Bangkok here i come

Well, as close as I can anyway. The rumors are rife here that miss Saigon is coming to Perth for a few months early next year and it looks like yours truly may be the jammy wee irish viola player that gets the gig. 88 shows, which will be nearly as many times as I have tuned my viola since I started playing. Its early days yet, but we should know in a few weeks. It took about a year to get on the 'list' that all fixers in town have but it seems to be working, i have also been booked for the new years eve proms with the Perth Pops Orchestra and a possible small run of The Phantom of the Opera also. Being a viola player has never been so much fun! Also, i dont know if I told any of you readers back home yet, but Jane, Adam and I did our first 'black velvet band' wedding last week, we MC'd the event and even did a bit of DJ-ing too. hahahaahahahhaa. This music business is great craic.

Regulars at the bar

Here is one of the many guys at JB O Reillys (our regular wednesday gig) who likes to join in for a song or two. This is Vince, great guy, pops his head in the door every few weeks and sings a few of his own tunes, great guy.

More amazing ozzie stuff

Instant cheese in a can. Cheezam! Brilliant

The wednesday session continues

Well, its been nearly a year that we have been doing the wednesday night at JB O Reillys, and its still going strong. Some nights are really busy and some are really quiet but there seems to be a sort of balance to it. And also that sign is still above the pub "trad sesison every wednesday" so until someone shows up with a ladder and takes that down, I reckon our gig is safe.

The life of a musician

Yup its happenned, i have become a musician. Its fantastic! Its EXACTLY how i imagined retirement would be, except I have a 30 year head start now. I work 3 days a week teaching, and that covers all mortgage and bills. I teach a bit at the weekend privately and that looks after spending money, and friday-sunday is an absolute torrent of giggery.

Its absolutely fantastic.

In the last week I have played for a stadium of 10000 people, a pub of 2 people, gave a demo of how the violin works in a school hall, rehearsed a mozart flute concerto on the viola, DJ'd at a wedding, improvised at a 2 hour jazz gig in an art gallery and tought a kid how to make her violin sound like a donkey. The best bit is that for most of these gigs its either free drink or free food or both, so its like being paid to show up, be treated like royalty and eat and drink to your hearts content. For example, the other day we were doing a gig, background stuff at a centenery of a local shire council, and in the middle of some vivaldi tune a waitress came up behind me and said "sorry to disturb you sir but will you be having the steak or the red emperor fillet this evening". I mean, WHAT job in the world do you get to have people come up to you and offer you steaks and booze while you are working.

Thanks mom for making me practice when I was younger!!!!!!

New shelves

We have two retrievers, Reilly and Fionn. Fionn retrieves normal things like sticks and balls and stuff whereas Reilly retrieves loo rool, when you least expect it. I think she used to be that dog on the andrex ad. SO if you can picture it, Jane and I and any number of guests would be sitting around having dinner or watching a film or just a few beers, and reilly will walk up and present you with a soggy, half torn roll of loo paper with the cardboard centre chewed up. SO as a result I had to get these rolls out of her reach, hence the shelves. Here we can also see some light reading material whilst on the throne: Extreme ironing, The history of poo, What shat that; the pocket guide to poop identity and Tim burtons book: the melancholy death of oyster boy

Back to school

Yup, back to school last week and in 7 more weeks we have a 8 week holiday! oh the life of a musician.........

This picture is from "art on the quad" in one of my schools, here we see that they have hung an old dilapidated upright piano from a tree. Unusual.........

Whats on the menu this week

Well, this week I have on tap a delightfully creamy stout called 'I cant believe its not guinness' and a totally normal, zero experimentations here, beer called 'totally normal beer'

Look what I found!

Never be without charts again: the International Music Score Library Project has a record of almost anything you can imagine, and then some! I cant believe i never knew about this!

Josh Groban: gigcam

Well, not much to report here, couldnt take photos on the gig as we were facing the crowd. Here is the curtain we were setting up behind as the support act finished

the name of the tour was 'Awake' after his new album but i think the sign below was mainly directed at the viola section...

Curtains for Cinema City

Before DVD, before every house had (multiple) TV's there was cinema. A big cinema in the centre of town is closing during the week, after 27 years, the silver screen at Cinema City will flicker out for the last time next Wednesday when the multiplex closes to make way for a 29-storey tower of apartments and offices. . We did a gig for the cinema society a few months back so they invited us in for the closing, I even got a tour of the projection box.

Here is a big film spool. There were some great speaches made before the film, lots of old guys who genuinely have pride in their work. One guy told us a story of how all the films that used to get sent to Perth from london were kept in the treasury, to combat piracy, and he had a few stories of how they saved the day last minute despite technical hiccups etc. It was really old school show-biz stuff!

And here is the projectionists golden rule............

Blast from the past

Again, answers on a postcard....

Answers on a postcard....

Any guesses as to who is that on the bouncy horse?

Superstar in the making....

You can tell by the way I am holding the violin in the wrong hand that I was clearly destined for the life of a professional musician......

Gig of the week

Well, i am doing a gig with this guy Josh Groban on sunday, in the challenge stadium. This guy has been around, between soundtracks of films to dueting with all sorts of fancy folk, he has been heralded as the new 21st century crooner. Ill see what pictures I can get backstage. Youtube link here .

I did a gig a few years ago like this in knock with Tommy Fleming which on its first broadcast, the estimated North American viewing audience was 100,000,000. And i didnt even tune!

The Quaar Fellows

We had a semi-retired irish band from Perth join us the other night at our Irish club gig. They were fantastic! Sang all the old songs and amazing musicians to boot. Elvis even popped in for a tune or two.

Lemons lemons lemons

This is a common sight over here. With the weather being the way it is, fruit trees thrive in most folks back gardens, so people have taken to leaving boxes and bags of lemons outside their gate for you to take away. Kinda takes all the fun out of raiding your neighbours garden at midnight for a fresh slice for your G&T.

Day at the races 2007

We nad our day at the races again this year (complete with hats of course) it was great.

We were there for about 3 hours and played for about 40 mins as we were not allowed to spook the horses before, during and after the race.

Day out with Finn

We took Finn out for lunch and a stroll the other day. He is 13 months old now and has his own blog HERE so be sure to check it out.

Whats new.....

It hardly seems like a year since the school was still under the early stages of construction. Check out last years October posts to see what else has changed in the last year.

New Wheels 2007

Well, my old bike was left out in the rain for the last year so after many attempts t fix it and one trip to the bike shop later I came home with this beauty. Pretty basic bike, 18 speed, two bottle holders AND a basket, yes thats right, a funky urban basket to hold a bottle of wine and perhaps some cheese and crackers. I took the dogs for a cycle yesterday in the park, Reilly didnt like it much but Fionn was great, he pretty much pulled me around the cycle path for about 2k's!

I also have this bike mount for my first palm that i bought about 6 years ago and it still fits my current one so i can no longer get lost while I am cycling.