TOP 27
If you know me, you know I love music.
Music is the reason I'm friends with half my friends - it's our connection, our love language. So many awesome memories and good times on the dancefloor, seeing bands, exchanging new finds and just hanging out listening to tunes.
It's been my constant companion, seen me through every age and stage, held me through heartbreak, a muse for my art, and soundtracked thousands of stories of my life.
TOP 27 is a weekly playlist series where my fellow music lovers share 27 of their all time favourite songs.
This is the new mixed tape like your friend would make you in the 80's and 90's. It's about finding new music and expanding out of the algorithm.
Each playlist comes with a mini music interview - 10 questions that dig into what music means to them, the gigs that changed them, the songs that break their hearts.
This is about documenting the great taste in music I know my friends have, remembering songs we may have forgotten, and connecting us through our passion.
Every Saturday, a new playlist drops, my friends music identity.
Cath Gardener my long time fellow rock chick.
We've seen heaps of bands together - DC Fontains, Spiderbait, the Pixies.
Her taste is eclectic, her passion is infectious, and I can't wait to share her Top 27 with you.
A massive music lover and exceptional artist, Craig Mackie (Mac) gives us his all time top 27. Cover photo taken at Blues fest after 12 hours of scotch and coke.
#3 Top 27 - TBA
Dropping - 1/11
The Playlists
Each week a new playlist will drop, follow me on Spotify there's some
cool playlist collaborations coming up
Gemma Donnellan
The Luminous Archive, a 6 hour journey into story telling through song. Each tells of human experience, love, betrayal, death & everything in between. Time capsules, insights into decades past. Some you have heard a million times before, I implore you to listen with fresh ears and an open perspective.
Gemma Donnellan
I love Australian music, this is my take on the triple J Australian hottest 100 songs of all time. Spanning from the 60’s to 2025, with a few forgotten songs in there. Starting chilled to go wild, so many of these songs have shaped my life and I love them all.
Gemma Donnellan
The playlist from my first Reciprocity event. Starts with a bang, to rev me up before everyone arrived.
When Monique was about to give her talk, Wuthering Heights came on, we did a little impromptu sing and dance together.
This is a real mixed bag, to appeal to a wide audience.
Music is my Life
Music has been my constant companion through every age and stage of life. It's given me a safe space to explore raw emotion, to expand and express myself.
I was lucky to grow up with older sisters and parents who were all into music. Mum loved her musicals and my sisters were into pop, introducing me to Neil Diamond, David Bowie, Skyhooks, Meatloaf and Billy Joel.
Through breakups, music has always been there. I remember having The Cranberries' first album on repeat, weeping and weeping through each song, letting every emotion run through me—grief, sadness, anger, melancholy, betrayal, despair.
There was a fine art to creating the perfect mixtape. Like so many of us in the 80s, I spent hours taping songs off the radio, trying to avoid the announcer's voice as they spoke over the intros. I've also got heaps of mixtapes that friends made me over the years, and I've kept them all.
I like to say I had a well-spent misspent youth, pouring all my time and money into gigs and festivals. I've even created a spreadsheet of every band I've seen and kept every ticket.
Before a party, friends would come over with all their CDs and we'd spend whole afternoons in share houses, drinking beers and creating the ultimate party tapes. Lots of grunge—Cannonball and Cool Thing was played at every party.
Most weekends were spent seeing bands at Melbourne's legendary venues—The Espy, The Punters Club, The Evelyn.
By the late 90s, I was living in an awesome share house with decks in the living room and a couple of DJ housemates. Every night I'd get home from work and there'd be tunes playing. So many great nights like the Desert Island Dinner Party where everyone brought 5 of their all-time favourite songs, and the infamous Xena and Hercules party.
I did a music management course and managed a band, Grape Knee-High, got a demo produced, handed it around town, and scored a few gigs. It was fun, but I'm a much better punter.
Today, music is woven into everything I do. I love painting to music and spend lots of time creating playlists (the new mixtapes) at all of my events and exhibitions. Some of my artworks are even named after lyrics, like House Is Full of Plants from Australian Crawl.
Curating a playlist is a skill—putting songs together to take you on a musical journey. My taste is wide and eclectic, spanning decades.
There are thousands more stories of my life that revolve around music, but I'll let my playlists do the talking. Give them a listen.
