George Atu: The best musician I’ve ever played with was from Rotuma

 The best musician I’ve ever played with was from Rotuma

Red marker on the map shows Rotuma, you can’t actually see the Island & Islets, it’s so small – at least in area, definitely not in spirit, where my old bass player George Atu was from.

He was a freak.

Probably the best musician I’ve ever played with.

And I've played with many so called 'famous' players.

Always joking

Really stupid hilarious jokes

 

Like when the lead singer needed neck surgery & Geoge joked “too much sperm.”

Ha. You need guys like that in the band where blokes’ competing egos can quickly get toxic.

George always took the tension out of the room.

Rotuma.

Ever heard of it?

Literally in the middle of nowhere.

Separate but linked to Fiji administerially.

There’s probably only 2000 Rotumans in the World.

But if only you could’ve heard this guy play bass!!!!
Think Bootsy Collins – a bit more around the beat, less metronomic, funnier and smoother xx

Perfect sense of rhythm

Seemingly no tension in his body

A better player than Robbie Shakespeare

I just had to play super straight as a drummer coz he was piping and sliding all over the place, I just had to pocket it like Al Jackson Jr, still he never played too many notes for essentially vocal ethnic music.

He was always surprising yet appropriate.

Terry once called for a Fijian version of Lionel Richie’s ‘Stuck on You’ song.
Me and the rhythm guitar player kept laughing coz George was so funky xx

And with the Fijian 4 part vocal harmonies it sounded like paradise xx

Best musical moment I’ve ever had the privilege of being a part of.

 

Better than sex.

 

& I’ve had some good sex in my life.

In terms of sublime beauty.

I used to crash at George’s house as a 23, 24, 25 year old coming up… and drink buckets of kava and listen to him crack jokes.
You gotta have a lot of humour in a band xx

You don’t want academics

You want people who’ve dropped out of school at 8

10

Ok 13, 14

Something like that.

As Neil Young’s producer David Briggs said “the more think, the more you stink.”

Thinking’s a philosopher’s job.

Music’s the place for the body/heart/soul.

Not that it’s not highly intelligent.
Just not intellectualised. Yuck!
Like too many bourgeois poseurs
Idiot tales
Sound and fury
Signifying only
Whether nothing or Hamlet's suicidal thought
Or just some little thing.

Being requires belief embodied xx

 

Georgie,

 

If you’re still around,

Would love to catch up.

Though my music’s suffered with the years.

It gets harder to sing.

With all the grief.

And the gravity of aging.

 

As Oscar Wilde famously said

“Youth is wasted on the young.”

 

©Malachi Doyle 2023.