Notes from a Ceiling
album by The Mess Hall
Notes from a Ceiling is the second album from the Australian two-piece rock band The Mess Hall, which was issued on 20 June 2005. It peaked at No. 8 on the ARIA Hitseekers Albums Chart.
It won an ARIA Music Award for Engineer of the Year for Matt Lovell, and a nomination for Producer of the Year for Chris Joannou and the group. It was short-listed for the inaugural Australian Music Prize and was included in both Triple J and Rolling Stone's Top 50 of 2005.
According to Jed Kurzel (vocalist/guitarist), the only recollection he has of recording the album is that Cec Condon (drummer/vocals) nearly set fire to the studio whilst barbecuing, and that while suffering vertigo, the attending doctor was more interested in whether the band were touring on the next Big Day Out than attending to his illness.
In early 2004, Kurzel lived somewhat of a nomadic lifestyle. Having moved house once, he kept moving from friend's place to friend's place. His main memory of that year is "staring up at different ceilings, wondering what the hell I was doing" which is how the album title came about.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Notes from a Ceiling” is album by The Mess Hall. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Notes, Ceiling and album, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “album by The Mess Hall” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3344473. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2005 and 2004.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Notes from a Ceiling”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Notes from a Ceiling primary sources, Notes from a Ceiling archive and Notes research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Notes from a Ceiling”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Notes from a Ceiling” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.