_Well today I did the first leg of the long drive to Sydney. Justin rode shotgun so I had my personal iPod DJ. Listened to New Morning – Bob Dylan for the first time! Peter Rowan – Legacy. But the vibe was quickly ruined by Bruce Springsteen’s Greatest Hits. I sat through 6 songs before politely requesting the new Ani DiFranco’s new album, which I’ve been waiting to listen to since I obtained it on Friday. Justin scanned my iPod only to discover that I hadn’t uploaded it correctly argghhh.
Onto lunch in Holbrook.
Ms Marples tea rooms used to be The Stillsons lunch spot of choice but upon re-evaluation the average sandwich mass has dwindled recently so we went forth to the Holbrook bakery … chicken and salad roll for $5.90 … can’t argue with can ya! Hello new lunch spot of choice
The coffee that I kept me in good stead for the drive came back to haunt me once I stopped driving, I couldn’t bloody sleep. I’m someone who can fall asleep pretty much on demand so when I can’t go to sleep I don’t cop with it pretty well.
Next highlight of the day was my post gig treat in the form of a rainbow paddle pop! Hmm Bit of a food theme going on now ey. Maybe I should be a food tourist instead. Currently driving to a hotel in Newcastle to stay the night. It’s YouTube time in the van and everyone is reminiscing the classic hits of their youth.
Secret Byron show tomorrow. Beach action me thinks.
_ After failing motivation on our last tour (Mammoth Tour ’12) to write a blog I thought I’d bust out the old typewriter.
Yes, we’re going hit the road again on April 11thsurprise, surprise! We’ve called it the Jimmy’s Treehouse Tour not really sure why, you’d have to ask our publicist.
Mean while I’ve been putting my nose to the grindstone trying to man up and finish a whole bunch of songs which have been haunting me since last February when I had a crazily fertile creative period. All my new songs have a common thread, they are all about my family. Not exactly un-charted territory, but I never get sick of listening to others family history so maybe others might be interested in mine. Hopefully I’ll get the courage to give them to the band before this next tour. … enough about that.
Some facts about Stillson driving habits in the tour van.
Justin accelerates towards red lights. Ben is a back seat driver. Me, I like to put everyone’s life in jeopardy by attempting to drive crazy distances without stopping, just to prove my salt.
CAT.
Disclaimer: The view expressed above to do reflect the views of all Stillsons, Mountain King Music are any of it’s affiliates.
Wake up, yes, know that feeling, today is not a normal day. Launch day. Sore throat
Forget about sore throat, doesn’t every singer gets a sore throat at ‘important’ gigs?
Down to the Social Club, load in, set up, trying to slow down. Loving sound checks now. Off to play a couple of tracks on ‘Acid Country’ show on PBS FM. It’s an absolute pleasure to finally meet Dave, and he’s an absolute gent and is very generous with his time.
This is about as much as I can remember of the day, as our set went by so quickly, it was all a blur. I remember Yanto getting up and rocking the place, but I can’t remember much else. Just lots of very nice people coming saying ‘great set’. Maybe it’s nerves, or maybe that for the last two weeks before, we had been playing 3 hour sets up the east coast and not just an hour, it went by in a blip.
Back home for a shindig, plenty of snags and white bread, beers and smoke wafting around in the garden.
What a great day! Thanks to all those who came down, can you please remind me what happened at the gig?!!
Up early 6 hour drive to Maitland. Itching to play The Junkyard again. Always an absolute pleasure and a privilege …….
Well. We came, we play, we slayed, drank beer and ate a celebratory meat pie. Oh YEAHHH Sick gig. Everyone dug it. Biggest Junkyard turn out we’ve had so far. Lots of people from last time coming back and bringing their friends. Lots of yelling and screaming – just the why we like it. ‘Why don’t you need it’ ‘What I need’ and ‘In Violence’ are getting progressively more and more epic every night. Upstairs for staffies after. We sure are spoiled here.
Massive drive to Melbourne tomorrow – Franz has a departing at 7am.
Cat
Little acoustic performance at Roots Records in Bello this morning before we set off to Urunga. Tiny little store and some how we managed to fit in amongst the kids, parents and passers by who filed into watch.
Off to Urunga after- a massive 15 min drive to the next venue – Ocean View Hotel.
A lot of crew from The Federal and Root Records came down to watch us again. More familiar faces from our last gig here too. Everyone was up and shakin’ it by the second set. People of all ages to – I love these kind of country and coastal gigs. Everyone is up for a good time, young and old. Went to bed straight after the gig and couldn’t get to sleep, mind buzzing about the tour coming up in January. Cat
gear stack
Love you Bellingen – you dance to all of our songs – fast, slow or frantic. You make us groove harder and wider. We had totally rad night! From Ballroom to Boot scooting to moshing you brains out., you did it all. LOVE YA! In our breaks we chilled out upstairs (where we were sleeping) – we had two groupies follow us up to drink beer and eat corn chip with us. Nice to see lots of familiar faces every time we come back to this town.
Cat
This man was spotted on our way to The Panics show
Tonight it's the beach hotel in Byron Bay. The first time any of us have played this venue. There will be wailing guitar, blistering steel, banging' drums and thundering bass....Benji
After The Beach show we briskly made our way to The Great Northern to catch the tail end of The Panics set! Was killer! Also big thanks to all the big group of girls who boot scooted to JIMMY'S TREEHOUSE......Catty
Wednesday, and it's onto the Rails in Byron Bay. Playing under the non de plume of The Stooping Parlour, for reasons we won't go into here, we look forward to cranking it up a little after two virtually acoustic gigs. Alas, sound restrictions force us to play a fairly subdued set, but still the crowd dug it, so who are we to argue. The night ends on the porch of The Great Northern Hotel drinking beer with The Panics who happen to be in town on tour.
Benji
After a day of mooching around the house of our dear friends, Greg and Audra (Bless them), we hit the Palmy cafe on the Gold Coast. We again find ourselves becoming specialists at playing extremely cramped stages. Not that I have to worry. Playing pedal steel guitar comes with a guarantee of you getting all the real estate on stage you need. Ed, an avowed palm tree hater (in fact, a hater of all things tropical...) played the gig wedged in a corner surrounded by a palm tree, fronds hanging over and around him like a scene from Day Of The Triffids.
Benji
Well Jb and I were up at 6am this morning for an interview with Tim Cox on ABC Gold Coast. Tim's been featuring EARNEST on his breakfast show as album of the week! Thanks TIM! I was crashed out and slept for most of the day. We played The Cave in Nobby Beach tonight, on way back to bed now. Thanks to Julia Rose for supporting us!
Tomorrow we hit the beach I recon! Catty
RSS Feed