2 June 2009
Tuesday Transcript: Mutant Death and Justice Bell
When judges leave and join the superior courts, it is traditional for the various professional bodies to say a few words reflecting on their Honour’s career and expressing their best wishes. So, recently, Justice Bell has been farewelled from the NSW Supreme Court and welcomed to the High Court of Australia.
Mr Macken, in his farewell speech, and Mr Digby, in his welcome, both share this story:
It is also said that you have the unique distinction of being immortalised in song, in fact, in a song by a punk rock group called Mutant Death. I will not put this to music, but the words go as follows:
The police, they came and got me;
They threw me in a cell;
They said I had one phone call;
I rang Virginia Bell.
Fuller lyrics are provided by Simon Rice OAM in Peppercorn, February 2009:
If evidence is needed of Bell’s formidable reputation while at Redfern Legal Centre, it is in the lyrics of “Police Verbals” by Sydney punk band Mutant Death, who sang (if that’s not too generous a term):
I was being verballed, I was being bashed
And the law couldn’t help ’cause I didn’t have the cash
I woke up next morning, still bleeding in my cell
Got on to Redfern Legal Centre, spoke to Virginia Bell.
Perhaps those fuller lyrics were considered too confronting to be read in the Supreme Courts of New South Wales and Victoria.
Or perhaps the lawyers are simply not big fans of Mutant Death: in his speech, Mr Macken added that:
I also heard that when the band performed that song at the Redfern Legal Centre, the rendition was so awful that colleagues pulled the plug on the PA system.
Then again, the NSW Legal Aid newsletter is called Verbals, a title which is suspiciously familiar — so perhaps somebody in the NSW community legal sector was a fan of Mutant Death after all.
Related posts:
- Tuesday Transcript: Reality-based decision-making
- Tuesday Transcript: High Court TV reviews
- Tuesday Transcript: Pipe Down
- Tuesday Transcript: Cut Your Losses
- Tuesday Transcript: Nice Catch
