Saturday, November 29, 2003
Wow. The EMPRESS HOTEL was great last night. Feels good to be doing a gig in Melbourne on a friday night. Been nearly a year since i've played in my home town. What a great venue for singer/songwriters. Warm and cosy set up, complete with red curtains on stage. And its got an acoustic piano..yay! Ross Calia and Jen Cloher followed my set and they were bloody fantastic. Great to be doing a gig with my friend Ross..hopefully will be making use of his musical genius and collaborating with him very soon. Haven't seen Jen play before tonight but her set with her band just blew me away. Refreshing to see a band that's not afraid to play soft and concentrate on musical detail and colour.
A fantastic night of music.
A fantastic night of music.
Monday, November 24, 2003
Fuse Festival 20-22nd Nov in ADELAIDE
Never been to Adelaide before.
Thursday - Got picked up by the Fuse volunteers from airport. Settled in at Saville Park Suites. Hindley St. Feels like we’re in Melrose Place of rock’n’roll. Guys on balconies strumming guitars, serenading to busy traffic. Production meeting at Fowlers round the corner. Interstate bands from Tassie to Brisbane. But I think we’ve come the furthest. Yes, Darwin is definitely furthest from Adelaide. Weird to be in a room full of musos. Weird to be only amongst handful of females. Rock’n’roll people. Very trendy bunch. Got our orders as to what should and shouldn’t happen on Saturday night.
Went to Chinatown. Stuffed our bellies with cheap but delicious food.
Friday – Conference day at Novotel hotel. This is where we get to meet the who’s who of music. Well, I hoped so. Opening address by Richard Kingsmill from Triple J. Very impressed. Excellent speech. Just what I wanted to hear. More Triple J. Less commercial stations. Followed by a panel of music industry giants. Topic of the discussion ‘doing it yourself in the music industry’.
Summary of discussion: ‘Persistance is the key.’ We’ve all heard that one. Had a chat to Kingsmill and other industry people. Handed out CDs. Went to the Fuse Debate. Katie Underwood (ex-bardot) and rock’n’roll photographer, Tony Mott, on negative side. Topic: That only sex sells music. Mental note to self: sex doesn’t sell all music but it sure damn helps. (mental note.) Rocked up to the ALMA (Australian Live music awards) at Garage Bar. Didn’t realize I was nominated for ‘emerging live act in NT ‘. Didn’t win. (mental note: but if I had enough voting friends I think I could have.)Katie performed. So did a few other South Australian bands. Weird night. Not enough food.
Saturday - Checked out the RockFord hotel in morning. A bit too classy for our music. Where’s the stage??? Hopefully it’ll magically surface by tonight. Killed time by sight-seeing. Went to German town, Hahnford. Visited Melba’s chocolate factory. Hired out rehearsal room at Derringas for quick rehearsal. Lukas had no kick pedal or snare stand.
Rocked up the RockFord at 9pm. Jayne Anne Power already on stage. Good set. Rugby World Cup on t.v. Music industry night and the rugby’s on. I love rugby (still All Blacks all the way) but not impressed at all. At least the volume could be muted. Decided to wait till Johnny kicked the drop goal to start my set. Did two songs solo. Lukas and Jeremy joined me to the rest. We rocked. Weird venue but we still rocked. The good size crowd sounded like they enjoyed it. Sarah Mcleod from The Superjesus in audience. Cool.
Packed up. Rocked up to Fowlers Bar to catch NEO (Darwin band) in action. They went off! Great. Lots of people. Hindley St is going OFF! Checked out The Charlie Parkers (Triple j unearthed band from Tassie) at Caos Bar. Went to the Kava Hut with Jeremy and an ex-Darwin guy we met at the ATM. Kava in the coconut shell. Interesting. It numbed my tongue.
Never had Kava before. Never been to Adelaide. Very impressed. Will be back.
Never been to Adelaide before.
Thursday - Got picked up by the Fuse volunteers from airport. Settled in at Saville Park Suites. Hindley St. Feels like we’re in Melrose Place of rock’n’roll. Guys on balconies strumming guitars, serenading to busy traffic. Production meeting at Fowlers round the corner. Interstate bands from Tassie to Brisbane. But I think we’ve come the furthest. Yes, Darwin is definitely furthest from Adelaide. Weird to be in a room full of musos. Weird to be only amongst handful of females. Rock’n’roll people. Very trendy bunch. Got our orders as to what should and shouldn’t happen on Saturday night.
Went to Chinatown. Stuffed our bellies with cheap but delicious food.
Friday – Conference day at Novotel hotel. This is where we get to meet the who’s who of music. Well, I hoped so. Opening address by Richard Kingsmill from Triple J. Very impressed. Excellent speech. Just what I wanted to hear. More Triple J. Less commercial stations. Followed by a panel of music industry giants. Topic of the discussion ‘doing it yourself in the music industry’.
Summary of discussion: ‘Persistance is the key.’ We’ve all heard that one. Had a chat to Kingsmill and other industry people. Handed out CDs. Went to the Fuse Debate. Katie Underwood (ex-bardot) and rock’n’roll photographer, Tony Mott, on negative side. Topic: That only sex sells music. Mental note to self: sex doesn’t sell all music but it sure damn helps. (mental note.) Rocked up to the ALMA (Australian Live music awards) at Garage Bar. Didn’t realize I was nominated for ‘emerging live act in NT ‘. Didn’t win. (mental note: but if I had enough voting friends I think I could have.)Katie performed. So did a few other South Australian bands. Weird night. Not enough food.
Saturday - Checked out the RockFord hotel in morning. A bit too classy for our music. Where’s the stage??? Hopefully it’ll magically surface by tonight. Killed time by sight-seeing. Went to German town, Hahnford. Visited Melba’s chocolate factory. Hired out rehearsal room at Derringas for quick rehearsal. Lukas had no kick pedal or snare stand.
Rocked up the RockFord at 9pm. Jayne Anne Power already on stage. Good set. Rugby World Cup on t.v. Music industry night and the rugby’s on. I love rugby (still All Blacks all the way) but not impressed at all. At least the volume could be muted. Decided to wait till Johnny kicked the drop goal to start my set. Did two songs solo. Lukas and Jeremy joined me to the rest. We rocked. Weird venue but we still rocked. The good size crowd sounded like they enjoyed it. Sarah Mcleod from The Superjesus in audience. Cool.
Packed up. Rocked up to Fowlers Bar to catch NEO (Darwin band) in action. They went off! Great. Lots of people. Hindley St is going OFF! Checked out The Charlie Parkers (Triple j unearthed band from Tassie) at Caos Bar. Went to the Kava Hut with Jeremy and an ex-Darwin guy we met at the ATM. Kava in the coconut shell. Interesting. It numbed my tongue.
Never had Kava before. Never been to Adelaide. Very impressed. Will be back.
