Tour Diary 01: Australia

This is the start of a series of posts covering the next few months. During which I will be on an Australian and NZ tour with Nadia and the band, followed by two months in the UK and Europe.

For several weeks following the end of one of my bigger contracts, we had prepared our little Port Chalmers house to be rented for our time away. I’ve never moved so many beds in my life.

AUCKLAND

Finally the time came to fly up to Auckland and join Nadia, who had gone ahead to start rehearsals with the band members. The band consists of Sam Taylor on lead guitar, Richie Pickard on bass, Chris O’Connor on drums and Anita Clarke on violin and keys.

I arrived in Auckland late in the evening on Tuesday and got an Uber over to the Diocesan School for a Girls in Epsom, where the band were rehearsing. This is a seriously monied campus. $20k a year for your little princess to have the finest of Auckland educations.

After rehearsal wrapped up, Nadia and I went to have a dumpling feast and went back to her Dad’s house in Te Atatu Peninsula and went to bed.

MELBOURNE

The next day we had a walk around the shore and packaged our bags for the Australian leg. We went out for lunch with the in-laws and headed to the airport where we reunited with the band.

The flight through to Melbourne was smooth and we arrived at our central city accomodation in time for a cup of tea before bed.

On Thursday morning, Nadia was booked in for an interview south of the river at ABC studios. We had breakfast at the hotel and got an Uber to the station after some trouble with our mobile providers.

At the station we were given guest passes and whisked away to a small studio where Nadia played a few songs solo with an interview being conducted in between from Sydney.

We left the studio and made our way back to the accom to drop the guitar off, after which we ran into Richie and Sam heading to China town for dumplings. We had a long lunch at a popular Chinese restaurant.

We dispersed again, and I headed over to RMIT to catch up with my former lecturer Noel, having just lost another to a heart attack the week before.

Around 3.30pm it was time to make our way over to The Toff in Town, a venue in central Melbourne where we were kicking off the tour. Sound check was very thorough and I meticulously set up the merch table and hung around with the friendly booking manager Jules.

Once all was prepped, the gang went and ate and I prepared myself to sell merch from doors open at 8. The venue was choca with a very attentive and appreciative audience, and they bought a lot from me. After the show, Sam introduced and awarded the ‘Player of the Day’ trophy to Richie – despite very rudely and heavily implying the award would go to Chris. The look on his face was devastating.

We packed out and got back to the accom just after midnight, after I had very nearly left a guitar in middle of a Melbourne street (which had fortunately been looked after by Toffs bouncers). We headed to bed just after 1am.

BELLINGEN

I was up and dressed by 6.30am to get a relaxed breakfast in me before everyone made their way down for the 7.15pm call time. We were off to the airport by 7.30am.

As we got to our gate it was announced that the flight to Sydney was delayed, which presented an issue as our connecting flight to Coffs Harbour would have left by the time we got there. After talking to several ground staff it was clear that we would miss our connection, and would have to get another. On the flight I was told that we were booked on to a 3pm flight which would arrive at 4.15pm and that I should see the ground staff as soon as I got off the flight.

Once on the ground, the staff informed me that there was no room on the 3pm and we had been booked on the flight at 7, arriving at 8.15. The band were due on stage at 8pm. I got on the phone to Kate, my contact for Bello festival where we were due to play and told her the situation.

It was around noon at this point and after some toing and froing it was decided that our best chance was to get a van and drive the 535km from Sydney to Bellingen, a journey which should take around 5.5 hours. I ran out of the airport to Budget and arranged for a van hire, ran back to the airport (after going through security again and realising I was in the wrong terminal), cancelled our flights, retrieved the bags and rallied the troops.

We were on the road just after 1pm. I drove all the way. From the get go it wasn’t looking good. There was a crash on the M1 going out of Sydney, and a further crash about an hour and a half north, which had us in gridlock for about 30 minutes.

By about 3pm it was becoming clear that we weren’t going to make it. Kate from Bello called me and I pressed her for a decision as to whether we postpone until later in the night or cancel the performance. 10 minutes later the gig was cancelled and we continued at a more leisurely pace up the coast.

We arrived in Bellingen shortly after 9pm. It is a very small, quaint, saloon feeling town which was bustling with people. Bello Festival was in full swing. We checked into our accom at the Diggers tavern and I handed the keys to the car over to Kate to return to Budget. We checked out the surroundings and watched some music, had a drink and all retired to our rooms.

BELLO FESTIVAL

The sun rose and we were in Coffs by day. It was early but already the small town was bustling with the busy energy of festival fever. Nadia and I went to find something to eat, after which she went and found herself a massage and I went to meet Richie and Sam at a cafe in an old service station, where we sat outside in front of the old pumps and watched festival acts play.

Once the belly dancers started to encourage people to join in I decided it was time to go for an explore. I walked down to the river, where a man was in the water trying to catch fish with a four pronged spear and had gathered quite a crowd watching from the bridge.

After some further walking the whole team met at one of the festival venues called Cedar where we had some absolutely killer lunch which was provided by the festival. The best, most tender brisket I’ve been craving for awhile.

After food I walked over to the other side of the river to where Chris and Anita had gone in search of Flying Foxes. Indeed, the trees 15 minutes walk from the Main Street were crawling with furry, orange and black bats. They hung upside down, sleeping, squabbling and stretching in their hundreds. I watched for a while before heading back and meeting up with the crew who were soon due for their backstage call.

I ushered the band over to the green room where they readied themselves for their very quick change over in the Bellingen Memorial Hall. I walked up to Cedar to watch and artist called Laura Jean play, but left fairly soon as audience members were talking and it was pissing me off.

I walked back to the hall and went backstage to see the very quick line-check taking place. With seven minutes to go to showtime, Richie managed to push the input of his bass guitar back inside the body of the guitar, rendering it useless. With some quick thinking of the technical staff, the input was wriggled back out of the body and screwed in again with only minutes to spare. After a quick green room toast and a sip of whiskey it was show time.

The massive hall was absolutely packed. The floor space would have been comparable to a basketball court, two thirds of which was lined with chairs, and the front third free for floor sitters and dancers.

After a string of very loud acts in the hall , it was amazing how the band commanded such attentive and active listening from a hall of 500 people. They loved it.

After the set we rushed everything off stage quickly and hung out in the green room for an hour or so where we enjoyed the rider.

We went out for dinner, again provided by the festival. I had beef Wellington – a classic Angus birthday meal of many years. We went back to Cedar and had a cup of tea, by which time it was late and time for m to go to bed.

dav

dav

dav

dig

SYDNEY

I was awake off and on from 4am, my mind concerned that I had or would miss my alarm, and with a very mild hangover. We got up, packed and were in a van to Coffs Harbour airport by 8.15. I had some issues at checkin with a bag that hadn’t been booked, so after some time had to have a bag released and taken on board. We had a quick coffee and sandwich before the 6 of us were aboard a much shorter return journey back to Sydney.

On the other end, we jumped in a maxi taxi and headed to our accom, which is right next door to the Lansdowne hotel, the venue for tonight’s show. Having climbed the two flights of steps up to the foyer I was greeted by the confused look of an employee who was not expecting 6 people – and had only a double room for us.

With gear and bags piled up and the narrow corridor, I puzzled over this mistake with the desk attendant – scrolling through email chains and getting on the phone to our respective higher-ups. Unfortunately the make-good was less than ideal, providing us with an additional four beds in an eight bed dorm for the other four band members. This was the more favourable option rather than getting rooms at a sister venue 25 minutes walk from the venue.

We piled all the bags into the double room and left the building – walking down the streets of midday Sydney. We split into smaller groups in order to meet our needs. Chris went to seek out magic crystals and rare books, Nadia and Anita – coffee, Sam – serenity in an outdoor setting and Ritchie and I sought noodles and dumplings.

Richie and I enjoyed a great feast together before heading back to the bookshop at which we had left Chris and found Nadia and Anita in the cafe at the back. We had a coffee and walked to a crystals shop a few doors back, where Chris was seeking his magic.

Back at the accom, I found that the roof had a common area, so we all had a bit of downtime before it was time to head to the venue for pack in and soundcheck. We were fed at the venue with menu items such as “The Big Fucker”, “The Spicy Fucker” and “The Mushroom Fucker”. “The Big Fucker” talked a big game for a pub burger, but I found it to be certainly lacking in size

The venue started to fill and here we were for yet another lovely show. It wrapped by about 11.00 and we packed our things and hung about for a bit. With the reality of our bedding situation sinking in, Chris, Anita and Sam were less than looking forward to sneaking into the door room, and Richie had found alternative lodgings with a friend. Bed time was delayed by sitting in the stairwell of the hostel with a 6 pack of beers, candle and the alternative cricket commentary for the England v NZ World Cup final. After a short time pretending to know what was going on I went to bed.

SYDNEY TRAVEL DAY

We had a free day in Sydney before flying back to Auckland that evening. After breakfast I opted to be a tourist and hopped on a Lime bike and cycled 20 minutes into the city to see the Opera House. It’s much bigger in person. I did a loop a few times before getting some different angles, and then proceeded to gently walk back to the accom and get everyone to the airport.

The flight was quicker on the way back and we were tucked up in bed by early the next morning. We have a few days off now before starting the second leg in Wellington.