When Kylie Minogue was diagnosed with breast cancer, the news broke just as she was about to embark on her biggest ever Australian tour.
In his book 'High Voltage Rock and Roll', music journalist Christie Eliezer recounts the events leading up to the announcement and how Kylie's good friend, record label boss and promoter Michael Gudinski was called up to to handle the press.Undercover brings you another extract from the book 'High Voltage Rock and Roll'
However, the concert that was to cause Gudinski the most grief, more personal than financial, came in May 2005. Kylie Minogue's Showgirl tour had already sold over 200à000 tickets, with a reported gross of $20 million for 20 shows before it even started. (The biggest tour in Australia by a female artist is by Madonna, who sold 350à000 tickets for Frontier. The second-largest is P!nk in 2007, for Michael Coppel Presents, which shifted 307à000 tickets).
The first show was in Sydney, booked for Thursday 19 May. Minogue's massive stage show arrived by boat from the UK, and was set up at the Sydney venue. Minogue arrived with her 100-strong entourage on the weekend before the opening night. She had taken her boyfriend, French actor Olivier Martinez, to her hideaway on a koala bear sanctuary called French Island, off the Victorian coast. They dined at seafood restaurants around Melbourne, and visited Minogue's parents' mansion in leafy Canterbury. Plans were for Minogue, her long-time manager Terry Blamey and Gudinski to fly on the Tuesday to Sydney for the first full dress rehearsal. But that morning, 17 May, Blamey called Gudinski at home and said, "I need to come around and see you."
Doctors had that day informed Minogue she had breast cancer and needed immediate surgery. Minogue's initial stunned response was that she would finish the tour first. Her parents talked her out of it. An upset Blamey, notoriously media-shy, asked Gudinski to handle the media conference to announce that the tour was postponed.
At 4àpm that day, TV cameras, radio journalists and print reporters amassed in the laneway outside the old red-brick warehouse in Albert Park that serves as Gudinski's offices. The story had already leaked to media and music circles, and the media contingent was particularly huge. Gudinski, an experienced player with the media, clunked down his private wrought-iron stairs, looked out the window, realised how big the turnout was, and ran back to his office suite. He picked up a bottle of vodka and took a large swig. He had never drunk vodka straight. He took a deep breath and decided to face the lions.
"What on earth do you think you're doing?" said his PA, Mary Bainbridge, sternly. "You can't go and face the media reeking of alcohol."
"They're not going to be that close to me."
"Go and wash your mouth NOW!"
High Voltage Rock and Roll by Christie Eliezer is available now.
