industry.

My fondest memories of my late teens/early twenties was getting absolutely
pissed every second Friday night at the Rest Hotel in the late 70's.

Too pissed to get a root, so I just kept drinking and singing.

Good luck for the future.


_______________________
Thomas Gigg
Thomas Gigg Accounting
Phone: 03 5023 6611

I'm still Gigging, Thomas. but I did eventually sober up...sort of.

All The Best

Pat

Dear Pat

I just discovered your editorial page and read the Reconciliation one.

I want to know who the woman was, where she lived! I want to glorify her. Who was the man who brought his overseer to justice?

His name was William Hobbs and he was, in my humble opinion one of our greatest heroes. He was of course driven out of Australian Society and died in the U.K.

Pat.

Life here in the USA is amazingly different in culture, response to the terrorism, etc etc. Scenery however is startling.

Did I ever thank you for introducing me to Jeanette Wormald? She is a good good friend now and we've done a number of things together.
Her songwriting is just getting better and better and she keeps writing songs that are so good at reflecting the Australian, mallee,
farming life as a woman. Pity it's so hard getting anywhere with serious talent.

Sounds like you're doing alright.

I'm doing bits and pieces over here while Tanya studies.

Leigh Newton
--
Check out our photo page of our time in the USA
http://community.webshots.com/user/leigh_newton

maree-belinda grady <binny4@bigpond.com>

Subject : Hi From Belinda

Hello Patrick ,

I was just about to transfer some photos of my kids on to the computer from our trip to Tamworth when I realized that this was the first year I hadn't heard your name mentioned in conjuction to Tamworth. I then surmised that you would be a technology junky and went in search of you website. Congratulations by all accounts you still have a fabulous following. I wish I had been able to catch up with you in Tamworth. Beleive it or not we are only 2hrs from there but this is the first year we actually took the family for the week. I'm looking forward to hearing your new songs.

I did get a great chuckle out of the descriptions of memories from the Rest. I feel a liitle old when I realize my eldest is only 12 months younger than I was when I first entered "THE REST"

Have a great year,

love Belinda

Andrew White <awhite@australiaworkingsafely.com.au>

Subject: Recapture my youth

Hi Pat,

I am a refugee from the Rest Hotel in the late 70s. Since then I have travelled and lived in many parts of Australia. For the last 7 years I have been living in Tassie (legacy of meeting a Tassie barmaid working in Broome many years ago) and am starved of kulcha.

Am planing a weekend trip to Sydney soon to catch up with other reprobates from Friday nights at the Rest. Do you still do any shows where you perform classics like "Another Weekend", "Hector the Rat", "Who Owns the Ball" etc. If so - when are your next shows in Sydney so my mates and I can relive our youth.

While I had many enjoyable nights at the Rest one I do remember in particular is a night when the police came around because someone had complained about the noise!! You stopped playing and disappeared into the back bar for about 1/2 an hour. You then came back on stage (I think after a few drinks), turned every volume control knob to the max and belted into a Rolling Stones medley. At the end you ran out the back door to avoid the cops.

Cheers

Andrew

Wot ME! :):)

Pat

gwilliamson@servicecorp.com.au

Subject: Living on The Gold Coast

Pat,

Just a quick note to say I am missing sitting down on a Sunday afternoon at Wiseman's Ferry listening to you full my ears with music while drinking a few beers. After moving from Penrith (after all my life - 32years) to the fun of Surfers Paradise you really do not get peacefully quiet times. So with the stereo playing your CD's has loud as I can (now living in a Unit) I close my eyes, have a breeze blowing in the window and a beer in my hand is about near as I get. I think the CD's have almost wore out due to over use.

Keep up the great music. Let me know when you are next up this way -free board & beer available anytime.

Glen "Grot" Williamson

The Cobb-Clark Family <cobbclrk@coombs.anu.edu.au>

Dear Pat,

Enjoyed your concert at the National Folk Festival. Wanted to meet you in
person but it was not to be. Someday I'll get the chance to tell you in
person how much my wife and I enjoy your music. Until then we'll keep
wearing out the CD's and looking forward to hearing you in person again.

All the best,

Brett and Deborah Cobb-Clark

Subject: Well I guess they never got over cracker night...

Andrew N. Smith <ansmith@melbpc.org.au

Dear Pat,

Thank you for coming down to the cold to see us here in Vic, your Phillip Island concert was the best yet. I have not been able to listen to Six Days right through yet, for some reason it is breaking me up so I will have to be a little careful with it. I never used to be that way, guess I must be getting old or something.

Anyhow I would probably be OK with that now because I am hopping mad. The insurance company that covers the federation of Victorian bushwalking clubs has in its employ some pin headed, shiny arsed actuary that has decided that activities "above the snow line" cannot be covered, and all cross-country skiing, snowshoe "shuffles" and even walks where there might conceivably be some snowfall have been cancelled!

Time for some civil disobedience I think. Every day I edge closer to being called a "terrorist". (For the CIA: bomb, gun, president, jihad, airliner etc.G'day fella's!) So I would like to suggest a change for a while in the closing line of one of your famous songs "Working for the RTA":

Yea little boys that never grow up
Well I guess they join the army
Or become INSURANCE ACTUARIES
Or go workin' for the RTA

They've edged out the accountants who are now third most hateful below merchant bankers..... I'll have to go now cause there's a nice man at the door with a cotton-wool lined straight-jacket.

Regards,

-Andrew NS

cody_the_battler@hotmail.com

Re: your music

6:26 PM

Dear Mr Drummond,

My name is Cody Civic. I am 16 years old and have grown up listening to your music. although only one album "Tales from the Local Rag" I think I have worn it out about 10 times. I grew up in cowra and lived there most of my life, thats where dad bought the album when iIwas a baby or a bit older, I am not sure. Now Mum Dad and me live in Murwillumbah, in the Tweed shire. I just wanted to tell you how happy iIwas when I found where I can get your albums. I just wanted to say how much I love your music, and to say thanks for the songs.

Cody Civic

Hi Cody

I guess that sort of puts turning 50 in the right perspective. Thanks mate.

All The Best

PAT

The Rhymer from Ryde <TheRhymerfromRyde@bigpond...

Re Alfred Bremer Gone at last...

Dear Pat,

Just thought you'd like to know that after 40 years of faithful service, (that I know of) to the community of the Entrance, Alfred Bremmers Organ is no more.

I was up that way last weekend and almost walked past the site when I thought to myself, hey, somethings changed, and indeed it had.

The entire corner block has been cleared for re-development. Nothing at all remains. Where the Organ has gone is unknown. It's a little sad hey?


Yours in Poetry, Graeme J.

steve pickering <picknzed@ozemail.com.au>

5:15 PM

Subject : Living In The Territory

Dear Pat

I have long been a fan (the Rest and maybe 20 or so obscure spots on the Central Coast, Newcastle, Canberra, Sydney etc). I love your song "Living in the Territory", and we thought of it and played it as we drove into Nhulunbuy having come up through Arnhem land. We are currently staying with friends on Groote Eylandt who work with the aboriginal people in the two towns here, and often hear folk talk of mangrove jacks and other stuff from your song.

thanks

Steve Pickering from Newcastle

Hi Steve,

I always wonder where my songs in up. I guess there are a lot of albums out there now.

Two more in December/January.

That year in Nhulunbuy with Greame was the most beautiful experiences of my life. The area to the south in the Gulf has some and most pristine waterways on earth.

I will get back there one day.

I'm about to hit the road to not for The Gympie Muster and three weeks on the road to the Naked Poets in Southern Queensland so this the last emails for a while.

It's nice to hear that you took that song back home. Enjoy the trip. I'll see you when you get back.

Bring some slides

All the best

Pat Drummond

Hi Darren

Yes I am still alive. (But I'm told that Astroboy was lost over the Gulf in the first assault some years back....) The closest I get to that stuff these days is the Naked Poets

http://www.nakedpoets.com

which has been a big success in the comedy world. I still however do a lot of singalong stuff in with all the serious stuff . You should come along and catch up one night.

Put a group together and come along.

See Gig guide at http://www.patdrummond.net/Pat_Drummond_Gig_Guide.html

The master tapes to the album "What you see is what you get" were stolen in a robbery in 1985 and that album (in mint condition) is now selling at around the $250.00 mark. A friend recently did a great re-master onto CD from his copy. It sounded great but I won't be re releasing that CD I don't think . The full list of the currently available Cds (quite a few since then) is at

http://www.patdrummond.net/Pat%20Drummond%20Releases.html

Thanks for the memories too. Hope to see you a a gig soon

All The Best

Pat Drummond

Dear Pat:

Thanks so much for putting the lyrics to "Among the Refugees" on the web. Ihave not been able to get the song out of my mind since you did it at the
Crown a few weeks back. It is a stunning work and deserves to be heard as an alternate view to those being peddled everywhere else.

I had been talking with a friend about the new unpublished songs and said then that I wished that the lyrics were available for viewing. Those that don't make it to the new CD will be lost to us unless we can have access to them in this way.

There are many other tracks which I would love to see available on an "unpublished" page on the web. I simply love the new one "Coming Home" and hope that it makes the final list for the new CD. Also "The Light", "HardTimes for Old Heroes" (James Reyne song), and the one about the meeting with
the National Parks Ranger who talks about people perishing in the river (not sure of title).

I can fully understand if there is a copyright danger with displaying unpublished songs, but though that I would mention it anyway.

I really enjoyed seeing Alan & Brent in concert for the first time.

Also curious about where your web page is hosted. It was offline whilst you
were in Tamworth.

Take care,

Geoff:

Hi Geoff

All Those songs are now out on The Chess Set Album

All The Best

Pat

Subject: Karen Lynne at The Clarendon
From:
"Gary Davies" <Thetwelfth@aol.com wrote:>
To:
<patdrum@lisp.com.au>

Pat,

I was just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the show at the Clarendon in Katoomba last night.

It again struck me how similar in phrasing and expression, not to mention purity, Karen Lynne's voice is to an early Joan Baez.

If she would take that as a compliment then please pass it on, otherwise just let her know that there's were some places where her voice sent a tingle down my spine. Your songs I enjoyed as ever. You did seem to be in a far more reflective, low key mood than the other times I've come to your shows.

Gary Davies

Warragamba Dam

Hi Gary

Well, it was nice to work in such a gentle acoustic setting with Karen. I suppose some of the new crop of songs are failrly political and serious so if there was a more sombre mood abroad it was because we were previewing some of them before we go into the studio next month.

Thanks for being threre. It is always a great privilege to have Karen sing my songs. She has, by the way, just recorded another of my older unreleased tracks 'The Outbacks Been Gettin the Rain' on her new album to be released in October this year. Glenn A. Baker was quoted as saying of her recently "It was like hearing Emmy Lou Haris for the first time" I do believe she is the most underated voice in Austral;ian Country Music. Perhaps it's her gentle style. We think she's great anyway.

For those unfamiliar with Karen , Her Own site is at http:www.lisp.com.au/~karenlyn

All The Best

Pat

Pat,

Just got on line and have enjoyed your home page immensely. We last saw you in Mt Gambier last year and really enjoyed the night.
It got me thinking about what it is about your music that I enjoy so much and after sharing the new CDs with my kids (aged 15 & 13 years)
I now understand. Your songs provide a way of sharing my "culture" with my children - a culture resulting
from growing up in the Western suburbs of Sydney and making the annual trip to The Entrance to listen to Alfred Bremmers Organ!

When I was growing up my Irish born father sang songs of the Irish rebellion to me and in this way kept his culture alive and
instilled a sense of social justice. I believe your songs are helping me do the same with my children.
Thanks.

Also I must tell you about a wonderful moment I had as a result of your
performance in Mt Gambier. Do you remember that on that night a young man with an intellectual disability joined the audience
and was enthralled by your music, declaring himself "your No. 1 fan"? Well I met up with Justin
on the main corner of town a few days after your concert and asked if he enjoyed the show and if he had been enjoying the CDs.
He answered proudly that he now knew all the words to The SAO song and began to sing .....What
else was there for me to do but join in? This was quite a spectacle for our conservative town!

Hope to see you in SA again.

Cheers,

Kerrin & Peter Woolley

Hi Guys

What a wonderful letter. You've absolutely made my day. I had almost forgotten about Justin and those CD's I had given him.

Karen and I hope to get back to Mt. Gambier in October.

All The Best

Pat