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Scroll
down to the start of the month |
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1)
3NRG's Tony Rockwell and co-presenter at
the Lomond 2) Ian and Chris at the Mornington
Peninsula Brewery
gig
report
Sat. 29.9.12 Lomond Hotel Sun. 30.9.12 Mornington
Peninsula Brewery
A
busy weekend for the trio
1.10 12 - We've
been conspicuously unbusy for the past few
weeks, so the prospect of a couple of gigs
in a row on GF weekend was tantalising.
The known quantity was The Lomond, of course,
but the prospect of rediscovering our Peninsula
constituency on the Sunday arvo at The Mornington
Peninsula Brewery was intriguing. I remained
hopeful even after I got a late e-mail advising
me that they'd like to move the times forward
by an hour to accommodate the NRL Grand
Final fans. There was no chance of advising
everybody in time so I just FaceBooked it
and hoped for the best.
I was initially a little dismayed that the
crowd was down at the Lomond, but they certainly
made up for it with the warmth of their
response. On a musical note I was debuting
heavier gauge strings on the Strat' - I've
not changed them for a good twenty years
- and I was generally pleased with the result,
especially the clarity and solidity of the
bottom end. My Morris decided to get into
the act and presented me with a broken 5th
(!) when I opened its case. Ask any guitarist
and they'll tell you that nylon strings
are capable of being very treacherous.
After the gig Bill and I popped over to
Triple R to have a chat with Headley Gritter
(pic 3) on The Party Show. We were
expecting Michael Chugg (spruiking the LWTTT
tour no doubt) and so we were pleasantly
surprised to find Billy Pinnell was the
other guest. Amongst the usual raucous chat
we got a surprise phone call from Ken Murdoch,
but his battery went half way through the
conversation, probably because he'd been
calling 3CR for half an hour by mistake,
and we didn't really find out what he was
calling about.
Bill stayed at my place over night as we
had to be in Mornington by midday. We got
there shortly after 11.30 as it turned out
(thanks Bill) and set up against an unpromising
looking concrete wall on an unpromising
looking concrete floor. Nevertheless, people
started to arrive and the place was virtually
full by the time we started playing. We
were delighted to find the sound was quite
fine - I think due to the exposed insulation
in the roof - and once the overhead heater
was on, we were all quite cosy as well.
It ended up quite a lovely afternoon all
told. Lots of our good friends were there
and some others who hadn't seen us since
the last Frankston RSL gig a few years back.
The deputised manager (Jarrod) said he was
pleased to see a lot of new (beer-drinking)
faces there as well as their (wine-sipping)
regulars. Special thanks to Patrick Elliget
who suggested the venue to me in the first
place and I'm sure we'll get to play there
again pretty soon.
3)
Billy Pinnell and Mike stare each other
down as Bill speaks on Triple R
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LWTTT
rides again!
1)
The man - a svelte Tony Naylor 2) The other
man - the not quite as svelte Dai Pritchard
3)
Chain's Phil Manning got to hang around the
airport for a while 4) 10's Angela Bishop
had a nice chat with us
The
Return of The Long Way To The Top
28.9.12 - I'm
almost restored now, but I felt like shit
when I got up yesterday morning at 5.50 after
a restless night. It seems I shall never get
used to the prospect of travelling. Anyway,
by the time I got to the airport, Mr Punctuality
had been there for over an hour, so that made
me feel slightly better.
We got to Sydney and then the (Stagedoor)
rehearsal rooms without incident and found
things were actually running ahead of time
for a change and we'd finished our rehearsal
by midday, our scheduled start time. (Incidentally,
we're doing two songs this time -
things are looking up). They found us something
to do and we filmed another run-through of
I'll Be Gone and then did a snappy
(as in amusing) interview with Channel 10's
Angela Bishop, (pic 4) who turns
out to be a pretty good sport. I s'pose you'd
have to be to survive that long in the TV
business.
Jim Keays and Russell Morris arrived for their
rehearsal and we had a bit of a chat about
things Roman, things footy and things less
savoury on the domestic front. I'm guessing
some of it was delusional. Our old mate Phil
Manning (pic 3) had already headed
to the airport when I rang the office about
our flight being delayed and he was still
there when our flight finally left for Melbourne.
I hope he got out safely. Whatever, he wouldn't
be spending as much time in the air as Matt
Taylor, who flew there and back from WA for
the one rehearsal. We theorised that maybe
video conferencing might've been the way to
go, but we're only the musicians.
Incidentally, I'll be appearing on Headley
Gritter's The
Party Show on Triple R with LWTTT's Michael
Chugg after our show at the Lomond tomorrow
night. Another incidentally is that we were
told today that the starting time for our
inaugural gig at the Mornington Peninsula
Brewery has been brought forward to 1.00 to
accommodate the broadcast of the NRL GF at
4.00. |
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1)
Jess Cornelius at the sound check 2) Action
Jackson and Mark Baker hunt autographs
Mike
and Jess reprise Crying on RocKwiz in Adelaide
16.9.12 - I have to say
I was surprised to be asked to join the the
touring version of RocKwiz in Adelaide for
a reprise of Crying with Jess Cornelius
(pic 1) - and I'll Be Gone,
of course. The show's producer, Peter Bain-Hogg,
told me candidly that their first selection
had dropped out, but I still managed to feel
slightly special. I met the cast
at the Qantas check-in on Friday morning,
with the exception of Jess Cornelius, who
was flying in later from Brisbane. I was really
quite concerned about going blank during Crying,
so when I discovered that the show wasn't
being recorded, I felt quite relieved.
The flight was uneventful, (apart from Linda
Bull being asked to divest the contents of
her shoulder bag after a sniffer dog had shown
interest in it), but when we were waiting
for the bus to take us to the Entertainment
Centre for a sound check/rehearsal and Jess
arrived I made another discovery - she's now
a blonde. Of course it suits her, but I was
surprised nevertheless. Girls!
When the show eventually got under way and
Jess and I were assigned to our Rock Wizard
teams after singing our respective songs -
I'll Be Gone went down especially
well. During the quiz I thought it was just
me, but Kevin Mitchell (aka Bob Evans) confirmed
that it was pretty hard to pick up what Julia
Zemero was saying from our side of the stage.
Luckily Julia seemed to be confining herself
to rhetorical chat when she was talking to
me - dunno really. Maybe she's just used to
me looking at her blankly.
Anyway, for whatever reason, my team was struggling
when Kev tagged in and so I was astonished
to see when Jess and I were about to take
the stage for our duet that our team had fought
its way back into the winning position! Jess
had been trying to loosen me up before we
went on and I think our Crying performance
was pretty relaxed. I'd been struggling
a bit with sustaining the last note in rehearsal
and had devised a cunning plan to take an
extra breath, so I was surprised that Jess
seemed to be still going strong as I was starting
to fade - I'd pushed it well into Glyn Mason's
exploding blood-vessel territory before I
realised it was actually Vika and Linda Bull
hanging out there with me in the stratosphere.
After the show had ended rapturously, the
cast trooped out to the foyer and signed T-shirts
and other merch while I punced about taking
the odd photo. I was approached by a few people
to have my pic taken and ended up having quite
a long chat with Michael Warren (aka Action
Jackson) and Mark Baker, (pic 2)
whom I've met before over the years.
The cast and crew had a quiet aprés
show party in the Hilton Bar and I had long
and meaningfuls with Marcia Hines, Julia and
Brian Nankervis. They're all such
lovely people and it would be a shame if I
wasn't to do another show with them sometime.
(hint, hint) Of course, my feeling
now is that it was a pity the night's show
wasn't recorded after all.. |
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Warner's
Lucy baby-sits Mike and Bill at 3AW today |
Mike
& Bill on the Boogie! trail again
7.9.12 - This time we
were taken to 3AW by Warner's Lucy (pic)
for what we thought was going to be a
spot on the Denis Walter show, but which actually
turned out to be the Steve Vizard show. Denis'
music expert, Billy Pinnell, was on hand to
very sweetly say he thought Spectrum was best
in show before we launched into the B version
of IBG.
I did pretty well considering a smoked salmon
royal was trying to clamber back out of my
asophagus, but I should really be less cavalier
about eating just before we perform on air.
Anyway, some interesting news is that I've
been asked to reprise my RocKwiz appearance
with Jess Cornelius next week in Adelaide.
I'll bring out the white jacket again.. |
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1)
Bill chats with Enza after our meal at Gopals
2) John McKinnon and son Luke join Bill in
a backstage smoko |
3)
Ted Lethborg's due onstage |
gig
report
Wed. 5.9.12 Myeloma Foundation benefit Hi
Fi Bar
Myeloma
Foundation benefit gig
6.9.12 - When Bill and
I arrived for our 4.30 sound check things
were running a bit behind, but everything
sounded fine. For some reason alarm bells
didn't ring and while the Lakes' sound checked
we popped into Gopals, Bill's favourite old
haunt a few doors down from the Hi Fi for
a vego meal - Bill reckoned of all the places
he hasn't visited for thirty five years, this
had changed the least.
Madder Lake was on first and I made a guest
appearance on harp, which was fun. And then
Spectrum was on. I have to say our contribution
ranged from the inept to the sublimely average,
but happily it was accepted in the spirit
it was offered - that is with warmth and generosity.
As we were leaving a bunch o' young dudes
were playing and I thought they were doing
it right - keeping it simple.
Jim Keays had been talking about retirement
earlier on, but I can't see it. He's still
got a full head of hair for goodness sake!
b |
4)
3NRG's Andrew Smith took this shot of me with
the Madders 5) Andrew's shot of Spectrum's
inevitable I'll Be Gone |
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