Day 12 - Orange Ex-Services, Orange

7/8/2010
We get a late checkout from our Bathurst hotel, so it's midday by the time we all saunter downstairs and pack our belongings into the van.
The drive to Orange only takes 50 minutes, so we head into town to grab a coffee and some breakfast. That done we set off on the road.
In no time we are checking into our brand new luxury suites at the top end of Orange town. This is definitely the nicest place we have stayed for a while...


I drop my bags in the room and head into town for lunch and a bit of sightseeing.
Orange is very pretty, there are loads of vineyards in the area and you can tell it's a place where wealthy Sydneysiders would come for the weekend. The main street is lined with coffee shops, and shiny new European cars.
Here are some tourist shots...


Tonight we are playing at the Orange Ex-Services club, so i swing past the gig to take a look...


Sound check goes well, no problems, so it's back to the hotel to do some clothes washing, and watch a couple of games of football.
I'm not doing too well in the tipping this week, so i switch off the box and get ready for the gig.
By the time we get down there Amy Meridith are onstage, and the Snowdroppers are packing up. They recon it's a good crowd and a fun gig, but would you trust these faces....


Pretty soon it's our turn to take the stage, and take the stage we do...


Krisso has a problem with his kick drum halfway through, so Kez has to join us on stage for half a song. I think he liked it...


During Chemical Heart Phil got up close and personal with a security guard. Very funny...


The show goes well and everyone agrees Orange has been one of the better stops on the tour. Head back to the band room after the gig and meet a few of the locals. Hang out for about an hour then head to the hotel for a game of dice with Nick and Krisso.
Colzy heads back with the rest of the crew and they settle in to their usual, after gig warm down.
Here is Kez in post-gig relax mode....


And Tony modeling the latest in post-gig crew wear. Shame about the fly, or lack thereof....


Tomorrow, Penrith Panthers...

Day 11 - Panthers, Bathurst

6/8/2010
Left the hotel at 10am for the 4 hour drive from Wagga to Bathurst. We head into town and grab some breakfast and do a quick bit of shopping. I go into the Sturt mall, but it's just full of bottle shops and chemists..


Pretty soon we are thundering down the road. We go through some interesting old Riverena towns, many of them featured in famous songs by Slim Dusty or John Williamson.
To give you an idea of the style we are travelling, here's the van....


It's soon lunchtime and we stop at a little town outside of Cowra called Koorawatha....


Dotted along the dusty main street is a pub, a mechanics, and a plant nursery connected to a cafe, and that's where we choose to eat. The Triple J Cafe...


I use the bathroom out the back then join the boys inside to order. The cafe is a narrow rectangular room, with long rows of weathered wooden tables and chairs lining the walls. The smell of stale cooking oil fills my nostrils, and the pre-bagged burgers in the bain-marie make me decide I'm not that hungry.
Then i notice this sign on the wall....


Good on you John. If there were more people like you this world would be a much better place.
We keep moving down the road, pass through Cowra (a very tidy town), and in no time we are at the hotel, in the home of Australian motor sport, Bathurst!


The Charlotte Apartments are nice, but it's bloody freezing and the heater hardly works. But it has a great view of the trotting track...


As i turn and face the hotel i have a political vision, forget about Gillard or Abott! Krisso the patriot for P.M......


I'm looking forward to the agenda announcement...
Head off to sound check and check out the gig. This is our first all ages show of the tour, and the kids and the adults are separated by a nylon rope connected by a series of bollards. Must be an honest lot here in Bathurst...


Things are working well at sound check, so we head back to the hotel and watch the Parramatta V's Titans game. Titans win!
Head back to the gig and Amy Meridith are on stage. Check out a bit of their show and the all ages crowd are really digging them.
We take the stage at 10.45pm and have a good show. Once again the security take a while to get it together and our tour manager Nick has to do a fair bit of crowd control.
At one point a couple of boneheads start a fight which spills out a side door onto a set of stairs. We consider stopping the show but it comes under control pretty quickly.
After the gig have a beer with the other bands then head back to the hotel for a game of poker. I go out early and head back to my room for some much needed sleep.
Tomorrow, Orange....

Day 10 - The Capitol, Wagga Wagga

5/8/2010
Feeling a bit shady as I load my bag into the back of the van. Haven't had a night on the beers for a while, and the lack of match experience shows...
We are driving to Wagga and it's gonna take about 4 hours. Hmmm
After a quick stop at Nuggets Crossing for some breakfast, we head out on the road.
We are taking the highway that crosses over the top of the mountains. It looks to be a fair distance shorter than going through Canberra, although you may have to carry chains in case it has snowed overnight.
Just before we turn off we stop at a petrol station to see if chains are required. The attendant says no, so off we head..
There is a fair bit of snow on the ground, but the road is clear and you can get along at a decent pace...


There are no servos in this part of the world so we stop at an old disused ranger station for a toilet break.
We have a look around, then Joe decides to throw a snowball...


Sean cops a direct hit...


And retaliates with a shot in the face....


Kris avoids the action and goes and finds a friend...


Get back in the car and continue the journey...
The road gets harder to navigate the further we go, but pretty soon we are descending down the mountains, and driving through pastoral land on the way into Tumit.
We hit the Hume Highway for a few k's, then take a turn off about 20 minutes out of Wagga.
We arrive safely and check into the hotel.
Head down to have a look at the venue and do sound check. The Snowdroppers are back with us now and it's good to see them. We have been taking the piss out of them saying they look like Mumford & Sons. They have made up a song for us sung to the tune of Little Lion Man! It goes like this..."it's not your fault it's mine, I liked dead cat in year nine, but Jedediah were better...." very funny!
Phil bought a box of poker chips in Jyndabyne, so we head back to the hotel and get a quick game going before we head to the gig....


The band room tonight looks like the Saloon bar in Launceston before they renovated it...


The gig goes well. Once again it's a big crowd, and they are right into it. It takes the security a little while to realize it isn't a school fete, but they get it together eventually.
After the show we go back to the band room and cool off. My friend Karen and her husband join us for a drink, along with an assortment of people we know and don't know...


It wraps up pretty quickly and we head back to the hotel for a late game of poker. We put $5 each in the tin and deal 'em up.
It gets down to just me and Joe, and he beats me with an ace high flush. Lucky bastard.
Get into bed at 2am and set my alarm for a 10am lobby call.
Tomorrow, Bathurst....

Day 9 - Station Resort, Jindabyne

4/8/2010
Blue skies and crisp morning temperatures greet me when i step out of my hut in Kosovo village. The view over the dorms is just magic...


Krisso is awake and there is a makeshift tennis court at the "resort", so we head down for another set.
I take this one out 6-1, and that's the match. Final score is 6-4, 6-3, 6-1. Krisso has got a lot of work to do to salvage some pride in the next battle. May i suggest he gets a little court time, maybe a hit out with someone better than me, and that means anyone!
Pretty soon it's time for the crew to load into the gig. Krisso and I go and check out how things are going.
Our truck driver and rigger, James Leydon, has shown up overnight, and he is carrying all our extra gear plus the P.A.. James has done loads of touring with us over the years, and he used to play guitar in Craig Mclachlan and check one two!...


The gear gets loaded in and I notice something really quite bizarre! Tony is helping!.....


The gig itself is a bit of a box, but there is a really low roof over the stage and a strange pointed roof. It's probably gonna be pretty hard to pull a decent sound in here, but Tony is up for it.....


Sean is gonna drive us up to Thredbo village so we can check out the snow.
We jump in the van and head to Nuggets for some lunch before we head up.
The drive takes us into the Kosciusko National Park. As soon as we go past the ranger station we come across an echidna in the middle of the road. Joe jumps out and tries to encourage it to the safety of the other side...


He makes his way over to the scary beast....


And I'm not sure if his technique is fully sanctioned by the RSPCA!...


The echidna is not really responding to the encouragement, and the rangers are right there, so we decide to leave it to the experts....


We get to Thredbo and it's looking good. Lots of snow and cloudless blue skies, so we take the opportunity for a quick photo shoot...

We grab a coffee and watch the skiers and boarders make their way down the mountain. Looks like a good day for it and i wish i had a couple of days off to partake!
We get back in the car and drive around to Friday Flats (the beginners area) to check out the gift shop.
Krisso needs to have a nap so he finds a quiet spot in the sun....


It's time to go back for sound check, so we head back to The Station.
The check is pretty good, it wont be the best onstage sound we've ever had, but we'll get through it.
Amy Meridith, who are supporting us for the rest of the tour, turn up today. They seem o.k. (very polite) and i a watch them run through a few songs....


Head out to the dining hall at the resort and grab a bain-marie dinner...not good.
Then its back to the room to get ready for the show.
Get back to the gig in time to catch a bit of Amy Meridiths set. The crowd are into it. They are basically a pop band, but they have a song on the radio and people seem to be genuinely enjoying their show.
Pretty soon it time for us to take the stage. Its a pretty wild crowd! Lots of stage diving and crowd surfing. Red bull must sell well down here...Its a great show and the large audience seemed to have a ball.
An old friend named Pete was there, so i catch up with him and his mate Brad after the show. We drink a few beers and have a laugh. They end up missing the ski tube so when we get kicked out of the venue it all moves back to my demountable. They stumble out at 4am and i pour myself into bed.
9am lobby call in the morning. That's not going to be fun....

Day 8 - Travel day, Melbourne to Jindabyne

3/8/2010
Wake up early as it's a 10am lobby call and I have to get breakfast and finish packing up all my stuff.
Another cold and grey morning in Melbourne, but the view is pretty good from our hotel room balcony...


That's the museum you can see in the middle of the park (which i think is Carlton Gardens), and there is is an Imax theatre there as well. At the moment the museum is showing an exhibition called "Treasures of the Titanic".
Get downstairs and load ourselves and our bags in the van and drive to the airport.
We are on an 11.30 flight to Canberra, then it's a 2 hour drive to Jindabyne.
We all check in and head upstairs to the qantas club, then its computers on the table to take advantage of the free wireless internet...


Nick, our regular tour manager, has to do another job for the next few days so we have employed Sean Richards (Bomber, Goggles) to take care of Jindabyne, and drive to us to Wagga Wagga...


Sean is no stranger to the band. He was our regular tour manager from 2000 till 2006. It's gonna be fun to have him on the road for a few days, as we have obviously shared a lot of crazy experiences over the years!
We get into Canberra at 12.30pm and start the drive to the snow...


We go through Cooma, Bredbo, and wind our way up through the hills till we catch our first glimpses of Lake Jindabyne.
I took the next photo when we were crossing one of the dams that was built on the lake during the construction of the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme.....


We stop in at Nuggets Crossing shopping village where i run into an old friend from Byron. We catch up for a bit & i promise to put him on the door for tomorrow night.
Drive 5 minutes out of town and check into the Station Hotel and Resort complex. Resort is a drastically inappropriate word for this place. It's more like a series of demountable huts surrounding a huge pub. Anyone been to a sport and rec camp? You get the picture...
At 6pm we head to the pub for some dinner. We discover there is a poker tournament on tonight! Phil is happy.
Eat, then sit down at the tables. I get knocked out pretty early and head back to my room....
Get a call from Krisso at about 8.30 and there is a trivia night starting up . Hell yeah! Love that shit...
Our team is me, Sean, Joe, Krisso and our lighting rigger Mace. It's a pretty messy affair, lots of tables of drunk snow dudes, and a few English tourists. Our team is called The Superdudes!
After 5 rounds we are tied for first place.
To decide the winner i get up onstage and do a best of 3, paper, scissors, rock challenge against a girl from the other team....
I win!.....but guess what? First prize is 2 tickets to the Grinspoon gig and a case of Barcardi Breezers.
We decide to pass the prize onto the other team, and they are stoked.
Phil emerges from the poker tables...he came 5th.
I head back to my demountable and watch some election news. Sick of it very quickly and it's lights out.....

Day 7 - Day off, Melbourne

2/8/2010
Typical day off.
Got up, went and did some exercise, pulled all the dirty clothes out of my bag and piled them into the washing machine.
It's actually a nice day in Melbourne today, the sun is out, but the cold biting wind still whips up the city streets.
I get rugged up and go into town to buy toothpaste and deodorant. The city is alive on a Monday morning, people hurrying to work, and to and from the train station at Melbourne central.
I remember i need a case for my new camera so i walk down to Elizabeth St to where i know there a bunch of camera stores. I get lucky on my 4th attempt and find a cool leather cover with a carry strap. Perfect.
Back to the hotel to hang out the washing and do the rest of my day off duties.
Joe brings a couple of people to the room and we sign a guitar for a charity auction.
Make a few calls and organise with Joe, Kris and a mate of ours Rossco to go to dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Mamasita. Phil is going over to Yumi Stynes' house for a home cooked meal, we aren't invited.
The uninvited meet in the lobby at 6pm and walk down to Collins St and head upstairs to Mamasita.
Stylish decor and central American waitstaff are the order of the day at this modern take on traditional Mexican food.
Rossco was Birds of Tokyo's manager till a couple of weeks ago, when he was called to Melbourne airport and unceremoniously sacked.
He is understandably upset, so we drink some beers in commiseration and try and lift his spirits.
The food here is pretty good. We order the tasting plate and i order 3 fish tacos. They are great. Everyone enjoys their food but we all agree it's overpriced.
We head off in the direction of a nearby pub, order some beers and watch the first half of the Manly - Newcastle game.....Manly are getting smashed....Krisso isn't happy.
Back to the hotel and pack most of my stuff into my bag in preparation for a 10am lobby call.
Tomorrow, Jindabyne....

Day 6 - Travel day, Hobart to Melbourne

1/8/2010
Wake up to a beautiful day in Hobart. Head down to reception and check out of my room.
Apparently both Kris & Phil both won some cash at the casino last night, so spirits are high.
Check in to our Jetstar flight to Melbourne, then get settled in the Qantas lounge and wait to be called.
Watch the footy for a half then jump on the plane.
Arrive in Melbourne and it's wet and cold. Pick up the hire car and drive the 20 minutes into the city and check into The Mantra on the Park.
Krisso and i are sharing a two bedroom apartment. We drop our bags and watch the Sunday afternoon game between St George and The Broncos.
After full time we head down to Nam Loong restaurant in Chinatown and grab dinner. We order the chili squid, chive dumplings & chicken noodles. The food here is awesome and cheap, if you get down to Melbourne you should check it out.
Back the hotel for a movie, watch a bit of the F1, then crash out.
day off tomorrow.....