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Scroll
down to the start of the month |
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1)
Mike is having far too much fun on his own (Heuch)
2) Chris Heuch and Mike 3) *Stan the bearded
man photographer
gig
report
Sun.24.3.13 Vesbar Wine Lounge Somerville
A
later evening than anticipated ends well
25.3.13 - About half way down to Somerville
I realised I'd left my feedback-reducing rubber
plug for George at home. Oh well, an enforced experiment
I thought to myself in philosophical mode. 'You're
early,' Bev observed as I stumbled in to the Vesbar
out of the afternoon glare. I usually arrive an
hour before the starting time so I didn't comment
but accepted the offer of a cup of tea and some
gluten-free shortbread..
I started playing at 4.00, more or less to an audience
of one, Chris Heuch, (pic 2) with whom
I'd had some e-mail correspondence after the Mornington
gig the week before. It was only when I went to
the toilet after the first set that I noticed the
poster with the start time advertised at 5.00 -
and sure enough, two table-loads of people arrived
to claim their reserved tables after 5.00. Bev and
I have had more than our share of missed and miscommunications,
but this took the gluten-free cake. The good thing
was that I was nicely warmed up by now, so the next
couple of hours whizzed by and I had a lot of fun
'plinging & saying' and got a very warm response
from the audience. George's new lighter gauge strings
seemed to do the trick and I didn't get too much
trouble without my rubber plug apart from the slightly
muddy bottom end.
At about 7.30 Bev and Leigh hustled me into the
next door Indian restaurant where we shared some
heavenly lamb cutlets and some very happy chat.
Bev and I surmised there's probably another Vesbar
gig in the pipeline, but we're both going to check
just to make sure..
*
Stan Barnett is compiling pics of bearded blokes
for a book he's planning to publish to support various
charities - the Leukemia Foundation has endorsed
the project for instance. You can check on his progress
on YouTube |
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1)
The Mornington Peninsula Brewery symbol 2) Chris
Heuch (standing) and The Bash crew seemed to have
a great arvo |
3)
Lisa's sister Karen, David, Lisa and Karen's daughter
Melanie + Keaton |
gig
report
Sat. 17.3.13 Mornington Peninsula Brewery
A
booze up in a Brewery
18.3.13 - I overheard Trevor
Courtney once say that I couldn't organise a booze
up in a brewery - which proved to be the catalyst
for my taking The Chants over to Melbourne from
Christchurch back in 1966, but the Mornington Peninsula
Brewery isn't just a great place to imbibe a boutique
beer; it's also a good place to catch a band like
Spectrum on a Sunday arvo.
For the band in question it's a good
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place to make a too rare
connection with our Peninsula audience - not that
most of the crowd was there to specifically see
Spectrum, but there were enough there to make it
seem like a home away from, including Chris, Deborah
, Bryan and Bevie (pic 2) from The Bash
a couple of years ago.
The blues set got delayed while a busload of beer
tourists sampled some of the beer made on the premises,
but we had a solid corps of dancers up on their
feet when we finally got started. Overall it was
a great arvo and it was good to meet and chat with
some old, and new friends - and we certainly enjoyed
making the music.
4)
Former Brissie footballer, now Tiger staffer Justin
Leppitsch enjoyed the band 5) Spectrum plays de
blues (Heuch) |
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Rosemary's
brother Ian presents a poem to celebrate Rosemary's
60th |
gig
report
Fri. 15.3.13 The Ivy Sat. 16.3.13 Rosemary's party
A
quiet night in Olinda
17.3.13 - If it wasn't for
Ron and Heather there would've been nobody at all
to greet us on Friday night at The Ivy Lounge Bar.
There were factors - the NAB Cup final and the onset
of cooler weather - but I wasn't convinced either
was compelling. Ron brought along a finely crafted
harp tray to attach to my mic stand, so the night
wasn't entirely wasted - and the pizzas were appreciated,
of course.
Last night I drove Robbo out to Rosewood to help
Bill present some acoustic music for
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the entertainment of
Rosemary's birthday party guests. It was good fun
too and Robbo had fun debuting his new cajon (pron.
cahoon) drum box.
We left early at about 9.00 and arrived home safely
despite a scary episode with the van spinning out
on the wet Strathie road. It was kind of miraculous
we didn't hit anything really. Two new tyres to
be ordered for the van first thing on Monday! |
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1)
The Beveridge manager Mick (standing) and friends
2) Mike makes a fashion statement (Wazz)
gig
report
Sat. 9.3.13 Beveridge Tavern Beveridge
Mike
shows a leg at the Beveridge Tavern
10.3.13 - Google Maps didn't
help by misdirecting me past Beveridge
to Wallan and so I wouldn't be surprised if I'd
collected a speeding ticket on the way back down
the Hume Fwy to the Beveridge Tavern. Pissed off,
but not surprised. We were in plenty of time though
and were able to have a surprisingly good meal (and
squirt on some insect repellent) before we started
the first set at 9.00. The night was balmy and windless
so we were instructed to set up outside where an
expectant crowd assembled in the semi-darkness.
(The subdued lighting created a few problems seeing
where I was on the fretboard). It was so balmy I
decided to stay in my shorts and sandals (pic
2) and finally catch up with the fashion cue
provided by Faith No More late last century. I might
even do it again.
A young lady with sparkling shoes did cartwheels
in front of the band before some of the punters
took the hint and started to dance. We had some
interesting conversations during the night which
I suspect we might resume when we play there again.
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The
whole SA tour in too many words and pics..
1)
Geoff Miller surveys the goings on in his kitchen
2) Mick Wordley describes his bout with sensory
deprivation
3)
Andi Miller and Uncle Bill 4) Chris and Greg at
the Crown Hotel 5) Maree Phillips program manager
at 5EFM
6)
Michael Morris first ran into me at the Dom Polski
Centre 7) The Hampstead's Jeff Dickson chats with
Daz
8)
The Hampstead banner with two lots of idiots 9)
Andrew Shanks (right) gives the thumbs up before
the Myponga chat
gig
report
Spectrum's SA Tour Thurs. 28.2.13 (duo) Hotel Crown
Victor Harbor Fri. 1.3.13 Hampsted Hotel
Sat. 2.3.13 Inglewood Inn (arvo) Waterloo Station
Hotel Sun. 3.3.13 Semaphore Workers Club
The
tears-in-beers tour - feel the love in the room..
6.3.13 - Bill and I left Melbourne
on Wednesday morning for South Australia on a perfect
day for driving. I hadn't realised there was so
much on in Adelaide when I made the bookings, (Clipsal
500, Fringe Festival etc.) so I was a little nervous
about our prospects, particularly at the Coles group
pubs (the Hampstead and the Waterloo Station) which
we'd not played before, but I was looking forward
to the trip anyway. We haven't played in SA for
over a year and that's too long an absence from
a town where we've got so many friends.
We checked into our motel in Glen Osmond and left
almost immediately to take up Geoff 'Goof' Miller's
(pic 1) invitation to sup with the Millers
and some other unspecified guests. Bill doesn't
usually drink but chose a nice bottle of Marlborough
Sav. Plonk to bring along - which had some good
effects (he slept well) and some other unmentionable
consequences. Anyway, it was lovely to reacquaint
ourselves with Geoff and Ju and their lovely daughter,
Andi, (pic 3) and to chat into the night
with our co-guests, Geoff's bro' Adrian, a bloke
called Scruff and our old mate, Mick Wordley. (pic
2)
After we'd picked up the lights from another old
mate, Tim Freedman at Allpro the next morning, Bill
and I were visited by Andrew Shanks (pic 9)
and his intrepid filmcrew to be interrogated about
the Myponga Festival back in 1971. Neither of us
could remember too much about it, so it was just
as well we'd invited him down to film us in action
at the Semaphore gig on the Sunday where I introduced
him to a whole audience with actual Myponga memories.
That evening Bill and I were playing a duo gig at
the Crown Hotel (Hotel Crown) in Victor Harbor.
I'd done a phone interview the day before on 5EFM
and the program manager, Maree Phillips, (pic
5) popped down to the Crown for a listen.
I don't know if it was the incessant swirling wind
or the unexpected bass-trap where we'd set up, but
Bill and I both felt unsettled all night and so
we've now decided that perhaps the duo's not really
suited to playing pubs after all. In future the
duo will concentrate on cafés and gigs like
the upcoming Cabana Lounge gig. Better late than
never I s'pose.
Robbo and Daz flew in early the next morning and
next thing we know we're loading in at the Hampstead
Hotel where my FaceBook friends had reported a large
banner advertising Spectrum's appearance at the
hotel a couple of weeks or more ago. The manager
Jeff Dickson (pic 7) introduced himself
and actually offered to give the afore-mentioned
banner to us after taking some shots of us posing
with it. (pic 8) There was a great crowd
in the room that night, (including rel's Barry,
Val, Lesley and Micool), and everybody seemed to
thoroughly enjoy themselves, although Bill noticed
a few couples shedding the odd tear into their beers.
The size and configuration of the room means we
might hire a bigger PA next time we play there..
On the Saturday we had two gigs. I'm not sure what
I was thinking when I agreed to this, so I'd hired
a keen young man (Josh) to help us with the load
in and out at the second gig at the Waterloo. The
arvo gig was our regular 'charity' appearance for
Variety's Kerry and Matin Philcox, but relocated
from the Bierhaus to the Inglewood Inn in the hills
just outside the city's northern limits. On first
look there seemed altogether too much glass for
it to sound any good, but it was probably the best
and most detailed sound we had on the tour - the
owner Peter Howell was rightly proud of it. The
only problem we had all day was the hot sun baking
us through all that glass - but we managed to struggle
through the heat OK. Maybe next time they'll have
the enticing-looking outdoors setting ready for
musical performances.
Again Bill observed the tears-in-beers phenomenon,
but clearly everybody was overjoyed with the way
it went and we'll look forward to doing it again
on the next tour.
We'd got to the Waterloo Station Hotel a lot quicker
than anticipated, so we had time to relax over some
drinks while we considered where best to set up,
then Josh arrived and we had the gear set up
in a flash. Some of our old mates from the
nearby BLF HQ had been waiting for us at the bar,
but a good part of the audience knew nothing about
us and I was pleased that we'd won them over by
the end of the night. Steve (pic 12) insisted
on buying us a bottle of Johnny Walker even though
I told him we didn't really drink scotch. We appreciated
the gesture anyhow - it made us feel very rock 'n'
roll.
The next morning Adrian Miller picked Bill and me
up to do a pre-record for his Songcatcher
show on Radio Adelaide before we mosied down to
our favourite Adelaide gig, the Semaphore Workers
Club. (Comrade!) By the end of the Waterloo gig
I was getting concerned that my voice wasn't going
to go the distance, but that turned out to be the
least of my worries. Maybe it was the beta-blocker
I had before the show, but I was feeling just a
little too relaxed and unfocused. Fortunately there
were some truly outstanding musical moments in the
second set that reminded me of the best of some
of our former bands. I guess that's what a few days
of concentrated playing can do for you, apart from
simply exhausting you, of course.
We drifted back into China Town in a comfortably
numb frame of mind and enjoyed the ritual Spectrum
celebratory Chinese meal. I've just been talking
to Peter Serk (pic 15) on the phone and
we're considering another SA tour in October/November.
Bring it on!
10)
Running for the exit after the show at the Inglewood
Inn 11)
Kerry's daughter Kathryn
took some nice shots
12)
Daz and Steve - thanks for the whisky Steve!
13) Me at the Semaphore Workers (Hunter)
14)
Bill at the Semaphore (Hunter)
15) Spectrum with our world's best-practice Adelaide
agent, Peter Serk |
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