As told to Mario Pinti
After a successful career in the banking and funeral industries, and a continuing life-long passion for playing and scoring music, Clive Pattie now convenes music classes at Altona’s University of the Third Age.
I was born on the Mornington peninsula August 15 1950. My mother and father owned the Summers general store and post office. We moved to Sunshine after Dad took a job at the head office of Commonwealth Oil Refineries, which eventually became BP.
That move was the biggest culture shock in my life, from green pastures and a green football field to Sunshine Primary which had just a gravel field and a concrete cricket pitch. But I loved school. Sunshine Primary and Sunshine West High were great schools, and had a lot to do with my development of character in the sense that we had a migrant population of Greeks, Italians, Maltese, Poles and Ukrainians, we had everyone, and there was no such word as multicultural. We were just a group of kids thrown in together where you’d swap a Vegemite sandwich for stuff you’d never eaten in your life.
It was a fantastic place to develop. What’s continued in my life is that races don’t matter. We’re part of one human race. That’s a big philosophy of mine, that we all get on together.
I started work in 1968 with the old State Bank as a junior in the overseas department, earning all of $35 a fortnight. I became a manager at 35 which was unheard of because then promotion was based on seniority. I had a good career. I loved the State bank; it was almost like a family. A lot of us were offered a package to go when the Commonwealth Bank took over, some went to the Bendigo Bank. I went into the funeral industry working for a family-owned company which was so rewarding because you can help people at the worst of times.
I started learning guitar at the age of six. I used to fall asleep on my bed with my guitar on my chest. It was a 1963 Epiphone Casino, which my grandmother paid 500 pounds for.
At high school guys I knew two years ahead of me played in a band. It was the start of the Beatles era and I thought I’ve got to be in this. Eventually I got to join and realised I could play. As a band we eventually got pretty damn good, getting regular gigs around the western suburbs, which our parents had to take us to because none of us could drive. We finished up qualifying for the 1968 Victorian final of Hoadley’s Battle of the Bands, up against groups like the Masters Apprentices.
I went on to play in bands throughout my adult life, including with my wife, Cheryl. I also studied to become an arranger. I’ve arranged for orchestras, I’ve written symphonies, I’ve done all that sort of stuff. I love arranging, and I love composing.
I’d encourage everyone to learn a musical instrument. Music is a heart healer, a soul healer, and brings people together. So why not play?
