The not-so-Weekly... Volume 9

Greetings from Thailand, where there is one week left in my solo residency at the Twin Palms Hotel. At least there should have been one week left, but the hotel has decided that with the installation of a new sound system in the Catch Club (the venue where I was playing...), I would no longer be required. Ordinarily this may have been somewhat disappointing, however in this case the hotel has kindly offered to have me stay on for the full duration of my contract - which as far as I can tell means a free week in Phuket! So I suppose it's like a redundancy payment of sorts... works for me....

BEFORE I GO ON, CHECK THIS OUT

EVERY WEDNESDAY IN JUNE -

RENNY FIELD BAND RESIDENCY @ THE EXCELSIOR HOTEL, SURRY HILLS

Wed 4/6 - With Move Trees and Kitch

Wed 11/6 - With The Mules, Sarah Bird and Ruby for Lucy

Wed 18/6 - Special Acoustic Show With Fergus Brown and Rubi & Jude

Wed 25/6 - With The Falls, Sarah Humphreys and Cookie Baker.

Music from 8pm each week - Tix just $10 at the door. And great food at the pub!

The Excelsior - 64 Foveaux Street, Surry Hills

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So those of you who noticed the absence of "the weekly" last week will understand when I tell you that my brother was visiting... and a holiday at his pace leaves very little time for blogs on myspace. Talk about hitting it with full steam! Interestingly enough, full steam also included a full-on case of the Delhi Belly, or as we will refer to it in this case - the Pewk-et. Which was a shame for him, but more of a shame for his older brother who must have caught the damn thing just before he left. The last two days here have been far less exciting than the previous week I can tell you. A knock-out punch - haven't been able to move. The typing of this blog is about as active as I can be right now... bugger me! Signs are good for tomorrow though - I can feel a recovery of sorts coming on.

But Blogs are for stories my friends, and the stories of the "Pewk-ets" don't really count. So why don't I tell you about a world famous Ping Pong show which we chanced upon the other night. You see this is the type of thing you do when you have a night off... if you're in Thailand, it's one of the boxes you have to tick - consider it the Thai version of Niagra Falls, or Ayers Rock, or the Eiffel Tower for that matter. And I had been warned about these shows, but it turns out Ping Pong balls are just the tip of the iceberg - we had darts, trumpets, and a live chicken. Yes, a live chicken. I'll leave that one to your imagination, but suffice it to say when you see the woman in question walking round the main street the next day with her one year-old child slung over her shoulder, one wonders what sort of childhood is in store for the little tyke. Hmmm..... Won't be able to get that trumpet solo out of my head for a good while either... Spectacular.

Other highlights in the past week have been a pretty impressive Canoe Trip to Phang-nga, a wild goose chase in the middle of the night which involved a trip down the worst road imaginable to a private beach party which did not exist (long story...), and BARGAINS! Yep - took me a while to get through the incredible amounts of imitation diesel t-shirts, but I've found the hot spots, and I have no idea what I am going to do on the way home because I had already exceeded the excess baggage limit on the way here. Time for the cull!

In other news, the European tour is ticking along nicely - a few shows keep popping up each week, so things are looking good. Looking forward to getting over there!! Won't say much more, just keep an eye on the gigs, and send me an email if you're over there somewhere and you want me to try and stop in.. Cool.

See you next week - where the weekly will once again re-appear as the weekly.

Signing off for now.

Renny

The Weekly... Volume 8

Well as fate would have it, Shane Warne just walked in to bat for the Rajasthan Royals cricket team in the Indian Premier League. Not that this has anything to do with the blog, but you see each night here in Thailand I get home from my gig and put the TV on to see what's happening in the world. And more often than not, there is a cricket match finishing in India. So there you go - a snapshot of my life at the moment... At this very second in fact.... By the time I finish this, the match will be over... I'll let you know who won.

Right now I am about a third of the way through my contract here in Phuket... Starting to get in the groove a bit more now. The 4-hour sets are pretty tough going, but the voice is coping a bit better. In fact, tonight was my last of 6 nights in a row. I get tomorrow off, then back into another 6 straight. I think on average I am playing to around 4-6 people at the bar (Notwithstanding the occasional busy night where there are 30-40). Can be a bit tragic, but I am getting to meet some cool people which is great. I was saying to someone the other day - that is my favourite part about travelling - meeting new people. Especially when you are travelling alone. Because you're forced into a situation where you have to make an effort, and I think we forget to make an effort when we are in our familiar surrounds. Will this change the way I do things when I get home? I hope so...

Phuket itself is an interesting sort of place. My trusty moped (a lot more "trusty" now that I have upgraded to a newer model) has taken me back and forth around the Island. A trip on a Moped around Phuket is not without it's hair-raising moments I might add, but I am cautious you see... very cautious...

I have lost count of the number of times I have seen a balding overweight 65yo man with a giggling 18-yo Thai girl. There is something very wrong with that picture yes. There is something worse about seeing it in real life. But that sort of thing is very normal here. And the 18yo's are not always girls either. Bizarre...

The weather has been a bit suspect, but I am getting used to that. And I think I have discovered a pattern - it only ever rains if I am thinking about going somewhere on the moped, or if I am about to walk down to the beach club for my gig. I can't tell you the number of times I have been 20-30mins away from the hotel and had the heavens open just as I begin to make my way back. If only there was a way of getting some footage on youtube - I really must look stupid heading into the teeth of a howling gale with my hand trying to create some mock visor on the front of my helmet in a pathetic attempt to keep the rain out of my eyes...

In other news, a few more dates being booked in for Europe which is great. It's a slow process, but I'm getting there. I say again, if anyone has any ideas for me, feel free to let me know. I am quickly discovering how difficult it can be to book a tour independently from the other side of the world. But it'll be worth the trouble! Can't wait.

Wouldn't you know it, Shane Warne and his team just won the match.

And I am rambling. Yes this has been a good ramble.

Adios

The Weekly... Volume 7

The weekly strikes again.... (apologies to those on the email list, I figure the monthly mailout was a good place to start the weekly....if that makes sense....)

Hello from Thailand, where it must be the future. Or it is the present, and we have been misled in Australia.... Because in Thailand you see it is the year 2551. Apparently they are 543 years ahead of the rest of the world. What were we doing for 543 years I wonder whilst these Thai people were building their nation of beaches and mopeds? Evidently, the 543 years head start has not necessarily lent itself to half a millenium's worth of technological advances. Indeed, on my way to the visa office yesterday I stepped over a dying dog at the foot of the staircase. The staircase inside the building that is. And the office itself, well that was an experience. I think I spotted the old IBM I used to own in 1989. Everyone told me to watch out for ladyboys.... One of whom I have not seen yet. Aside from the visa office, where one of the Visa "officials" was an overweight man proudly dressed in a bright pink collared t-shirt, wearing makeup, and donning a hat/bonnet that would make your great grandmother proud (wide bream, straw, decorated with flowers....). Not that there's anything wrong with that.

In other news, I just negotiated the hire of a moped for the entire month - only $100. I have not ventured too far just yet. I figure tomorrow I can spend a day practicing my bail-out techniques for when I am being set upon by an old lorry or bus. That way I will be ready to tackle the road to Phuket town.

For those of you who missed it, I have just begun my month-long residency at the Twin Palms Resort in Phuket (which is about 30mins south of Phuket town itself). That's 4hrs of music, 6 nights a week, and nothing to do all day aside from lie on the beach (and practice bail-out maneuvers on my moped). If you're interested in checking it out, here is the link - www.twinpalms-phuket.com . They have erected a large billboard of me at the front entrance of the hotel. Very funny stuff.

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Moving on, those first few paragraphs I wrote just after I arrived... I am a few days in now. With a few more stories to tell...

There are, in fact, several Billboards. Not only the double-sided one at the front entrance, but another equally large sign at the front of the "Catch Club", which is the bar I am playing at. It's all very disconcerting I must say. Bearing in mind it took me 4 years to summon up the courage to put my face on a poster... And now there I am sitting on my old van (Rest in Peace 1984 Tarago...) for all the world to see. Well maybe not all the world, but half of Phuket. Anyway, there you go. (if you didn't get the part about the Van, it's one of the photos on my press photos section of the website - www.rennyfield.com - an old machine I used to own....).

The gig itself is not so bad. The catch club is a "beach club' for the hotel. So where the hotel is set back from the beach, the Catch Club is pretty much on the beach. It's not a typical "show" as is the norm in Sydney. Really I am providing background music more than anything whist people have dinner and drinks. Already I have been asked if it is hard work playing when people aren't really listening. And sure in one sense that is hard work, because I always have imagined my songs being "heard" in that sense. As any songwriter would I suppose. It's also a 4-hour gig - ie 4 x 45min sets. Which isn't a walk in the park, although I am quickly getting used to it...

Having said all that, this trip is as much about having a break as it is about playing shows. And as far as I can see, it's a perfect opportunity to do that. I have learned over time to appreciate these types of gigs for what they are, rather than getting upset because they don't live up to my idea of what the ultimate "setting" is for a performance - some people listen, some people don't. So I am working my way through a whole bunch of songs I rarely get a chance to play any more - both mine and other peoples. And i am enjoying it so far. Watch this space of course, because I am less than a week in... But it's great to be in another part of the world. And without wanting to sound too sentimental about the whole thing, the fact that music has brought me here is a real blessing. In some ways, it gives me faith that music will take me to other places. And I think I lost that for a while.

Now back to that Moped, which has been getting a bit of a workover... Following on from my tentative first trip over the hill and back again, I decided to head a bit further into the yonder the second time around. Little did I know that I was destined for a fall. Not a bad one mind you, but a fall nonetheless... And what do you think caused this fall?? A Chicken! A Chicken! Damn thing was making a beeline for the front of the bike, and as I applied the brakes and swerved in the one fluent motion, so the motion continued until I was off the bike, and the bike was skidding along the ground. And what of the Chicken? Fine of course. In fact I think it went and hid on the other side of the road so it could have some fun with the next dumb tourist that went past.

Ah but the moped stories continue.... because yesterday I was invited to a 4th birthday party. An invitation I might normally politely decline, but being in a foreign land on my ownsome, better to go and meet some new people, even if I did have to listen to the wiggles for 4 hours non stop. Lyrical genius I tell you. The way they intertwine fish, birds, monsters and hokey pokey all in the one song - I was hooked. Anyway, notwithstanding my latest musical inspiration, the time eventually came to say goodbye to the 4 year-olds and the treasure hunts and return to the hotel. Around about 20mins on the moped.

Enter Cyclone Tracey.

OK - slight use of artistic license, but it was RAINING cats, dogs, and everything else the wiggles have ever mentioned. And here was I - stranded in shorts and a t-shirt - attempting to push back into the breeze, face stinging from being pelted by the over-size drops of rain, bike wobbling around every turn... All of this after I was told on good authority (by locals that is...) that the rain would soon pass, and it was only really "heavy" for a few minutes at a time. Hmmmmm.....

You will be pleased to know that I did in fact make it back to the hotel. Straight into my room and under the hot shower for about 30mins. I can't imagine what people must have been thinking watching me ride past in those conditions. Much the same as I was probably thinking about myself - you idiot! And after all that, I don't even think I'll get a song out of it. Unless I make a play for the kids market, but that is for another time...

The hotel itself, I must mention, is quite amazing. It's an interesting transition from my last "tour" in Australia. One which saw me sleeping in the back of my car for several nights to save on expenses. Not that I minded of course, I am cool with stuff like that. But now I have travelled thousands of kilometres - into a different hemisphere in fact - and I find myself sitting in the comfort of a 5-star hotel suite. Free food, drinks, free gym, free everything really. And personal billboards. How bizarre. Better make the most of it, because I'm sure I'll be back in the station wagon before I can say "Ping Pong Balls".

Still yet to see any of those by the way... which I think might be a good thing...

But I am here for a month, and apparently they are hard to avoid....

Signing off - back in a week