Paul Kent: Gavin Robertson and Noiseworks’ Steve Balbi produce Shane Warne tribute song

Shane Warne once helped former Noiseworks guitarist Steve Balbi through his heroin addiction. Now the rocker and friend Gavin Robertson have produced a touching tribute song. LISTEN HERE.

Shane Warne’s death affected us all in different ways, according to how we knew him or what we knew of him.

Gavin Robertson played with Warne. Toured with him and was even there when a crate of baked beans, of the Heinz variety, turned up in India to feed them all, but mostly Warne.

When Warne died, Robertson walked around in a bad sleepwalk, unable to sleep at night and fighting to stay awake during the day.

LISTEN TO THE SHANE WARNE TRIBUTE SONG IN THE PLAYER ABOVE

On the Monday after the axis tilted, Robertson got a call from his best mate, Steve Waugh, who told him he was having trouble sleeping, and they spoke like mates do.

It was hard to know what else to do; the news was still too raw for everybody.

Robertson went to bed that night and woke about 2.30am.

He recently moved to the sleepy suburb of Hardy’s Bay, the little slice of heaven on the Central Coast, and there he let life slow down for him a bit.

Shane Warne with fellow spinners Stuart MacGill and Gavin Robertson at training during a tour of India. Picture: Allsport

He sat on his porch that night thinking about Warne and old days together, as his wife called him back to bed for sleep, and for reasons he can’t really explain, he began writing down his thoughts.

Nobody knows where songs come from.

When asked how they came up with a particular lyric the great songwriters always respond in vague grunts, as if they clutch the key to a box they don’t want anyone to share.

The assembly of words, though, accompanied by instrument, creates worlds like little else.

Robertson woke early the following morning and on the pages where he had scribbled, he found he had written what he thought was a poem.

It was his own Coleridge moment. He couldn’t remember writing the poem but there it was.

Later he was driving to Sydney for his radio job when Steve Balbi, who played bass guitar as part of what was once Noiseworks, called him on the phone.

He needed something dropped off.

Balbi plays bass and also brings the musical expertise to True Sports, the rock band where Robertson plays drums.

Former Noiseworks bass guitarist Steve Balbi. Picture: James Croucher

Also in the band are former NSW cricket teammates Richard Chee Quee (lead singer) and Mike Whitney (vocals) and league legends Eric Grothe Sr (lead guitar) and Mark Carroll (rhythm guitar).

Balbi told Robertson he looked tired.

Given Robertson was recently in a life-and-death tussle with brain cancer, currently ahead on the race to the first of three falls, he was right to be concerned.

Robertson shook it away though and told him why he was tired. Up all night and waking up with his words found written on a paper.

“Give me a look at the poem,” Balbi said.

Balbi is one of the talented, the kind that could manufacture a way to play Stairway to Heaven on a kazoo.

Yet as anybody knows, part of the rock-and-roll contract is to pursue the path of self-destruction and Balbi walked that at a solid jog.

At the height of his fame, the good times turned bad and he became a struggling heroin addict, and as Noiseworks drifted apart and the work dried up, it meant the summer became two things to him.

He would lock himself away and try to kick his heroin habit and he would do it with only the summer Tests for company.

Parramatta great Eric Grothe. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts

Warne was at his peak at the time. Glenn McGrath was coming in at the other end, Mark Taylor and the Waugh twins and Hayden and Healy and Langer were all part of what was an unforgettable era of Australian cricket.

“I literally had nobody that would open doors for me, and so I often found myself alone,” Balbi said. “For hours and hours it was just me and the boys.

“It was a pretty horrific time in my life,” he said, “and these guys sort of saved me.”

Balbi has been sober for 23 years now, but since kicking his habit he always felt a connection, and perhaps even a debt, for their company over those summers.

When Robertson told him of his late night, he saw more than just a poem.

“It just needed a bit of love and care,” he said.

“Some melody and chords and turn it into a tune.”

The song was not intended for commercial release but will be soon released on Triple Speak on Spotify, and has already had limited release today, hours before Warne’s public memorial at the MCG on Wednesday night.

“Anyone that comes across it, comes across it,” Balbi said.

Mostly it is one from the heart.

“It’s a gratitude piece,” he said. “And we want people to feel it.”

Originally published as Paul Kent: Gavin Robertson and Noiseworks’ Steve Balbi produce Shane Warne tribute song