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1) Kay
and Mick Gunn at the end of the night 2) Bill and the oldest
patron at St Andrews
3)
Trollops' Lyn and Heather - and Bill 4) Marie Leggat and Peter
de Groot came from WA to listen to Spectrum!
gig
report
Sat. 9.6.12 Warracknabeal Racing Club Mick Gunn's 60th Sun.
10.6.12 St Andrews
Big
travelling by the band - and the audience
11.6.12 - Mick Gunn contacted
me quite late about doing his 60th in Warracknabeal. When I
realised we were doing the St Andrews pub the following day
my first instinct was to decline the invitation on the grounds
that time was just too tight getting back to St Andrews from
Warracknabeal, but then I remembered that's just the sort of
thing we used to do all the time and thought 'why not?'
It's a good four hours plus from Mt Waverley, but we got to
the Warracknabeal racetrack an hour earlier than I'd anticipated
to find the place empty. After setting up, checking in to our
accommodation and having a slap-up meal at the Commercial, (or
the 'Commie' as they call themselves, which is an interesting
contraction), we arrived back at the club rooms to find the
place filled to overflowing - and the hubbub was almost deafening.
It was so loud there was no way we could overcome it
with our modest set-up, so we played at a level that engaged
those that wanted to be engaged and left the rest to chat amongst
themselves.
There were a few moments of mutual recognition during the speeches
and then it was back to more or less entertaining ourselves.
We worked hard at it however - the last set was going on ninety
minutes - and at the end there was the predictable commotion
and demands for more, which we happily obliged. Mick (pic
1) is a lovely bloke and devoutly enthused by music, (he's
been to all the Byron festivals since '96), and anyway, we were
a lot cheaper than the Backsliders..
We left Warracknabeal at 8.30 and arrived back at Mt Waverley
at 12.45 so were in plenty of time for the load-in at St Andrews.
There was a slight kerfuffle when Daryl packed away a couple
of my leads away while I was setting up - and then we were off
on a typical Spectrum-at-St Andrews musical mystery tour. Either
I'm getting used to the 'new' stage sound or there've been some
improvements, but it all sounded pretty good to me and a relief
after the indifferent sound the previous night.
Cameron wasn't expecting much of a crowd and so was delighted
with the roll-up. Marie Leggat and Peter de Groot** (pic
4) came all the way over from WA especially to see Spectrum
- I'm just sorry we don't have a plaque to present to them for
such a special effort. (They seemed to enjoy themselves too).
There've been some 'adjustments' in the Trollops' camp (pic
3) and now they're looking for a new name - maybe something
a little less, er, suggestive. All in all it was a really good
mix of people and we loved seeing everybody there. Roll on the
next St Andrews! (On Sunday August 12th as it happens!)
** Peter has written a glowingly biased gig review that
you can read on the Correspondence
page
*There will be a necessary gig hiatus for the next four
weeks, (all will be explained in good time), but naturally I'll
stay in touch and keep you abreast of events. |
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1)
Spectrum's original drummer Mark Kennedy and Bill 2) Bobby Bright
salutes you
3)
Forever young - Gloria and Jimmie Sloggett 4) Internationalist
Bob Starkie and Mike the homebody have a natter
Debonairs'
boozy lunch No. 9
5.6.12 - Jimmie Sloggett rang
a couple of weeks ago asking if we were coming to the Debonairs'
lunch this month. I usually ration the Deb's do's to one a year,
but there is something of a rock & roll mystique about No.
9 and so I decided to attend. The first thing I noticed was
that it was a bit quieter than the Christmas do, for which I
was grateful. After Dom's introductions, Phil Manning did a
couple of spritely blues numbers and someone did a version of
Slippin' Away, which got Jimmie and me talking about
Max, of course, but after that I tuned out. You might've guessed
I'm generally not favourably disposed to entertainment at these
functions, firstly due to the indifferent acoustics in the restaurant
and secondly because we're mostly half-deaf musicians for goodness
sake and we'd just like a quiet-ish natter. And some food and
some booze. And another bloody parking ticket..
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1)
Dr Wazz and Jude Ocean at the Lomond 2) Robert Baxter listens
to the birthday speeches
3) Kerry
and Tim from St Andrews met at the Green Lantern 4) These muscular
guys helped us with load-out
gig
report
Lomond
Hotel Sat.
2.6.12 Robert Baxter's 60th Sun. 3.6.12
A busy weekend
4.6.12 - It was nice to be able
to write that headline after garnering patchy work at best over
the past few weeks. We haven't done the Lomond for quite some
time and I've been thinking the late finishing time of 12.30
might be inappropriate for our designated audience, (you know
who you are), but on this occasion nearly everybody stayed the
course. A lot of the people I talked to hadn't seen the band
for decades and they seemed to be delighted with the whole experience
- one lady claimed our performance was 'mesmerising'!
Bill stayed in Mt Waverley overnight as we were bumping in at
midday at St Joseph's Hall for Robert Baxter's 60th (pic
2). I was told that the acoustic baffles had only gone
in recently and we were grateful for that - the acoustics would've
been quite challenging without them. As it was we played fairly
strategically, gradually upping the ante until late in the afternoon,
by which stage the party was just getting going. By then, of
course, it was officially over, but we were bribed to play 'one
more set of Murtceps' tunes', which we were more than happy
to do. As we were packing down we met Tim and Kerry (pic
3) from St Andrews who met at the Green Lantern when Bill
and I played there back in the '90s. (Ain't that sweet?) The
two kids (pic 4) get a special mention as they were
a big help loading out. |
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