War of the worlds: 2

There are a lot of special effects in this gig, most notably being this 3D hologram of Richard Burtons head which appears periodically to narate the story. If you are trying to figure out exactly what kind of gig this is, think: rock opera on steroids.

This is one of the keyboard players pads. He has a few different sound effects mapped to individual keys, here we have "the punch", "the fall" and the "martian heat ray". I wish i could illustrate my violin and get away with it......

War of the worlds watch: 3

Well, we ran the show last night, full costume, all lights and pyro's/smoke etc. and i have to say, i have never enjoyed a rehersal so much! What a show! There is a trailer HERE and a dodgy video from a guy in the back row of the uk gig HERE on youtube which gives you an idea of whats going on. The scale of this production is MASSIVE and its great working with such a professional outfit

Here is the crew synchronising the 4 projectors to get a seamless image on that HUGE screen behind us.

Here is that martian invasion machine that lands on the stage mid first act.

This is how close I am to it. it lights up and vaporises the audience with its heat ray and can also boil a kettle of water in 3 seconds.

Apparrantly the reason they have so many strings on the gig is because they have a high rate of decending martian invasion machine leg 'vs' violin mortaliy rate.

Also, heres an interesting fact. Phil Lynott was in the orginal crew of the show.

The Hooner 2

We went and got another car. Now that we both are freelance muso's we need to be able to get around a bit more than usual, so we got a new car. Its got 4 wheels, a few doors and an engine somewhere under the hood.

War of the Worlds: part 1

I arrived on stage this arvo to be greeted my these electronic music stands. I blogged one of these about a year ago here and now I finally get to use one. Its sheer bliss. The screen is clear and illuminated, it has several zoom features and you can edit, draw pictures etc. all touch screen stuff.

Here is the foot pedal for turning the pages

Here is some of the display, it was on camera phone under stage lighting but you get the drift. I have 3 different notes on this page (tricky stuff.....)

And here is the man behind it all, Jeff Wayne a bit of a legend.

Big toys

On the way to a gig this afternoon and i ducked through the car park as a short cut and look at these beauties I came accross.

All fancy stickers so you KNOW they go fast.

Clearly someone at this gig was in a rush home afterwards.......i hope it isnt the person paying us!

Gadget-time

Ok, most of you know I am kinda into things that make life easier, such as slip on shoes (tying laces takes up valuable sleeping/drinking time) , shaving (extra valuable minutes in bed each day) and gadgets. Well my latest has been the Palm Treo 750. What a beaut. Just to give you a run down, this is what my treo did for me last saturday:

7am, wake up alarm, tell me (it actually speaks) my agenda for the day
8am, first student, it tunes the violin to A44o, and i use it as a metronome throughout the lesson.
9am, my first student gave me a present of a CD, so I copied it onto my phone for later
955am, reminds me that next student is due, off to the music room i go and use it as above
11am, finish teaching and activate the GPS (tomtom 6) software to direct me the 1st gig of the day, a brewery in the valley. I also activate the media player so I can listen to that CD the first kid gave me.
1pm, gig starts, use the phone as a stopwatch to beep after 45 mins to tell us when a set is complete AND use it as an MP3 player with the interval music through the PA rig.
2pm, a punter asks us to sing "the streets of london", i quickly hop on google on the phone at the break, get the lyrics, scribble them down and we are performing it 1st song after our break
4pm, gig finishes, activate GPS to get me to the next gig 1 hour away, there were a few roadworks and traffic jams so when i veered off route to avoid, the phone recalculated the route and updated me with new directions, i also ran the MP3 function through the car stereo and listened to the soundtrack of the War of the Worlds which I am playing at this weekend. Recieve a few phone calls about gigs etc, all routed through the bluetooth earpiece, all other audio is muted until the end of the call, as I say goodbye to the client, the music fades in and the GPS voice (john cleese) updates me with a shortcut to the next venue
530pm, get to gig, take a few photos of the place as a possible wedding venue, use the tuner for the other players to tune to
8pm, finish gig, gps directs me home, via a food shop and a video library.
930pm, i sit at my bar waiting for the phone to pour me a pint!!!

So there ya go, I thought i had to make a tribute entry for my new and ever-evolving no.1 gadget. Beat that Ned......

Head of the table

We went out for a meal last night with Finn, he was great craic.

Its his birthday next week, he will be 1 year old.

A taste of home

We do a gig once a week in the Irish Club here in Perth, the only place in town with decent pints and a limitless supply of de 'ol taytos (at 3 dollars a pop)

A fair warning...

As all of you may know by now, i have become a full time musician. Gigs, teaching, the works. This is a sign up at one of the schools I take orchestra at.

Random weekend snaps

Yes, i took this picture of what level i parked the car at because I was too lazy to even try and remember. Technology.......

This is a note from the parents of one of my students. i am trying to get these 8 eyar old kids to develop a decent tone and use the whole bow, so i set them all a challenge, whoever could play a longer note than me would get $100. I set the bar at 30 seconds, and there is one wee fellah at one of my schools is dead set to earn it. check out this signed and counter witnessed record of his feats.

Here is two shots of the theatre I did my 3 minute gig in the other day. Never played solo in front of that many people before, twas good fun though.

Some more photos from the last few weeks

Here is us at our regular friday night gig in JB O Reillys. we play for 3 hours and do a mix of all sorts of stuff.

Here is a nice one of the girls, Jane, Reilly and Vicky in the bar when Peads and Vicly were visiting

Heres Peadar and I high on the hill in kings park (well, high by perths standards) with the riverside of the city visible in the background

And heres the gang around the bar table

Pat and George depart for more adventures over east

Mom and George's 5 week visit to Perth finished last monday so we had a little party for them

It was mainly all janes family and all the friends mom had made while she was here.

And here are the lads at the airport all set for their trip over to sydney and then on to china

and look at this picture which slipped in at the last minute.....

An even better gig than the war of the worlds one...

My new school Aquinas College is involved in a big celebration of sorts later on this month, they are celebrating the life of the founder of the Christian Brothers Schools Edmund Rice in a sort of musical dramatisation and you'll never guess who they have chosen to play the part of Saint Edmund. Yup, australias most sought after viola player. I have to stand on the stage of the 2000 seater burswood theatre, centre stage (in peroid costume) and as the spotlight comes on me I have to play an irish air on the fiddle, reminiscent of Edmunds irish heritage, then it morphs into a fanfare theme which i play a few times which heralds his arrival to australia and then a 20 piece brass band joins in and we finish the rest of the fanfare. possibly the easiest 5 min gig of all time!

Day out at the zoo

Life was pretty easy for skippys stunt doubles after the show got canned......

Here is Fin meeting his first kangaroo

along with Pat and Jane

and here he is going for an afternoon stroll