Rockalonga reborn After Dark

From INXS, Paul Kelly and Midnight Oil to Jimmy Barnes, Silverchair, The Cruel Sea and Dragon; they were heady days.

There was the time when Michael Hutchence fell off the lighting tower and was taken away by ambulance with a broken ankle.

And then that time when Ella Hooper from Killing Heidi was hit in the head with a flying beer can and yelled ‘F%*K You!’ before storming off stage.

Rockalonga was one of the coolest and most original music festivals to hit Australia.

Its memory also lives long with Aussie rock icon, Diesel who says he’s “pretty sure” Rockalonga was the first outdoor music festival he played, first as Johnny Diesel and the Injectors, and later solo.

Now, almost 40 years later, Diesel is preparing to headline After Dark at Silverwoods Resort, the first major outdoor concert in Yarrawonga since those days.

Diesel, whose real name is Mark Lizotto, has a long history with this region.

He was born in the USA and lived in a tiny town in Rhode Island, the youngest of seven children, until the family moved to Sydney in 1971.

Mark was just five years old when his dad bought a station wagon, drove down the Hume Highway, and settled in Albury.

It was his first taste of suburbia and where he began a lifelong love of running.

“Albury was the first time I remember having a footpath, and a street I could run down,” he said.

“I loved the feeling of running as fast as I could; it was addictive and felt like pure freedom.

“Growing up in a big family, it was the one thing I could do that was just mine.”

Diesel, as we know him, began his music career in Perth.

His father was a professional saxophonist and exposed his young family to music from an early age.

But it was the guitar that hooked Mark and at just 13 years old he decided on a career in music.

“Dad was a music junkie and never stayed in one lane, so I heard a lot of different stuff growing up, and opened my ears to Australian radio,” he said.

“Daddy Cool was so authentic of that time, so potent and just that good.

“In the late 70s and 80s it was Midnight Oil, The Divinyls and Hunters and Collectors.

“I saw Midnight Oil play and I remember thinking, ‘how does anyone do that’; the intensity was incredible.”

A lover of Australian music, Mark says Russell Morris’, The Real Thing was a work of art, Iva Davies Man of Colours was “an amazing piece of music”, and Renee Geyer’s Heading in the Right Direction was “an incredible album”.

But if he had to pick a favourite song - that would Jimi Hendrix’ cover of Dylan’s All Along the Watch Tower.

“I can’t believe he was only 24 when he did that,” he said.

Diesel’s career began in the early 1980s, but it was in 1986 as a 20-year-old, that Johnny Diesel and the Injectors was formed.

The name started as a joke, and it stuck.

Four decades later, and turning 60 next year, Mark loves playing as much as he ever did and says the idea of turning 60 is surreal.

“Thinking back to when I was 25 … I thought at 60 I’d be old, wearing brown corduroy pants and cardigans, but here I am,” he said.

“I’ve been playing with my band for 24 years now and they are amazing.

“We became like brothers, and we have this thing where we know where we’re at and what we’re going to do before we do it.

“I can really lean on them.”

With another album planned for next year, and an Australian tour, there are no plans to slow down for this Aussie icon.

When Diesel hits Yarrawonga in January it’s likely to evoke memories of last time, playing Rockalonga as a young, up-and-coming rock musician.

This time, he’s the headline act.