The singer-songwriter Eric Bogle left Scotland for Australia
almost 50 years ago. He was born in Peebles 70 years ago and has spent more
than half his life in Australia, where he moved in 1969. Shortly afterwards, in
1971, he wrote And the Band played Waltzing Matilda.
He says: "I wrote it after seeing an Anzac Day March in
Canberra. "Anzac Day is a whole day holiday set aside to honour the men
and women who have died in the umpteen wars Australia has been involved in, and
I thought the time was right for an anti-war song but I set it in Gallipoli
rather than Vietnam, because even though our soldiers were dying in Vietnam,
most Australians couldn't point to it on a map, whereas Gallipoli is woven into
the psyche of the nation."
No Man's Land, also known as The Green Fields of France, was inspired
by a visit he made to Flanders.He explains, "I was just unready for how young they
were," he says "In all the photos I'd seen, they all looked old
because they'd been through hell but they were so young, just wee
laddies."
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