Diary

Rockhampton / Bundaberg / Toowoomba / Maroochydore FAR NORTH QLD
28th July - 3rd August, 2008

We flew into Brisbane and went to see Tym Guitars and I picked up a new white SG Gibson guitar to take on tour. It’s a nice little guitar and I’ve nicknamed her ‘Clover’.
We then got all the backline hire gear into the 1 tonne van said goodbye to Tim and all took off to Bundaberg, our first stop on the tour. Bundaberg was our rest stop as we were traveling to Rockhampton which was about a 7 hour drive and we needed to rest halfway. Went to get brekky the next day and got an excellent juice that this really big woodcutter looking guy made me from behind the counter. The weather was so much warmer than Melbourne, beautiful blue skies and long stretches of road. There were trucks though at every turn and a lot of oversized hauls so it was a bit of a hairy ride. During one part of the drive we saw a cop car ahead with its lights flashing and as it got closer we realized that it was headed straight for us. It was a few hundred metres away when it swerved to the side of the road and we hit the brakes in time to slow down. We realized it was a tactic by the cop to get us to slow down as there was an oversized truck heading towards us from up the highway. We mentioned this strange phenomena to some locals when we arrived in Rockhampton and they nodded their heads saying it happens all the time. The biggest oversized haul we saw was a massive house that was hanging out at the sides of the truck and it took up the whole road so we had to pull right over and as it passed us it seemed to be only a couple of metres away. Gnarly.

We pulled into Rockhampton for the first show of the tour at the Irish pub O’Dowds. I was really nervous and had been nervous for a couple of days before the tour. It’s been such a long time since we’ve been out on the road and we have been practicing for many months before it. It was almost like we’d never done it before. I remember the stage itself being extremely rickety and everytime you walked it would sag and all my vocal microphone would wobble around. And bits of the stage stuck up so we had to be careful about all that. We had some dinner, the usual chips with peppercorn sauce and garden salad. Then showtime. It went well. The crowd were into it bigtime. Nice reaction. We hung out afterwards with some fans and then drove to our accom. I felt good. One down. 34 to go.

The next day we had a music workshop at Bundaberg Nth. Stage High School. The music teacher is a really big Magic Dirt fan and welcomed us enthusiastically. It was a great day with the kids. We talked about our career in music and answered all sorts of questions that the kids asked. I did a solo performance of a few of our songs and then we hung out heaps with the kids and signed things and took photos.

We then had the rest of the day off which was good and went back accom and had a snooze. Prior to going away on tour we had been flat out at home, up til all hours organizing everything so getting sleep whenever we could was taken.

The next day we were driving along and this very funny thing happened. We were passing through a small town called Kilcoy which was home to the famous Yowie. A Yowie is like a sasquatch or a yeti, like a big tall hairy half monster / half man. They had so many sightings from the locals that they decided to build a giant statue of this yowie in the middle of town and it had also had a massive penis and some local came and lopped off the penis so it just had a stump. Anyway we really wanted to see this statue so we called Robbo, who was in the gear van ahead of us, to stop at the dickless Yowie and Robbo didn’t know what we were talking about so he was freaking out. And he calls back and he says, ‘…there ain’t no dickless bunyip here’. We just pissed ourselves laughing.

The next show was in Toowoomba and we got a very excited text from the venue promoter that the show was sold out which made us very happy. The venue in Toowoomba is a café, Bon Amicis, during the day and a gig at night. The promoter decked us out all night with food and drinks and we were very well looked after. The stage was tiny. A little over 2 metres across so it was a tight squeeze that night. But we had a good show. The crowd loved it. And Cookie was super excited, running around everywhere and lining up tequila shots for everyone. Headed back to accom and passed out.

The drive between Toowoomba and Maroochydore was very pretty. Bits of rainforest and the Glasshouse Mountains poking out of the landscape like very pointy triangles. It was so nice to be walking around in a tshirt in the day and getting lots of sun on the skin. Our show tonight was at the Sands Tavern in Maroochydore. I never remember the names of places but as soon as we rock up my memory comes rushing back.

The crowd was small but appreciative. Henery from Violent Soho came along with his girlfriend and they both were right up the front headbanging like crazy. That was awesome. And Andrew, our number 1 fan was there too. It’s always nice rocking up to the next venue and Andrew is there ready to hang out and he always helps us load our gear. He has been to every single one of our shows for the last couple of years maybe even 3 years. And he is coming to every one on this tour. It’s amazing.

Almost immediately after the show the post tour depression set in big time. I was blown away and wasn’t expecting it to hit so hard as it did. Everyone felt it. We didn’t want to go back home…

just wanted to keep on driving. And joked that when we got home we should all go and sit in a small airless room and drink beers and someone should go out and run to the 7/11 and get a packet of chips and a coke.

 

Mt.Hotham VICTORIA

9th August, 2008

We had 5 days off before the next show which was in Mt.Hotham in the snow fields. The drive was around 4 ½ hours north east out of Melbourne. Before heading up the actual mountain you have to pick up these special chains that you wrap around the tyres of the car so that when you hit the snowed in roads you have traction. As we inched our way up the mountain the small scraps of snow by the roadside started to get bigger and cover more area. Then the trunks and branches of the trees began to go white and the sky started to disappear in the white fog. Then everything went completely white. No sky, no horizon, no road, nothing but bright powdery snow.

Mt. Hotham

Snowflakes came sailing into the windscreen and we finally turned a corner and saw the resort. There were people everywhere on skis and snowboards and the ski lift and the snow mobiles and it was just crazy. And the people just don’t care about bumping you or bumping into eachother…because everyone is wearing the bulkiest clothes and ski gear to keep warm that it’s like they have lost the ability to tell where their bodies end so everyone inevitably walks around like weird monster zombies. And everyone is all flushed and red from the sunburn off the glare of the snow but everyones eyes are really white because of all the fresh mountain air. So it’s a pretty wild scene. The venue, Swindlers Bar was one of the first buildings on the road so we stopped the cars and started loading. I was wearing the worst shoes for loading gear through snow….my biker boots which have no grip at all and I was sliding around everywhere. And inside the bar people are walking around in the big snow boots and I thought some guys were just walking weird to be funny but realized it was the boots. The atmosphere was like a disaster zone but with lots of money. Everything costs a lot in the snow. The apartment we stayed in was worth a lot of bucks per night but the venue provided it for us otherwise there’s no way we could afford it. Everything is extreme up the mountain.

We had a very nice dinner and then the venue was shut for an hour while we set up and did soundcheck. We went back to the apartment and got ready for the show. Then walked back skidding through the snow to the venue. There were so many people in there it was awesome. I remember the last time we played in the snow there was us, the support bands and about 7 other people. We just drank the night away that night. But at this Hotham show there was a lot of people high on all sort of shit just hammering on and dancing about like crazy. I went back to the accom with Andrew who had sensibly brought his own pair of snow boots so I clung to him for dear life on the walk back. There was snow falling outside and we heard that there was going to be a full on blizzard the next day and we should try and get off the mountain pretty quickly. Andrew and I got back and turned on the heater and rugged up and lolled about waiting for everyone else to get back. I suddenly realized I was coming down with something. And had been sniffling into tissues all day and now it was getting worse. I absolutely hate getting sick and didn’t want to be sick now on tour. So I sat around for a little when everyone else got back and chatted and laughed about all sorts of things. I went to bed and I could still hear everyone into the night, drinking beers and talking about funny stuff. We left the heater on all night and woke up in the morning with really dry, furry throats. Sure enough there was a blizzard outside as we made our way back to the venue. Luckily we had secured a park under the hotel otherwise we were told we would’ve had to park 3km away in an outside park and when you have to get your car in the morning they provide you with a shovel to dig your car out. Our car had icicles hanging off the bottom of the bumper and the car doors stick together with the ice. And you have to lift the windshield wipers off the windscreen otherwise they stick on there. Went back to the venue and had brekky. And then made our way down the mountain. It wasn’t too bad and of course everything was covered in white.

Robbo & Raul with snow chains

We got to a part of the road where we didn’t need our chains anymore so we tried to get them off but they got wrapped around the axle of the car. So we had to jack the car up and take off the back wheel completely to get the chain off. Then we were off again. The countryside is beautiful up there all through Bright and other very small mountain communities. It was dark by the time we got back to Melbourne. It was good to be home but I went to bed with a full on cold and my glands were the size of golfballs. I was feeling shithouse. So we had 1 day at home before we were off again for a gruelling 2 weeks straight of shows in NSW / QLD and a helluva lot of driving.

 

NEW SOUTH WALES

12th August, 2008

Today we set off for our 9 hour drive for Sydney in our big black station wagon that we’ve hired for the trip. Robbo and Sloth took off in the gear van earlier in the day so they were a couple of hours infront of us. The day was good, lots of cumulonimbus clouds in the sky and it was great to be back on the road, getting away from it all. We were driving for quite a long while and decided to stop for some food. After our feed Raul told me and Matt to go and see the witch. We were like, ‘What?’. And Raul said that there was a witch working behind the counter in the roadhouse. That she was probably practicing Wicca and she was wearing a pentagram necklace and lots and lots of jewellery, rings on her fingers. She had the most amazing mullet. It was really long and had great curly bits up the top. She had a great face and really amazing clear blue eyes. We all dug her big time.

So after that we had about 400 kms until Sydney and we ended up having a long and in depth conversation about the universe and the time / space continuum and ghosts and all things metaphysical and philosophical. I find that when you’re on the road and you have a long way to travel, having a big yarn totally makes the time go really fast. Before we knew it we were at our hotel. But my eyes felt huge and we all felt totally wired. It was good to hit the sack. But we had an early wake up call the next morning. We had to be up at 9am to do a lunchtime show at Sydney Uni.

 

Sydney UNI, Glasshouse Bar

13th August, 2008

Day shows are always weird as we are used to the nocturnal atmosphere.

There weren’t many people about when we arrived and soundchecked at around 11am. The UNI organizers of the shows were awesome and we had a massive spread of food in the band room and lots o’beer. The support band, Ripping Dylans played and they were great. They were reminiscent of the Gun Club who I love. There seemed to be a crowd building and when we came out to do our show at 12.30pm we were pleasantly surprised. The show was a good one and there were a bunch of students moshing at the front. It was a great lunch time show. Very happy with that one. Then we piled into the cars and drove to Wollongong to get ready for the night show.

We had the first of our support band competition winners for tonights show who were called The Nice Folk and also we were really excited about the main support who were The Pink Fits which features Lenny from Tumbleweed on guitar. It was going to be good to catch up with Lenny and a few people from the good old days. We used to tour with Tumbleweed a lot and have many great memories and Lenny is just such an amazing guitarist.

We loaded all our gear in and started soundcheck but had a bad problem trying to get some of the channels to work and there was a major and very ugly crackle in the PA speakers. So we started to get a bit worried as it was taking a long time to fix but finally we got the go ahead and did a quick song and it all seemed ok. Then we had some dinner and waited around for the Nice Folk to start. They had this awesome song with the lyrics that went, “…when you’re by yourself / you just gotta do it / you gotta fuck yourself…”. It was great. Then I went and watched The Pink Fits play and stood out the front and shook my hair around to their tunes. They were awesome. There was only a small crowd there on the Wednesday night. I felt a little flat on stage but tried to get into it. I think everyone was feeling the same and we were kind of glad to finish and be going home. I felt like shit. Still sick and my voice is not 100%. We had a lot of paperwork to do when we got back and didn’t hit the pillow until around 3am. Sleep. Mmmmmmm…..

 

Bar On The Hill, Newcastle

14th August, 2008

Well, I had a very eventful morning today. Raul had gone to get some honey and aspirin for my throat and I got up around 11am. We had late check out which is rare to get but so good this morning. We all really needed it. Anyway, I got up and put a couple of pieces of bread in the toaster and sat and did some paperwork while the toast was on. Then I looked over and there was a giant billow of smoke coming from the toaster and I realized that the toast had burnt to a crisp. I freaked out because the hotel rooms have fire alarms that sometimes go off because they are so sensitive to any smoke. I ran over to the rangehood and put it on and then ran to the balcony doors and put them on and was hoping to hell that the alarm wasn’t going to go off. Then sure enough it came on, started soft and then went crazy. I ran to the front desk and told them that it was a false alarm and that it was just me with burnt toast. I was so embarrassed. So the hotel turns off the alarms and had to make an announcement that it was all ok and it was a false alarm. But the fire brigade came and two huge firemen had to go into my hotel room and do the standard check for fire. It was full on. The hotel says that it happens all the time and they even had notices in the rooms which I hadn’t seen because I would just rock up to the hotel room and go straight to bed.

Shithouse!

Then I went to see a doctor to get antibiotics for my throat infection. And now I have a small pharmacy to carry around. I got this amazing throat spray that’s really helping my voice. And I haven’t been talking all day to save my voice for the show. And today I am feeling better and I think if I keep doing all these things to help the infection I will be right. So we took off to Newcastle to do the Uni show tonight. And it was at a place called Bar On The Hill which without fail, everytime, we can never find the loading bay. And of course, right on schedule, it happened again. We get as far as the front of the UNI Bar and we can see the loading bay on the other side but we just never know how to get there. So this time we made sure we worked it out. I think after 16 years we finally got it.

We met up with the lovely Red Sun Band who are going to be doing a few of the shows with us on this run. They were amazing. It’s good to have them along. Our show went really well which was good after last night. My voice held up ok. The crowd was awesome and on the last song we got heaps of people up to dance on stage. It was a good night. We drove back to the accom and hung out with the redsunners for a bit. Everyone had a good time reminiscing about the FNQ run.

So now I’m here, up to date with the tour diary and it’s 3.04am. The guys are winding down and are now watching an old John Wayne movie. A couple of the guys have already gone to bed and I’m just about to go take all my make up off and hit the pillow. Tomorrow we head back to Sydney to do the big capital city show at the Annandale. Should be a fun night.

 

The Annandale, SYDNEY

15th August, 2008

Woke up really hot from wearing too many layers in bed. But had a good long sleep. We went and had breakfast at this neat little café by the seaside in Newcastle. We ordered our big brekkys and sat outside in the sunlight. A young magpie hung out waiting for some tidbits and was so cute. We gave it little bits of bread of bacon and it had to fight the tetchy Indian Myna birds to keep its food. The breakfast was awesome and then we went for a quick walk down to the ocean which was really nice. Newcastle is an interesting town and has some amazing houses that remind me of New Orleans and its double storey terraced houses with verandahs sticking out the top of them. It was a great day for a drive, lots of blue sky and sunshine. We had to stop off and do some banking on the way to the Annandale. All good there. Then we got to the Annandale at about 4pm and then just hung out and waited for Sloth and Robbo to rock up in the gear van. Soundcheck was all good and we found out that the gig was sold out which was awesome news. That got us very excited and felt good. There were still people calling up to get tickets.

After soundcheck we headed upstairs and waited for dinner which was yummy Thai meals that they make at the restaurant at the back of the Annandale. TheRedSunBand sounded awesome tonight and the Annandale were filming the show so can’t wait to see the footage. I was pretty excited to go on. It was great to be back in Sydney. I love Sydney so much and have from day one. It’s a real vibrant place and we have such great memories of the early days and some real wild times. The crowd looked amazing and they were fantastic. I saw some old school t-shirts on some fans out the front. It was very cute. The first half of the set was good but about halfway through til the end I think we really hit our stride. We did a good version of Eat Your Blud and I think Emerald Green is growing in favour among fans and friends alike. I’m still struggling a bit with my throat. My glands have definitely gone down and I think the antiobiotics I’m on are helping the infection subside. We did an encore and then made our way upstairs. I felt fucking exhausted. It was a big show. We did well. And now I am going to bed.

 

Mona Vale Hotel

16th August, 2008

Everyone except me woke up with hangovers today. So we all went to the café next door to the hotel and had big breakfasts. Then we went back to the Annandale to pick up our cars and the gear. Then we headed out of Sydney and to the northern beaches suburbs. We haven’t played the Mona Vale hotel before. It’s like a big RSL type of building with pokies and TAB and a nightclub. New South Wales has a lot of RSL clubs. We loaded our gear up the stairs and did soundcheck. The stage was actually a really good stage. Good foldback and a pretty good vibe. The stage is very reminiscent of places like the Barwon Club or The Punters Club. I liked it a lot. Everyone was feeling pretty tired and pretty keen to pack up quickly after the show and head back to the hotel. The show itself was better for me than last night. My voice is a little stronger and I had a bit more energy. The crowd was cool and there was some couples at the front doing a lot of dancing. I had a lot of fun going out into the crowd and headbanging. I felt great after the show. Very satisfied. We did pack up pretty quick and drove to a 7/11 to pick up some munchies.

Now I’m sitting infront of the TV watching The Simpsons and Futurama. The same time every night at about 2am they have animation on like The Family Guy and American Dad which is great. It’s pretty funny. So I’m gonna go and get all my make-up off now and have a look at some of the photos we’ve been taking on tour. Tomorrow we’ve got an all ages show in Wyong which is about and hour north west of Sydney. Everyone has crashed out hard. I hope they all get a good nights sleep and feel all refreshed tomorrow. I’m getting excited as we go further north because we are going to do a show in Byron Bay and that is one of my favourite places to visit. Yay. G’night!

 

Chilli Lounge, Wyong

17th August, 2008

What a day. We got up and drove to Wyong which is about 60 kms north of Sydney. We had to be at the venue to load our gear before 4pm. The drive was really nice, beautiful day. Wyong is along the Central Coast of New South Wales where there are a lot of scenic beaches. We rocked up to the venue and loaded all our gear in. I met up with one of the support band competition winners, The Spiders which is 1 guy who plays experimental and spontaneous guitar noise. He had quite a set up – about 5 amps and an old reel to reel machine with a reverb unit and other wild contraptions. He played first and I sat right up the front and loved it. The drone of the guitar is very healing and actually relaxes me. It was awesome. Then I went to the ladies toilet and there was a scary bunch of old alcoholic women in there while I was putting on my make-up. I had to get out of there. The pub actually was a bikers pub. There were dudes playing serious dart competitions and there were some scary looking people outside in the beer garden. Big. Drunk. Angry. We were told there was a band room upstairs where we could hang out and that we even had free accommodation upstairs. So we went up to the rooms. There was no drinks or food. Or chairs. There was a tatty old red stool in one corner and a small heavy duty safe in another corner. In the main room there were 2 sets of bunk beds with old mustard coloured blankets on them and on the top bunks of both beds there was a mass of rat shit. And the place looked like an old run down orphanage. So needless to say we declined to stay there.

So we went back downstairs and watched the other support band winners who were Fait Accompli. They were cool. Great beats and lots of energy. The bass player looked exactly like Johnny Depp. We were stunned. He had the same goatee and gap in his teeth and he had tattoos on his arms and had that brat pack 80’s, Jump Street swagger. We found out later that his name was Killer. Awesome! There were quite a few people there for the gig. I was really happy with the turnout. And I had a great show especially voice wise. I feel like I’m getting heaps better and my voice is starting to come back which is a relief. We are in our hotel rooms right now and getting ready for bed. Tomorrow we drive north west to a place called Muswellbrook to do the next workshop. At the moment we are watching a great doco on TV about Ron English – the American outlaw artist who does such things as adbusting where he plasters billboards with his own counter culture art. It’s awesome stuff.

 

Muswellbrook Music Workshop

18th August, 2008

We drove inland for a few hours until we hit Muswellbrook and went straight to the PCYC (Police and Community Youth Centre) and set up for the workshop. There were about 40 kids there. It went well and they had lots of questions they wanted to ask. Raul, Adam and myself then did a stripped back short set of songs and then we asked if any of the kids wanted to get up and play a song for us. So 2 boys got up and did a blues jam and all the other kids loved it and it was great just to get them up and performing. The teachers thought the workshop was great. And we finished up around 3pm and had a 3 hour drive to Tamworth. It was great to be finished for the day and not have a show to do that night. So we met up with everyone else at the Alandale Motel.

Tamworth is a nice place with lots of creative vibes and music. And it sits at the bottom of some quite majestic hills so it’s very picturesque. We went out for a pub meal at a sports bar. And got stared at by a very scary local. I had hot chips with peppercorn sauce and garden salad – my usual. Then we went back to the hotel and got some beers and hung out. Butters (our tour tech) put on some tunes and we had a nice relaxing time and thoroughly enjoyed not having to load gear or drive anywhere and just sit in the one spot for more than an hour. We had a lot of laughs and then everyone started to peel off and hit the hay.

 

Tamworth Music Workshop
19th August, 2008

On our drive to Tamworth today we stopped at a rest stop that was called Burning Mountain. It’s this beautiful little spot in the country that has a curl of smoke that seemingly just rises up out of the ground. I googled it and found out that there is a coal seam that runs underground that is burns in the sandstone and is the oldest known coal fire in the world and has been burning for around 6,000 years. And they say that it is moving south at around 1 metre a year. How cool.

We did another workshop today at the Tamworth PCYC. It was a small number of kids but they were all in bands so it was very worthwhile talking to them. They had a heap of questions and then we did the full band set up and played loud. They all loved it. The PCYC was a very well run place and it looked like it is used a lot by the local kids. We finished up there and went straight to eat out at a local Thai restaurant. What we didn’t realize was that the restaurant made THE BEST Thai food EVER!!!!! I cannot express how good this food was but I’ll try. It’s called ‘Your Place’ Thai and it’s in the main street of Tamworth and we found out later that the Thai chef had moved from Sydney to Tamworth and loves it there. She told us that they had been opened for 4 months and it was all going well. So we ordered a Thai soup, a green vegie curry and a coriander vegie & tofu stir fry. We were in so much pain at how good the food was. Every mouthful was excrutiatingly good. We couldn’t believe it. And everything tasted good. Not just one of the meals but everything! We were in heaven. I can safely say that it is the best Thai meal I have ever had. Incredible. We stuffed ourselves stupid because we wouldn’t back there for a long long time.Then we went back to the Alandale and had a few beers while playing Trivial Pursuit. Raul won.

guitar shaped pool, Alandale Motel, Tamworth

 

Plantation Hotel, Coffs Harbour

20th August, 2008

cafe in Bellingen

waterfall, on the way to Coffs Harbour

We had a beautiful drive today along some great country roads that saw us going through some dense and tall forests. And we quickly stopped in a beautiful little town called Bellingen. The road got really curvy and coming down the mountain was making some of us feel a quite queasy. Tonights accommodation was at the venue so we all took a load off and decided to have a big one. We had a nice long soundcheck and then met the support band winners from Coffs, Loco Parentus, a 3 piece young band with a 14 year old girl on guitar and vocals, who’s name is Sunday and she writes all of their songs and has been playing since she was 10. They were pretty excited to play. After soundcheck we went and put our bags in the rooms upstairs. Each room had a double and single bunk bed in it and a sink and a locker and that was it. It felt like we were in an orphanage. We then had some dinner and started boozing on. It was good to let off some steam. We had a good show. It was nice and raucous. By the end we had over half of the crowd on the stage and dancing and I was in the crowd with the microphone stand singing the last song from the dance floor. We all slept in the next day which was very welcomed. Then we had to go do some banking and emails. We took off for the 3 hour drive to Byron. I was hanging to get to Byron. I love it there.

 

Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay

21st August, 2008

The drive was nice but there were a lot of roadworks. Seems like there are endless roadworks on the M1 in NSW. We saw the start of the sugar cane fields and even drove past a small town where the sugar refining plant is and we could smell the burning of the sugar.

sugar cane factory, Byron Bay

It’s amazing. A big river runs along the highway to Byron and dotted along it are these tiny farms and towns that live from growing sugar cane. This is where the famous Queenslander houses start to appear in all their weatherboard and double storey glory. I love Queenslander houses. We also noticed how warm it was. And there was a stickiness to the air around us now. We were moving further and further north.

Finally we hit Byron and even in winter it has such a great balmy feel. There weren’t a lot of tourists around this time of year but we discovered upon rising the next day they suddenly came out of the woodwork and Byron was absolutely buzzing with people and activity. We loaded our stuff in and did our soundcheck and I ate a woodfired pizza at the pub. The night seemed fairly quiet so we were a little nervous about the numbers tonight. I had a few drinks and then walked out on stage and was pleasantly surprised. There were quite a few people there and the room looked really good. I reckon this has been my favourite show all round on the tour. For a few reasons…..my voice is back in full swing now, the Byron crowd always loves a good dance and the whole band was in perfect sync. It was one of those nights where everything just flowed. After the show we hung out upstairs with some friends and read from an old copy of a Magic Dirt fanzine we had created a few years ago called Shrinko II. It was hilarious going through all our old top ten lists and photos.

The next day we got up and had some breakfast and did some boring stuff like pay bills at the post office. But walking around Bryon was so nice, I didn’t want to leave. It really is a special place and I enjoy the whole new age / hippie vibe. And the forests and beaches are just beautiful but there is a lot of new development going on too. Be interesting to see how Byron looks and feels in a few years. And Byron Bay is where I got my first tattoo! We hopped in the car to drive further north to Coolangatta.

 

Cooly Hotel, Coolangatta

22nd August, 2008

Ah the Gold Coast. It’s warm and the beaches are gorgeous and the scenery is stunning but once you get into the heavily populated areas of apartment blocks, hotels, skyscrapers and tourist shops it all changes. It’s quite mad in there. And Gold Coast people are mad for drinking. They are the quintessential party animals. We loaded up our gear through a maze of lifts and stairs and doorways and we’re getting ready for sound check when everyone just suddenly realized we were all completely starving and hadn’t had any lunch or dinner and it was close to 6pm. So the venue manager brought us our food platter early and we circled around it like lions at a kill and completely demolished all the sandwiches. I think that was our dinner for the night. It’s funny but we don’t always get time to eat properly because there is a million and one things to do to get ready for the show. But running on empty is not a good idea.

The Red Sun Band kids were joining us again tonight which was gonna be nice. They did a great show. The Cooly crowd were good but they are pretty loud and raucous so we all had to put out a little extra energy tonight. But we had a great one and when we did our last song Sarah from theredsunband came up on stage and danced with us and she and I played the guitar and made crazy guitar noises. And then I hoisted her up around my waist and we both made our way off stage. Fun!

Afterwards theredsunband and us went back to our hotel room and partied til the wee hours. Raul even went to the beach for a late night dip. We woke up very late today and blearily went and got some breakfast in Coolangatta. Then we drove to Brisbane and we are here now for our show tonight at The Zoo. Everyone has crashed and is getting some sleep now. We are leaving for sound check in a couple of hours. So I’m gonna get some shut eye too.

 

The Zoo, Brisbane

23rd August, 2008

We rocked up to the Zoo for sound check. Loading into the venue is up a long and steep flight of stairs. We were all feeling a little drab today after a few nights of partying so after sound check we all went our separate ways and some went out for dinner with friends or relatives and some of us went for a little walk to look for food. I ate and then sat by the stage and watched the first band who were awesome. They are a 3 piece all girl band called The Pretty Boys and they play fast, aggressive Motorhead style tunes. The lead singers name is Hannah and she is dynamite. She’s 17 and she wore these shiny black stilettos and had this huge voice and shredded on the guitar (an SG) and they had songs with titles like ‘Slaughter’. Gold.

Then I watched all of thredsunband’s set which was amazing. They had to drive back to Sydney so they left straight after they finished. I was feeling pretty lack lustre before going on stage but I had a last minute surge of energy and Sarah from theredsunband mentioned that the crowd was really nice so that pepped me up a bit. And then we got up on stage and the crowd roared. It was so nice. And they were a fantastic crowd. Lots of great energy. And a really uplifting vibe. Sometimes it really matters and makes such a difference what the crowd are like on some nights. And tonights crowd really got the whole band going. We were having an awesome time and for the first time on the tour the crowd was singing along and yelling out all the new songs. It was astounding and put a huge smile on my face. 

Then we got to the last song and I was down on my knees and making my guitar feedback by rubbing it against my speaker cabinet. I looked up at one point and saw Butters, our guitar tech rushing over and I didn’t know what was happening but then looked up at my amps and realised the whole stack was falling backwards and there was nothing anyone could do. It just went straight down and onto the back of the stage. D’oh! I didn’t see that one coming. The Roland amp sliced through a power board so we quickly grabbed another spare Roland and plugged it in. I just got back into the song for the last 8 bars and then it was all over. Funny shit! The crowd loved it. We did an encore and then that was it. It was such a great night. I feel really good right now. Great way to end this 2 week run. I’ve got to get some sleep now. We are off to the airport bright and early. Few days off and then the big Melbourne show. It’s gonna be pretty crazy.

 

Corner Hotel, Melbourne

29th August, 2008

We always get super nervous about the Melbourne show. There’s always a lot of family and friends that come so we have to take care of everything and everyone and do a lot more running around at the home town show. It gets pretty intense. Soundcheck was long and leisurely. Everything sounded good and was going smoothly. The support bands tonight were Rowland S. Howard (Birthday Party, These Immortal Souls), theredsunband and The Trips (our support band comp winners).

The Trips arrived first, nice and early and set up on the side stage. I went over and chatted to them and they were psyched. They are all very young, 2 girls and a guy and they play short sharp tuneful guitar melodies. I ran around organising the meals for us and the support bands and went upstairs to sit and have my obligatory bowl of chips with pepper sauce and bowl of garden salad. And just before dinner we found out that the show was sold out. That’s always a fantastic feeling.

I finished my dinner first so I went downstairs to check that everything was running well. We’ve been doing all the tour managing ourselves on this tour so we have to oversee everything. I arrived backstage to find theredsunband kids collapsed on our couch. They had driven from Sydney that day and were all looking a little exhausted. Rowland arrived about an hour later and it was great to see him again. He’s such a down to earth lovely guy and he’s very much the gentlemen. The Trips went on first and I was very impressed with their sound. The audience definitely warmed to them and a few days later I got a message from them saying that they had some fantastic feedback from people who had come to see the show and were very happy with their gig. We actually liked them so much we’ve given them another show later in the year with us. Rowland was fabulous. Always mesmerising. And theredsunband blew everyone away. They were relieved to have a good show and they partied hard afterwards.

We went on stage and did our set and I felt pretty damn good about it. My throat infection felt like it had pretty much gone so it was a pleasure to sing again. Quite a few people were singing along to the new songs especially White Boy. Sarah from theredsunband got up during our encore as did a few others I pulled from the crowd and we rollicked around on stage and had a ball. Afterwards I just wanted to go home and sleep. Was feeling pretty shattered. But it always feels good to have the big home town show done, in fact any of the capital city shows. It’s a relief when they go well. Makes everything else easier.

 

Karova Lounge, Ballarat
30th August, 2008

We left a little later than we should’ve today for the Ballarat show. It was our last show with theredsunband as main supports tonight so it was a little sad. We drove through the cold night for about an hour and a half and when we got to the Karova it was absolutely freezing. I stepped out of the car into icy rain that was screaming down the street on a rush of chilled air and ran squealing like a child into the venue. So cold!!! I instantly thought….”No-one is going to go out on a night like this!”. The pre-sales were a little slow so we weren’t sure how the night was going to go. We loaded in the gear and slowly started setting up from scratch. Everyone was a little tired and slow tonight. We were really looking forward to dinner at one of our favourite restaurants in all of Australia called ‘Chat For Tea’ which is run by Buddhists and has the most amazing vegan food. Lovingly prepared and delicious. But setting up and soundcheck took so long that the guys ended up having to go out and get some take away Chinese and bring it back for everyone.

I remember a very avid fan walked in during soundcheck to drop off a letter from her 10 year old daughter who is also a massive Magic Dirt fan. She’d been to a trash and treasure market and found a little golden guitar that she adored so she gave it to her mum to give to me along with a tiny sprig of daphne and a cute card with a lovely letter inside it. It was very sweet. Theredsunband rocked up and we were all lamenting that this was their last night but we were gonna have a good one. I had some voddies and hung out with them and also chatted with a group of our hardcore fans who had travelled from Melbourne and some who had come from Adelaide. They are all very cool and always make the night that much better too. People started to come in to the venue and then more and more and soon it was pretty packed. We were stoked!

And the Karova Lounge is one of the best venues in Australia. The bar manager and staff treat the bands very well and it’s just got that real pub rock vibe. The crowd loved theredsunband and they had a great show. Our set went really well. It flowed and also I love the Karova stage. It’s not too big. Again we were so surprised at how the crowd was singing along to the new songs. I think it’s really important for the audiences to feel invigorated by the new songs as much as we have been. We really did have an excellent show tonight and I felt really satisfied and a bit boozy afterwards, it was nice. We had a lot of people from the crowd come up afterwards and say how much they loved the show. We took lots of photos of us and theredsunband together and then said our goodbyes. We drove back to Melbourne for a few days rest before the big Coober Pedy/South OZ run.

 

Port Pirie Music Workshop, Flinders View Music Studio
3rd September, 2008

Raul and I hopped on a plane on Wednesday to head off to South Australia to do the music workshop in Port Pirie. Robbo and Matt were going to drive the gear van on Thursday from Melbourne to Port Augusta and meet the rest of us there. Raul and I landed in Adelaide, grabbed the hire car and took off down the A1 highway to the tiny port town. It’s about a two and a half hour drive and we weren’t far out of Adelaide city when the scenery began to change. Lots of industrial areas and then the huge salt pans. South Australia has got a lot of salt! It looks great. Just gigantic piles of dirty salt. And then the land starts to get flatter and flatter but it was so green. Bright green fields and then bright yellow stretches of canola crops. The sky is a lighter blue over here.

Raul and I stopped off in a tiny town called Port Wakefield (pop.800) and got some hot chips. We sat in the car and ate them and a flock of seagulls came and landed on the car, some were even perched on the side mirrors so we hand fed them. They were quite unafraid and when we started the car and moved off they wouldn’t get off the bonnet. Then as we drove off they pursued us, on the wing. It was like a Hitchcock movie. We passed another town called Lochiel that has a huge pink lake and has its very own Loch Ness Monster made out of tyres sitting silently at the edge of the lake.

Lochiel, S.A.

We arrived in Port Pirie and checked into our motel and had a quick rest. Then we drove into the town centre and found the music shop where we were doing the workshop. It was 6pm and there was only the 2 people and a couple of their friends in the shop. We were pretty sure no-one was going to turn up. They took us to a back room that used to be an old photographers studio. There were a massive backdrop of a kind of garden scene with greek style stone columns painted on either side. The shop was actually a really old building that had a great vibe, lots of character. I liked it a lot and started fantasising about living there for a while and recording an album there. The owners Greg and Vicki had never done anything like set up a workshop before but were super nice and helpful and very sweet.

So it was 6.10pm and a couple of high school aged boys came in and then another boy and his dad and then a 10 year old boy came in too. And we had a couple of older dudes come in who were Magic Dirt fans. So it was a small workshop but one of the best ones we’ve had. We did out talk and then I did some Magic Dirt songs solo and at the end of each workshop we try and get kids up to play their songs. The little 10 year old kid was straight up there on his acoustic and he strummed away and sang one of his own songs. The lyrics were strong and quite self-reflective for someone so young which I thought was fantastic. He definitely had a spark and I was rapt that he’d got up to play. We filmed the whole thing so I can’t wait to watch it back.

Then we had a jam with one of the other boys who played drums. Raul jumped on the guitar and I got out the old tambourine. Then another one of the shyer boys plucked up enough courage and got up to have a bash on the drums. It was so much fun. After the workshop was over I went and had a quick chat to Jordan, the 10 year old and encouraged him to keep writing and to even record his songs. He was serious about music and even quipped, “…it’s so hard to make up choruses!” and I said “I know, it’s the hardest part”. He was amazing. Vicki and Greg and another guy that we met who is a music teacher take music lessons with the kids too which is very heartening. It was a great experience and I think that everyone got a lot out of it. Raul and I then went to the local pub and got some dinner. I had some pretty average pasta and Raul scored with a nice risotto. We then hung out at the motel and had a well earned rest.

 

Travel day, Port Augusta
4th September, 2008

Got up late and hurried off back down to Adelaide to pick the others up from the airport. I love Adelaide airport. They have free trolleys and it’s so relaxed there. And everyone is so nice and chilled. We pulled up at the airport and Sloth (sound guy), Butters (guitar tech) and Andrew (no.1 fan) jumped in the car. It was nice to have us all together. Then we headed back up the A1, to Port Augusta which is about 1 hour north of Port Pirie.

We passed Lochiel on the way to get a photo of the Loch Ness Monster. The others thought it was a pretty shit monster. We were warned by the Port Pirie locals to watch out for big roos whilst driving up the A1 and between Port Augusta and Coober Pedy to watch out for the wedge-tailed eagles that sit on animal carcasses in the middle of the road and won’t move because they don’t want to lose their catch. We didn’t see any of that but we did see a couple of eagles that had obviously been struck by cars and were dead on the side of the road. We arrived in Port Augusta at dusk and settled into the motel. I was feeling a little tour weary at this point and didn’t feel like being around people so I went back to my room and just chilled in front of the TV which was nice. The van finally arrived and 2 very tired and wired boys got out. I went and popped my head in to say a quick hello. It’s always a relief when the tour party is reunited. Matt and Robbo dropped their bags down and then all the boys cracked open the beers and had a good ol’ yarn. I came in and did a little bit of emailing on Butters laptop and then said goodnight. 

Opal Inn, Coober Pedy
5th September, 2008

We have been looking forward to this part of the tour for quite a while. Finally we were heading to Coober Pedy. We were very excited. As we drove along the A1 the scenery changed from the striking Flinders Ranges to the bright green crop land to semi-arid, shrubby open flats. There are also the monoliths that have been flattened at the top from millions of years of erosion. We saw strange yellow nest-like sacs hanging off the big shrubs. We saw lots of birds of prey in the air and even swooping down onto the highway. There were lots of long haul trucks that had 3, 4 up to 6 loads behind them. We saw massive freight trains that looked like they were a kilometre long and we saw the famous Ghan passenger train that takes you from Adelaide to Darwin.

As we got closer to Coober Pedy the land started to lose all its shrubs and was just flat, red dirt with little clumps of grass here and there and then the ground just went black. It’s so hot and mineralised out there that parts of the ground just looks like black volcanic glass. The road would shimmer in front of us like a mirage. We stopped at a couple of roadhouses, one at Pimba and one at Glendambo. Tiny, tiny little outposts and as soon as you got out of your car people would smile and say hello and ask where you were heading. It’s funny but the further out you get the more friendlier people are.

Adalita at Pimba roadhouse, S.A.

Raul at Pimba roadhouse, S.A.

the boys in Glendambo, S.A.

We were getting closer and closer to Coober Pedy and started to see big mounds of excavated dirt and mining equipment. People are looking for opals. I remember a Port Pirie local telling me not to walk backwards anywhere in Coober Pedy, esp. when you’re taking a photo. I thought they were joking. But in Coober Pedy and all along the way in there are big signs warning people to not walk backwards. Because there are lots of holes in the ground where miners have dug shafts to look for opals. And people have accidently fallen down these thin mine shafts. So it wasn’t a joke!

on the A1 to Coober Pedy

We finally arrived at the Opal Inn which is an above ground motel. Most dwellings in Coober Pedy are under ground because it’s in the desert and in summer it averages about 40 degrees every day or more. Under ground it’s around 25 degrees. We didn’t have enough time to explore the town which was a bummer but anyway…..we got out of the car and were welcomed by some of the local aboriginal people. And a few people came out of the pub to stare at us. I think it’s a pretty big deal for a rock band to be in town. The whole population is around 2,700 people.

We loaded everything in, including our own PA that we had to haul from Adelaide. Set up and then had some dinner. We checked into the Opal Inn motel part and boy what an amazing room. It looked so 1950’s. Lots of brown chairs, brown carpet and laminated surfaces.

Opal Inn, Coober Pedy

Went back to the pub and I think everyone was a little scared or overwhelmed that there was this rock band in their town. We put on a good show and met a bunch of people that had driven 6 hours from Whyalla to come and see us. But the best part of the night was Jennifer, an aboriginal elder woman who danced up a storm infront of us while we played. She was awesome. We finished the show and talked to a lot of interesting locals, some of them invited us back to their ‘dugouts’ and some just wanted to party hard. We were so tired after the show that we just headed straight back to the hotel room. We had a few well earned beers, a few laughs and then went to bed.

I think the next day we were all so tired and hungry that we just wanted to get out of Coober Pedy and back to civilisation. Well at least somewhere that had a cafe. The boys love their coffees. 

 

Governor Hindmarsh, Adelaide
6th September, 2008

We had to do around 900 kms of travel today so Butters took to the wheel in our car and Robbo drove the van. We drove steadily for about 4-5 hours and then stopped at a roadhouse to get a feed. I think everyone was looking forward to getting into Adelaide. We had to try and be at the Gov before doors opened which was 7.30pm and we’d left at 9am.

The drive back actually went really well and we did good time. We didn’t stop much and actually pulled up to the venue at around 6pm with time to spare. We weren’t sure how tonight was going to go numbers wise but as soon as the doors opened people started to come in and Matt came back and told us that there had been 350 presales so we were stoked.

The first band on was Miss Golly Gosh and they really impressed. They sounded like the 90’s riot girl bands and the lead singer, Elsha (who looked like she was straight out of a Russ Meyer film) was fantastic, really inspiring. They had a song that was all about hating Kenny Rogers.

I was feeling a little withdrawn and low in energy, that kind of halfway point of a tour when you feel a little burnt out. But suddenly the 2nd wind kicks in and you’re ready for anything. That definitely happened to me tonight. I got on stage and felt great. Full of energy and it was one of the best shows so far. My voice felt really strong and had come back 100%.

The crowd was amazing tonight. Lots of energy and they were going nuts. We had such a great show. I felt so good. The song order was perfect and we threw in Cupids Bow. Matt, who is filling in for Dean on the bass while Dean recovers from an illness, is doing amazingly well. He’s such a champ learning all the songs and has become like part of the family. He really keeps us on our toes playing wise too because he is so precise and tight. (Matt actually plays in a 2 piece Melbourne stoner rock band called Sons of the Sun who are fucking great to watch live). We are hoping Dean will be well enough to play some shows later in the tour. Get better Deano!!!

Well the encore tonight was a hell of a lot of fun. I got a few people up on stage to dance around to the last song. It was great. I remember everyone going crazy and then when we finished the song I turned around and Robbo had pushed his drum kit over and all the kids were jumping on his giant kick drum and thumping it with their fists so I got my guitar and put it through the drum skin. It felt great. And then I gave my guitar to one of the fans and this other kid, who was wearing these bondage type chains across his chest, pulled his shirt off and the fan who had my guitar rubbed my guitar across the other kids chains. It was fucking great. Oh and it was Andrew’s birthday (our no.1 fan who has come to every show for the last few years and has a car number plate that says MGC DRT). After the show we signed heaps of stuff and did a lot of photos and the Adelaide crowd were just crazy. It was awesome.

It took a long time to load and get everyone ready and saying our goodbyes but finally we got back to the hotel and went to bed. Raul and Robbo had to get up at 7.30am to drive the gear van back to Melbourne and then unload everything there. The rest of us got up at a leisurely 10am and got the plane back home. Thank you Adelaide.

 

Mount Gambier Hotel, Mt. Gambier
12th Sept, 2008

It was a blustery day when we left Melbourne for Mount Gambier. We drove south west for around 500kms. Lots of green pasture land and livestock, mainly dairy cows. I loved the tiny lambs and shiny, frisky black calves. We arrived at the Mt. Gambier Hotel, a 100+ year old huge white pub that had been lovingly renovated. It was a beautiful venue. Andrew and a few Adelaide fans met us inside and we all loaded the gear in to the smallish band area. A friend of ours, who is a Mount Gambier local, told me about a giant sinkhole in the middle of town so I went up the street and checked it out. And sure enough right in the middle of the street, surrounded by a walkway with stairs doing down, is a massive hole in the ground that leads to underground caves. It looked amazing with beautiful moss and green vines growing around. I filmed a little bit of it and then went back to the venue. The P.A. dudes were setting up the speakers on the small stage. The back stage area was bigger than the actual stage but we were happy to have the space to chill in. We didn’t bother with a sound check and instead placed all our gear up onto the stage and got everything ready for later on. We then went to the motel and checked in. There was a giant tom cat at motel reception which I liked. The wind had picked up even more and it was blowing a gale by the time we let ourselves into our rooms. I put my contact lenses in, got my gig clothes and make-up gathered together in a bag and after about half an hour we all jumped back in the car and headed back to grab some free dinner at the pub. The pub manager was real nice to us all night. And we scarfed our meals as we sat near a big open fire place. It was a pretty relaxed vibe and we were all feeling warm and full. We then all decided, as a group, to have a really big one tonight. So we headed backstage and cracked open some beers and a bottle of vodka. We weren’t sure how many people would rock up to the show as it was a regional show and the it was pouring with rain outside. But by the 2nd band the place was packed. We were so suprised and it made us really happy. By the time we got on stage we were drunk as skunks. I had a great show. The crowd was going nuts. During the last song I pulled a fan up on stage to play the drums and then another guy to come and do some singing. He looked like he really had something to say and when he took to the microphone he was just coming out with this rap about eagles and flapping his arms all about and doing a crazy rant. We did the encore and then the rest is a blur of backstage shenanigans. I remember we were all making lots of loud animal noises and throwing eachother around the room on piggy back. We caught taxis back to the motel and carried on until the wee hours. 

Woke up the next morning feeling a tad shabby. The night before we had polished off 2 cases of beer, a bottle of vodka, a bottle of bourbon and a bottle of red wine with some tequila shots thrown in. So to combat the seediness we all had big breakfasts at a cafe in town and then hopped in the cars to make it wearily to Warrnambool for the next show.

 

The Loft, Warrnambool
13th Sept, 2008

It was beautifully warm in Warrnambool. The skies had cleared a little and the sun was beating down. We were all feeling a little sore as we started loading gear up the 2 flights of stairs to the venue. We’ve played Warrnambool before but not at this place, called The Loft. It’s really cool inside. Little red curtains on the windows, some fairy lights on the back stage wall, a cool intimate rock pub feel and the owner, Ben, is real nice. I liked it. We had time for a sound check today which was good and then we went and checked in to our hotel. It was a great hotel, right on the main highway with balcony views. It was lovely inside with a spa and beautiful bed linen and a mini bar. Sometimes we get cheaper accom, like real classic old 50’s motels with ancient air conditioners and little triangular milks in the fridge and old TV’s and then sometimes we get the modern, more up market hotels with Foxtel, a sauna facility etc etc. It’s nice to mix it up otherwise it would get boring. 

Most of the boys had a little nap before the gig but I can’t sleep before a show unless I’m really sick. I did my make-up and watched a cable TV show about outrageous room service from around the world. One of them was a hotel in L.A. that had a recording studio and you could hire it and get your room service sent in. The boys woke up and we headed back to The Loft. Everyone was feeling a little flat but we had a couple of pick me up drinks which seemed to do the trick. The show went well. The crowd were pretty wild. Especially the little punk boys up the front. We were glad to be finished and packed up. And looked forward to crashing out. We went to a roadhouse to pick up some junk food before we went back to the hotel and then all sat around reminiscing about Mount Gambier and generally just talking shit. 

The next morning we had another huge breakfast at a local cafe called Fishtales that served delicious food. I had heard that the southern right wales were in Warrnambool. They come in to Logans Beach and breed there but everyone was pretty keen to get back to Melbourne so I missed out this time. Another stormy day. Callum, who was our sound guy for the weekend drove the last leg home and we gas bagged the whole way which always makes the time fly on long drives. (Thanks Callum!) We were all exhausted, said our goodbyes, loaded gear back in to storage ready to be loaded out for another round of shows in a couple of weeks. Western Australia is next. 

 

 

Wave Rock Weekender Festival, Hyden
27th September, 2008

Wave Rock is a very famous geological site in the south of Western Australia and is by far the most spectacular natural wonder I’ve ever seen. It absolutely floored us all. Hyden (the town next to Wave Rock) is a tiny speck of a town, roughly a four hour drive from Perth. We drove along eucalypt forests, then low shrubby desert where hundreds of dead gums stuck out of big blue sandy lakes. The dirt here is unbelievably red, it turns everything else red too. The car, the trees, the roads, rusty dust everywhere. 

Lake Magic, Hyden

We arrived at Wave Rock and checked into our cottage which was situated at the edge of Lake Magic, a large salty lake made of gypsum. All the other bands were staying here too. We then drove back around the lake, to the festival site. Wave Rock Weekender is a boutique festival that runs for a couple of days with only around 600-800 punters and everyone camps overnight. And it’s right at the foot of the rock itself. We parked our car next to the stage and immediately went to check out Wave Rock. We walked up a pretty little sandy path, past all the campers and suddenly around the corner there she was, this massive curved rock.

Adalita on Wave Rock, Hyden

It’s around 15 metres high & 110 metres long and curls around you just like a wave. I’ve seen it in books and on TV but didn’t expect to be so overcome standing infront of it. You are allowed to walk on the rock and some of us even tried running up it’s curves to see how far we could get. You could also climb to the very top of the rock and get a birds eye view of the land below. So we climbed up and sat and looked out. It was amazing. And there were people everywhere just hanging out, a really relaxed vibe. Most people think the wave formation in the rock was caused by wind but it’s mainly water erosion. And the beautiful banded colours in the rock are caused by water from nearby springs running down the rock in the wetter months and dissolving minerals. The rock itself is around 2700 million years old. 

Raul on Wave Rock, Hyden

Back at the festival we rustled up some food and hung out. I was feeling real toxic from the flu I’d had and so went back to the accom and chilled out. After a couple of hours someone came and picked me up and I went back to the site and got ready for the show. From the word go tonight we had major technical problems. We haven’t had a fucked up show like that for a while. Everything just went wrong. But we got to the end of it and the people seemed to dig it. At least we got everyone up and dancing. There wasn’t a backstage area at the festival so while we were trying to pack up lots of loaded dudes were hanging around us, hassling, so I went back the accom to get away. 

The guys came back a little later with a few beers. Raul suggested we go look at the stars because out here the night is really dark so you can see the stars better and there are shitloads of them. We parked just off the road at the lake and got out. The sky looked amazing. Glittering clusters of stars right down to the horizon. And small, faraway clouds of cosmic dust. Galaxies, the saucepan, Orions belt, the southern cross, and the evening star (Venus) shining brightest. We also saw heaps of shooting stars. I saw one that seemed to burn and fly for ages. Raul and I had blankets around ourselves to keep us warm so when cars came up on the road we turned into ghosts and tried to scare them all. One car slowed down and made ghosty noises with us which was rad but then another car stopped and a girl screamed out, “You suck ass” which wasn’t in keeping with the spirit of things. The night air smelt so good, cool, fresh, earthy, pure. The local area felt ancient, like there might’ve been dinosaurs here once. 

The next morning was just as beautiful, waking up to a perfect blue sky and the red, red dirt and twinkling lake. On our way out we saw a giant enclosure that housed a little mob of albino kangaroos. I felt sad for them being trapped behind a tall fence. It was a weird thing to see in such a wild and pure area as Wave Rock. An electric fence ran all the way around their enclosure and a little girl who had come to watch the roos, accidently zapped herself on the wire. She cried, not knowing exactly what had happened.

albino kangaroos, Hyden

We drove to Kalgoorlie on an unsealed road that went inland for 120 kilometres. It was one of the most fantastic drives we’ve ever done. The colour of the road kept changing from red to yellow to white. The landscape consisted of bright yellow canola crops, black sand, ghostly dead trees, giant flame grevilleas, and carpets and carpets of wildflowers. Western Australia is famous for its wildflowers and we were right in the middle of the Spring peak season. So much colour everywhere. Purple, orange, red, bright pink, bright green, blue. Just gorgeous.

flame grevillea, Southern Cross

unsealed road, Southern Cross

We also saw lots of animals. Blue tongue lizards crossing the road, tons of ravens and birds. We even saw an emu with chicks. We stopped on the side of the road to stretch our legs and just as we hopped back in the cars and started driving, a massive emu bolted out infront of us, startled by our car. We stopped and saw that she had a clutch of baby emus with her and they were going everywhere. She was trying to round them all up and get them to safety. At one point she turned towards our car and lifting her huge powerful legs, started charging at us. We realised she was trying to round up the last of the chicks that were still in the bushes next to us. Finally she had them all together again and ran back into the shrubs. But there was one last little chick left. As soon as it spotted its mother it bolted towards her, completely panicked. It was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen and everyone was in awe of the mother emu. Awesome. We continued on to Kalgoorlie as the weather grew warmer and warmer. 

 

Kalgoorlie Hotel
28th September, 2008

We arrived in Kalgoorlie at around 3pm and soundcheck wasn’t until 5pm so we went to our accom and I slept. 

Loaded in to a pub full of Sunday drinking locals. Our dressing room was set up on a long ornamental verandah upstairs in a 100 year old hotel. We had views of the whole town, it was lovely. And the pub was very good to us and gave us all our rider which not every pub does.

The boys were getting stuck into the beers but I didn’t feel like drinking. Soundcheck was long and tedious. For dinner we were treated to free gourmet pizzas from the pub kitchen. It was little bit of a slow night. I think the town had their annual race day a couple of days before so everyone had out drunk themselves over a few days. Kalgoorlie, and a lot of country towns we’ve been too are notorious for their heavy drinking. So no shots are allowed at the bar. But you can have a jug of illusions! 

We played our show and all our equipment worked. Yay! Matt was very happy since it was the bass rig that was most fucked at the Wave Rock show. A handful of hardcore fans danced and had a blast and we hung out with them after the show, did photos and signed stuff. We then went upstairs and lounged around until everyone downstairs had left. I went back to the accom and went straight to bed. The rest of the guys partied on in Robbo’s motel room which oddly enough had a spa tucked into the corner of the bedroom. It looked really weird.

Kalgoorlie is famous for its mining but also for its tin shed brothels which are amongst some of the oldest working houses in Australia. So upon waking and heading out to get breakfast I wanted to make a stop on Hay Street and take some photos. Here they are. Love the pink colour. And you can go on tours every day at 2pm.

Questa Casa, Kalgoorlie

We headed out of Kalgoorlie and onto our 10 hour drive to Albany, a small seaside town right on the southern most tip of Western Australia. We passed the spectacular wildflower countryside and listened to lots of music on the way. When night fell I put on my ‘roo eyes’, which is basically just me on the edge of  the passenger seat on the lookout for kangaroos. This is one of the most dangerous parts of touring - driving at night. I hate it. We missed two roos and two tiny frogs. Swarms of insects battered our windscreen for the whole day so visibilty was a little fucked up. The first roo was on the road and we slowed down so it could hop away but the second one jumped into the road side bushes away from us but then decided to jump back onto the road. And he was HUGE! That one was crazy. We missed it and kept going, hearts pumping.

Finally we pulled into Albany at about 9.30pm and shacked up in our lovely Colonial style cottages. It was nice to be together and there was a kitchen so we planned to have a sit down home cooked meal the next night.

 

Nsomniax Lounge, Albany
1st October, 2008

We had the luxury of two days off in Albany. It was so nice to wake up and not have to do anything. This is the first time on tour that we can completely relax. So everyone went sick. We bought supplies from the supermarket, caught up on emails, watched DVD’s, read books, played dice games. Albany used to be a whaling town but now it is a tourist attraction for whale watching. It’s a beautiful place, much like the rest of W.A. Clean air, friendly folk, rugged hills and pristine ocean. I rallied everyone to go and see if we could catch sight of some sperm whales in the harbour. It was the end of the breeding season so we were kind of doubtful we’d see any but we went for a drive anyway. We stopped at a vantage point on the cliffs and there were a few keen people on the look out with their long range binoculars. The others stayed rugged up in the car while I went out and watched, waiting. And then suddenly there they were. A small pod of whales, breaching and spouting water into the air. I saw their flukes and flippers and they looked like they were just playing. The guys loved it. It was worth going out into the rain to see them. I also went and got my aura and chakras photographed at a local new age shop. It was so good. 

Raul and Matt cooked up a beautiful Italian meal and we gorged ourselves whilst reminiscing on funny things that had happened on the tour. 

We then watched ‘I am Alan Partridge’ and laughed ourselves to sleep.

On show day we had to go to new accomodation at the edge of town. The venue was putting us up for the night so it was worth moving.

Soundcheck time came round and we loaded all our gear up a steep flight of stairs into the nightclub, Nsomniax. We’ve actually played here before. I remember accidently knocking my head against my guitar during a show here once and there was blood everywhere. The place reeked of beer from a thousand nights of disco. Soundcheck went well and we got all our rider which was nice. We met a bunch of girls from Perth who were doing the road trip from Perth to Albany to Bunbury and back to Perth again. They were really sweet. The night went well considering it was a mid week gig. Lots of dancing and very keen fans, singing along to all the words. It’s so nice after such a long time and in such a remote area as Albany that we still have the hardcore fans that will come out. We ended up having an unbelievable show. We were on a high afterwards. We played tight and hard. I felt ecstatic after the show except I’ve done my back. I was jumping around too hard and crunched something so today am very sore and stiff and walking around like an old man. But that was THE best show of the tour so far. Very happy.

 

 
Prince of Wales, Bunbury
2nd October, 2008

Had an awesome drive today. Matty and I cranked up Bjork’s album ‘Vespertine’ in the tarago as we sailed through the most magnificent countryside. Tall karri trees in thick eucalpyt forests scattered with grass trees. We saw a sign that warned of bandicoots on the road but we didn’t see any. There were rolling green hills, shiny black calves, pale woolly lambs, picturesque villages, antique markets, blue skies and scarlet coloured wildflowers encrusting the roadsides. It felt like we were on another planet, travelling through a dream. 

We rocked up to the old faithful, Prince of Wales in Bunbury where we’ve had many gigs and many crazy nights. The Prince is the home of the best peppercorn sauce in Australia as voted by us. 

I hibernated in my motel room until I had to literally jump on stage. The crowd was having a great time and the show was going very well until the power cut out. My amp blew and the PA was out. After about 10 minutes the power came back on and we raced through the last bit of the set. Then we all remembered that the Prince is famous for it’s power cutting out at most gigs. After the show I caught up with Abbe May and Doug from The Fuzz, a W.A. band that we used to play with a lot. It was nice to see them again. I snuck back to my room to get away from it all and watched an old black & white movie on the ABC called ‘The Enchanted Cottage’ until lights out. I really liked the actress in that movie. Her name was Dorothy McGuire.

 

 
The Amplifier Bar, Perth
3rd October, 2008

Ah, the Ampy. Our favourite gig in Perth. The people here are very relaxed but party pretty hard. After load in I quickly scrambled to the kebab shop on the corner. I usually like to eat four hours before we play so I wolfed it down and then did soundcheck. We met up with the French Rockets guys who were our Perth support comp winners and they were opening for us tonight. They had a whole lighting show set up and were incredibly dedicated and serious about their music. I was very impressed and love it when bands show they are committed. And they were super cool guys too. 

Down a flight of stairs is the infamous Amplifier band room. The walls are covered in lurid drawings, band name graffiti and other assorted images from over the years. Harsh strip fluorescent lighting on the ceiling, old, stained couches and even a mattress sit in a an arty, forlorn manner around the room. A couple of the guys popped some beers open while I rushed upstairs to catch French Rockets. They were so good. Loud, guitar drone music. Two guys up the front with guitars and loads and loads of pedals and beat / loop programming and a live drummer. And their light show was pretty damn cool. I loved it. 

When we came out to do our show I was overwhelmed by the crowd. They were so vocal and appreciative. I enjoyed the night so much but felt exhausted on stage. I gave it everything and then we all tumbled like wet water rats down to the band room. I wanted to go straight away so Andrew gave me a lift back to the hotel and I crashed. The other guys boozed on and had a raging dance fest at the Ampy and got back at around 4am. I’m really missing Dean. He would’ve loved this leg of the tour as much as we did. But he is at home and doing really well, getting much better every day and he’s hoping to be on stage with us soon. Ok, I’m off to bed now. Night all.

 

 
Wild Oats Festival, Northam
4th October, 2008

 The others woke up the next day feeling a little shabby. I was fine, quite chirpy actually. We hit some breakfast up and then jumped in the cars and took off for Northam, which is about 90km east of Perth, in the very outer suburbs. Weird places and vibes out here. In the middle of nowhere. It was a cold and windy day and everyone was feeling a little tender. We pulled up to the festival and parked near the band dressing rooms. Luckily the wind had died down and it was now quite calm albeit freezing! People started to rock up and by the time we got on stage there was about 1,000 people there and they were a great crowd. We had a good show and I accidently swallowed a few bugs while I was singing. We caught up with Spiderbait, who we’ve known for years and it was nice to have a chinwag and hang out. The festival organisers were very cool and looked after all the bands. The backstage food and drinks spread was amazing. We all decided it was our dinner for the night. 

As soon as we finished our show we headed off back to Perth. I had my ‘roo eyes’ on again and we did see one and luckily missed it. Roos always panic and are very unpredictable. So just when you think you’ve passed it, NO!  it’ll jump back out infront of your car. I was glad the night drive was over. 

Back at the hotel we regrouped and hung out for a little but everyone was fading pretty rapidly. The next morning we had plenty of time before hitting the airport so we had a leisurely breakfast and afterwards went to the famous 78’s Records shop. Raul got the Twin Peaks box set. Fuck yeah! Can’t wait to watch that. 

The airport was pretty stress free and we had a lot of time to lounge about before boarding. Had a few days off here in Melbourne but it’s been hellishly busy. We’ve got a very special event coming up in December to wrap the year up. We’ll be announcing it very soon. So we are in the middle of organising it as well as managing the rest of the tour. Off to Wagga Wagga and Mildura this weekend. Looks like the weather is going to be warming up and I’ll be interested to see how the mighty Murray River is fairing at the moment. See you all on the flipside.

 

 

The Saloon Bar, Wagga Wagga 

10th October, 2008

I remember this place. You have to load the gear up two very long and steep flights of stairs. The inside of the venue is a bar with faux western saloon fixtures. Wagga was cold and windy and we were all absolutely buggered. All went well with soundcheck and dinner. The show was good. We had a nice Friday night crowd. I macheted through the set. It feels like the home stretch now so I’m determinded to get through each night and get through it well. 

 

 

 

SandBar, Mildura

11th October, 2008

Next day we drove for around six hours through the riverina district where oranges and grapes are grown. We saw a lot of desiccated crops and land savaged by the drought. There were lots of whirly whirlies, filled up with red dust, madly spinning in the flat paddocks. There were many dried up creeks and we even saw a handful of emaciated sheep, that had obviously been left for dead, nibbling at saltbush. 

It was hot when we stepped out of the car. 

We were greeted by a group of our most hardcore fans, Andrew, Louise and Jesse Lee. It’s a real treat to have them along, familiar faces and all. 

The SandBar is a lovely venue, set up in an outdoor beergarden. Gear was loaded (flat load, thank fuck!) onto the stage and soundcheck was done in a jiffy. We set out for some food and found a noodle take away joint in the main street. A group of us sat down and discussed the heavy police presence in the town. The SandBar publican told us that Mildura is notoroius for fights breaking out on the streets every weekend. The cops carry mace foam which is strapped to their leg. They used to have the spray cans of mace but the wind kept blowing it back in the cops face so they had to get the foam version. Also strangely enough, during dinner, classical music suddenly came on from all round. It sounded like it was being piped through the town’s P.A. system. We thought it might be a tact used by the council to subdue us all.

Showtime! Went well. We had a big crowd and they were awesome. Really into it and going nuts. Everyone was in high spirits. 

And it was Andrew’s 100th show in a row so we were celebrating. We had a bit of a shindig back at our motel room. At about 4am in the morning there were takeaway wrappers everywhere, upturned bottles, lots of evidential photos, bawdy removal of apparel. And Raul’s whole torso had somehow become mysteriously covered with heiroglyphics done in thick black texta. 

It was actually nice waking up with a bit of a hangover. It’s a different feeling than just feeling tired every day. This was a nice tired. Fuzzy tired.

I remember on the drive back to Melbourne we stopped at a tiny little outpost on the highway called Sea Lake. Incredible place. Still and hot. With a huge old pub smack bang in the middle of the town. I reckon you could’ve heard a pin drop in the main street of that town.

Got home at around 6pm after a few hours of driving. But I didn’t get to sleep til real late. My body clock is a bit out. Now I go to bed around 5am and then wake up anywhere from 12.30pm - 3pm. So when it’s a day off I feel like it’s been wasted. Crazy life.

 

 

 

Monash Uni, Churchill

15th October, 2008

All I remember about this show was us hanging out in a students recreation room, which doubled as the band room, really tired and really bored.

There was a ping pong table and ping pong bats but no ping pong ball. So Sloth and Matt got the lid off a water bottle and just hit that to and fro for a while. We all watched.

And it was cold. Very, very cold.

 

 

 

The National Hotel, Geelong

17th October, 2008

So nice to be back in the home town. There are a lot of great memories here and I always feel like a part of me relaxes. 

Met up with Al who runs The Nash. Great pub with a real vibe about it. We slung into soundcheck. My amps are all screwed up. I can’t use my vibrato/chorus function which is such a huge part of my sound. I’m pissed off but can’t get it fixed at the moment. Not enough time. So instead I’m gonna try hooking up a chorus pedal to my amp for the next few shows. 

After a barbecue at Robbo’s house we went back to the Nash and hung out in the backpackers lounge room upstairs. There was a huge yellow moon out and we gathered around the balcony, talking shit, overlooking the city at night. Nation Blue were supporting us for the next couple of shows which we were all real excited about. They would have to be one of our all time favoruite Aussie bands. It was a treat to have them along. 

Our show went fucking great. I haven’t sweated that much in ages. And we had more punters than the last time we played. The new songs went down well and there were some really mental fans. It was cool. We caught up with so many friends from the old days. I was absolutely loving it. 

It took ages to pack up and get out of there as everyone was gasbaggin’ about. The drive back to Melbourne seemed to take forever. All the drives home from the regional shows in Victoria seem to drag out. I think because we are so tired time has started to stretch. 

 

Golden Vine Hotel, Bendigo

18th October, 2008

Nice drive today through the Victorian spa country. Lots of natural springs and old volcanic plains and peaks. We passed Hanging Rock at Macedon which I am just obsessed with. (Read ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ by Joan Lindsay or watch the classic Aussie flick of the same name. Phenomenal shit.)

It was a lovely warm night. Getting out of the car, I noticed the moon again. I keep seeing it when it rises so it looks huge everytime. 

I like the Golden Vine but we’ve heard a rumour that they are going to stop having bands there. Shame really as it’s got a great vibe and is a classic old Aussie pub. Apparently there is a new venue in town starting up which is a relief, since Bendigo has a very loyal and passionate music community. 

Supporting us tonight was a solo artist who goes by the name of Inola. (real name: James). He’s a very young guy who lives locally and makes his own guitars out of found wood and objects. They are small and very unusual looking. He had a whole bunch of stuff set up on stage- drum kit, pedals, amps, guitars and other instruments. It was his first show ever and the crowd seemed to dig him. He would put on a rhythmical loop and then play layers of guitars and then hit the drums and then scream into the mike. It was awesome. Nation Blue were absolutely loving it. At one point Inola even ate an apple in the middle of his set. He had a great time and was an interesting person to talk to. And it’s great to expose our audiences to music that is a little more challenging than just the straight up 4 piece rock band. It opens up peoples minds and scope for what music and performance is. 

Tonight I watched Nation Blue play. I love them so much. They were so solid tonight. And I loved their new songs. Tom & co. are extremely innovative songwriters and I love how dedicated they are to their craft. I wanted to just get real hammered and watch them play for hours.

The crowd was small but very vocal and in high spirits. They loved the show. About halfway through our set I kicked into gear and felt real good. Exhaustion hit big time after the show. Everyone was kind of dragging their bodies around, packing stuff up and putting it back in the van. We had a couple of hours of driving ahead of us so everyone dutifully piled in the respective vehicles and took off. Our spirits are high and our bodies are punished. But with only seven more shows to go we are feeling pretty good.

 

Rubys Lounge, Belgrave
24th October, 2008

Ah good ol Rubys. Down in the Dandenong Hills. It’s beautiful down here. And there’s lots of hippie shops which I love. The old Rubys band room is the coolest band room ever. Tucked behind a secret entrance which is a fake bookcase shelf but it’s really a door. That’s gone now though. The new band room is upstairs. Oh well. Things change. One of my favourite Melbourne bands, Amaya Laucirica, was playing with us tonight. I went up and watched their set. I loved the new songs.
Our set went well. Afterwards we got stuck into the rider. This was our last show for a couple of weeks so we were in celebration mode. It would be good to have a breather before the next lot of show. Our last ones before we have a bit of a break. I’m looking forward to Tassie and Broken Hill.
Seems like we’ve been on the road for a whole year. Feels real good.

Peninsula Lounge, Moorooduc
15th November, 2008

I was pretty sure it was going to be slow, numbers wise and was slightly shocked when people started rocking up and the room started filling out. It turned into an awesome night. The crowd were having a great time and there were a couple of real hardcore Dirt fans going crazy up the front. I had a good show except my pedals were playing up a bit. We also had The Trips play with us again and they made a great impression on the crowd. We had a late drive back home. Ironically these are the hardest drives on the whole tour because we don’t have the hotel nearby. So the drive feels really long and everyone is on the verge of delirium by the time we pull in.

Broken Hill Entertainment Centre, Broken Hill
23rd November, 2008

I’ve been to Broken Hill before to film the ‘I Love The Rain’ video clip but the guys had never been so I was excited that they were finally going to get to see it.
We had a ten hour drive ahead of us which I was looking forward to. Just watching the scenery zoom past is very relaxing. We were followed by an amazing storm system all day. The clouds kept changing shape and the sky seemed to morph into all sorts of different colours. By the time it got to sunset we felt like we were sailing through a dreamscape. We crossed the Murray-Darling Rivers and there was a soft, misty enveloping happening all around us. Like a low fog. Everything was opaque and gauzy and pale purpley colours swirled around the clouds. None of us had ever seen anything like it. It was beautiful.
We stopped in Mildura and grabbed some take away falafels and then the sun went down. And we were on the last 300 kilometre run to Broken Hill. It was hell. There was lots of wildlife so we took it slow. But it was so hard to distinguish the lumps of saltbush on the side of the road and animal forms. We saw little roos and wallabies and the most far out thing was the wild goats. Heaps of them!
We had to slow down and let a mother goat and her little kids pass. They were so cute. I thought they were little dogs.
We made it into Broken Hill safe and no animals were harmed. Awesome.
Straight to sleep.
Next day we got up and it was like a ghost town. Hardly anything was open. We sat down in a deserted cafe and had brekky. Matt’s eggs benedict looked wrong. But I had a nice focaccia. After brekky I showed everyone the funny named hair salon in the main street which was called ‘Curl Up & Dye’.
Our gig was at the Broken Hill Entertainment Centre which was massive! There was even a huge orchestra pit that could be lowered. It was pretty far out. After sound check we went to what the locals call ‘the slag heap’ which is an enormous hill of excavated dirt where the old mines were. At the top there is a restaurant that overlooks the whole town and there is a sculpture which I call ‘the big seat’. We sat on it and laughed and took photos of eachother.

“Big Seat”, Broken Hill

Then we went to the miners memorial wall. It was so bizarre and morbid. There were plaques commemorating miners who had died on the job and it even specified how they died. So there were things like ‘Crushed by bogger’, ‘Dust in lungs’, ‘Fell down mine shaft’ and ‘falling rocks’. Wild.
After that we went back to the venue. The first band that played, Soul Forge, were a local metal band and the bass player looked awesome. He looked like he was straight out of Mad Max. He was tall and had huge muscles and a kind of mohawk and wore this crazy horn strapped to his black leather outfit. They were really nice dudes. I was surprised that there was actually a decent amount of people at the show. Because it was a Sunday afternoon in a giant hall and you never know…but the show went really well. I had a ball. Sometimes I like these low pressure shows. It’s nice to breathe and enjoy yourself. After the show we did our music workshop and the locals were awesome, asking lots of questions and we could’ve chatted for hours. But we had to hot foot it and drive the 300 kilometres back to Mildura. We wanted to get some driving done before the next day.

Republic Bar, Hobart
28th / 29th November, 2008

Back at the Republic.
Last time we were here I got laryngitis and we had to cancel one of our shows so I was glad to be back and in good form. It was pretty wet and windy when we pulled into Hobart. We went straight to the venue, soundchecked and then had dinenr. After eating we went straight to the band room and hung out in there until it was time to play. Good show. Good amount of people. I’m at that point in the tour where I just want to play the show and then go straight to bed. I feel fucked.

The next day we all stayed in our hotel room until the sun went down and then we went back to the venue for dinner again.
We all felt a little brighter tonight. Show went well. Nice crowd. But all any of us wanted to do was get back to the hotel and crash.
Next morning we went down to Salamanca and had breakfast. We bumped into a couple of our fans who had come all the way from Adelaide and were still partying on when we saw them. Awesome.

Barwon Heads Pub, Barwon Heads
12th December, 2008

It was nice to be back in Barwon Heads. It’s a very pretty little coastal town just outside of Geelong and just a couple of k’s from Breamlea, where Magic Dirt was conceived. So I hold the place dear. It was a very rainy and wet. And actually stayed that way for the whole weekend. We loaded our gear in through the rain, did a quick soundcheck and then went upstairs and dumped all our overnight bags into our hotel rooms. It’s always a treat staying at the same place you play. Don’t have to drive anywhere or go far.
The BHP is right on the beach so we had great views of a very beautiful pale green glassy ocean from the pub windows as we tucked into dinner. A bit of drama ensued when the first band tried to load their gear in, Apparently the lead singer, Anna, is banned from the BHP. The band is called The Bluff and we’d heard good things about Anna and that she is very Patti Smith-esque and has a great voice and presence. Unfortunately we couldn’t convince the pub to even let them play and then escort them out after the show which was a bummer. I couldn’t believe how frightened all the bouncers were of this young girl. She’s tiny and about 20 years old but apparently a bit of a wild child. Oh well. Makes me wanna see her play even more now!
We met up with Andy from Mock Turkey, who were one of the support band comp winners and he was super nice.
Our show went well. There were quite a few crew completely hammered up the front and two guys, who were obviously friends, started throwing eachother around the floor and one of the dudes ended up crashing into the wall head first. But he just got up and kept going. After the show we all hung out and realised that we only had one more show to go on the official tour. We are definitely counting down the days now. It feels great to be the near the end. I really wasn’t expecting the tour to go this well. It’s been a real surprise.
Next morning we had a big breakfast in town and then drove to San Remo which is around the other side of the bay.

Westernport Hotel, San Remo
13th December, 2008

It was still raining. And the wind had picked up. We loaded the gear through the harsh weather and did our soundcheck. Met up with Valentine, a 3 piece all girl grunge band from Melbourne. They were all real nice and watching their sound check made me excited about their set. They were gonna be good. We went upstairs to our band room and had dinner. Raul came upstairs and said that people were starting to come in. And by the time we got on stage the place was packed! I was stoked. What a great way to end the tour. Before we played I saw Valentine and they were great. Their lead singer, Vanessa is an amazing young woman. She’s got a lot of charisma. Our set went really well. Everyone was so exhausted. I feel like we are totally pushed to the limit. The drive back was very long and we had to talk a lot and play lots of loud music to stay with it. When we got back home we had to unload all the gear and finally crashed out.

Now it was time to get ready for our festival.

FREAKSCENE, Lakes Entrance
20th / 21st December, 2008

Man, this was a mammoth effort! There is so much organising for a festival. I didn’t know what to expect or how it would go but we were on our way to Lakes Entrance to put on our very first festival. Raul and I had to pick up the tarago and load it up with the film festival equipment and a bunch of other gear. The drive over was very long but the country side looked beautiful. The skies cleared as we got closer to Lakes and thankfully the weather stayed sunny and warm.
We met up with Matt Connell and his team, who are part of the Lakes Entrance organising committee and went to do some last minute check-ups on the site which was the local footy oval.
It looked great. A heap of market and food stalls were all set up and the stage looked great too. There were two huge marquees set up and another one in the backstage area. We had a big band room in the old footy club rooms and I set about helping to look after all the bands. I had a lot of fun running around all day. Adrenaline kicked in and I didn’t stop until we got off stage at the end of the night.
It was so fun when each band arrived and as the day went on, more and more musos started hanging out and generally having a ball. It was a great atmosphere at the festival site and everyone was so relieved that we had great weather.
The Lakes committee had also organised Cirque Mystique, two circus performers for the day who did a pretty spectacular fire show just before we got on stage. I loved it.
The booze and good times were flowing even more as the sun started to go down. The line-up was just fucking amazing. Each band played so well and the audience loved it. We had people come all the way from Adelaide and Melbourne and locals as well.
The best part of the day was that Dean was going to play. There were so many excited people, but none more so than us. It was so good to have him back. We did a great show. It felt pretty special and Dean had a great time.

Magic Dirt pic by Kymmy

Afterwards everyone partied on in the club rooms which continued on back at the hotel.
Next day I had an early start, as did Robbo and Raul. We had the workshops and film festival to put on.
Again, didn’t know how it would all go but it ended up being a really enjoyable day. I was part of the songwriting workshop which went well and was really interesting. There were quite a few people there and very keen to learn about the creative writing process.
Then the film festival started. And I sat in the very front in a big armchair and watched all of the nine short films. It was so nice to just sit too and relax for a bit.
The crowd seemed to dig it and loved our winners choice which was ‘Numurkah’.
And that was it. It was finished. We all felt so relieved that it had all gone off without a hitch.
Everyone had a ball and it really was such a great vibe. Like a huge party with all your favourite people.
I hope we can put it all on again next year.
And that’s it folks.

After the New Years Eve show us Dirtbags are on a well earned break.

Thanks everyone for a great year.
Happy 2009