We said goodbye to an old friend today.
Helen was there when we first started working out what we wanted Súnas to be, all those years ago on Mannie's verandah, and though she moved down to Tasmania, she never left the band. For a few years now she'd been bravely battling cancer, and last Wednesday, surrounded by family and friends, she let go.
There's almost too much to single out just a few things about Helen that made her special; her incredible (naughty) humour, compassion, crap suggestions for cover songs (sorry Helen, but 'Ob-la-di' will never make it to a set list), but most of all, it was that she was fearless. She did things that the rest of us only talked about. From selling everything and buying a B&B in Tasmania, to travelling across the world in her last months to see a festival she'd been dreaming about for 5 years. She followed her dreams, not matter where they led and her boundless optimism was a lesson to us all.
We miss you Helen. You never did anything simply, never took the easy path, but you always wanted to carry everyone along with you for the fun.
We miss you.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
A Wee Update
So it looks like we've not updated this news page for a long time, but the blogs from the past couple of months are over at the Tour Blog page. Just thought I'd clear that up for those of you that have been sending polite emails asking!
There are two more tour blogs yet to go up. They're sitting on my laptop waiting to be tidied up and uploaded, something that sounds incredibly simple and quick, and indeed is, it's just since we got back we quite literally haven't stopped. We actually got our first gig call not 2 hours after landing in Brisbane!
We've mentioned this to those of you that have come to the last few gigs, but we're scaling back a bit next year. We've decided only to go to a few festivals and focus mainly on the new album (plans for which are proceeding quite nicely!) and getting a whole load of new material. Because we seem to have spent most of the last 18 months on planes, we've really only brought out a couple of new tunes and songs, and we're beginning to get a little stir-crazy. We've got a whole lot of stuff just waiting to go, but like most things, it's a matter of finding (or making) the time to get together and learn it. Saying that though, in true Súnas style we have a couple of very interesting surprises in store for next year...
Anyway, have Happy Holidays one and all, and hopefully we'll see you in January!
(Oh, just to clear up so as not to be accused of big noting or the like, Bridget, Sarah and Paul will be at Woodford this year, but not as Súnas. After a few massive Woodford Festivals for us, we're on our 'gap year'. Bridget is involved in the Fiddle Club, and Paul and Sarah will be sessioning and generally bumming their way onto anyone who'll have them's stage). But who knows...
There are two more tour blogs yet to go up. They're sitting on my laptop waiting to be tidied up and uploaded, something that sounds incredibly simple and quick, and indeed is, it's just since we got back we quite literally haven't stopped. We actually got our first gig call not 2 hours after landing in Brisbane!
We've mentioned this to those of you that have come to the last few gigs, but we're scaling back a bit next year. We've decided only to go to a few festivals and focus mainly on the new album (plans for which are proceeding quite nicely!) and getting a whole load of new material. Because we seem to have spent most of the last 18 months on planes, we've really only brought out a couple of new tunes and songs, and we're beginning to get a little stir-crazy. We've got a whole lot of stuff just waiting to go, but like most things, it's a matter of finding (or making) the time to get together and learn it. Saying that though, in true Súnas style we have a couple of very interesting surprises in store for next year...
Anyway, have Happy Holidays one and all, and hopefully we'll see you in January!
(Oh, just to clear up so as not to be accused of big noting or the like, Bridget, Sarah and Paul will be at Woodford this year, but not as Súnas. After a few massive Woodford Festivals for us, we're on our 'gap year'. Bridget is involved in the Fiddle Club, and Paul and Sarah will be sessioning and generally bumming their way onto anyone who'll have them's stage). But who knows...
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