By RUSSELL BAILLIE
Of the many startling sights in the Olympics closing ceremony, one of the most surprising was Darren Hayes' chest.
For the torso of the singer from Savage Garden - Australia's most successful pop group of recent times - sported a black T-shirt bearing the Aboriginal flag.
It was the sort of culturally aware statement you would expect from veteran political Oz-rockers like Midnight Oil, or Aboriginal group Yothu Yindi. Not supposed lightweights like Hayes.
Yes, the white Queensland-raised star, in Auckland for a few days of pop promotion, says he was nervous about showing his solidarity with Aboriginal rights, and anxious it might be seen as tokenism.
"I sat backstage with my jeans jacket zipped up and it was like I wasn't sure if it would come of as tokenistic or nasty. But Yothu Yindi walked in and Midnight Oil had told them I was going to wear it and they were like, 'Mate!' and came and gave me a big hug.
"And even afterwards I was waiting for someone to scold me."
A few people have, as it turns out. Not that Hayes cares. "Honestly, I'm sure that I've lost some fans. I know that there's lot of white racist idiots that have already made comments, 'that's not the flag of your country,' to me. I've had some negative feedback."
The softly spoken singer said yesterday that he was still recovering from the emotional highs of the weekend and a heavy international touring schedule.
"Waiting underneath the stage, I had tears because Christine Anu was singing the song My Island Home up above," he said.
"It's funny, because I don't consider myself a very patriotic person ... but there I was, like a baby. And then we got up on stage, and afterwards and it took me half an hour to stop shaking."
Straight after their closing ceremony appearance before the stadium crowd of 110,000 and a four billion television audience, Savage Garden played a free concert in a Sydney park for 150,000.
That latter show was a real live performance.
Nearly all of the musical performers at the Olympic finale were miming, including himself, says Hayes, a necessity to avoid a technical nightmare.
"I am very proud and pleased to be a live artist, but apart from a few dodgy European television shows, that is one of the only times I have ever mimed. I tell you what - I am glad that I did.
"It wasn't really about your performance, it was about being part of the spectacle," he said.
And as for that T-shirt, which effectively shouted louder than its wearer, Hayes - whose group were the highest-paid Oz entertainers last year, with an income estimated at $A30 million - bought it himself from an indigenous organisation earlier in the week, for cash.
Top Oz popster sent message to billions
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