| |
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
Scroll
down to the start of the month |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
1)
Dirk Dubois slots back comfortably into the Spectrum
line-up 2) It was all Frank Davidson's idea..
gig
report
Sun. 28 Twin Waters Resort Sunshine Coast
Spectrum
goes corporate - for a night
29.10.13 - Not sleeping the night before
going on tour is pretty standard behaviour for
me and in this case it lent an extra air of unreality
to proceedings that were already quite unusual
by our modest standards. Spectrum's never been
considered a corporate band, so to be flown from
chilly, damp Melbourne to spend a relaxing (warm)
day on the Sunshine Coast, to sound check leisurely
with a backline and crew supplied and to then
be fed royally and play a couple of laid back
Spectrum sets to an at least partially enthusiastic
crowd of corporate revellers sounds like heaven
- and it certainly did have its share of heavenly
moments.
It was reassuring first-up to be reunited with
philosopher-bassist Dirk Dubois, whom we haven't
seen since Bill's Last Gig, as it was also good
to catch up with things Uki and Quincy, quite
apart from the occasionally euphoric moments we
shared together on stage. Dirk had driven up from
Uki (not so far away in the Tweed Valley) and
had decided at the last moment to bring his speaker
cabinet along as well as his bass head - which
turned out to be just as well as there was a problem
with the cabinet that had been supplied.
Probably the musical highlight of the evening,
for me at least, was when we played the Richard
Berry classic, Louie, Louie, (which the
crowd liberally interpreted as Wild Thing),
and which provided me with the platform to express
all my pent up frustrations (at finding a large
zit on the end of my nose for instance - you'd
think all that kind of teen-age stuff was well
and truly over at my age) in an extended (read
'epic') solo, which provided one bloke in the
audience with the excuse to indulge in a wild
table-top strip. (Story of my life - never the
females).
There were other highlights, of course, but that
was the moment the audience was going crazy dancing
and generally peaking with the band - well, when
the audience was in the room in fact,
because at some stage during the second set I
looked up to find just a sprinkling of hard-core
Spectrumites and other musical travellers remained.
That didn't stop them from demanding an encore
though and the good thing was we didn't have to
pack up the gear afterwards, so we thanked our
crew, Steve and Ben, and Frank Davidson (pic
2) whose idea it was to book us in the first
place and gratefully retired to our rooms to wind
down over a hot TV set.
Hard to know if we passed the audition really,
but if the offer comes up again we'll gladly masquerade
as Spectrum, the band of choice for your
corporate function.. (Exotic locales only considered).
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
1)
Sun-Bus 5's Andrew Garton 2) Chip Wardale + sound
palette 3) Chip's cog and bell still
life
3)
Steve Law thinks about leaking to Wikileaks 4)
Chris Natoli is Cort in the act as we tuned up
|
5)
Rob Harwood was in control |
gig
report
Sat. 12.10.13 The Super Slide Show Hurstbridge Hall
Flashback
situation getting serious..
13.10.13 - Yesterday's celebration
of randomised synthesisers, keyboards, percussion
and amplified natural sounds combined with a light
show at the Hurstbridge Hall had me thinking I was
back in the mid '70s at the TF Much Ballroom - and
if Hugh McSpedden had seen his way clear to attend
the show (and maybe Tribe had rolled up as well)
the illusion would've been complete.
I'm sure Hugh was there in spirit when the projector
failed to cooperate after Andrew introduced The
Light Show DVD - a doco about Hugh working
with Sun-Bus 5 in 2012 - but eventually the doco
was shown and we were at the intermission already.
Then Chris Natoli (pic 4) and I joined
Sun-Bus 5 in the 1st movement 'intro' and after
the 3rd movement we played an extended version of
Chris' song, Lullaby for Jarom (written
for Chris' very talented son), followed by another
impro which morphed into an extended version of
I'll Be Gone (the B version) to finish
up. |
There was only a modest
audience of about fifty people, but the music was
very well-appreciated - in fact, there was such
a warm response that we ended up doing a reprise
of Lullaby for Jarom as an encore before
finally calling it quits.
It was good to see some old friends there and I
was really pleased that my occasional collaborator,
Eris O'Brien, made a special effort to attend. Special
thanks to my musical cohort, Chris Natoli, who made
me very welcome in his home - I'll remember our
jamming on his balcony overlooking Hurstbridge in
yesterday's warm afternoon sun for a long time to
come. |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
With or without Hugh,
I'm sure that it will be a very interesting show
- I'm anticipating some TF Much flashbacks
The Hugh-less Super Slide Show comes to
Hurstbridge
7.10.13
- This coming Saturday (the 12th) at the former
movie house, The Hurstbridge Hall, there will be
a preview screening and launch of the new limited
edition Sun-Bus-5 CD/DVD The Light Show in
Melbourne's north east.
For the one night only, the artist run label Secession
Records presents a preview screening of a new documentary
about projection artist, Hugh McSpedden, including
a live recording of a new progressive ambient composition
and visuals by Sun-Bus-5 (Andrew Garton, Chip Wardale,
Kate Adam, Steve Law), with a guest performance
by guitarist Chris Natoli and me. Bill had also
been invited. (See the August Stop
Press page)
The Light Show (see trailer)
was a live event, an avant-garde mix of interview
and performance focusing on Hugh's artistic practice
and created in collaboration with contemporary music
ensemble Sun-Bus-5. It took place over four nights
at the 2012 Melbourne Fringe festival. The
Light Show CD/DVD package contains the The
Light Show documentary with extracts from the
2012 performance event highlighting Hugh's fluid
effects and multiple projector array. It also includes
the entire soundtrack by Sun-Bus-5, remixed by Chip
Wardale and mastered by Simon Polinski at Sing Sing
Studios.
Hugh was originally involved with the Super Slide
Show but has since parted ways with the project.
In his most recent email Hugh says 'I was really
looking forward to the gig and truly love working
with Sun Bus 5, and hope it will happen in the foreseeable.
‘best to you all and I hope you enjoy it,
hu.' I hope we'll see you there on the night, Hugh.
The Super Slide Show is being produced with the
support of the artist run label Secession Records,
the Nillumbik Shire Council, the Hurstbridge Traders
Group and the Bridge to Eden Café and is
on at 7.00 this Saturday evening at the Hurstbridge
Hall, 974 Heidelberg-Kinglake Road, Hurstbridge.
Tickets are $10.00 and booking
is essential.
For more info contact Andrew Garton on 0409948280
or at [email protected]
See Super Slide Show flyer |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
