As the youngest child, and only girl, in a family of creative types, Myf Warhurst grew up in Red Cliffs with the music in her. Whether she was watching Daryl Braithwaite on TV on a Sunday night or listening to the crackle of the needle across vinyl as Agnetha and Anni-Frid took her from rural Victoria to Eurovision, music has always shaped Myf’s life. Later her love of music (and the realisation that a professional pianist gig wasn’t part of the plan) would shape her career.
But music isn’t just about memories. It’s a safe place for people who feel different. Songs and lyrics helped Myf make sense of the world and deal with heartbreak and uncertainty. Music steered her hopes and fashion choices, cemented friendships and bonded family. In Time of My Life she shares funny, fabulous and occasionally fraught tales about growing up in a small country town with an unhealthy obsession with Countdown, then working in Australian radio and her experiences on the much-loved music quiz show Spicks & Specks. She spills the backstage beans on work, fame, feminism, failure, love and success. Like a sommelier matches food with wine, Myf matches hits with memory, and in the process reminds us all that, as Louis Armstrong said, ‘Music is life itself.’
Myf will be in-conversation with another Mallee export ABC journalist Brett Worthington. Growing up in Merbein, Brett’s career has spanned regional Victoria, South Australia and many years as a rural reporter Brett is now a political correspondent for ABC News Digital based out of Parliament House Canberra. Some of Brett’s finer moments have included growing a backyard wheat crop as the western Victorian rural reporter and later baking scones with the CWA live on the radio.
A graduate of Mildura Senior College, Brett spent the following summer driving a clapped out old ute to his Fisher’s bottle shop job, playing on loop a tape he recorded of the Triple J breakfast show. When Myf would later take over presenting that program, he would find himself scaling Big Lizzie in pursuit of the infamous tag she’d left on the Red Cliffs icon.
Following the talk will be a DJ set inspired by the Time of My Life which will take audiences on a journey from John Farnham to Nirvana to Eurovision. Join us as we enjoy a night with one of our regions most loved daughters and the music that transformed her into a national icon.
The Arts Mildura Hub bar will be open and spinning tunes from 5:30pm with grazing plates from Stefano’s Café available along with a selection of local beer, wines and gin.