Stormcellar Band Home Page

Howdy Folks.

We covered a fair distance this weekend from The Shire up to Newcastle.

Saturday night saw us at the Gymea hotel which was pretty busy.

I've seen pool tables in pubs but this is the first time I've seen a ping pong table..

Unusually for us, we had ample space to setup in this time.

Bill V has been helping out with stuff and he took care of the merch table, very tidy Bill!

We were joined by 'Double' Bill Williams on bass for the evening and the boys played particularly well. Cheers to C, S, and all the folks who came out to hear us, plus the locals who made us so welcome.

And now for a momentary Segue...

As a band playing in pubs and clubs, we are often handed notes. Here's some from the Jannali Inn a few weeks back:

When we first started this band our choice was to focus mostly on the original material.

All things considered, we have survived pretty well in environments that usually only cater to Cover/Tribute bands. Yes, we do a few covers but not many.

Mind you, we now have 5 albums of material to choose from so we're not short of a song, and we've been a little spoiled as it's been quite some time since we heard the comment 'Play something we know'.

On Sunday Night one lass was very keen on us playing a few of her favourite songs. She decided to try and tell us this whilst we were playing and chose the delightful medium of tearing up the contact sheet we put out at gigs for people who'd like to join the newsletter so she could hold up these bits of paper in front of me whilst I was singing.

Whilst we'd be happy to oblige if we could, i often point out that the boys spend a lot of time rehearsing the songs from our albums and we're kind of fussy about covers - getting 5 people to agree to which covers to play is a job in itself, but in addressing the particular requests outlined here..

1. We won't do the Devil Went Down To Georgia unless we have a fiddle player (I mean really, it's a song about a fiddle fer crying out loud). She very kindly offered to hop up and do it for me and when she realised she was not going to get her way had some choice words for me, none of which I will reprint here.

2. Chisel? I often put this logic puzzle to people who ask this question. I ask 'If you were at an early Cold Chisel, would you be asking them for some covers? Maybe something by the Beatles?'...the actual answer is 'yes' :-) If I ever get the chance, I'll ask them what covers they were requested to play..

3. 'Tits Out'? I am not sure what that meant but I applaud the sentiment in general. Thanks for the mammaries.

The lass in question was not content to pass notes or wait until in between songs, she wanted to have a chat with me whilst I was singing, which is kind of hard to do. I do my level best to remain polite and friendly but sometimes the urge to use a less polite reply is strong.

I know that as a band playing in peoples local watering hole that we are there on sufferance - we're there once in a while, they're there every week, and that people like cover bands and tribute acts. I also accept that if our songs are good enough and the performances good enough, we should be able to assuage their need for Copperhead road.

Even so, it makes me wonder how folks expect new Australian music to be created or to survive and maybe the actual answer is they don't. It's not their problem, this is their pub. I get it.

(sigh)

Rant over.

Right, back to the gig

On the plus side, the trip up to Newcastle for the night enabled us to see some awesome cloud formations and you know we're keen on those.

We played until 11:30, the crowd danced, I read the occasional note and all was well.

Cheers to Chris and George for dropping in. 

We're on a break for the coming weekend and then back to the Taverners Hill Hotel where we look forward to playing some songs you know :-)

Update: I think the name we had for the hotel was wrong, it's the Gymea Hotel, not the Gymea Bay Hotel as previously listed.

As there only seems to be one hotel with the word Gymea in it, we're pretty sure it's that one.

I think.

Wish us luck!

----

Two more gigs this coming weekend, North & South, or should I say, South & North. 

We're at the Gymea Bay Hotel is Gymea on Saturday Night for our first gig there, from 8pm, and then on Sunday night, we're off to Newcastle for a gig at the Kent Hotel from 8:30pm.

Howdy Folks.

Remember a few posts back when I complained about sending out all these CD's? Well, at least they went to a good home.

Shout outs to Hugo, CB, Salty, Geoff P, Chris and Pam for spinning tracks from the album.

The tracks that have been played range from Black Crow to Country Radio, so quite a variety of preferences.

I think there are a few more shows playing the album this week, we'll see if a pattern emerges.

Stay Tuned! (LOL)

Thanks to our pal Cesar at Radio "Biker Street" for playing our song "Feel So Blue" on his show this week.

Howdy Folks, spring is sprung, the grass is riz, and every weekend, we gots gigs.

It's a glorious spring day as I write this stuff and an early taste of a warm summer, ah relaxing. But enough of that! Some gig reporting!

We started on Friday night with a gig at the Eastern Lounge at the Roseville Memorial Club.

David and the crew have put together a rare success story in a market of diminishing musical gigs, running monthly shows with a variety of acts and styles.

We were on the bill for the last show of the year which featured Folk, Jazz and then us. 

The first act was the wonderful Rebecca Moore who impressed Rosie and Mr Wizard with her Mandolin and singing. She also has a social conscience and invited people to donate to a worthwhile cause at the merchandise table.

We also have a worthwhile cause to donate to...well..sort of

Err...Stormcellar Fund for Paying Off Our Album Debts?

After soundcheck, we disappeared around the corner to rehearse a new song for the set at Mika's place. With our gear on stage we had to borrow her Bass.

And of course, what goes better with a pink bass than a pink ukulele!

After a quick rehearsal, we headed back and found the place was jumping.

Luckily for us there was a dedicated spot for the band!

It was kind of hard to get a spot so I had to crane around a corner to get a view of Belinda doing her Jazz thang.

The crowd were reluctant to let Belinda go, but soon it was time for a quick changeover for a late night set. We were fortunate to have Bill V with us on Guitar Tech duties. Yay Bill!

Now that I have my new Harmonica case (the Harp Gaurdian 5000), wonky stages and dancing loons do not bother me. With the bass drum to my immediate left, the thump-thump knocked my harp case off its chair no less than 3 separate times, in the first two songs, which normally would have led to the scattering of harmonicas and much chagrin for me as I scuttle around trying to fix it, but NO! Thanks to the latest in MJEB Labs Technology, everything stayed put.

3 times. That's field tested ladies and gents, get yours now! I have to state some degree of personal satisfaction with this outcome. The audience looked at me as if 'OH NOES!' but, AHA! it's HARP GUARDIAN 5000 for the WIN!

Anyway, we did our stuff, people danced and we did some encores. The dancers at the front were so enthusiastic I asked if they'd repeat their enthusiasm for the purposes of making us look good on youtube. they kindly obliged. Here's me doing my best Invader Zim impression as we coax a little extra praise from the audience.

Cheers to David, CB, S & C (new gps anyone?), Belinda, Rebecca, Callum and all the folks at the Eastern Club. What a great place to get down on the North Shore. They have stacks of good stuff on in the 2013, starting again in February. Check'em out at www.easternlounge.com.au

Saturday

The following evening we were in Jannali, back to a full three set show. Little did I know that my phone/camera had filled up and the rest of the photos i took went into cyberspace...yargh.

Still, we  had a good solid nights playing and I didn't manage to drop my Harp case even the once. Ho Hum.

Cheers to Chris, Blake, Eric, Julie, Lucas and all the folks who came out for the evening.