Stormcellar Band Home Page

That's how Blue.

Howdy folks. That was a weekend to put a smile on your dial. 

For the benefit of the new readers to the site (hi guys, thanks for the emails), we've been providing a running commentary on the wonderful and mundane aspects of our adventures for some time.

Originally, we posted pics and vids of our travels and our gigs so we could include family and friends who were out of the country (some in harms way) in what we were doing. Reminders of the normalcy of life back home and a chance to take a mental break from other stuff.

Since then, like all forms of diary, it's taken on a life of it's own :-)

In this case, it's a pleasure to share some tranquil moments from a day in high winter, in cold and clear skies, on a run up the New South Wales Coast.

Ah, but first our Stockton show. It appears we have become known as a band you can dance to.

Check the shoes. Seriously.

This is like Dance Jedi footwear.

I may have mentioned that we have been messing with the lighting production (yeah we wanna be Floyd in our heart of hearts) and it's not all been working entirely well.

Somewhere out there are a bunch of couples swing dancing to our stuff, Scouts Honor! 

Of course, Theo triggering the Smoke machine rendered my next shot even less useable.

Amusing, but unusable. 

Thankyou to Charlie, Sarah and all the folks who came out to see us at Stockton. We are looking forwad to getting back there soon.

Fridays gig was great, but Sunday?

What a day for a drive. There's nothing so good for the happy inner city urbanite, as to get out and find that the country really does go on for many miles in many directions. The colour scheme is good for the soul.

This was our first gig at the Wallarah hotel in Catherine Hill Bay. As the locals say, it truly is a special place. It's one of the last stable time warps to an earlier New South Wales, and the locals are fighting to keep development at bay.

I fear it's a losing battle and there's something magical at risk.

More than nostalgia for non existent pasts, Catho still seems like a place removed from the hyper real estate inflation of our beloved emerald city, and it has been a choice destination for weekend riders for may years. I can see why.

Look at that sky.

Err...they also have beer.

Lots of beer.

The pub is on the hill up from the beach, backing onto nature reserve. With the weather in perfect harmony, we setup outside in the rear beer garden stage and played in the afternoon sunlight.

Once again we attracted a crowd of Little'uns (the harp, always the harp) who proceeded to make mud pies in front of the stage, kick the bass amp, run around dancing and generally set a good example for their elders.it was like the mosh pit at a wiggles concert.

It was our first time at the pub so in the manner of a good Australian audience, they patiently listened to the first few songs to see if we were crap.

Having passed the first test, some feet began to tap.

By the second set, there was some movement at the station.

By the third set some dude was up on the table waving his arms around.

Yep. Completely normal.

We were grateful to have Mr Rix join us for the weekend and the Sound Ninja of Gorokan keeping the levels smooth. 

On our way out of town I couldn't help but stop to enjoy the view of the beach.

What a little unspoiled gem of a place and what a heck of a weekend. I vote we go do that again.

Stormcellar US Tour Dates - First Announcement:

13th September, fat Fish Blue, Kansas City

14th September Knuckleheads KC, Kansas City

15th September, Danny Cox Benefit, 3rd St KC

20th September The Water Hole, Chicago Il.

22nd September, Blues Fest Volunteer Thankyou party - Crossroads Blues Society, American Legion Hall, Byron Il.

More details to follow!

Howdy Folks, got another message in from Roger today. I really must get to the bottom of this...

A great weekend for a drive. Rosie took some pics on our way up to The Entrance on Sat.

He takes a better pic than I do even with my phone.

Grrr.

Howdy folks, a very pleasant weekend of shows that was.

We started on Friday night with a trip to Dundas. 

Theo has requested that in future we do all our gigs there as he timed his drive at 4 minutes.

It was our first time at Dundas, and yes, my fascination with signs continues

They must have known we were coming :-)

One of the features of playing in the clubs is seeing elements of Club life handed down over many years. Amongst my favourites is the Members Raffle.

Yep, for a few bucks, you can win your weeks worth of groceries.

A shout out to Ross for coming to see us Live for the first time, glad to see you out and about again.

I'm having some technical difficulties with my in ear monitoring system so I had a heck of a gig with fold back issues and other bits and pieces, but we made it through in good order.

Cheers to the Members and Guests for inviting us up there. Next time I'm going to buy more that 1 ticket in the raffle :-)

Saturday night saw us headed up to the Entrance in a van with Cruise Control and Bluetooth. Nice.

It's been a glorious cool winter weekend with clear skies. Perfect for a drive.

Quite a crowd to see us last night

...

The place was jumping from the get go and Rosie had a particularly strong night, as did Theo.

Midway through the long set, a lady approached me and I must admit, I was concerned for a moment, wondering what song she was about to request. 'I'm sorry' she said 'I bet you get this a lot'

Ok, I thought. here it comes...

'My husband and I have been together for 22 years, this is our anniversary, would you mind giving him a big mention for me.' Now that's the kind of offer I can't refuse. awww.

Chris and Ian, congrats guys. yes I know we joked about getting less time for murder but making it 22 years together is a big deal. Congratulations again and thank you for spending your anniversary with us.

In hindsight, we should have played 'the way that she smiles'  but instead we did High Cost of Lovin. Go figure.

We could have played all night but the curfew up there is pretty firm so come 11:30 the lights went on and everyone went home after some non stop dancing :-)

Cheers to the amazing spider man (Steve, stay off the roof dude), Max for giving us a hand, Sandi for wearing her Stormcellar T Shirt (rather nicely I might add!) the guys that drove all the way up from Sydney to hear us last night and everyone else for coming out and making a very fine evening indeed.

For our part, we cleaned up, packed up and then had a very enjoyable drive back to town (love that cruise control).

I'm pretty sure we're gigging every weekend this month, so we look forward to seeing you at a show soon.

MJEB