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suddenly we find ourselves in oz, with the tour two weeks over. time to
pause and look back a little...
return visits to
milton, orange and bathurst were joyous occasions as expected, with many
old and new friends turning up.
there was a sold out
matinee before the main evening show at milton theatre, just for local
primary (grade) and high school kids. crystal moore from milton public
described the show in the school paper as "captivating. it made me feel
as though i could do anything and everything. very inspiring". high
praise indeed, the sort of feedback that keeps us going ...
after interrupting the
cello lesson of tim jackson at the Orange Conservatorium with the noise
of our sound check, we invited tim and his teacher anne hosking (a
former sydney symphony player) to rehearse and perform a couple of
numbers with us at that evening’s show. dalbo reckons tim will be one of
australia's top jazz bassists in years to come...
in bathurst we played
the historic carrington house theatre, arguably the best sounding and
most picturesque venue in town. hamish and i remember playing weddings
there before we headed to Sydney to try our luck. it's wonderful to see
the place restored to it's former glory and being used as a theatre
again after all these years. the scots school (where hamish and i went
to high school) pipe band joined us once more for a couple of numbers
and pipe master, gil Mackenzie, hopped on the bags for an impromptu end
of night jam with us. gil was in the pipe band with us when we were
australian junior champions. now he runs the show at scots ...
in sydney and byron
bay we were joined by didg master, mark atkins, of the yamatji tribe in
western australia. we met and played with mark in france earlier in the
year at the interceltique festival in lorient. talking with him, we
realized our journeys of the last several years - his in europe, ours in
America - and the paths we're still on, are very similar and agreed we
need to do more together as soon as we could. having the chance to play
more with him on this last tour has been a powerful experience for us
all. he's a real mongrel elder ...
the byron bay show -
actually in a classic little community hall a few miles out of town -
was the first time hamish and i had played the area since doing backup
vocals and percussion on the 1990 party boys tour, featuring joe walsh
of the eagles. suffice to say, that one was an eye opener for fresh
young farm boys ...
after byron, we
crossed the mountains again to take mark home. his house is on a
mountainside in three hundred acres of virgin bushland. words don't
really do the place justice. a view forever and a profusion of native
wildlife, even wild koalas. we could only stay one night but vowed to
return ...
halfway to bathurst,
and feeling somewhat adventurous, we decided to take the slightly
shorter dirt road option. on sunset, after a very long hot day driving
thru drought country, the wagon overheated. touring in oz is still a bit
of a novelty for us, unlike in the US where we're always well prepared.
so we found ourselves with few supplies and not much water on a little
used dirt road in the aussie bush. not recommended kids. the next
several hours saw our faith in the goodness of humankind considerably
enhanced. i believe everyone who passed stopped to see if we were okay,
giving us whatever spare water they had. thanks to all those good
samaritans, especially grant watson and simon smith who stopped, with
small families in tow, gave water, and rang the road service for us when
they got in range. once the radiator cooled down, we topped up the water
and hit the road again. we stopped in nearby 'bylong' for some late
night museli (as one does) and to phone the NRMA (road service) that we
were now fine. their local man, kevin, a most amiable bloke, still
caught up with us and insisted on making sure everything really was
okay. many thanks mate. a couple of hours later, with nothing else
untoward having happened, we arrived at our soundman tim roebuck's place
rather later than planned ...
in bathurst we finished recording the new single, 'slow down', after
honing the arrangement on the road. mr roebuck has it sounding mighty.
the next few days will see mark add some didg and spoken word and then
she'll be ready for consumption. excited, we are ...
we also played our
first show in Melbourne this time. the night was organized by the
charming willy from claymore and ended up being quite a celebration. as
with mark, we had crossed paths at the interceltique a few months
earlier.
willy arranged for a
double cd of the night to be recorded straight to disc on the night -
no tweaking, exactly as it was - and made available to the fans of both
bands for a week ... we're thinking of making our own album of the
bathurst show (this one we will play with the levels a little). early
listenings to the multi track made by tim definitely get the blood
pumping ...
the tour finished with
the bands first canberra show, booked only days ahead. with no time for
promotion the crowd was small but appreciative. just over half the crowd
consisted of tim roberts, former vice consul in los angeles, and his
family. we were delighted to catch up with them all after more than ten
years ...
the day after the tour
drew headed north on his own walkabout. dalbo hopped a plane to LA to
check on the fort there, lend his mongrel touch to the recordings of
several other artists and continue work on his infamous drum studio.
hamish and i remain in
australia for now, tying up the tour, working on new material, and
developing, among other things, mongrel TV. it's our desire to keep all
our supporters, wherever they are, up to date with what's happening in
our world. to have you as involved as you want to be. there is so much
going on, so much to do, that's quite a challenge, but one we're excited
by. we continue to make this up as we go along, drawing on an abundance
of past experiences, what we're living now, and the vision of where we
want to go. we're very keen to keep sharing that journey ...
on america ... there
were many places we were hoping to revisit and tried very hard to get to
the last couple of years - arizona springs to mind (g'day connie) - but
circumstances were against us for a variety of reasons, some of which
we've spoken of to you. we know many have been disappointed by that.
believe us, so were we. it wasn't planned that way. nonetheless, we ask
you to continue the journey with us if you dare, and i'm sure we will
see you again...
i've been beginning
every day body surfing, often with our dad, big dave, before facing the
computer. the last couple of days have been huge seas. exhilarating
monsters of waves rolling in from the horizon. i catch a few for all of
you ...
angus
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