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Leelu Dallas...Multipass? No! It's the special get-backstage wrist brace for our wrists so we could get...err...

Backstage! Yeah!

Well that was fun. We did a gig tonight at Allphones Arena, where tomorrow night J-Lo will be playing.

Cheers to Sue for inviting us to come to a big party and play with lots of sound equipment, lights, and a big crowd. 

We're not yet jaded enough yet to be unappreciative of a Big Venue with Big Stuff. and in all likelihood, it will be quite a while before we go 'meh' about such things. Every now and again ya gotta stop and soundcheck the roses, to lay waste to a metaphor.

On certain days, we feel grateful to receive a free soft drink from the places we play at, and full soundo service plus dressing room? Ok, put on your best Monty Python/Welsh accent and say it with me:

Bloooooody Luxury :-)

Mr Wizard setting up

Double Bill, Single Bill in motion and Mr Wizard setting up.

I took a look around as the guys set up for sound check and found myself drawn to the media servers (funny that eh?)

McIntosh as media servers? There's only 1 mouse button!

Go BINARY you latte sipping, beret wearing, OS-X using, single mouse button...err...oops. Looks like a PC vs Mac rant slipped in there some how...Err..it's late.

Still......GET TWO BUTTONS ALREADY!! Moving on...

Down the hall, away from the stage and look...a Dressing room, LUXURY!

And yea Veriily, on the wall of our dressing room, was the Itinerary of the Wiggles from their gig there on Sunday.

We're not worthy. Bow before the masters.

On the walls of the backstage area are pictures from famous artists who have played there, and the occasional instructional sign , such as.. 

What? WHAT??

After our sound check, we luxuriated in our stately dressing room, drank free softdrinks (OMG!) and generally swanned about.

This is the life.

We could tell when the first act of the night had started, the subwoofers began to shake the whole place and it was at that point I went in search of coffee.

Finding coffee is my super power. No matter where I am, I seem to be able to locate the java. It's uncanny.

Here's the crowd for the 1st act of the night, filmed from the vantage point i found whilst in search of said coffee.

After a while, it was time for us...

As per usual, my blogging stops when the Audience's start.

Cheers to Jason for helping us pitch our cd's to the crowd (hey, who can blame us?).

After our set, I grabbed some footage from the floor area as the DJ's finished the night off.

Now I gotta say, we might have been reasonably well received, but there's this one Korean Guy with some dancing song that just seems to be the thing of the moment...:-)

A happy end of year celebration to all!

Sad news today from our mate Bobcart, a friend of Freddy Wilson. Freddy passed away a week or so ago and his wake was last night, making me a bit late on the news. Freddy wouldn't have minded, we were rehearsing, he liked a work ethic :-)

Freddy taught me more about performing in a few weeks than I gained from years worth of lessons with other folks. It wasn't just that he knew what he was talking about, it was his ability to convey it.

He cussed like a sailor, smoked like a chimney, played Sax like a Boss and swung with the best of them. 

Freddy made a difference in countless lives and the best obit he can have is that his Google references are not articles about him, they are the mentions on the CV's of so many singers and performers stating with confidence that the reader will be impressed, that they once attended a Freddy Wilson Jazz Workshop.

Vale Freddy, you were one of the greats.

Our last three gigs for 2012 are this week, starting with a private corporate thing on Thursday which I am not supposed to mention.

Oh no, I mentioned our corporate gig at XXXXXXXXXXX

Oh no, I mentioned it again!

Why would I want anyone to know that we're playing on a huge stage in front of several thousand people? Jeez, I don't know.

Anyway, ignore that, it's a private secret gig.

Did I mention it's at XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Moving right along. we have two more down to earth gigs that are free entry and open to everyone (love, love love), on Friday night we're at the Lakes Hotel at The Entrance and on Saturday we're at the Royal Hotel In Bondi.

We'll be joined for these gigs by the fabulous Mr Tony Boyd (T-bird) on drums and percussion to allow Theo some much needed time off.

These are our last gigs on 2012 but fret not, for we're back on deck immediately after the new year, but if you want to get your Stormcellar On this weekend, join us at the Lakes or The Royal!

Now this is an unexpected result....

http://www.bluesbeatradio.com/ozchart.htm

Given the grief we got over Carls Chair (our last album) from the Blues Police and the fact that this album pushed the boundaries again, I was not expecting this result.  Well dog my cats.

#18 in France and #1 here. Wow.

FYI, our chart placements for our albums have been as follows:

WHISKEY TALKING: #25

SPACEJUNK #23

NUEVO RETRO #1 Aust Blues Roots chart and #49 on US National Blues Charts

CARLS CHAIR #7

HIRED GUNS & BORROWED GLORY #1 Aust Blues Roots Chart and #18 Blues Radio Collective Charts in France.

Far out.

Thank you to the contributing DJ's for the Australian Blues/Roots Chart for their support, it's  a nice way to end the year :-)

In keeping with our slightly French theme, Le Howdy, mes amis.

We played our first gig out at the Colonial Hotel in Werrington on Saturday. Shout outs to Sharron, Undies, Andrew, Jacob FM Cass, the Fitzgerald Mafia and all the folks who spent the evening with us.

I had some left over gear from Jim Finns video shoot on Friday night (see article below) and tried ramping up our production values with some extra lights etc.

Why am I not in the photograph? Who do ya think take's 'em? Lol. We had a great night with some outstanding musical moments as we altered our live set to recharge our batteries. Of course, I still managed to sing 2nd verse first in Southern Belles. I am going to log in to the lyrics section of the site before we start next time, as M Wizard says, just cos you wrote it, don't mean you remember it.

I think we'll be back there again in the new year. I'd blog more but I have another article to write and some lights to return to the hire company...