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Scroll
down to the start of the month |
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1)
Spectrum for the first time as a four-piece in Warburton
(Sellers) 2) The delightful
little dancing girl |
3) Bill and me with the discerning
Mark Rogers |
gig
report
Sat. 27.4.13 Mark Rogers 50th at the Wild Thyme
Cafe
Windy
and warm at the Wild Thyme
28.4.13 - There was
some good-natured disparagement on FaceBook when
I mentioned we were playing al fresco in
Warburton last night, but the long-range forecasters
got it absolutely right and the weather was balmy
to say the least. Mind you there was the odd gust
of wind and one actually caused the curtains to
catch the PA mixer and throw it onto the ground
upside down. (It was undamaged).
The night was in celebration of Mark Rogers' (pic
3) 50th birthday and was the first time we've
had the full band at the Wild Thyme We got to play
a bunch of retro-Spectrum songs we haven't played
for a while to the biggest crowd I've ever seen
there - and everyone was very happy..
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Yes,
the trusty old recorder that's on the original recording
of Superbody being used again on Superbody
(Sellers)
gig
report
Wed. 24.13 Mike solo
at The Quiet Man Flemington
The
Quiet Man anything but..
25.4.13 - The Clifton
Hill acoustic sessions on a Wednesday night have
been ticking over for years - maybe even decades
now - and Bill and I have occasionally fronted up
to the Clifton Hill Hotel at Rod Claringbould's
behest and laid a quiet set on an even quieter front
bar. When Rod rang for our availabilities recently
he said that the Clifton Hill was closing for renovations
and they were temporarily moving the acoustic sessions
to a fellow Irish pub, The Quiet Man, in Flemington.
I thought that, change being in the air, I might
try a night sans Bill, so I duly turned
up last night at the pub bearing George Martin plus
various accoutrements but otherwise quite alone.
I had time to join the Drs Sellers, Jude Ocean and
Michael Crowhurst for a decent-ish meal at a Malaysian
restaurant down the road before my set's advertised
starting time of 9.15, but when we got back we found
things to be running well-and-truly behind, which
meant I didn't actually start my set until closer
to 9.45.
Maybe it was due to the public holiday the next
day, but there was an unexpectedly large crowd in
- and they were clearly in the mood for a chat,
so The Quiet Man was hardly living up to its name.
Nevertheless, there was a core of music appreciators
doing their very best to be attentive to my every
note and utterance and Ray Moon had the steam PA
chugging to the max to allow me to be heard over
the cacophony of conversation - and I think for
the most part it worked..
Anyway, I was told by Petrina and Lex that I looked
relaxed enough and I'm gradually reducing the quota
of fumbles so I was happy with that and left feeling
moderately satisfied - although that might've been
due to the pot Lex shouted me after I'd eventually
packed up George for the night..
Don
Hillman's Secret Beach launch their set - I swear
I could hear the break crunching onto the Torquay
foreshore.. |
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In
a universe far, far away..
1)
Bill wins the meat plate at the Murray Bridge
Rowing Club 2) Something's missing from Cherie's
glass, Bob!
3)
The heritage-listed room at the Auburn Courthouse
Cultural Centre as
seen from the stage -
sounded good too
4)
Bill squints at the camera with fellow bassist,
Rod Dawson 5) Kerry and Martin were there..
6)
Richmond and Collingwood played on Saturday -
pick the loser 7) Phillipa and Mike were cryptically
related
8)
John Matheson organised the shebang for his partner
Reiko's birthday
gig
report
Fri. 19.4.13 Mike & Bill at The Courthouse
Auburn SA Sat. 20.4.13 The trio at the Prairie
Hotel Parachilna SA
It's
a long way to the Prairie.. Mike and Bill's big
adventure
24.4.13 - It was
in early March when Spectrum last played at the
Semaphore Workers Club that John Matheson introduced
himself to me between sets and gently reminded
me that he was still waiting for me to reply to
his last email and let him know whether we were
interested in playing at his wife Reiko's birthday
party at the Prairie Hotel in Parachilna.
Since then there's been considerable good-natured
correspondence back and forth between John and
me with the end result being that last Thursday
morning Bill and I headed for the SA border in
the van planning to meet Robbo in Parachilna on
Saturday evening - Robbo was flying into Adelaide
on Saturday morning and hitching a ride to Parachilna
with Andrew and Sally who were guests at the party.
We broke up the journey by stopping off in Murray
Bridge on the first night and we had dinner at
the Murray Bridge Rowing Club, which had a bus
service to and from the motel. Bill bought $5.00
worth of raffle tickets - and won a prize! He
was offered the meat tray but went for
the half-dozen bottles of Carlton instead. (pic
1)
We'd managed to score a gig for the duo on the
Friday night in Auburn at The Courthouse, which
as the name suggests, is a former courthouse now
being used for music nights amongst other cultural
events. Bill and I met up with Cherie Harvey (pic
2) who runs the music program at The Courthouse
and who turns out to be a fellow Kiwi - from Bluff
of all places. She generously offered to put us
up at her place for the night and guided us the
few kilometeres out of Auburn to settle in before
we sound-checked back at the gig.
Bob Charman, (pic 2) the sound engineer
arrived and we headed back into town to set up
and sound check, after which we wandered down
to the Rising Sun Hotel and had a slap-up meal.
There were at least a couple of people also dining
there who were coming to the show, so we started
revising our crowd forecasts upward as we wandered
back to the gig where we found quite a healthy
sized crowd filing in to the room.
Bill and I have been discussing the duo's relevance
recently and decided to be a little more precious
about where we present it, (pubs are out for instance)
and by our revised definition The Courthouse seemed
to be the ideal type of venue. I started off proceedings
with about half-an-hour's solo ramble before Bill
joined me - Bob got the perfect sound for the
room and the punters seemed to be delighted, so
I think we'll persevere with the revised philosophy
and see where it takes us. If it takes us back
to The Courthouse that would be a good result
for a start..*
I'm guessing not a lot of you have been to Parachilna
- I'd certainly never heard of it before. It's
adjacent to the Flinders Ranges some 500 odd k
north of Adelaide and anybody that I'd spoken
to about it that had been there said it was a
very beautiful area. I wish I'd taken some pics
on the way up but I suspect they wouldn't do justice
to this luminously brooding landscape in any case.
Apart from a brief excursion into the unknown
the trip passed without incident and after Robbo
arrived we started to set up on the Prairie Hotel's
verandah accompanied by clouds of bush flies.
The feeling of remoteness is palpable and the
hotel is the only permanent building in Parachilna,
the extra accommodation being comprised of cabins
of varying quality.
John and Reiko had very kindly invited us to the
pre-dinner drinks, to which end everybody had
been given a card bearing their name - and an
inscrutable icon which was supposed to be matched
to one other guest's card. My icon was a toilet
roll, which turned out to be a match for Phillipa's
(pic 7) Ayers Rock (rock 'n' roll - geddit?).
I didn't. Cryptic bro' Dick would've got it immediately
I suspect.
I was expecting it to be quite cold in the desert
night air, but as it turned out we probably lucked
it for one of the last days of summer and it was
really quite pleasant. The flies that beset us
when we arrived had quite disappeared and all
the guests had a lovely time, even if some got
quite smashed, and the sound on the verandah was
as good as it gets, which is as much as a band
can ask for really.
It started to rain lightly as we were packing
up, which we took as a good omen given there's
hardly been any rain up there, but by the next
morning it was cold and miserable for the drive
back to Adelaide where we were to drop Robbo off
for the flight home. Altogether it was a thoroughly
memorable trip and even without the mementos I'll
always remember the stunning scenery on the long
journey to and from the Prairie Hotel in Parachilna.
*
Read Judith Dawsons Clare Valley tribute to Mike
& Bill on the Correspondence
page
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1)
Brett and Brayden treamed up to help us load out
2) Michael was having a very earnest talk with pink
shirted Bill
3)
It was Easter Sunday but it wasn't a bad crowd altogether
4) Tom Spanos has his ear inspected by Keaton Robbo
gig
report
Sun.31.3.13 The Cabana Lounge East Malvern RSL
Easter
Sunday at the Cabana Lounge
1.4.13 - The booker for The
Cabana Lounge (aka the East Malvern RSL), Mae Parker,
dropped in as we were setting up to make sure all
was well and apologised profusely for booking us
on a holiday weekend, but it was a quite reasonable
crowd as it turned out. (pic 3) I reckon
we must've known most of the audience in any case,
so it was a very friendly atmosphere. We were experimenting
a bit - our surprise guest (Robbo) brought along
his cajon to accompany the Volcano songs
and had the Gretsch kit for the blues stuff and
I brought George (Martin) along for a couple of
songs.
The Cabana Lounge is on the first floor overlooking
Darling Park, so we were very grateful there was
a lift and that Brett and Brayden (pic 1)
helped us with the load out. Yesterday's gig was
part of an initial eight week season after which
it will be reviewed and its future determined. I
hope it keeps on going, even if it's just on the
grounds that it's the world's most convenient gig
for me, being a mere ten minutes from where I live.
*Unrelated to anything, listen to Mike & Bill's
very helpful Podcast
recorded on Radio Adelaide's Songcatcher show |
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