Shepparton) and then a World War II army sergeant (Service No. VX25722) – who served with the A.I.F. in Port Moresby – and his mother was Isobel Elizabeth (née Geer) (1912–1969) from Orbost. The couple married on 17 August 1940, two months after Robert's enlistment. Meldrum's younger brothers are Brian (born 1946, Mildura) and Robert (born 1950, Kerang). Meldrum moved around during childhood and grew up largely with one of his grandmothers in Quambatook where he attended the local primary school alongside future country music artist, John Williamson. He also stayed with a number of aunts and was raised in the traditions of the Church of England. He developed a musical interest in Gilbert & Sullivan and Verdi. Meldrum's father later ran a hardware store in Kyabram. His mother had periodic hospitalisations for mental illness including some years at Larundel Mental Asylum, Bundoora in the mid-1960s. In the early 1960s Meldrum arrived in Melbourne where he briefly attended Taylors College. Initially intending to become a disc jockey he studied at a radio school. He would go to University of Melbourne without formally enrolling, carrying law books, to eat lunch with the law students: "I hung around, I wouldn't even say I got into a course." Soon after, he had moved in with the family of his close friend, Ronnie Burns, who became a pop star: first as a member of The Flies (1964–65) and then as a solo artist. Meldrum had followed Burns to the latter's home and asked, "Is there any chance I could come and live with you and your family?" What had started as a two-week stay with the Burns family became nine years. During The Beatles' tour of Australia in June 1964, Meldrum was captured by TV cameras climbing atop the bonnet of their car shortly after arrival at Melbourne airport. Later, he and Burns were ejected from The Beatles' Melbourne concert for being "too enthusiastic". While on a surfing holiday at a Victorian coastal resort in Lorne in 1964, Meldrum befriended Lynne Randell, who became a pop star in the mid-1960s and later worked as Meldrum's personal assistant in the 1980s. Also in 1964 Meldrum began his music career as a roadie for his friends' band, The Groop, which had early performances in Anglesea. Go-Set years: 1966–1974 Go-Set was a weekly pop music newspaper started in February 1966 by Phillip Frazer, Tony Schauble, and their