From the Fringe to Fringe toast..

1) Geoff 'Goof' Miller and me at the GC 2) Tim Seal encourages his guests to join in I'll Be Gone

3) Tim brings some mates up to join in on the reprise 4) What Mike ate at the Bill Putt Memorial lunch at ETC
gig report
Wed. 17.2.16 Mike Rudd's RetroSpectrum at the Adelaide Fringe
Sun. 21.2.16 Mike's celeb spot at Tim Seal's 60th
Mike Rudd's RetroSpectrum at the Adelaide Fringe
23.2.16 - I was assisted in my recent SA odyssey by Fate to a certain degree, but more often than not by dint (or is that dent?) of human kindnesses and decency. Anyway, the opportunity to appear at the Adelaide Fringe presented itself to me when I was approached by Graeme Dent (see?) to put in an appearance at his mate Tim Seal's 60th birthday party to be held on Sunday last (21st) at a winery (Barristers Block wines) in Woodside, a small town south of Adelaide in the Onkaparinga Valley, the fee for which allowed me and my partner Maria to fly (!) to SA and be accommodated.
I rang Geoff Miller's mate Colin Koch (Golly Gosh) thinking initially that he was associated with WOMADelaide, but discovered it was actually the Adelaide Fringe and that applications were officially closed. However, doors magically opened and I think it was at the Coolangatta airport I effected the deposit, which meant I was on the Fringe bill performing at the German Club on the Wednesday night. (17th)
And that's how it went too, the only change being that I added Geoff Miller (pic 1) to the show to give it a bit of a lift at the pointy end.
I was belatedly concerned that there wouldn't be enough people in the quite large space in the German Club and had arranged to be interviewed with another of Geoff Miller's mates (Ian Henshke) on the Tuesday at 4.30 at the ABC, but the time came and passed and things became a little tense in the ABC Green Room as we wondered what was going on. Ian's producer came out apologetically and said with one thing and another they'd forgotten we were coming and would we mind waiting another forty-five minutes for the interview? As it turned out I got a good fifteen minutes of air time and I'm certain the exposure prompted the late flurry of sales that brought the attendance up close to a full house.
Given my pre-show anxiety the show went off really very well and I was inundated with well-wishers at the end of the night - I could barely carry all the wine I was given! As my presenter, Alan Rosewarne said, you could feel the love in the room.
There was less love on the street when I discovered that I'd parked a little too adjacent to some concrete guttering and dragged a plastic splash-guard of the bottom of our hire car which meant I had to seek assistance from some chaps still lurking in the German Club foyer, including Geoff's brother (!) Adrian.* This meant we had to return the car to the hire car people the next day, but the replacement vehicle we were given was so horribly smelly we had to replace that as well, chewing up a good part of our day.
Fast forward to Sunday, the day of the party. Maria and I had booked lunch at the Bird in Hand Winery, scarcely five minutes from the party venue and had a satisfactory meal too, despite the prescriptive set menu. We arrived at Barristers Block to find the party in full swing with the garden full of guests enjoying the sunshine and a band set up in the folksy-looking open edifice facing out to the garden.
Chief conspirator Graeme Dent came over to our car and we plotted my surprise appearance near the end of the speeches. We waited till the appropriate moment and then Graeme escorted me through the crowd to meet a dumbfounded Tim Seal and I delivered the speech that Graeme had written.
After the speeches Graeme got the crowd's attention again and I commandeered the band's PA to sing my acappella version of I'll Be Gone, (pics 2 & 3) which everybody joined in and then demanded photos be taken of me with just about evcerybody present.
It was great fun and everybody got into the spirit of it all - a lovely way to finish off the trip. The next day before going to the airport Maria and I had an impromptu Bill Putt Memorial lunch at the East Terrace Continental where Bill and I invariably had breakfast when we were in town - I had the French (or Fringe) toast and bacon. (pic 4)

* See Adrian's review of the show in Clothesline