11/01/2026
We were so blessed danced and sung away yesterday at Alex Hoods “Concert Memorial” in Albion Park, Alex alongside his beautiful Wife Annette Hood (Ryan’s Mum & Step Dad) have changed and inspired thousands of peoples lives with education through music and performance, in Schools and on stages all across Australia.
Written by Annette Hood,
He was a vibrant creative and wonderful performer. He said he was an actor and just used his instruments for effect. But he loved the banjo & his 12 stringed guitar made by Geoff Wills & Don Henderson adaptions.
His timing in stories and songs was always perfect, a gift, it can't be taught. He'd always told stories from the time his father propped him up on a table at a Masonic Club dinner at 4!
New Theatre played a huge role with Alex, he learned every male part so he could get on stage & waited in the wings until someone was sick. It was "Bob the Swagman". He learned the bones as his first instrument which he played with The Bush Whackers. Once he started, the germ grew, he couldn't stop. He learned the banjo while being a clown at an arcade at Xmas using the Pete Seeger book "how to play the banjo" a perfect combination. Other bands and groups came and went and he did go to Margaret Barr to help with stage craft & movement. His mate Larry King (Clancy Dunne) and Alex sang on TV for Bill Peach doing political satire. It was the 60's & '70's the Folk boom, they performed in clubs, coffee shops and concerts across Australia. The era of smoking everywhere!! Alex lost his voice, so in the late 60's he decided to sing for children. Clancy & Alex toured NSW together, they were true mates, still were.
Alex started collecting songs & music from old singers & bushies around that time, and then he did solo work across Australia. He wrote books, songs, & 4 Folk Operas for radio, pre TV.
They were on radio and travelled across the airwaves all over Australia. The farmers came in for lunch to listen to the farm report on the wireless and stayed for the school broadcasts across all the states and territories of Oz. "The Wallaby Track," play and from that "Brumby Jack" & "Pumpkin Paddy" plus so many more songs and stories. The children performed the radio plays and adapted them, they made costumes, backdrops & props. They were hits. " Brumby Jack" gave him and later me 50 years of employment. What a legacy. Alex loved touring but it's hard work and it can be lonely at times. He worked all over Australia doing music shows in schools & workshops in the NT in the early 70's. The then to become head of The Northern Land Council was his offsider, he was a young man then. Alex travelled to remote 1st Nation destinations with different Arts Councils as we did also in 1980's, 1990's & 2000's.
He was unstoppable and when we met he'd always wanted to do Folk Theatre, always the actor. That's what we developed together to make the kids love the history, songs and stories. So, Alex as the communicator with songs & yarns me as the dancer, choreographer and maker of the backdrops and puppets. The puppets I made always looked realistic & Alex with his flair was able to do ventriloquism & songs with them. They could talk, sing, fart and eat and the children loved them, they thought they were real, so everyday we laughed along with the children. What joy it brought to us and them.
Sadly Alex has gone, NEVER to be replaced. He was one of a kind, explosive, honest and forthright in his beliefs. I will miss you my love, thanks for our time together. We had ups and downs, but more ups. Caravans that plunged into muddy cane fields or tyres that caught on fire or engines that blew up and brakes that failed going down hills, but you & me survived. We travelled miles & miles over 7500 shows together, YOU did about 20,000 performances. Time for a rest I think. But all those that knew you always enjoyed your fascinating stories, experiences and songs. We loved all those folks that helped us and propped us up over the years, they never to be forgotten while there's those memories left. Lots of the yarns are in the National Library along with your and our archives. Goodbye my love keep the banjo playing.
Love Annette ❤️
