Truly, Madly, Deeply

If you think this is going to be about Savage Garden’s 1997 smash hit, well, you couldn’t be more correct.

As stated, the year was 1997. Our class was originally a composite of grades 4 and 5, but then mysteriously turned into a straight grade 4 within the first month of school. I can remember the start of the year being incredibly warm, but this was alleviated by daily swimming lessons in our school pool throughout term one and beach swims after school. My 7 times tables were improving, ‘Burgo’s Catch Phrase’ debuted, and we were all learning to draw the cool version of the letter ‘S’.

I was mad into basketball at the time and also swam a bit. I ate chocolate cake at playtime (N.B.: I still call it playtime, not recess), and peanut butter sandwiches and an apple or banana for lunch. Breaks were spent on the basketball court or playing table tennis, and wet-weather days called for Connect 4 or improving my not-so-great art skills (mainly composed of continuing to draw said letter ‘S’).

Our classroom was separated into multiple pods of desks. I think this is when I first understood seating plans, classroom organisation and why students were arranged in specific groups. In my pod there were four members and we sat together for the whole year. We were a diverse bunch; we all enjoyed school, we were quite academic, and we went off on our own journeys when we weren’t in class. To be honest, I can only remember three of the members (including me), so maybe there were only three of us and our teacher kept one desk spare. If anyone from this class can help me out with a seating plan from WPS’s 4C in 1997, that would be greatly appreciated.

There was me, a girl who was quite musical and competitive, and a boy who was popular and loved footy. Like most children in primary school, we all got along and there were never any major dramas. Although, one time our pod decided we were going to cook sausages using a self-made tin foil barbecue - it must have been an extension project when we were looking at solar energy. Needless to say, the sausages didn’t cook, and all hell broke loose as to why we had failed in this task. I think we were saddened that we hadn’t excelled at something and we turned on each other immediately. In hindsight, attempting to cook anything in the July sun in South Gippsland was probably just a little naïve.

I didn’t like necessarily like Savage Garden, but I didn’t dislike them either. All I knew of them was their weird video clip of 'I Want You' that I’d seen on Video Hits (seriously, Darren Hayes is getting a dental x-ray for a majority of the clip) and the line, ‘sweet like a chica cherry cola’. However, one of my desk mates was a big fan. Not the competitive musical one, no. It was the footy-loving, popular boy.

The underside of his desk lid was FILLED will Savage Garden paraphernalia. Pictures of Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones from the TV Hits magazine, the inside of their album’s cassette sleeve, and a poster made by him. Yes, the ‘S’ of 'Savage Garden' was one of those ‘S’s’ that we had been fervently drawing throughout the year.

I’m listening to their self-titled album and ‘Affirmation’ whilst writing this (obviously skipping back to ‘The Animal Song’ repeatedly because it’s their best) and I’m being smacked by a flood of pre-pubescent memories.

It was probably around August when the event happened. Auditions for the school’s Talent Quest were announced. The year prior was the first iteration in which my sister performed a jazz duo to TLC’s ‘Waterfall’, and my cousin dressed in drag to play ‘Goldilocks’. Two of my friends and I performed our self-devised song, ‘Little Johnny Taylor’. Some of the lyrics included him having a ‘pet alligator’ and picking his nose and ‘slurp[ing] it like a Slurpee’… Lyrical geniuses.

This year was different though. I was more mature. My artistic self was blossoming. I wanted to be taken seriously… Therefore, who wouldn’t love two 10-year-old boys serenading the student body with ‘Truly, Madly, Deeply’?

Cute? Yes.

Inappropriate? Also, yes.

I must articulate to you that this was not my decision. Hell, I didn’t even really like Savage Garden.

We practiced in the playground a couple of times, and I vividly remember not being able to sing the harmony on the line ‘Be everything that you need’. Old habits die hard. Give me the melody any day.

All seemed to be going well. Days were spent doing research projects on nudibranchs, practicing lay-ups, and wearing my peaked cap too tightly which would lead to an early onset receding hairline. All the while I was learning lyrics to the number 1 worldwide hit.

The day of the auditions arrived. The bell rang, I ate my lunch and walked up to the multi-purpose room, preparing to sing. No friend to be seen.

“He’ll turn up”, I thought to myself. “It was his idea”.

Acts were going through the motions. Jugglers, dancers, a trumpeter performing a technical piece from their Grade 2 AMEB exam. Our audition was getting closer and closer. They weren’t closed auditions – they were open to all. Everyone could see what was happening. They could see who sounded terrible, who looked stupid. Were we going to be those people?

I could feel the nerves rising. I knew he wouldn’t turn up. It was our turn. the teacher called our names. Instead of bowing out gracefully and saying I couldn’t do it, I stood up, walked to the middle of the performance space, planted my feet, and sang.

I can’t remember actually singing, but I can remember some claps and the teacher saying I was through. I walked out of the room in a bit of a daze and straight to the oval where I knew my friend would be.

“I just auditioned. Where were you?”

“I didn’t want to do it.”

“But you love Savage Garden. It was your idea.”

“Yeh, I wanted to play footy.”

“I learnt the lyrics.”

“And…?”

The wind was knocked out of me.

Off he went and continued to kick the footy.

Off I went and covered my embarrassment by playing basketball with my usual temperamental flair.

I pulled out of that Talent Quest. I didn’t want to have that feeling again.

Perhaps this is the reason why I don’t love singing.

It may also stem from auditioning for WSC’s Talented Students’ Concert in 2005 in which a friend and I sang ‘Something Stupid’ and not getting through. That was also a huge blow to my confidence.

Can I be angry at my friend for leaving me hanging and not singing with me in 1997? Of course, I can.

Am I? No.

Would anger get me anywhere? Not necessarily.

Can I use this moment to fuel me in other parts of my life? Well, to an extent.

To be honest, I don’t really get nervous when I perform anymore. I don’t like singing, but I came to the conclusion a couple of years ago that we can’t control what people think of us, especially if we’re trying our best.

To this day ‘Truly, Madly, Deeply’ is the only pop song to which I know all of the lyrics. Actually, there’s another story about the Japanese version of Neil Sedaka’s ‘Calendar Girl’, but I’ll save that for another time.