Little Pattie - 9 Late News (August 15, 2021)
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00:00Little Patty joins us after the break. See you shortly.
00:09Wednesday, to be exact, marks the 55th anniversary of Australia's deadliest battle of the Vietnam War.
00:16108 Australian and New Zealand soldiers cut off and isolated, fighting for their lives,
00:22outnumbered 10 to 1 against 2,500 Viet Cong in the Battle of Long Tan.
00:28They withstood attack after attack for three hours in monsoonal rains, surviving against all the odds,
00:35but not before 18 Australians were killed and more than 500 Viet Cong lost their lives.
00:42Our next guest was there as the fighting began. In fact, she was on stage at the Aussie base of Nui Dat,
00:49as you can see here, at the time just 17 years old.
00:53That singer was Little Patty, who I'm delighted to say joins us now.
00:58Patty, terrific to see you. How well do you remember that afternoon?
01:04I remember it with great clarity, Peter. I remember being on stage and being told very swiftly to get off stage.
01:13Colin, I and the boys were raced to a helicopter in nearby Iroquois.
01:20Colin was kidnapped at the time. It was meant to be a bit funny, but he ended up staying at the base for the night.
01:27The rest of us were whisked off on our way back to Nui Dat, where we had been based for several nights.
01:34The atmosphere in the helicopter was sombre.
01:41Normally there's lots of laughter and banter and jokes and it's always good fun.
01:47Our soldiers are such great company and you always feel very safe with them and that's how I felt.
01:53I felt incredibly safe.
01:55But even though it was very quiet and no one was smiling, I could see underneath us that in the rubber plantation,
02:04the place was being lit up by hundreds, perhaps thousands of tracer bullets and lots of smoke.
02:11I started to begin to realize that this was pretty serious.
02:16I thought of the young soldiers, and they all looked so young, who would have been fighting that battle,
02:26who would have been to our concerts earlier in the day.
02:31That was an awful feeling.
02:36So I spent the rest of the day and the night worrying about it.
02:40And of course, worrying about Cole, who didn't make the chopper.
02:43Of course, you're talking about Cole, Joy and the Joy Boys who were performing with you.
02:49I just want to take you back into that chopper. You touched on it.
02:52You could see what was happening below you.
02:55You felt safe with the soldiers, but deep inside, were you frightened? Were you scared at the same time?
03:02If I was, I didn't feel it. Lots of thoughts were going through my mind, a mixture.
03:10I felt okay because we'd always felt safe with the Australian soldiers.
03:16Perhaps that sounds corny, and I don't mean it to be, but they really are reassuring and they're great soldiers.
03:24I was 17. I was a fearless teenager, so being scared wasn't really part of my mindset until much later.
03:34Well, I agree with you about our diggers. They're just the most wonderful people.
03:38Yeah, wonderful.
03:40Looking back on that time, you said, it really shaped me in so many ways as a human being for the rest of my life.
03:47How did it shape you, Patti?
03:49Well, it made me think of other people much more.
03:53I was brought up to do that, but sometimes we don't always behave that way.
03:58Just one thing that was very pointed to me, when Colin and I were allowed to, we would walk the streets, say, of Saigon,
04:07which it was called at the time, and I remember we were a bit of a hit and we gave impromptu concerts when we could,
04:16but I think the blonde hair and we just were so different, you know, 1966.
04:21I remember seeing young girls my age or a little bit older perhaps sitting in the streets doing their homework with all their books spread out.
04:32And I thought, well, one day they probably, you know, they didn't have big homes to go into.
04:38Life was on the streets, including their homework.
04:42I remember many times thinking of all the times I'd nagged my mother about, why can't I have my own desk, Mum?
04:50And it was always, oh, we can't afford it.
04:52There's not enough room, et cetera.
04:54I never asked for it again, of course, because I realised that those young women,
04:59those young girls were going to be leaders one day more than likely and they didn't need a desk.
05:05Just something that stayed with me.
05:08I bet from being a 17-year-old, experiencing that, entertaining our troops,
05:14you went on to become the patron for Forces Entertainment and began helping organise concert tours of entertainers to our troops in conflicts,
05:23the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan.
05:25Why was that so important to you, Patty?
05:28Was that based on the Vietnam experience?
05:31It was based on the Vietnam experience, definitely.
05:35And I realised because of that that I was part of a long-held tradition,
05:41which meant that whenever Australian performers and musicians could,
05:45they would go to, with the aid of the Defence Department, of course,
05:49they would go and entertain our troops, no matter where they were in the world,
05:54whether it was a little conflict, perhaps peacekeeping or a big deal like the one we went to.
06:00Years later, I went to Iraq and entertained our forces as well.
06:05And as I said, it's a tradition.
06:08Not many people, no-one's going there at the moment, of course,
06:11but when the world is safer again,
06:14I'm sure that we'll be able to organise more terrific Australian concerts for whomever is overseas.
06:21Let's go back now to the beginning, a song written by great Australian music talents,
06:25Jay Justin and Jo Halford.
06:27That was your first hit. Let's have a quick listen.
06:45Ah, fantastic. You were 14, that song went to number two.
06:48Would have been number one except for some group called The Beatles
06:51and a little tune I want to hold your hand.
06:54How dare they?
06:55How dare they?
06:56The end of The Beatles.
06:57But you still must have felt on top of the world to be in that company.
07:01I did and I actually got to meet them after their stadium concert, which was a real thrill.
07:09Yeah, I didn't really long to be number one.
07:12I was just happy with how things were going.
07:15It was a busy life, Peter.
07:17I was a blur really of making records, going on tours, live performances,
07:23travelling all over Australia, just growing up and it was pretty good.
07:30And the memory is clearly crystal clear.
07:32Let's fast forward to the present day, Patti.
07:34You're now busy with podcasts, A Baby Boomer's Guide to the 21st Century.
07:38Tell us all about it and how easy is it to get hold of it?
07:42Well, I'm a baby boomer and so is Lex Marinos, the fine actor,
07:47and he and I have gotten together and we're producing Baby Boomer's Guide
07:54to Life in the 21st Century.
07:56And you can Google it and find where you can hear it on your radio.
08:00It's all over the place.
08:01But it is a guide.
08:02It's serious at times.
08:04It has themes, expert themes of health, lifestyle and, of course,
08:10being a baby boomer can be fun as well.
08:12So it's all of that.
08:14But I'm enjoying it very much, you know.
08:17It's something very different.
08:18I feel that I'm learning all about getting older too
08:22and I feel like I'm a mature age student, Peter.
08:26It's great.
08:27Good on you.
08:28Patti, terrific to have you on The Late News.
08:30Thank you so much.
08:31Peter, Peter, may I wish Vietnam veterans and their families
08:37who fought the fight of their lives, may I wish them a great day
08:42on Wednesday the 18th coming up.
08:45They can't be with their mates in person but I know there will be
08:48lots of phone calls so I send them my love.