Does This Look Familiar...?

I snapped this on our way up to play at the Woodford Festival Program launch.

A storm swept through, and as the rain cleared, the land began to steam. I took this out of the car window travelling at about 80kpm. It bears an uncanny resemblance to our album cover!

Listening to 'Something Randomly Generated by Bloom for iPhone', by Brian Eno & Peter Chilvers

Harrigan’s Gig/Upcoming Folk in the Foothills Festival

Sunday 18th Oct, 7:30am

Urg.

That is all.

Yesterday we woke up really groggily (ok, ok, I did). It was a shame we only stayed one night in Canberra as our motel was fantastic (go Bridget!). Bridge & I slept so soundly we didn't even hear Paul fall out of bed. We were on the road at 10am, and our goal was to reach Harrigan's Irish Pub in Harrigan Waters by 6pm.
Success!

It's a truly beautiful place. We all felt like plebs though, as we'd been travelling all day and arrived tired, sweaty and looking like shite (yes, it really does happen). We were hoping to make a good impression, but it didn't begin well. A lady approached us and asked me, 'What time are you starting?' Thinking she and her family were fans of Celtic music I answered, 'We start at 8pm', to which she replied, 'Oh good, I'll make sure we're gone before then.'

!

Fortunately the Harrington Waters gig was one of our best gigs of the tour, and the audience response was fantastic. It's always an interesting gig when you realise you're playing to a table packed full musicians. A very big hello to Nick, Charlie, Annette & Jeff and sorry for such a quick session after the gig!

We packed up fairly quickly, hit the road at midnight and spent the next seven hours gawping at the stunning fat waning yellow moon hanging lazily in the sky and lighting the landscape in the most eerie hue.

Half an hour ago we reached Jamberoo. Although Paul & I drove in shifts, neither of us has much recollection of the drive. What I do remember will be ingrained in my memory forever. I started driving around 4:30am, crossed the Harbour Bridge at 5am and drove over the Wollongong ranges just in time to see the most spectacular fiery sunrise spread out over the ocean at 5:45am. It was the most incredible sight! Bridget was awake at the time (the girl never seems to sleep, poor thing. Unlike Paul, who has the most extraordinary ability to fall asleep just about anywhere) and I was so glad to share one of my few sunrises with her :)

So now we're sitting at a little café in the town of Jamberoo, and all three of us are just shattered. We're either on the verge of tears or laughing hysterically at everything we hear, see or do. It's very quiet at our table right now, and we're clutching our coffees for dear life (double shot lattes all around).

Today we're performing at the Folk in the Foothills Festival & although I feel as though I'm walking through treacle I'm really looking forward to it. We've been told by quite a few people that it's a great festival. I'm hoping we can have a shower before our first performance at 10:30am, as I've never felt so manky in my life.

This is Sairey, signing off on one of many caffeine induced perk-ups.

A Night at The Folkus

So I'm sitting in bed in a motel in Armidale, a day after we were expected to be home in Brisbane. My lovely drivers are still fast asleep and seeing as they're the ones doing all the work I thought I might let them sleep a while longer.

I think we left off somewhere between Sydney and Canberra...

The gig at the Folkus in Canberra was great! We rolled up in Eddie to be greeted with a big hug from Billy, the organiser of the folk club who I have met many times before at the National Folk Festival. Not wearing his usual rainbow tights and tutu (as of course is standard festival wear), we got straight down to business and started soundchecking, meeting the other bands, running over the road for emergency coffees, and returning for emergency alcohol.

I was thrilled to see some of my friends turn up to see us play (Thanks Aleicia and Lachlan) and other unexpected guests (Hi to John and Di – who we randomly ran into during our coffee expedition, and Sair's friend Clint), as well as the ever supportive Canberra folkies and Ceili dancers. The other bands were fantastic and got everyone up and dancing. We then played a brief but successful concert before pulling all of the other muso's up on stage for a couple of mammoth tune sets.

We returned to our motel tired but happy and went to bed with thoughts of our disgustingly huge day the next day - we were driving 7 hrs North to Harrington, doing a 3 hour gig, then driving 6 hrs South to Jamberoo, arriving just in time to get on stage at Folk in the Foothills festival – and yes, we do know that we are insane!

Currently Listening to: "Cloudstreet Live" by Cloudstreet

Mon, 8:16pm (Eastern Standard Time)

Just a wee note to everyone who's been emailing and smsing us during
our epic 1200km trip today.

We're currently having a bite and a coffee in Tamworth, roughly
halfway. We're going on into the night, only 545km to go, but we're
all awake and perky

Cheers,

Paul, Sarah & Bridge

Sent by iPhone from somewhere...

An Introspective Hindsight Blog by Sairey

Right now I’m sitting in Eddie the sexy Tarago (sorry Mannie) munching on my favourite snack in the world, Herb & Spice Kettle chips. We’re listening to an interesting playlist consisting of Kavisha Mazella, TéTé, Paul Simon, Nancy Kerr & James Fagan, Dire Straits (1970’s stuff), the Poachers, Mark Knopfler and Martha Tilston. I have two of my best friends flanking me (and missing the other one terribly) and we’re on our way to Canberra in great spirits.

Last night we played at the Bald Faced Stag Hotel. In order to gain the best possible audience we did an enormous gig SOS mail out via Facebook, MySpace, emails and texts to all and sundry as well as to our wonderful folk contacts. Given the fact that we’ve never played Sydney before and we only had 24 hours notice before we played, we weren’t expecting miracles, but were secretly hoping to play to a fairly large audience.

We played to nine people :)

And I am not complaining! To Paul’s friend David, my cousin Aaron, his friend Daniel, my Uncle Mick, Aunty Alison, and Bridgey’s friends Ian, Joanne, Don & Diane – thank you for coming and supporting us!

We would also like to send out a huge thank you to everyone we contacted about this gig. Understandably most people already had made plans, but your well wishes for a great gig meant the world to us. And to everyone who spread the last minute word to friends, we are so grateful. At the end of the day whether we played to nine people or nine hundred, the support we have received is overwhelming.

The actual gig itself went really well. It was our first official tour gig without our beloved Mannie, and he was definitely missed. The Bald Faced Stag is a great venue, and we played a solid performance. Here we send out another thanks to our sound guy Drew. We felt bad that he broke a date with his girlfriend to do our gig, but he perked up after massive geek-out moment with Paul when they both discovered they owned iPhones (what is it about men with gadgets?)!

Tonight we’re playing at the Folkus which is held at the Serbian Club in Canberra. My voice has held up pretty well despite the fact that it’s still rough, so here’s hoping it will be clear for tonight. Paul & Bridgey keep asking if I’m upset with them because I haven’t been talking much!

One other thing that I’m really surprised about is how well we all get on. The three of us haven’t really had a break from each other for the past two weeks, and I imagined we would have our moments, but really all we’ve done is laugh and take the piss even more. This pleases me :)

So now the hills of luscious green are rolled out before us and we’re cruising toward Canberra. Onwards and upwards!

My First Gig in Sydney

So I'm sitting here by myself, on a drum riser on the stage of a venue in Sydney. The room is empty, there's an hour before the doors open. We've just sound checked and the girls have popped off to get changed. I have a cold beer, hot lights on my face and the smell of garlic prawns and old tobacco in my nose. The foldback speakers are humming with the ghosts of a thousand past concerts. My fingers and legs are tingling, as they always do before a gig.

We've no idea if they'll be ten or two hundred here tonight and I'm missing Mannie, my partner in pre-gig bullshit.

Damn I love my job.

Paul

Sent by iPhone from somewhere in Sydney's Inner East...

Sudden Gig

Righty-ho, we have a surprise, extra-special last minute gig in Sydney this very evening.

It's at the Bald-Faced Stag
345 Parramatta Road
Leichardt (10mins from Balmain)
Sydney

There's a standard $10 cover charge (and if we don't get enough people in we have to pay the sound guy, cashier and masseuse out of our own ''cider fund").

Doors open at 8pm and we'll be on for about two hours, depending on how saucy we're feeling and how loud you clap.

Please pass this on to anyone you think might be interested, as we've not been able to do any publicity for this gig because it's at such short notice (though we are waiting on ABC Sydney about a possible live spot this afternoon...)

The Bald-Faced Stag has a reputation for live music and us getting in there on a Thursday was a real stroke of luck.

Fair Play to Yeh All,

Paul, Bridget and Sarah

Currently Listening to: "Two People Shagging in the Hotel Room Next Door. Eeeww''.

No Mannie

By now you may have heard that our beloved Mannie isn't on tour with us.

He is recovering from pneumonia right now, which developed from a terrible case of the flu. We'd had our suspicions during Byron & the Multicultural festival that Mannie was just too unwell to tour, and sadly on Sunday afternoon Mannie made the call that he needs to be at home resting rather than risk his health.

So please send get well wishes to the Mannoire, it's just not the same travelling and performing without him.

We love you Mannie, yes we do :) Get well soon or Bridget will take up the mandolin!

Things I Have Learned on Tour, By Paul.

So, things I have learned so far on tour, a brief interlude, by Paul.

Lentil burgers on the opening night are a bad idea. It’s amusing for the first hour of the next morning, then it turns nasty.

Toyota Taragos are great, and speedy. Too damn speedy. 60km/h feels way too slow. I wonder how many tickets we’ll get posted?

Sharing a room/car with two gorgeous girls may sound like fun/fantasy/dream/once-in-a-lifetime etc, but it’s not. You can’t do anything remotely manly without being accused of being terribly manly and then made to feel bad for extended periods.

Never let girls choose the iPod music. Ever.

Always add an extra half-hour to the estimated leaving time to allow for packing up of multiple make-up and wash bags, random, unnecessary and repeated checking under the beds for ‘forgotten things’ and general faffing around.

When driving, girls tend to squeal when passed by a semi-trailer. It’s kind of cute yet oddly terrifying at the same time.

Sleeping is not generally an option as there is just too much to see.

The entire road from Brisbane to Sydney is ‘under construction’, and we have been thanked for our patience so much we feel very loved.

Napping in a moving car, eating jelly snakes, drinking diet coke and Garlic & Parmesan Shapes are not conducive to a healthy bowel motions

Dear Mannie

Dear Mannie,

It’s the end of the first day of the rest of the tour.

How dramatic is that??

We already miss you :( Damn you for getting nasty pneumonia! You had better be resting or I’ll kick you up the date and Bridget will give you her infamous Teacher Eyes. So rest up, bish!

It’s funny, I hadn’t realized how much you actually talk during long car trips. You’re a regular comic chatterbox and we didn’t even know it (about the chatterbox part)! Sadly, I haven’t been able to do you justice as my own voice is a bit broken right now, but Paul is doing a splendid job. Since my voice has died I’ve never seen Paul and Bridget so happy. Hmmm.

The Tarago vs The ManVan

The Tarago is so *quiet*, the van sounds like a jet warming up for take-off and that’s just when it’s been started!

The Tarago doesn’t have the awesome petrol smell when you fill it up. The van does (which I love!).

The Tarago has windows on all sides!!! We are extremely gleeful about this :)

The Tarago goes from 0-60kms in roughly 20 seconds. The van goes from 0-10kms in 30 minutes.

It’s pretty feckin’ cool :) And may I add that I LOVE cruise control?

We arrived in Byron for a late lunch and were carefully guarded by Nigel the numpty no-foot seagull. He was extremely cool. While driving to Coffs Harbour we hit the most apocalyptic storm I’ve ever witnessed. It was mental! We were ready for the storm, though (a ha haaa). At one point we had debris and I was convinced a cow was about to fly past our windscreen a la Twister.

Omg, we pulled up outside a motel outside of Grafton that looked like something out of the Shining – seriously! We wanted to go inside and see whether or not ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’ was plastered all over the walls. No maze, unfortunately, but there was a genuine ‘Stralian flag!

Paul is being extra manly in his farting to make up for your absence – it amuses him no end. Bridget is still maintaining her ‘ladylike’ status. We’ll just see about that :)

So now we’re at the Toreador Motel in Coffs Harbour, which is down from the Matador Motel, the Taco Motel, the Sombrero Motel and the Carlos Santana Motel. We have the smallest kettle known to man – Paul’s travelling coffee mug is bigger than this little piece of crap.

And now we’re, to quote my eloquent sisters, getting maggot on cider and Malibu and pineapple juice.

We just spoke to you and you pretty much know the story now, but we want you to feel extra special by writing publicly to you :) Rest up, that’s an order.

Love you long time my little strudel!

Nuala xxx

Qld Multicultural Festival

So... it seems like such a long time ago now but I have been given the task to write about the Multicultural festival on Sunday. And seeing as they (Sair and Paul) have threatened that they won't feed me if I don't do it, here I am.

Sunday started off really early... actually that's an understatement. Paul wasn't joking when he posted that photo at 6am in Byron. After a lovely (but very expensive) breakfast, we piled in Mannie's van to head back to Brisbane. Mannie was looking much worse for wear at this point which was not good considering what we had ahead of us this week.

After a quick detour to Mannie's to pick up Cheryl (my much loved but much paid out little car), we headed off to Roma St Parklands. After a few attempts we found where we were supposed to be, and wandered off to the amphitheatre. What a beautiful stage! And overlooking the beautiful stage... was a beautiful bar. The boys wasted no time running (very athletically) up the hill for a quick drink before the gig.

Half an hour later, as the boys rolled back down the hill (really - they had races!), we got ready to go on stage. We were still quite worried about Sarah's voice but she once again managed to pull something out of her arse and delivered a great show. Special mention to Mannie who managed to remain standing (only just) despite a few staggers (due to illness not alcohol), but things are not looking good for the rest of the tour.

Thanks to Martin for videoing the whole concert, Mil for taking the photos , Charley for the comic relief and dancing in front of the stage, and to everyone else for showing up and supporting us as you always do.

More soon, its cider o'clock right now :)

Day One: Byron Bay

From Sarah

We arrived in Byron Bay with relative ease (only saw one combi - incredible!), and since we had about an hour to kill before checking in at the Great Northern Hotel, Paul directed us to the infamous lighthouse at Cape Byron. The resulting photos are us with only a camera, time and our imaginations, and are pretty much self-explanatory.

Mannie wasn't feeling particularly wonderful, the poor thing, but perked up considerably after seeing a whale and was on a constant lookout afterwards. Conversations went a bit like this:

Mannie: *gasp* Look, it's another whale!

Paul: That's a rock, Mannie.

Mannie: No, it's moving, see?

Paul: That's the tide.

Mannie: But I saw it come to the surface and breathe!

Paul: That's the ocean spray.

We discovered that Bridget really does have some crazy hair under all that product (all the straightening in the world can't match a strong easterly salty gale!), and she channelled her inner Medusa for the afternoon (I was so proud).

After much merriment was made (and Paul trying to be all arty with the camera) we checked into the Great Northern with a view to shower before getting dinner and having a wee leisurely drink before heading over to the Railway Hotel.




All our best-made plans went completely to pot after we discovered daylight savings was now in full swing! We weren't in Kansas anymore, Toto. Oh the rushing around. Mannie had to eat something before he passed out from exhaustion. Setting up was interesting. I nearly had to physically harm Mannie as he was being very naughty and lifting heavy gear and then wondering why he was nearly coughing up a lung. In the end my most effective tactics were simply sitting on speakers/other gear so he was just unable to move them.

The gig itself was just fantastic. Hello to Dylan, Les, Barrie, Alasdair, Sam, Mick, Ben, Eric, Darren & Rachel!

A special hello to mine & Paul's lovely housemate Denae & her partner Glen who happened to be staying in Byron on Saturday night.


What a great way to spend a weekend! I've decided I love Byron :)


I threw some massive tantrums at Mannie as we were packing up because he just couldn't help himself and kept lifting the heavy gear. He got angry back at us after Bridget gave him the Teacher Look and insisted he was on an adrenaline high and that we were treating him like a cripple. Uh huh I thought, as I sat on yet another speaker . . .

It was at this point that Mannie *crashed*. We all knew he wasn't well, but I've never seen someone physically tire out like Mannie did. He literally ping-ponged off the hotel corridors going back to our rooms. I didn't sleep very well either, I coughed the night away. Sorry Bridge!

I didn't want to get up the next morning. We had a 6am start. Gross.

And then it was off to the Queensland Multicultural Festival. Paul had to drive the van. We're a bit worried about the Mannoire, must admit :( More about our Sunday antics soon . . .

Byron Bay, 6am (argh)

Our beautiful wild gypsy fiddler girl

Mannie's New Hat

We love Byron, especially Mannie, as seen by his purchase of a
'Lighthouse' hat!

Tour Diary - Byron!

From Sarah, blogger extraordinaire (also because I'm not talking to save my voice, but still on a huge high after Travelling Man was played on Triple J on Thursday night!) Once again we've piled into the magical van of the Mannoire and we're heading to Byron Bay for the first gig of our tour. It's been an interesting week for myself & Mannie, as he is battling the flu & I lost my voice completely toward the end of our gig at the Meadowbrook Hotel last Friday. This week has been very touch & go with chest & throat infections & a stern lecture from my doctor that I'm not allowed to speak at all (something I've *tried* to stick to!). I've been acutely aware through my medicated haze that, as lead singer, unless I get well the tour is off. No pressure, hey? Fortunately, after a week off work & lots of rest, the cocktail of medication I've been on is finally working and I should be ok to sing tonight. I haven't attempted to sing at all this week, but I got busted by Bridge yesterday singing Eddi Reader's song Perfect & I hit the high notes at the end, a very good sign! We're performing at the Railway Hotel tonight - I'm so excited as I've never been to Byron before. We just passed the official You Are Now Entering NSW sign, woo hoo! Time to go and shift in my seat before my behind goes numb (I do love the van, but the back seats aren't the most comfortable things to sit on). One of us will blog from Byron later on . . . I'm going to try to bribe Mannie into blogging, wish me luck! :)

Neurem Creek Part Two...

So after what we hoped would be a good night of sleep went utterly to pot.

I spent the majority of the night on Snore Patrol, making sure Mannie didn’t purr loudly and wake anyone. He was like a jet engine warming up. Every time I heard him start to hit full throttle I leaned around the tent door and whacked him on his feet, making him whuff in his sleep and stop snoring immediately. Despite what Paul said at our concert, there was no stick involved! Seriously though, I think this may have happened six or seven times throughout the night. Bridget told me she didn’t sleep at all, poor thing. This is because unfortunately there were a few other purring persons close to our campsite and we could hear everything!
 
Come morning (yes, 8am, poor me) we awoke and immediately made coffee. That’s what I love about this band – we get our priorities straight. None of this instant tripe, either – the ground beans were proudly supplied by Cel at Abrisca’s coffee in Wooloongabba (gotta love that product placement! Sunas is also sponsored by the letters S, B & P and the number 52). Soon we were joined by the lovely Helen Rowe, Chuck & Chris from Stockade, and John from the Pirate Brides and had ourselves a morning party. The main topic of conversation was Mannie’s beautiful mandolin, which was made by Davy Stuart. People just can’t believe we bought him one for his birthday. It was passed around between them all (I think they’re secretly addicted now). What a great group of people!
 


The rest of the day passed from watching the incredible acts at the concert tent to mooching at our campsite which was roughly 20 metres away, so we never actually missed a performance as we heard everything. Aah yes :) Highlights for me were Women in Docs (as always, God Roz knows how to rock that guitar!), Helen, the Barleyshakes & Little Creatures. Pretty soon it was our turn to perform, and to everyone who hung out watching the evening concert, thank you for making our gig so memorable! I can’t ever remember having so much fun on stage. The positive feedback was also very much appreciated. Paul mentioned the Mannie snore story while we were onstage and the next day complete strangers were passing us and asking if we slept ok. There’s nothing like letting your hair down after a great gig, so we hit the *delicious* mulled wine and settled in to enjoy the rest of the night. Note: Never let Mannie attempt to build a fire. His idea of getting a fire going is to heap big chunks of wood together, douse the lot in petrol and throw a match on (reminiscent from his Belfast days, perhaps?). Mannie was so proud for about 5 minutes until the entire thing died and went to the big incinerator in the sky. We had John from the Pirate Brides, Alan from the Poms from Oz, Mannie, Paul & Dave all trying to revive the fire with different techniques, but to no avail. So we moved chairs and sat around an already glowing fire with Martin Pearson and drank the evening away listening to the *fantastic* singing session going on. Martin and I shared Hallelujah stories, which proved amusing (my story is the one where I copped attitude from a very knowledgeable 6 year old girl who insisted the song was specifically written for the movie Shrek; his is more authentic as Rufus Wainwright contributed to quite a few of the ‘darker’ verses), and then I crashed again.

 

Sunday morning came far too early, so the others got up early and buggered off to buy organic food and walk by the creek. I got up to a completely empty campsite and dirty dishes. Morning! Mannie didn’t snore quite as much the night before, which was rather nice, but he also didn’t sleep much, so that explained why. We packed up the majority of our campsite and wandered over to relax and enjoy Cloudstreet’s gig. I’ve seen them many times, but they truly are great performers. Laughed up a kidney listening to the *mental* Hydrangeas (next time I forget the words I’m just going to say ‘penis’ and see where it takes me), and then had a wonderful relaxing afternoon sharing our picnic blanket and having laughs with Little Creatures and Cloudstreet while listening to the beautiful guitar playing of Ewan Mackenzie.
 
The Neurum Creek festival was fantastic. Big thanks to Angela Kitzelman for the opportunity to play and to everyone who helped make Neurum a brilliant experience. Now if only I could stop Mannie snoring . . .
 
 
Listening to Him-Bo by Capercaillie