Friday On My Mind: Airing on ABC and ABC iview on 26 November 2017 and 3 December 2017 at 8.40pm
Friday On My Mind is a two-part drama mini-series that tells the story of five young newly-arrived immigrants who met in a Sydney migrant hostel in the swinging 1960s and went on to take Australian rock’n’roll to the world.
The Easybeats band comprised of George Young, Stevie Wright, Snowy Fleet and two Dutch immigrants, Dingeman van der Sluys (who went by the stage name of Dick Diamonde) and Johannes van den Berg (who went by the stage name of Harry Vanda).
Friday On My Mind is more than a classic rags to riches tale. It is a story of identity, re-invention and belonging with a powerful contemporary relevance. Interwoven with a killer soundtrack, the series touches on themes of celebrity and redemption. While it was a wild ride being rock stars in the swinging sixties, the talented musicians struggled with holding on to their sense of self in their pursuit of riches and stardom, and were forced to confront the loss of identity that comes with overwhelming fame and living in a foreign land.
Ultimately, it was through their ground-breaking music that they found themselves at home and discovered they were essentially Australian. They belonged.
Dutch Australian 