After two flights – out of Melbourne then Sydney – we arrived at Tamworth airport to the sound of country music being played over the intercom. We had a chat with Daryl Braitwaite (who was playing in town) as we picked up a hire car that conveniently had air conditioning stuck on hot. With all the windows down we drove toward our accommodation stopping briefly at a supermarket for some supplies – only to walk in on a big and scary line dancing session which was kind of surreal to say the least. Before we knew it we were ensconsed in the bowels of a house in the ‘burbs of the town being shared by a bunch of performers, managers and booking agents. On the one hand it was a couple of camp beds in a garage, on the other it was a damn site better than what a lot of others had – with the attraction of a swimming pool, a big tele, a decent kitchen and a couple of fridges. We had a short sleep before heading into town for our first show opening for Felicity Urquhart.
We were playing the Capitol Theatre and the way they ran the show was after a short set from a couple of up and coming local kids Felicity and her band took the stage for half a dozen tunes before inviting me up to play mandola on a song I wrote with Felicity and Chuck Jenkins called Ernie’s Daughter. (Which Felicity promptly began in the wrong key forcing my stomach into the involuntary convulsion you have when you think you have totally stuffed up in front of 350 people). Then she and her band left the stage while I stayed on with Michael Barclay playing a grand total of three tunes. After this the band returned and we dueted on As You Lay Sleeping and before you knew it we had finished the gig.
Afterwards we were pretty tired and so headed back to the accommodation where Michael tucked in early leaving me up to await some of the others at the house who were returning home from the big show of the evening which was Guy Sebastian playing with James Blundell, Wendy Matthews and Gina Jeffreys. It was a controversial bit of programming as this year there has apparently been rumblings amongst the older country music fraternity that the festival should be returning to it’s country music roots. The trouble is, it’s an ad hoc programme where the pubs, peformers and venues all take care of their own shows and promotion and everything is ticketed separately. So basically people are likely to put on whatever they reckon will get people through the door. Anyway – it was good to reacquaint myself with a few people from last year’s festival and get some of the good gossip before heading down to the automotive suite for some well earned slumber.
Next day we started with a couple of radio interviews which were surprisingly good – once we had established that yes, Father’s Day was our 90′s hit, but no, Hunters and Collectors wasn’t the name of our band. The second interview we ended up joining James Blundell for a version of Moving On which was exciting as the station was in the Centrepoint Mall and so was a bit of a fish bowl with the punters totally involvd in the whole thing. After that we had to go straight to the Family Hotel for an APRA songwriting session which was basically hosted by James with myself, Felicity, Dianna Corcoran and Lianna Rose. It was a really well attended show and we all basically played one song each and then answered questions from punters for a couple of hours. It was the second of these APRA sessions I have done and they are really enjoyable and instructive things to be part of. I reckon the performers get as much out of them as the audience. After that with the evening to ourselves we proceeded to crawl our way along Peel St checking out as many bands as we could, thanking our lucky stars we had such nice sedate shows playing to decent attentative audiences. There’s some people putting in really marathon gruelling performances up there that’s for sure. The highlights of the night were probably the Perch Creek Family Band in the mall and The Pirates of Beer (Sarah Carroll and Chris Wilson) at the Courthouse Hotel. Bullit and Thirsty Kirsty were pretty good as well.
Friday we played an early show opening for James Blundell back at the Capitol which was again really well attended and had the distinction of being the only time I have ever seen an audience member ask for his money back because the main act didn’t go on first! The band were really cooking after a few songs and James played a cracking version of the Don Walker song Silver Bullet before getting me up for Moving On. We all jumped up for Way Out West in the encore before realizing it was 5.30 – the show had gone nearly four hours!
I had a nice chat with the Tasmanian author Rachel Treasure at the merch table before heading straight from there to the West Diggers Club where we had one final show with Damian Howard and the Ploughboys. It was their only show and they had really done some work advertising it so it was good to see a few punters rolling up. I think Michael and I enjoyed the opportunity to play within a more traditional set structure and basically have the space to get a few more songs in. (We even did The Year She Spent in England in honour of our geographical proximity to the song’s origin). Afterwards Michael went off for some Chinese food while I sat and watched the Ploughboys who were really entertaining and a nice alternative to the barage of country music the last few days had thrown up. Leigh Ivins from the Re-mains was sitting in on the pedal steel which was a nice touch. They were driving through to Victoria after their show and once again Barclay and I thanked our lucky stars that our whole Tamworth experience was so comparatively gentle. After a short session back at the accommodation it was a short sleep then an early start and before we knew it we were back in the (seemingly) peace and quiet of Melbourne.
Next day we woke to the news that Felicity had taken out the Golden Guitar Award for Best Female Artist and we were absolutely overjoyed – and somehow this made the whole expedition seem slightly surreal. Our shows had been apparently well received but ultimately we hadn’t sold a lot of CDs and you end up wondering just what your potential support is at an event like that. But what I’m getting at is you play some shows, you make some friends up there and all of a sudden it doesn’t seem anywhere near as foreign as it once was. Congratulations to Felicity and you know, I’ll be surprised if we don’t go back a few more times.
Anyway – back home and the Monthly Music Club is pretty much a reality. Jen has spent the whole weekend knocking the graphics into shape and it is looking fantastic. I am incredibly positive it is going to be a great thing. Just as it is with gigs, ultimately all we can do is put together something we are really proud of and hope people feel the same way. SO…..it’s on the website now. Have a look and tell us what you reckon.
The MMC page looks great, I especially like the dog (maybe the dog should have its own blog).
I do have one request. I’ve been searching the net for tabs and chords for your songs. There are a few floating around, but they seem to bear only a tenuous relationship to what your actually playing when you’re on stage. It’d be fantastic if you could put some up on the web, or even better a songbook that I could prop up on the coffee table.
I recall your remarks recently expressing your horror and the prospect of a bunch of Australian tourists with a guitar, so I understand if you decide you’d rather not, but I think it would be really popular. It would be fantastic if it included tabs for mandolin or uke as well.
If you decide to do something like this, please take pity on those of us with really small hands when doing the arrangements (I can barely do a three fret span and I can’t do bar chords at all). We can’t all do those amazing moves that Craig does.
Ciao
Inez
Brilliant idea, love it, signing up directly. Greetings from wonder-full Amsterdam (temporarily)
Cheers
Seconded on the tabs request, though it does seem Mick has hinted there will be tabs involved with the club.
Nice to know the story behind the songs. Very pleasant to read and great graphics! Thanks a lot Mick for sharing all that and offering us such gems. Definitely a winner!