What do you do when an opportunity presents itself to spend a weekend with a Scottish folk legend & his amazing family in a sleepy town north-west of Sydney?
You go. And you come prepared for anything, because anything can happen when Dougie MacLean & his wife Jenny are in charge.
The town of Colo hosted Dougie and his family as a stunning end to his Australian tour, which also served as a part holiday. Sunas was asked to perform in the series of concerts over the weekend, which was just an excuse for a big catch-up, really.
As we drove into the retreat, an extremely tanned man came over to greet us. Dougie, in his own personal style of greeting everyone, was, well, brown. There's no other word to describe the colour of his skin, he was a deep brown hue. Baked is the word I would use!
'What do you think of my tan, eh?!' was the first sentence out of Dougie's mouth. Dougie's daughter Julie told me that he just loves the sun (not surprising seeing as it rains in Dunkeld 300 days out of the year) and spent literally about four hours per day of the entire tour soaking up the rays. I just laughed. Bridge & I were now the whitest people there -not really a great Australian representation!
The first order of business was a dip in the lovely freshwater creek, which was incredibly refreshing. Again, Bridge, Paul & I slathered on the sunscreen, ever-protective of our pasty skin, while Dougie just ran straight in.
The walk back to the retreat was followed by an absolutely incredible foody chat between Paul & piper Ross Ainslie, who have found a kinship when it comes to anything gourmet. After that it was on. Silences would be punctuated by Ross & Paul discussing in mouth-wateringly delicious detail the dinner menu they would be preparing for us. There were no problems from anyone else!
The next day we were in concert prep. Floors were vacuumed, chairs were placed out, sound gear was meticulously set up. Then Jenny informed us that the ABC were coming to film the concerts. None of us are particularly keen on being filmed, particularly by the ABC! We get uncomfortable, then we man up, get onstage & then... nothing else matters. The music takes over & everything feels right.
Concerts with Dougie mean you are kept on your toes. There was another local band performing with us called Frozen, so rehearsals began in earnest. Dougie songs, tunes with Frozen, and Mannie being asked to accompany Ross on an epic set of tunes, he on bouzouki and Ross on the Highland bagpipes. I could literally see the 'freakout' cogs turning in Mannie's head, but the rest of us knew Mannie would do a great job & were really proud of him. It didn't stop him requesting six or seven rehearsals with Ross though, to which he good-naturedly obliged!
The ABC crew arrived and we met a lovely chap called Martin and his assistant Monica who were busy interviewing Dougie & Ross and filming our rehearsals. Martin started chatting to Mannie, and before Mannie knew it, Martin had set up the camera and began interviewing him as well! I had a bit of a giggle that I'd gotten away with being interviewed before I heard Mannie say to Martin, 'if you need any more info you should speak to Sarah, she knows everything about our tours & trips', to which Martin's gaze (& camera) were directed straight at me. Time for my 'freakout' cogs to turn! The entire time I was being interviewed I was thinking (along with my other bandies, no doubt), 'Speak slowly & don't swear!’ (which, after BBC Cornwall, is the new band motto).
Meanwhile the concerts went off with a bang. Like all good things, it was all over so quickly! Highlights were Dougie yelling at the crowd to ‘Make weather noises (cue audience making terrible whooshing sounds), Dougie’s son Jamie playing the VB beer carton as percussion, Mannie & Ross playing crazy piping tunes and the enormous session of everyone performing the finale of a mash-up of ‘Singing Land’ and ‘Waltzing Matilda’. They were both pretty epic shows, and we finally got to fulfil a long ambition of playing Ready for the Storm with the man himself. Magic.
And then one of the best moments was everyone chilling out on the couch under the carpet of stars with a cider and listening to silence. What a great, great weekend!
