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Steeleye Span 'World Tour' Diary 2004
Saturday 6th March
Port Fairy Folk Festival.
A long day.
11:00 a.m. Depart Sydney for Melbourne. Flight QF 427.
12:25 p.m. Arrive Melbourne.
12:50 p.m. Depart Melbourne for Port Fairy.
5:30 p.m. Arrive Port Fairy.
6:00 p.m. Perform a 1 hour spot on Stage 3.
When we finally arrived at the festival there wasn't even time to think,
let alone - wash, change, etc. It was straight on to the stage, plug in
the instruments and off you go. Then you look up and notice there are
something like three thousand people looking back at you. One good thing
is that you have no time for worry or nerves, you're flying by the seat
of your pants. We actually started our set about 6:30 p.m. Consequently
it was cut short to 40 minutes.
Ralph played his one hour concert on Stage 2 at 10:45 p.m. At this time
of night it's not unusual to have bands of a more electric and rocky nature
performing on various concert stages, and Ralph, with just voice and acoustic
guitar, had to try and compete with much of this high volume music spilling
out from the surrounding marquees. The look on his face said it all; it
couldn't have been easy.
Sunday 7th March
Port Fairy Folk Festival.
We've been given two houses to accommodate the band and crew. Both are
very nice and roomy. Port Fairy isn't the most densely populated area,
and the impression I get is that, outside of pitching your own tent, accommodation
is not plentiful. So each year, the festival organisers pay local house
owners (a handsome fee, I might add) to hand over their properties for
the duration of the event. As I said, both houses were extremely comfortable,
the only minor snag being that one of them was an easy walk from the festival
site, and the other, which I shared with Ralph and Liam, was a good two
miles away.
We all got some laundry done, and I did a bit of much needed guitar practice.
Ralph played his set at 3:30 p.m. on Stage 2. This time there was no noise
pollution to deal with.
Steeleye performed on Concert Stage 2. The set was due to begin at 10:45
p.m. But as usual, everything was running a little late - about 30 minutes
behind schedule. It was difficult to assess how the show went, but we
did discuss how there may not have been sufficient dynamics - or light
and shade - in the set. It was maybe possible that our selection of songs
might have been a little too rock oriented for that audience and at that
time of night.
Monday 8th March
Port Fairy Folk Festival.
This is the final day, well, half day to be precise, of the festival,
and Steeleye provided the finishing touch with a show at 12 noon on Stage
1. In view of certain concerns expressed within the band the previous
evening, we rejigged the set list - mixing things up a bit more. We reintroduced
'The 2 Magicians', also, we placed 'The King' (unaccompanied / a coppella)
later in the song order. Maddy and Peter performed a piece together that
I'd never heard before and at present can't recall the title to, but it
was powerful and received very well by the audience. We finished the festival
on a very positive note.
It was impossible to see all the acts that were worth seeing over the
weekend, but from the ones I did manage to catch, it was 'The Alison Brown
Quartet' that really impressed me - fantastic musicianship. The last time
I was moved in this way was when I saw 'Union Station'. Now, I have a
picture of some of us together - taken with my newly acquired digital
camera, I just have to figure out how to get it from camera to web page.
It seems as though I've met with a degree of success - see picture below.
Phil (keyboards) & Kendrick (percussion), both great players, are
members of the above mentioned Alison Brown Quartet.
Tuesday 9th March
Travel to The Gold Coast.
An early start today - not made any easier by the effects of last nights
session.
10:00 a.m. Started our journey back to Melbourne.
3:25 p.m. Depart Melbourne airport for Coolangatta. Flight: Q.F. 862
4:25 p.m. Arrive Coolangatta.
On arrival we were taken to the 'Twin Towns Resort' a fairly luxurious
hotel that looks out over the beautiful sands of the Gold Coast. Now we
have a little time to relax. The concert hall we play on Thursday is actually
part of this complex. It feels very good not to have to travel or move
very far at all until Friday when we head for Lismore.
The one confusing thing here is - time difference. Queensland Time (10
hours ahead of UK), and New South Wales Time (11 hours ahead), and they
appear to use both.
Wednesday 10th March
Day off.
Found out a little more about the time zones. Apparently, all the states
in Australia adjust their clocks (as we in the UK do) in spring and autumn,
that is - all except Queensland. What we have here in Coolangatta (next
to this hotel) is the line that divides the states of Queensland and New
South Wales. As I look across the street I can see people an hour ahead........or
is it an our behind?
Took a stroll this morning with Ralph along the street where all main
shopping seems to happen. Ralph was particularly interested in the pawn
shops; he's always got an eye open for an old Gibson J45 guitar, however,
none were to be found. There was a dusty Gibson Les Paul Standard in one
shop window, but at close to $4,000 it was far from the bargain you always
hope for - people are far too smart these days.
Sorted out any potential 'back line' problems this morning. For those
who are unfamiliar with that term 'back line', it's what describes the
equipment at the back of the stage, i.e. amps and drums. Months ago I
submitted my requirements as regards what guitar amp I needed. On our
first gig in Canberra I was presented with a Vox AC30 - a great amplifier
in itself, but not what I wanted or had asked for. As you can imagine,
with the distances covered on a tour such as this, it involves a number
of different equipment hire companies, so we had to go about calling each
one of them in order to verify which model would be supplied. On the rest
of the gigs I'll be using either a Fender Twin, or a Fender Hot Rod DeVille.
We all decided that we'd have an Indian tonight - especially convenient
considering there was one sitting directly across the road from the hotel.
We arranged to meet at 7:30 p.m. This was our first encounter with the
problems of two time zones, it seemed we didn't all have our watches synchronised.
Somehow we managed to meet up though, and we met up either a little bit
late, or a little bit early depending on who you speak to. The food took
forever to arrive - longer than an hour, and was not the typical sort
of Indian food we are accustomed to in England. It was very nice though.
When it did arrive there was more than any of us could eat - most of it
is now sitting in my hotel room refrigerator.
Thursday 11th March
Twin Towns, Coolangatta.
It's been good to have a little time to myself over these last couple
of days, but I was ready to get on with the show again. The weather has
been a little difficult at times, it's very warm and muggy.
We've discovered a good source of shirts - the Salvation Army shop, now
officially called 'Salvo', and it's not far down the street from the hotel.
This morning after breakfast we all marched over to check out anything
that might catch the eye or be good stage apparel. I bought a couple of
short sleeved shirts for a grand total of $5.50. Of course, the only times
I can ever commit myself to buying clothes are either when I'm told that
I really should buy something, and when it's cheap. In this instance,
both applied. I very rarely have any idea myself as to what looks good
and what doesn't.
In the dressing room this evening I received a phone call from Ralph,
he'd stumbled upon a ukulele shop, bought one for himself, and then decided
it would be a good idea if I also had one so we could form a ukulele band.
He has a song in mind - "I'll see you in my dreams" - that we
might well perform at point on the tour. We'll see what develops, anyway
- I'm now the proud owner of a Sanchez, sunburst finished, 25 dollar uke.
What can I say about the show? Certainly from the point of the on-stage
sound, it was difficult. We tried positioning ourselves differently, with
Liam (drums) on the far left (our left), then came Rick, then myself,
then Peter, leaving Maddy far right. The reasoning for this was that previously
Maddy was standing more or less in front of Liam, and she was finding
it hard to compete with the amount of volume from his kit. It was a worth
while experiment, but not to everyone's liking I might add. Coolangatta
is an interesting place - not far from the sort of ambiance you might
experience in an English seaside resort (but with vastly different weather),
and so apart from the obligatory hecklers, the evening wasn't too bad.
Friday 12th March
Lismore Workers Club.
Boy, this heat can get to you. The drives are interesting and scenic
though, and we do have air conditioning on the bus. En route to
Lismore we stopped off Byron Bay for lunch; a kind of trendy, artsy, old
hippy sort of area with great coast line. Warren Mitchell happened to
be sat in the same restaurant, and Liam, Ralph and Maddy went over and
chatted to him for a few minutes. He was enjoying some time off after
doing some theatre work in Sydney.
Our repositioning experiments continued today, this time with Rick at
the far left, and Liam coming in behind me - I liked this, particularly
from the point of view that I felt there was a lot more room for me to
move around in.
The audiences here tend not to hold back as much as in the UK, and by
the end of the show a significant number of people were up on their feet
dancing anywhere that space allowed.
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