What is "True Blue"? Well that's the question I had to answer really when John Singleton asked me to write a theme for his "True Blue Aussies" TV program in the early 80's. Hence the words "Is it me and you? Is it Mum and Dad" etc...

A Pom in Coventry reckons the saying came from a mulberry orchard in his town. (Mulberries apparently were used in the old days to dye the blue coats of British Soldiers). And it was this one particular orchard that had the "true blue" colour that the army preferred. Well, perhaps this is why in the USA "True Blue" is more connected to the armed forces and their patriotism.

In Australia, however, it has come to mean the cream of "fair dinkums". I receive many letters from bereaved families telling me how they used this song to bury their "True Blue" Dad or Mum, Son or Daughter. And this helps me explain that it means all of the following:

1. An honest person to be trusted
2. His/her word is his/her bond
3. The person loves Australia and respects the nature of the land
4. Feels Australian and is proud of it
5. Cares about others. A really good mate
6. Something that is truly, unmistakably Australian. (Like "shouting" a beer in a pub or a kelpie dog)

The list could go on. I guess the same principles apply to any nation. But we happened to coin the phrase first.

The term true blue relates to the city of Coventry's dyeing of cloth trade in the middle ages. Cloth was dyed using natural colours, which ran and faded with use. The dyers and tanners of Coventry developed a BLUE WOAD dye, that did not run or fade, giving rise to the term " true blue" as it was the first steadfast colour developed. It became so famous that Coventry built a whole trade around dyeing cloth.

The river Sherbourne used to run blue with the woad dye used in the poddy field and spon end area of the city. Later in the city's history, cloth traders planted mulberry trees on the poddy fields, (now the co-op superstore in the city centre), to rear silk worms on but our winters killed them off, but the trees did produce the berries that made a false blue dye that was not fast and was illegal. We now have one mulberry tree remaining on the poddy fields.

The term true blue is now used world wide to describe many things, such as:-