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Scroll
down to the start of the month |
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1) My generous hosts, Leigh and Bev 2) The circle
is complete - Martin Woodward booked Ariel a long,
long time ago
gig
report
Sat.25.5.13 The Vesbar Wine Lounge
The
full moon's powers diminished by overcast conditions
26.5.13 - I don't know how
it happened, but I missed the Peninsula Link turn-off
on the way to Somerville and ended up in Frankston.
I hoped it didn't portend a night of total forgetfulness
at the Vesbar, but as it happened I'd only forgotten
my music stand this time and Leigh lent me Bev's
so there was no drama. Bev had booked a table at
the Indian restaurant next door for 6.00 and I happily
reacquainted myself with their peerless lamb cutlets
before waddling back into the Vesbar and contemplating
the modest crowd on hand.
I began playing at 7.45 - a compromise between the
time I had booked and the advertised time on the
blackboard - and spontaneously decided to make it
a thirty minute set rather than the usual forty-five
minutes, which meant three rather than two sets
over the two hours, but in the end I thought it
altogether more manageable for both me and the audience.
I noticed a couple of young girls sitting directly
in front of me during the first set and imagined
they would tire of me pretty quickly, so I was delighted
they remained the entire night and said how much
they'd enjoyed it as they left at the end of the
night (as I was guzzling my complimentary hot chocolate).
Martin Woodward (pic 2) introduced himself
to me after the second set and said that he'd booked
Ariel to play in Seaford back in the early '70s
and I'd shown him how to play the riff for Some
Good Advice which had somehow determined him
to take up a life of music. Thankfully he didn't
seem to be too damaged by this decision so I was
pleased to to play a fragment of Advice, which
Martin claimed was a 'completing the circle' moment
and which he - and the rest of the room for that
matter - seemed to enjoy immensely.
I really enjoyed the night and scarcely stuffed
up anything musically speaking so I think I can
say things are moving in the right direction for
Mike the solo artist. |
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1)
The return of Spectrum Plays the Blues at the Secret
Sound studio 2) Pete Dacy sets up the mics
3)
Joni, the resident Secret Sound door bitch, lays
the trap 4) Bill, the booby, steps right in it
Two
dog day afternoons - SPTB's turd blues album underway
20.5.13 - The month
of June looks pretty quiet gig-wise, so what better
to do than undertake some long overdue recording?
There are quite a number of blues tunes begging
to be recorded, (like Albatross), so we
began work on what will be the third Spectrum Plays
the Blues album on Saturday at Pete Dacy's Secret
Sound studio, barely five minutes away from my home
in Mt Waverley. We got three or four tunes recorded
before Robbo had to leave for an appointment the
G to see his Pies topple the Cats but we were pretty
happy with the way things were going - apart from
the moment when Robbo and Daz were complaining about
the smell of dog shit on their side of the studio
and Bill found he'd trekked in a sole full. (pics
3 & 4)
We assembled at the studio the next morning for
round two and re-emerged at 4.30, again pretty satisfied
with progress. Pete knows exactly what we're looking
for and makes it as easy as humanly possible for
us old geezers to do our SPTB thing. Now to approach
AMCOS about copyright and start work on some home-made
blues tunes Any suggestions for an album title,
(other than The Turd Album), will be gratefully
considered.. |
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A
Mother of a day at St Annies..
1)
The Spectrum trio in flight at the Lomond Hotel
on Sturday night (Gravias)
2) Maria and Chris at the St Andrews pub
3)
Lisa and Keaton at St Andrews 4) The Scallops came
out of their shells for Spectrum's Mothers Day show
5)
Triple M - Texas Michael, Mike and Mick Newman (Gravias)
6) Cheryl and Kel O'Brien came down from Goornong
gig report
Sat. 11.5.13 Lomond Hotel East Brunswick Sun.12.5.13
St Andrews Hotel
The
return of the Classic Double
13.5.13 - We call it the Classic
Double but you might choose to call it the Odd Couple
of Spectrum gigs, jammed back-to-back as they are
late Saturday night and Sunday arvo. Maria and I
arrived early at the Lomond on Saturday evening
to share a meal with Dr Wazz before I started to
load-in, so it wasn't until we were half way through
setting up that Bill asked where the guitar stands
were - and looked at me incredulously when I said
I'd left them at home. Of course it didn't make
any difference in the overall scheme of things and
we had a fine night with an attentive and enthusiastic
audience. It never ceases to surprise me that it
always seems to be a different bunch in the room
every time we play there.
The next day was Mothers Day and the St Andrews
pub was full to bursting with families celebrating
over lunch. Mind you, the bulk of the lunch crowd
had drifted away and the Mothers Day dinner crowd
was starting to arrive by the last set, but in between
time we had fun playing the Spectrum four-piece
repertoire, which means that songs like Launching
Place Part Two and Little By Little
get an airing for a change.
My son Chris (pic 2) had a roaring good
time and it was lovely to see Di, Lyn, Heather and
Maree (pic 4) again after a long absence.
Lisa and Keaton Robbo (pic 3) came to celebrate
as well - Lisa hadn't been to St Andrews since the
remodelling and was very surprised to find the stage
had shifted. |
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1)
Spectrum battles on gamely at the Hellenic Club
(Gravias) 2) Suza was surprised
to see us not at the Press Club
3)
A novel load-in thorough the window at Belluci's
4) Tony's brother Carl Moleta travelled up from
Melbourne for the party |
5)
Adele's friend Nellie's dad was another Spectrumophile
in the room (Gravias) |
gig
report
Sat. 4.5.13 Hellenic Club Woden Sun. 5.5.13 Tony
Moleta's 60th Belluci's Dickson ACT
A
trippy trip to the ACT
7.5.13 - Bill and I left Melbourne
on Friday morning and arrived at Maria's place about
7.00. Robbo (or Fifo*) was to arrive by plane the
next day and Maria had kindly offered to put us
up for the night to save on accomm. expenses.
Gaye (Reid) had booked us to play the Hellenic Club
in Woden on Saturday night, which was a departure
from our usual Canberra run but we just needed
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the one public
gig to make the Moletas' surprise party the next
night a realistic financial proposition.
There was a group of perhaps a dozen people in fancy
dress that summed up the experience for us all.
It was Dave's 50th birthday it seems and he came
up to the stage to ask if we played any rock 'n'
roll. I said we didn't but I'd be happy to announce
that it was his birthday and sing Happy Birthday
for him. 'No, don't bother', he said without rancour.
'Shit band' said one of the girls as they left (at
the end of the night, mind you)..
Tony Moleta's surprise party the following night
had been in the planning by his wife Liz for quite
some time and given the most difficult thing with
a surprise party is to keep it a surprise I think
they did remarkably well - even down to talking
Tony out of going to the Hellenic Club gig the night
before. Anyway, Tony's daughter Adele gave us the
signal and we launched into I'll Be Gone
as Tony walked in - only my harp was all blocked
up and the opening riff was just a collection of
unmusical squawks. (It warmed up thankfully).
In my defence it was a tricky load-in (pic 3)
and we had to tap into the house PA to boot, so
we used up every second of the 90 minute load-in
time I'd allowed. It was a strange arrangement too
with the party being held in the public bar area,
meaning there were periods where our music was connecting
with at least some of the older partygoers in the
audience - who were then bemused by the house music
booming between our sets.
Still, we managed to enjoy ourselves and Tony said
we'd played all the songs he wanted to hear so we
went back to Maria's place and celebrated with wine,
beer and Maria's pavlova before going to bed in
preparation for the trip back to Melbourne.
*Fifo
- fly in, fly out |
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