Welcome back folks…. I am slowly getting through the backlog of tour tales here. So many memories, so little time to share them with you. Nonetheless, the tour diary continues.
TUES 17TH NOVEMBER – REPUBLIC BAR, HOBART
The loyal followers will note here that this show was scheduled 2 days after my last show in Melbourne (the last of 8 in the first week of the tour). Most normal people might have elected to give themselves a day off in Melbourne as some sort of reward for making it through a week such as the one I had just endured. Alas, I needed to drive my car back to Sydney on Monday (10hrs) so I could catch the flight to Hobart – from Sydney – on Tuesday morning. If you’re wondering why…. well I’ll get to that. In keeping with the spirit of the tour, the reason is too difficult to explain right now, but it involves 4 towns in 2 states on different sides of the country.... It’s fair to say that when it comes to scheduling, there are a few things I will reconsider next time round!
Anyway – Hobart – is a nice sort of town. I find it quite similar to the UK in many ways – perhaps a combination of the climate and the old buildings scattered up and down the hills surrounding the harbour. If I am ever there for longer than a night, I will no doubt be able to give Hobart the type of appraisal it deserves. For now, I’ll just leave it at nice. Safe, reliable, quaint, homely, welcoming and all those other things you might associate with the word “nice”.
After a brief stop at the Edge FM for a short interview and a song on air, I had a few hours to kill before the show. Time enough to find some new guitar strings, take a gentle saunter round the Capital of Taswegia and even head off for a light jog up the road to the Cascade brewery. I don’t know about you, but I really love a town where you can run for 20mins and be in the hills – there’s a certain freedom to that. The ability to escape into the wilderness whenever you feel like it.
The show itself was 3 sets over 3 hours, played to an average crowd of about 5 people (including the bar staff), one of whom happened to be a member of the Hobart Amateur Opera Society. I would never have known this of course, but for the fact that every 10 or 15mins he would stroll round the room belting out attempted harmonies whilst I was in the middle of a song. The full opera vibrato with the hand gestures and everything – this bloke wasn’t doing things by half measures. What do you do in that situation? The guy was evidently having a great old time – I didn’t feel like it was my place to say anything… Sure it threw me a bit at first, but then I kind of got used to it. In a way, it sort of made the show. And in any case, it was obviously keeping him pretty happy, judging by the way he kept clapping at the end of each song (not sure if it was for him or me) and throwing money on stage. $5 notes mainly, with the occasional 10 for good measure.
I have tried to make sense of it ever since, but I still don’t understand…. A generous spirit, a misguided soul, a window to my life in 30 years time perhaps… Maybe it’s better not to ask questions. In any case, by the end of the night I had made back at least half my airfare, and I figured that was reason enough to play a gig to 5 people on a Tuesday night in Hobart. Not the most exciting gig I have ever played, but certainly one of the more memorable…
WED 18TH NOVEMBER – IRISH MURPHY’S, LAUNCESTON
The morning of Wed 18th was devoted to an investigation of the local rental car market. Starving artists don’t typically like to hire rental cars, but in this case it was necessary. There are several buses daily from Hobart to Launceston, but none of them left early enough for me to make the radio interview OR the songwriting workshop I had agreed to host. I assumed there would be an hourly shuttle bus or something similar ferrying people between the busiest cities in Tasmania…. Negative! (As it happens, the starving artist 2-door hatch wasn’t available, so I had to pay for the far more glamorous 4-door Corolla. A fine ride indeed for a guy who was yet to reach triple figures on album sales… but to be fair, the blow was somewhat softened by my friend the opera singer from the night before!
Having negotiated the 200km to Launceston, it was time for my radio interview with LCFM, a local station run (for the main part) by students at Launceston College. My thanks to Steve Tully, the head of media studies, for his kind assistance in the weeks leading up to my trip, and for offering me an interview in the first place. When I released “Molly Mae” (September ’09) I sent a bunch of emails to community radio stations right across the country, and Steve was one of the kind people who actually took the time to reply. It was nice to have a show in Launceston so I had the opportunity to meet him in person, and sure enough there he was as I drove into town – standing on the corner, waving, ready to jump in the passenger seat and guide me straight into studio one.
(As the story goes, Steve moved to Launceston after seeing a picture of a beautiful woman, conducting a school orchestra, on the front of a newsletter for the Tasmanian Department of Education. Overcome by a sudden desire to meet the woman in the photo, Steve asked the department to transfer him to the school in question, and just a few years later they were married! Apparently she wasn’t too keen at first, but he got her to come around… Nice work Steve. Well played.)
The interview itself wasn’t so bad… I think I avoided any major embarrassment, which is generally my primary aim on radio. The spot was pre-recorded then played bi-hourly for the rest of the day. That’s a lot of Renny Field for the poor people of Launceston to have to endure! But even so, I must thank LCFM for the support and the exposure. As a general rule, I have found community radio stations to be extremely supportive, and a great way of getting some help locally when you are on tour. For that reason, I always try to contact the local community station(s) whenever I head to a new town, and more often than not it’s worth the effort.
As for the songwriting workshop, I am sitting here trying to recall what I said and I can’t really remember… But I am hoping the ramble did turn into something interesting/informative at some point, and that the people in attendance were able to take something from the hour-long session. Worst case scenario – they thought I was a weirdo with no idea. Well, there are worse problems to have. (And let’s face it I am a little strange…).
To round off another fairly eventful day, I played a 45-min spot at Irish Murphy’s – one of the main pubs in town, a small but lively old-style tavern with a hostel upstairs – supporting a local band called The Stoics. Despite its size, Launceston I discovered has a nice little music community, and the Stoics were a great advertisement for it – good songwriting, good arrangements, and a pleasure to watch. And the way I felt, I needed some good music to keep me going. Because by the time I finished my set (a fairly good effort despite the drunk blokes shouting at me every 10mins) I was running on empty. And my flight to Adelaide was leaving at 8.30 in the morning… Time to return to the mainland….
(I should say a final thanks to local singer-songwriter Sara Jane for her advice on booking shows in Launceston. For those of you who’d like to check out some of her music, or maybe even play a show with her sometime, you can visit www.myspace.com/sarajanemusic).
THURS 19TH NOVEMBER – THE GRACE EMILY, ADELAIDE
Adelaide was about a 2-hr flight from Launceston via Melbourne, and waiting for me at the other end was one of the best gigs of the tour. I have said enough about the Grace in the past, so I won’t bore you with too many specifics... But I will say that it was a real treat to perform with my good mates Sam Buckingham and Cookie Baker, and the Grace Emily once again proved itself to be a cut above the rest. I hope it never changes. Here’s some footage from the gig – thanks very much to Jaan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkwxaE0jnKw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3_P5b8IA28&feature=related
On another note, I could live in Adelaide. I’m not saying I will. I’m just saying I could. Sometimes I like to think about stuff. Hmmmm….
Ok that’s enough. Time to head West. Back soon.
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