Gigs of our lives - part whatever..

1) Pete Smith roasts the Dynamic Direct team at the Bluestone Bar 2) Pete asks Robbo what he'd like for Christmas

3) Pete Robbo and Pete Smith 4) Nick Charles nonchalantly dismays all watching guitar pickers 5) Adam and Mrs Adam in their inscrutably named band, CAAM, performing tracks from their new album on Stage 2.

6) Fiona Boyes with Kaz and Nick Charles 7) The Elephant Bridge Hotel in Darlington tries to sober to greet the day

8) Pinocchio's Nose sing for their supper at the hotel 9) Lee (owner of the pub) and Heather vote Spectrum No. 1

10) Spectrum with Boots and Garry Dalton from 3WAY FM

From the totally ridiculous to the (very nearly) sublime in two days..
7.2.05 - Although the weather was cool and occasionally drizzly, the Mortlake Buskers Festival last Saturday was great fun - not to mention a welcome contrast to the sound-metered nightmare that was the gig the night before - but that's another story. Spectrum has never played the Mortlake Festival, but now we're considered a Sound Vault act we get to do at least some of the Sound Vault gigs on offer. Until the local plods decided some years ago it had to be relocated away from the township, the main street of Mortlake originally hosted the festival. Since then it's been suffering a bit of an identity crisis, moving from the town to the footy oval and finally to the park where it's been for the last few years. Seeing as a busker's natural element is the street and not the middle of a paddock, and the shift away from the town means the local businesses have been hardly reaping the financial benefits of having a crowd in town, there could be a major re-think about the whole concept in the offing, but in the meantime there was plenty for the whole family to enjoy aside from the music, and the music on the two main stages was quite varied and snappily presented. In fact, I can't remember a better stage sound than the sound we got on Stage One- ever - and we've experienced the gamut over the years. All the acts were given a mean five minutes to set up, which was a breeze for the acoustic acts, but even with Spectrum's more complex set-up we managed to get pretty close. No waiting round in the freezing cold watching roadies randomly zig-zag round the stage for thirty minutes. And just as well too, 'cause by the time we got on for the second set it was quite chilly, and most of the audience was huddled together under blankets doing something or other to keep warm. Both sets, the first Spectrum Plays The Blues set on Stage One and the mostly retro-Spectrum set on Stage two, were well received and great fun to do - as Boots from 3WAY FM said after the second set, it was the shortest hour he'd ever experienced.
And then there was the accommodation, the intriguingly named Elephant Bridge Hotel, about twenty minutes drive away from Mortlake in downtown Darlington. Well, the hotel is about the only thing in Darlington, so you might imagine that things get a little less inhibited into the wee hours - and you'd be right. When we checked in to the hotel we found the place overflowing with leprechauns in fancy green vests, who turned out to be some sort of repertory musical outfit called Pinocchio's Nose who'd also been playing at the festival. They were still playing at the hotel when we got back, and after they'd packed up, the hotel's new owner, Lee, insisted we play a couple of numbers too. We did, and the world's smallest audience (two) loved it, but decided that a command performance by Spectrum on its own wasn't enough while the night was still young and made for dancing, so they proceeded to dance the night away with some of the remaining patrons till nearly six o'clock the next morning. I told you it was uninhibited!
Not only is the Elephant Bridge Hotel the oldest continuously licensed establishment in Victoria, it reputedly has a ghost, and I reckon the ghost of the hotel's original owner, Adeline Gellie, was with me in the shower the next morning, and saw to it I got a damn good scalding! (Bloody rock musicians in my hotel - I'll teach them!)
Anyhow, we loved the festival, and we're looking forward to doing it again, bigger and with better weather, next year.