I WAS SCROUNGING for records in a little store in Brisbane’s West End the last time I saw Grant. We were both regulars there and it was no surprise at all to see him wander in, bending to pick up a street magazine at the door as he entered. He ended up buying a Dylan album – Bob’s latest, Love and Theft, which he knew and loved, but didn’t own – and I bought a Dave Graney CD, My Life on the Plains, which I’ve barely listened to since.

It had been a while since we’d run into each other. We were friendly, but not really friends. I’d known him for ten years, but it was rare for me to talk to him without a tape recorder sitting between us. The longest time we’d ever spent together was a couple of hours, when I interviewed him about his band, the Go-Betweens, for a book I was writing based on Brisbane’s music history, Pig City (University of Queensland Press, 2004). That was a few years ago now.