At the Noisy Café

Joe Dolce was born in 1947, in Painesville, Ohio, USA, moved to Australia in 1979 and is a dual National citizen of both countries. He is a song-writer, composer, performer, poet, film reviewer and essayist. He was a 2021 City of Melbourne Poet Laureate, Highly Commended in the 2020 ACU Poetry Prize, short-listed in the 2020 & 2014 Newcastle Poetry Prizes, short-listed in the 2019, 2018, 2017 & 2014 University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor's Poetry Prizes and awarded First Prize in the 2017 University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor's Health Poetry Prize, for his choral libretto, And let the wonder in. His poetry was included in Best Australian Poems 2015 & 2014 and he was winner of the 25th Launceston Poetry Cup (2010). He is the author of three books of poetry, the most recent, At the Noisy Café, published in 2023, by Busybird Publishing.In the 90s, he composed and orchestrated an SATB oratorio, Joan on Fire, which was performed by the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and Chorelation choir at the Melbourne Baptist Church. He taught Composition, Setting Poetry to Music, and Ensemble for two years at the Australian Institute of Music. He is more popularly known, internationally, for writing and performing the song, Shaddap You Face (1980-81) which was the Number One 45 rpm record (back in the days when they made 45 rpm records!) on the pop charts in a dozen countries and held the nine-times platinum award for the most successful song in Australian music history for four decades. He is co-writer, with Lin van Hek, of the song Intimacy, which was part of the soundtrack of the sci-fi masterpiece, The Terminator, selected as part of the United States Library of Congress National Film Registry archives. His songs have been recorded, internationally, by scores of artists. In 1981, he was presented with the Advance Australia Award by Sir Rupert James Hamer, AC, KCMG, ED, Premier of Victoria.The recipe for Basil-Chili Tomato Sauce, with Guanciale, Fennel Sausage & Kangaroo Braciole, was the First Prize winner in the 2007 Hepburn Springs Swiss-Italian Festa Great Pasta Sauce Contest.He lives in Carlton, Victoria, Australia, with his partner, of forty-three years, Lin van Hek.