|
|
|
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
 |
 |
Bizarre this, well I think it is...I decided I'd better start the old log up before I'm eligible for a pension, so I got set up in my room. I was in Sydney (I still am) thinking about the gig in Bristol, which was the last show of the first leg of the UK tour by 3OG1TOGTTTNSANMFB (Three old gits, one trainee old git, the thing that never sweats and no man from Barnes) wondering what to write about it, when I saw a picture of us in a paper someone had given me to read, it was the Melbourne Times or something. I started to read it, there was an interview with the Gomorr, then guess what? A review of our Bristol gig no less, well I thought, how queer, here I am the other side of the world, reading about the gig blah blah, "My god Holmes, I think you're on to something" "Yes Watson that could be true" "What is it Holmes?" "A lot of bollocks Watson, that's what" G'day folks, and fair dinkum to ya. 
It's just work, work,
work here, I've had no time to get digital, when you see all the things we've
had to do, you'll understand. Are you sitting comfortably? We've been...swimming, snorkelling, jet skiing, rock climbing, orienteering, horse riding, shopping, polishing, sampling the local greengrocery and wines of all colours, throwing prawns on the Barbie, hiding in bushes, climbing Sydney Harbour bridge, ferry riding, going blind , riding the Great South Pacific Express...(to be sung to the melody of 'I've been everywhere man' by that great aussie star, Señor Rolf 'Arris). If you can do that, you're better at it than me. I'm a little worried at this juncture, as I'm stone cold sober, and I'm still a gibbering idiot writing this. No excuses.. But I'm sure you can sympathise with us poor hard working musicians. This has so far been an incredible time. A little secret here.. I haven't really enjoyed the last 2 visits, I've got very homesick, but I decided there's nothing I can do, so I've got a lot more into it, and I'm having a serious good time, as we all are.. It started on the 'plane, 1st class from Heathrow via Singapore, you know the seat turns into a full size bed, I slept for 8 and a half hours, thanks for the cake Tim! Landed at Brisbane, went downtown, feeling dead cosmopolitan, as I recognised where I was. I decide to find a shop I'd been to before. 3 hours later, I realised that I did not know Brisbane as well as I thought, and was utterly utterly lost. So what, nothing to do 'til the next day. Which was fantastic... 
We all, contrary to what has been said, enjoyed certain aspects of the pub
tour. So, we thought we'd do a warm up show. Some bands do a pub or a club, but
not us. We charter a bloody train, and go out into the middle of
nowhere, with a bunch of fans and media people, and play on the back of a
truck (I think) in the midday sun. The
train is called the Great South Pacific Express, it's a copy of the
Paris/Simplon? if that's the right name, Orient Express, and is truly amazing.Luxury doesn't come into it. You get an attendant for each carriage (Nathan, you're top geezer), the rear car is an open observation platform, where all the Lepers, I mean smokers congregate, but it's fab, met some great people on there, too bad we didn't keep in touch, but I'll be back... We pulled into a siding in the town of Grandchester (population 876¼)and played for about 40 minutes, including 2 power failures, and Rick losing all his monitoring, which didn't please him much. Then all back on the train to Brisbane for meet and greets all the way back. At the end Francis and Rick had the most unbelievable fixed grins on their faces, from so many photos! Folks, if you win the lottery/rob a bank/or are just loaded, go on this train, it's dead good. They do trips to the Great Barrier Reef, and they're soon starting to go to the Hunter Valley, wine, mmmmm...Right, that'll be 800 Australian Dollars please. Then we started working. Woke up feeling less than great next morning, but that's Rock and Roll, an early flight to Cairns, oop neorth, for the first show proper. We had to move it indoors, apparently because of the bush fire risk. By the way, we raised 300 dollars on the train ride with a whip round for a bush fire charidy mate, see, we are alright really. Anyway, a muggy night in Cairns, Rick's going through murders with his guitar sound lately, and he did his own sound check after we'd done the band's, which lasted about an hour! 
I didn't hear it as the lovely Belinda
took Paul, me and Matt for an Italian. I'm only telling you this because the
restaurant next door, which was closed, sold Crocodile, Kangaroo, Buffalo, Emu
and Parrot (OK, I made parrot up). Did you know over here, they have a dish
consisting of Kangaroo and Emu, which are the 2 national symbols of the
country. It's called the Coat of Arms! Who says Aussies can't take the piss
out of themselves? Right, must stop yakking, and get on with it. We had an all girl opening act, from Cairns, called Chakra BC. They certainly got the place up and running, think they could get somewhere. If you read this girls, nice meeting ya, and keep at it. They got a CD out called Born Clear, which someone on the tour bought, and loves it.. Any way, we went on. Rick was really struggling with his sound, but you think he had problems? Right. Shit sound, shit playing, shit stage, in fact shitsville. That's a new word, innit? I remember thinking I was having such a lousy gig, the only thing worse that could happen is fall over, Guess what? I fell over, went flying, at the end of Rain. Ho bloody Ho... Was a laugh as it goes, you have to laugh when you get your wings, as we call it, else you'd die of embarassment. But the weather forecast was good the next day, things do tend to look up when you hear news like that. Irrelevant fact of the day...The word news is derived from North East West and South. Did you know that? In the morning had a nice long swim, bumped into Tony and Tina from Quo Vadis, some of us went to their Brisbane gig, good rocking tonite folks, yessiree Bob.. I'm going to stop now for a while, this is more like a holiday letter, but as someone once sang "That's the way it goes". More soon...  PS. Bristol ROCKED! Got a bit side-tracked there.xxxx PPS.Not a bad life really.. PPPS. AB4PMxxxxx PPPPS Rhino's Revenge will be on sale at the rest of the Oz gigs... buy it! PPPPPS Big thanks go to Dave Coulson for the pics and video clips with this log...cheers Dave! ... and don't bother asking if we have anymore videos of the gig...thaaa's all there is folks! |
 |
 |
|
Download Video Clip (MPG) 711k |
Download Video Clip (MPG) 671k |
|
|
|
| 
| 
|
| To the UK 2000 Tourlog: Part one Part two Part three Part four Part five |
| To the Oz 2000 Tourlog: Part two Part three Part four |
 |
|
 |
|
 |