A Band Without Walls at the End of the World: The Green Mist, Next Stop Antarctica and the Tasmanian geographic imaginary

Abstract

The Green Mist is a floating international blues entity which evolved in the deep south of Tasmania. Featuring former members of the Violent Femmes and Beasts of Bourbon, the Mist’s first album Next Stop Antarctica represents a vivid evocation of the peculiar strangeness of the island’s atmosphere, history and environment. Musician Julien Poulson’s father Bruce was a historian who lived in a derelict organic garlic farm in the small town of Southport; an area that is often bitterly cold, perpetually gloomy, bleak yet strangely beautiful. Bruce was one of the people who discovered the remains of a garden built in 1792 by French explorers in Recherche Bay, and this discovery was later used to help protect the site from logging. While his dad was dying of cancer, Julien helped him put together his final book about Recherche Bay’s history and later many of these old stories formed the basis of album tracks. Using The Green Mist as a case study, this paper will explore the links between physical place of production and creation; the use of both individual memory and historical narratives in song writing; and the extent to which these factors form part of a conscious or deliberate strategy.