25th March - Melbourne - Esplanade |
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This is one of the venues in Melbourne that I have wanted to play at for ages, it is steeped in Melbourne Rock n Roll history and is an institution around here. We were to be first band on as we only just managed to insert ourselves on the bill. We arrived at the venue to here a local band playing Hendrix covers, which they did to a fair amount of accuracy. Apparently the band has been doing the Saturday afternoon spot for years and as such has built up a bit of a following. After they had finished, we found the sound guy and began to haul the gear on-stage. We did a quick little soundcheck of Maria's Umbrella and got applause, which is always nice. Then at 9:15 we got on-stage and played our little hearts out. The sound on-stage was great and we were very together and tight. I felt very relaxed and happy with the whole scene and comment were made afterwards about me grinning like a Cheshire Cat the whole way through the gig. We played more or less the standard set for this tour so far and it went down very well. After our set I had a bit of a t-shirt and CD selling session which is really going to help with the petrol fund, thanks to everyone that bought stuff. We watched Orange County, who were the next band on. They had a fine line in sharp suits and rock n roll. I didn't actually get to watch Blow Hard as by then I was pretty wazarked and deep in a conversation about the price of fish and its effect on Tony Blair (or some such nonsense). Eventually the alcohol got the better of us all and we had to get out before we embarrassed ourselves (even more). |
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27th March Melbourne - Fun City Nazkarts - Western Suburbs |
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As a part of my mate Nikki's birthday celebrations she had booked a session at an indoor Go-Kart track, so we could all strut our stuff burning some serious rubber. Six of us made the trip: Nikki, Lauren, Richard, Jason, Pange and Myself. The session was set up really well. First of all we had 20 qualifying laps which decided our starting position for the actual race. Jason came in with the fastest time and took Poll position. I came in second and Rich in third. The race was great fun, there was an excellent pile up between Jason and Richard which led to me smashing into the both of them and allowing Nikki to take the lead followed by Lauren. After our Karts were separated, Richard managed to catch and overhaul Nikki. In the meantime I was being harassed by Jason and attempting to overtake Lauren who was expertly closing the door every time I made an attempt to pass her. Jason took me on a bend with a gentle shove, I retaliated with a slightly less gentle nudge and retook my fourth position. After about 9 laps behind Lauren I finally passed her on the inside on the fast straight. Nikki maintained her second position and was still a way in front of me when the chequered flag came down. Richard got to do a lap of honour waving the flag. He also got the trophy, which is now the van mascot. I haven't has such fun in a long time and got to speed at 50kph, which is pretty fast for someone that hasn't got a driving license and is very likely never to allowed on the public highway. Mind you, the bruises on my back and arms tell me that it is something that I shouldn't do on a regular basis and as I type this I ache all over ;-) |
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30th March - Melbourne - The Punters (with Muzzy Pep) |
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Before today's gig we were to spend day at Birdland studios, mixing down the songs that we recorded last week. After watching and listening to engineer Lyndsay working away at that desk for eight hours along with some helpful pointers on the sound from yours truly, we ended up with a very fine little set of songs that will probably form the first part of what will eventually be the Abdou LP. We left Birdland very happy and headed straight for Punters to make sure that we didn't miss Muzzy Pep. As we arrived, the first band, Framing Watson had just finished their set, which was a bit of a shame as I would have liked to see them. We carried in our equipment from the van and settled down with a few friends and beers to watch Muzzy Pep, who played a great set including my fave, For Every Girl, which is one of the tracks on the Spinach Compo LP (buy it now!). Finn (the engineer that did our sound at the Espy) was doing their sound and he did a great job. Muzzy Pep's set went far too quickly for my liking and before very long it was tie for us to get up there and make some noises. We tuned up guitars, plugged in our amps and went straight into the Abdou Theme. None of us had remembered our setlists so we just made it up as we went along. It was a good set, we played Aren't We All for the first time on this tour and it worked pretty well. We went down very well with the healthy Punters crowd, it was good to see some familiar faces amongst the crowd. Half way through the gig I saw a very familiar face, but, what with my terrible memory nowadays, I just couldn't place him. After the gig, we chatted for a good 10 minutes and then discovered that it was none other than the great Attilla The Stockbroker, legendary punk poet (boy did I feel dumb for not clicking). It turns out that he is in Melbourne for the upcoming comedy festival and came to Punters by sheer chance. We stayed at the venue drinking and chatting until we were kicked out. Nikki and I went back 'home' to Kensington and the boys went of in search of more alcohol (the fools!). I went straight to sleep that night, I was pretty drunk and slept very well. |
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