TIM FREEDMAN MUSICIAN

I was happiest ... in 1998 when I knelt before Gough Whitlam to receive an ARIA for an album we put out on our own record label. I didn’t have my first drink that night until 5am because I wanted to savour the natural high from being in a fairytale just once in my lifetime.

You wouldn’t know it but ... I’ve toured Ireland four times, and am still to play in New Zealand, a situation I’m hoping to correct later this year.

My most embarrassing moment ... is that once a year when I forget the lyrics to one of my own songs and the audience has to step in and yell it out.

The last time I cried was ... in the last episode of Detectorists, a charming English show about two blokes and their metal detectors.

The last book I read was ... the Martin Amis memoir Inside Story about his best friend Christopher Hitchens and mentor Saul Bellow dying. It is actually very uplifting.

My favourite films are ... Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and a recent discovery – Charlie Chaplin’s late masterpiece Limelight.

I really want to ... spend a week on a surf boat in the Indian Ocean with a few mates, while my knees are still in order.

My guilty pleasure is ... ice cream, cheese and whisky after dinner.

Life has taught me ... to reserve judgment on apparent disasters because sometimes they set you on a more interesting course.

I’m about to ... spend a day in the studio mixing The Whitlams’ musical tribute to our late sound engineer. It’s a 6 ½ minute epic from which the next tour takes its name - Gaffage and Clink.

The Whitlams will perform a second Hobart show on their national tour, Gaffage and Clink 2021, on Saturday, August 14, at the Odeon Theatre, after their first show was sold out; Tickets $66.30; To book — http://bit.ly/TheWhitlamsOdeon