ARGH! We were setting up the PA last night in front of the giant screen at the Pendle Inn and were forced to watch the wallabies lose to the Irish. Noooo!! OMG! I mean, fair enough and well done to the Irish, but....Nooooo!!!
The collective slump of enthusiasm at the Pendle Inn was palpable.
Despite the shock upset win by the Irish, we did our best to lift the spirits of the remaining patrons with a little music. Here's a couple of moments.
A classic moment as Prune decided to illustrate Cant Tax Love with a little free form dancing...
Classic stuff...
Cheers to the regular gang at the PI, Snowy, Prune, Matt, the girls and all the folks who spent the evening with us, and condolences to the many Wallby Fans who had such long faces last night...could be worse, you could be Waratah supporters (groan).
We've got next weekend off whilst I take a quick non-musical holiday (yay) and then back at the Riverside Inn on October 1st. Even if your football team is on the outs, come on down and spend an evening with us, we'll do our best to even the score!
Read more: Wallabies lose, Prune Dances - Pendle Inn gig report
After last weekends marathon trip the country, we had a few closer to home gigs this weekend, in Raby and Windsor.
Did I say close to home?
These little piggies were on their way to market out in Windsor on Sunday, so not quite the urban gigs this weekend :-)
Saturday in Raby was a quiet night at the Tavern and the boys arrived in plenty of time to catch some dinner, and where better than..
Foggedaboudit? Parmesan Cheese and Free Body Dumping!
I enjoy the heck out of local Signage, really gives you a feel for the place. here are some of this weekends winners.
So this is obviously where the Pigs were headed...I think they meant you can 'buy bacon here' but if the local butcher had phrased it correctly, it wouldnt have caught my eye..
Up on the community noticeboard you can get a wide variety of stuff, for example:
And what better to go with your new wedding dress than:
We were joined by Mal Forrester on Bass for Saturday night cheers Mal, and by Mike Rix on Sunday, who made a welcome return.
A shout out to Mika, Bodhi, Gary, Troy, Big Daddy, Annabelle and Maria and all the folks who joined us for the weekend.
Oh, can't go before a moment of cute. Here's Mal's dog hanging out with us during a lounge room rehearsal of She Keeps You Moving on before Saturday nights gig.
Yep, its official, our music makes animals hump the floor. Gotta love it!
Well folks, I can say 'Howdy' with some additional twang after a trip to Tamworth and Newcastle. Jeez that was a bit of driving. Our Bass Player Emeritus, Mal Forester rejoined us for the weekend and took us driving is his enormous Ford LTD cruising mobile.
For those that are regular readers of the Blog, you might know that we post a lot of the Journey stuff for the benefit of our overseas readers, especially those who are serving in harms way, as a chance for them to get a bit of a reminder of Home, or at least something different to the daily grind. In particular, we send our best regards to Roscoe (of Roscoe's Boogie fame) who's back In Country, doing what he does best. Stay Frosty, Roscoe.
Of course, part of the joy of doing this stuff is the chance to wend your way through the countryside and this weekend the weather was perfect for a drive. Just ask the Comanchero MC that we saw out in full force. Also, in full force, the Police pulling them over for a Quiet Chat...probably wanted to talk about the cricket.
Ahem.
Nonetheless, here's a taste of the sunshine from this weekends ride up North:
Ah, back on the highway
With Mal at the wheel, it was nice to be in the Passenger seat for a change, Theo enjoyed his time off as well :-)
We stopped for a rest break in Willow Tree where we observed what happens when you buy the Economy Sweeper.
I suggest maybe the Premium Sweeper would be a better choice
Continuing my fascination with local signage, this one was a hoot. If you dont buy petrol at this station, you have to take a pee in the park :-)...Heh...19Kms south...cruel
Getting closer to Tamworth
We arrived in Tamworth early afternoon after a very scenic trip and strong exposure to Mal's choice of Countyr Music (Kenny Chesney and Rascal Flats, confirming what happens when you play country music backwards) for a night at the Albert Hotel:
Apparently, they ran out of chalk and had ot shorten our band name..
We set up for the evening and kicked off in fine style. Big thanks to Michael (Gasman) Sharon, Keryn, Binnie, Wayne and Val for dropping in. Now I'd show you pictures but I managed to leave my dang (dang! LOL...too much Country with Mal) phone upstairs during the gig, but I remedied that the next night.
According to our mate the Bouncer they havent had that big a crowd in a while and I think we'll be going back there soon.
Right.
Sunday morning saw us head off for the Wikham Park Hotel gig in Newcastle on a gorgeous, sunny, sunday..
As you head towards Newcastle, the Industrial Age reasserts itself.
.
We arrived at the Wicko and found no shortage of chalk!
Also, rather cool cars, which sparked the attention of the boys:
Inside, I spotted a classic name for a band. must check these guys out..
Delta Skelter...awesome.
With the fathers day lunch crowd well fed and heading home, the night crowd started to come on in.
A big shout out to Sandi Mac (hope you enjoy the t-shirt, great to see ya darlin), also cheers to Pete for giving us some sound advice, Blue for help with the Desk, Patti, Belinda (no I am not using your full name cos you are in trouble) and who could forget the singing sensation of Zen..ah moments like that dont happen all the time ;-)
Ahem. So how did the gig go? Well, this time I remembered to have the camera handy! Why write it when I can simply do this...
Mr Wizard back from Tokyo and still wearing that hat!
Even better, in between singing and Harping I got some footage...here ya go:
That was a HUGE gig and a big night, with a little inadvertent Stage Diving after one rather exuberant fellow crashed into my feet, some stage invasion from the lovely Zen (Sorry we dont know R.E.S.P.E.C.T) who had to be dragged off by her mates... A big night.
Thanks to Paul behind the bar for making us feel welcome and an extra special note of thanks to our golden roadie, Carl, who makes these long range trips possible.
This weekends gigs are a little closer to home, if you havent had a dance in a while, take a cue from the Boogiers at the Wicko and come on out and spend some time on the boogie with us!
That's right folks, after a weekend in the Country we're back on the prowl at Raby on Saturday night, 8pm and a Sunday evening gig at Windsor from 5:30pm.
Yesterday I got caught in Gorilla Rain, a new term in Japanese language for heavy rain storm. Only a recent thing for Tokyo apparently These street display dolls aren't brought inside, but simply given their own umbrellas. The bar and coffee shops seem to do well when the rain hits as lots of people take shelter there and grab a drink or snack.
On the way to a gig I found a shop called Chicago, imported US clothes, at about quarter of the price we get stiffed with in OZ. Picked up a few shirts ($20 ea) and a belt $12....bargain.
Last night ventured into Roots bar called "c- artist" cheap dinner and $7 cocktails. First three acts were sort of amateur singer songwriters.
Then 3 serious young insects, obviously Con students studying compostion took to the stage and blew me away. Using a snare drum with brushes and mallets, a piano/grt player and a guy playing a small set of vibes that he played not only with mallets but also at times with 2 violin bows, running them on the ends of the vibe bars to create haunting soft tones. Added to this were angelic 3 part harmonies but with outmany words, or none at all, ala Enya. The beauty and sparseness of their original compositions were breathtaking. The audience was totally silent thruought the 5 song perfornce, and you could see a lot of them were surprised at the effect of the haunting and sometimes heart wrenching melodies on them as they sat tranfixed. This music is begging to be used in movie soundtracks. Have to find what band these guys come from. Usually they have a bassist as well, and use a full drum kit, but what I heard was as close to perfection as I could imagine, so I don't know whether it could really be any better, but with these serious young insects...you never know. Sorry no pics, but I was in shock. LOL Another astounding find in back streets of Shimo. Cover charge $4.
Off to Shibuya (Shibs) today to try a few guitars out at a big shop, with "guitar-try" rooms, then catch some young bands busking at Harujku, sometimes 15 or 20 all playing with their own little PA's.
