Rick's
daughter has a Joplinesque ball with a fan and an all-star band |
Rick
Evans' Australia Day special
29.1.19 - Of course I'd heard about it somewhere, sometime,
a rumour here, a rumour there, but I'd never received an actual
request to attend the legendary Australia Day festivities at
Rick Evans' rural property in the wilds of Upper Beaconsfield.
In the event, it was Brenden Mason who rang me and asked if
I'd be interested in singing a couple of (my) songs with him
and the Madders after their set at 2.00pm approx. The Indelibles'
gig in Maldon set for the previous day had sunk without trace
so there was no logistical reason I shouldn't make it quite
comfortably.
I couldn't help but notice the audience was a Who's Who of '60s
and '70s' rock and pop musos plus their families - Marcie Jones
opened the gate for me as I arrived for heaven's sake! I chatted
with numerous of them too - Bobby Bright, Ronnie Charles, Normie
Rowe, Gil Matthews, Mark Kennedy, Pip Joyce, Marcie Jones, Roger
McLaughlin and so many more.
I was in the middle of such a conversation in fact when there
was an urgent call for me from the stage - and the Madders hadn't
even done their set yet. It turned out that they couldn't find
their singer Michael O'Laughlin or their bassist Kerry McKenna
who was s'posed to be helping back me as well. I was sure I'd
seen Kerry stumbling |
around somewhere in the
crowd so a call was put out for him over the PA and sure enough
he materialised in a matter of moments.
I'd already announced our first song, It's a Lottery,
so we launched into it straight away. It went OK but it sounded
a bit out of tune to me so I was happy I wasn't playing guitar
in the next two numbers. After Kerry had significantly tweaked
his bass guitar's tuning (!) we were on to the crowd fave I'll
Be Gone (Someday I'll have money) and Esmeralda
with its bonus extended ending, which caught Aztec's Gil Matthews
(guesting with the Madders on drums) a bit by surprise.
Many thanks to the Madders, and Brenden Mason in particular
of course, for going out their way to help me out on the day.Rick
was just thrilled that I had turned up and performed, but I
got some very nice comments after the set, including from Normie
Rowe who proclaimed I'll Be Gone his fave Oz song..
Later on in the arvo it got very, very hot and, old dude that
I am, I was starting to feel the strain of the heat and the
constant socialising and left surreptitiously before suffering
a total meltdown. |
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