This little blog will unfortunately suffer from my memory somewhat.

In 1996, a fresh faced band of particularly young men waltzed (we might not have waltzed actually) into an ‘Agency’ in Perth; our mission? We were looking for work.

Enter Jamie Mercanti aka: Slim Jim. He took a look at us ‘kids’ (I was 16) and for some prophetic reason, took a MASSIVE punt by getting us a gig. I say ‘massive punt’ because the pub scene is quite an adult scene, even to this day. So to let a band with more than half the band under-age have a gig at all… was a bit of a risk.

To this day I don’t know what he saw in us, but before long we were coming back trumps. We were doing the ‘righty’. Whatever gig Murphy’s Lore got sent out to perform came back with a positive response… I guess it would have to as 13 years later…

…he’s still my agent.

In the early days, Jamie certainly tested us. We played some pretty unusual places sometimes… Weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, Backyard parties, Paddle-Steamers, Grain-Silos, TV Studios, Wineries, Truck-beds, Festivals, Sports clubs, Town Halls, Restaurants, Pubs… actually to be honest, there’s nothing unusual about those places at all… that’s just a normal rock band really… …except for the grain silo perhaps. Basically the point I’m making is, whenever Jamie threw something at us, whatever is was (and IS) we jumped at it and came bounding back asking for more. You knew that whatever you were going into was something that he had probably experienced before us, and knew what we were in for. Maybe that was the point also… he was modeling us into a hard-working outfit. Wow, that only just occurred to me.

There’s something very built in with Jamie that I would have to put down as ‘fatherly’. He was never really JUST an agent. Very quickly we garnered a much more personal relationship with him… and when it came to him finally getting married to the love of his life Felicity he trusted the music for his wedding to us.

That meant a lot to me. From that day forth, we were family.

Of course Idol happened and things went very ‘skewiff’ for a while, and we were out of touch… but he’s never shifted stance; he believed in me and if was able to help… he would.

This weekend, he did.

For those watching Telethon this weekend and watched it through Saturday night would have seen ‘Slim Jim’ commanding the panel better than the rest while smiling bravely through some late night entertainment.

He’s been involved heavily with Telethon for many years now, to the point where if they need something done, they go to him. So when they said they needed a great voice to lead some celebrities in the opening of Telethon 09, he thought of me.

He could have put anyone in that spot. He chose me.

I didn’t want to sit here and gush about my agent, and I’m not even concerned if he reads this or not… he knows how I feel anyway… it’s not the point. I just had an amazing weekend and I thought you should know why and who was responsible.

If you’re trying to get a start in the industry and you’ve found yourself an agent…

…make them proud…

…you’ll never look back.

Love Court.