PRINCESS Diana once made an unplanned detour to visit Molly Meldrum’s house in Richmond, and Meldrum’s personal assistant was so shocked she greeted the Princess with an F-bomb.
The People’s Princess christened the King of Australian music’s couch in November 1985.
Princess Diana and Prince Charles were in Melbourne for Victoria’s 150th celebrations, with Meldrum in charge of recruiting bands for a concert called Rocking With the Royals.
“It was the week of the concert, and we were coming back from a charity event,” Meldrum recalled.
“We were in the car together and we went past my house. I pointed it out and she said “I want to take a look’ because I’d told her about the Egyptian theme. I said `No, no no’ but she made the car stop.”
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Meldrum’s PA at the time was the late Lynne Randall, a 60s hit maker before working behind the scenes in the music industry. She was at Molly’s house when the royal visit took place.
“Lynne just looked up and said ‘You’ve got to be f@#$ing joking!,” Meldrum said. ``And then she said ‘Do you want a bloody cup of tea or what?’ Diana thought it was funny. I think she stayed for about ten or fifteen minutes, if that.”
Meldrum revealed Diana told him she had seen a copy of his infamous video with Prince Charles where he stumbles over his words and refers to the Queen as “your mother”.
“Diana had definitely seen it, apparently it had become a bit of a joke at Buckingham Palace, this idiot from Australia interviewing the Prince,” Meldrum said. “I’ve heard Charles thinks it’s funny. And when I met Harry and William they said they’d seen it many times. All those outtakes are on YouTube. Harry and William knew I’d spent time with Diana, they mentioned that when I met them.”
During that 1985 royal tour Meldrum was one of twelve notable Australians then Prime Minister Bob Hawke invited to the Lodge for lunch with Charles and Diana.
Diana was sitting between Meldrum and golfer Jack Newton, who had lost his arm in an accident two years earlier.
“Jack came out and said to Diana ‘Doesn’t it give you the shits having to do all these things and meet boring people like us,” Meldrum recalls. “Then he told her ‘You’re sitting on my good side, so I’ll be able to play with your leg under the table’. Diana laughed but I knocked my food all over the table.”
The Rocking With the Royals concert featured I’m Talking, Models, Kids in the Kitchen and INXS, whose manager Chris Murphy initially turned the event down.
Meldrum’s new biography The Never, Um, Ever Ending Story reveals he rang INXS singer Michael Hutchence’s mother and the mother of the band’s Farriss brothers and promised they could sit in the same row as Princess Diana for the concert. A surprised Murphy then rang Meldrum saying INXS had changed their mind and wanted to perform.
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