The Lighter Note

Orchestral manoeuvres in the park

With barely a week left to run, the Western Australian election campaign is reaching its crescendo.

But The Note knows there are many people who are weary of politics and not the faintest bit interested in hosting a Don’s Party-style election-night vigil.

We presume it is this very market the Perth Symphony Orchestra is aiming for when it attempts to repeat its recent Valentine’s Day blockbuster - with its inaugural Summer Proms concert on Scotch College Playing Fields on Saturday, March 9.

The election evening performance will include solo artists such as tenors Mark Underwood and Richard Symons, accordion player Cathie Travers and local 14-year-old singer-songwriter, Lucinda Nicholls, who recently recorded her song ‘Inside & Out’ at Abbey Road Studios in the UK.

The combined Scotch College/PLC choir will also be part of the action.

PSO, which played at last year’s Leeuwin Estate concert, claims to be the only orchestra in the world to be founded and run by an all-women team. They don’t say anything about avoiding politics - but this is your chance to find a different type of crescendo.

Dirty business

Macmahon Holdings’ takeover battle with Indian-owned firm Sembawang Australia has been a colourful affair. And just when we thought it could not get better,

The Note was delighted by the vivid language used by Sembawang in correspondence appealing to Macmahon shareholders.

The guts of the letter contained a series of statements more than suggesting that Macmahon’s leadership was not quite right. Actually, ‘wrong’ was the operative word.

Take for instance: “When the CEO of your company makes 50 per cent more than the CEO of IBM there is something wrong.”

Or: “When that same board have no skin in the game other that a collective one tenth of 1 per cent there is something wrong.”

You get the drift?

But the best bit, which introduced a term The Note was previously unfamiliar with, was the last: “When your results are as flat as a shitcarters hat and likely to fall further when miners take back the mining operations to save $5+/t there is something disastrous in the making.”

Good sense

The Note breaks a commitment to be a golf-free zone by reminding aficionados that charity group Senses Foundation’s annual golf day is on at the Vines Resort and Country Club on Friday, March 8.