Hi Folks
F
ebruary has been a very busy and exciting month for us. We attended the inaugural Country Stampede Festival in Pukekohe and Tuakau with The Mountain Mist Band from the 6th – 8th of February. This was a big commitment from Dianne and her supporters and with a little fine tuning we are sure next year’s festival will be even better. It was great to catch up with people we have not seen in a while and listen to some great country music.
On Thursday the 12th we headed up to Paihia to entertain John Howie’s Australian tour group at the Sword Fish Club. This was also a great night with everyone getting into the spirit of things. Thanks John for inviting us to perform it was a real pleasure and we hope your group had as much fun as we did.
The following Saturday we made our way to Auckland where on Sunday morning we flew out to Australia for two weeks of gigging. We arrived in Melbourne and were met at Tullamarine Airport by our very good friends, Margaret and Robyn, the Toy Boys better halves, who took us to the Williamstown markets where Rod and Pete had their stall set up. It was a scorching hot day for us but apparently pretty normal for the locals. We met up with Sandie Dodd who was performing at the market with Col Perkins. They put on a great show and were kind enough to let us perform a couple of songs for the crowd after which we headed to Kyneton to Rod and Margarets place. The next morning we loaded up the caravan and made our way up to Barham to settle in and prepare for the festival.
We were first up in the Auditorium on Wednesday morning following the Tuesday Dance Night with Peter and Gale Bell of “GEDUPNDANS”. We did 14 gigs in 4 days and had a great time catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. It was also great to spend some time with Craig and Katrina Adams who were staying in the same accommodation and were attending the festival for the first time. It was also nice to catch up again with Royden Donohue, George and Lilly Farnham, Kerran and Karen and the Denva Band. The Denva band put in a lot of work and we would like to thank them for doing such a great job. Annette also had a surprise visit from Les Dwyer all the way from Queensland. Annette and Les have been corresponding for about 8 years ever since we met Les in New Zealand on a John Howie tour. So it was awesome for them to catch up again. Les’ son Shaun was kind enough to bring Les up to the festival from his home in Bendigo. The Sunday finale was another awesome show no doubt you will be able to catch something on Facebook or Utube. Thank you, Joyce and Ruth, for allowing us to perform at the festival. We look forward to seeing you all again next August. Sadly it was Joyce’s last festival at Barham but we hope to catch up with her in
Corowa next year also.
On the Monday we finished off the week by doing the Monday Madness for the RSL. This is a great afternoon of raffles and music for members and the local community. We must thank Rosina for giving us the opportunity to perform and also to our very good friend Anthony Tenace for providing us with a P.A. system for the afternoon. Luckily during the week our roadies, Dale and Barb, had arrived from Adelaide to ferry us to our next gigs and to show us some of the sights of Victoria (but don’t let Barb into any Information Centres). During the week we took a tiki tour up to Swan Hill to the Pioneer Settlement. This is a step back in time and is a must see for anyone going to the area. From Barham we made our way down to Kyvalley where Anthony had arranged a Morning Melodies for us. This was a fund raiser for the Kyvalley community swimming pool. There was a good turn out and we had an awesome morning performing for the locals. Thanks to Bev and Beryl for organising the morning and once again to Anthony for the P.A. system. It was also a pleasure to meet Anthony’s dad Mick and his sons Jack and Mitchell during our stay in Moorupna. From Kyvalley we headed to Horsham for our Thursday night and Friday Morning Melodies shows. We made it to Bendigo on Wednesday evening and stayed the night before completing our journey on Thursday morning booking into Wimmera Lakes caravan resort. We had time for lunch in town and a swim back at the resort before the show at the Horsham RSL. We had a great night entertaining a full house. It was nice to see some familiar faces from the Barham festival as well. Tony Lawrence helped out with the P.A. system and he and his lovely wife Cynthia also did a set which was appreciated by the audience. Friday saw us back at the RSL for the Morning Melodies starting at 9:30. This was another good crowd some traveling more than an hour or so from Edenhope to attend the show. Both shows were a great success and we must thank Lyall Wheaton for organising them, Tony for the P.A., Noel the manager of the RSL for allowing us to play and Aunty Dot for the lovely gifts. Thank you to everyone that came along to support us at all the shows it is very much appreciated. We hope to see you all again in the near future. Check out the photos especially the ones of us with Tony’s ’68 Chevy Impala.
With the gigs all completed we headed for our final destination, Adelaide, arriving around 7:00 o’clock Friday evening at Barb and Dales house. However, the trip wasn’t over yet. On Saturday we were up early to prepare for a day at the Clipsal 500 V8 motor racing, a first for both Annette and myself. Adelaide certainly knows how to put on a show and we could not believe how loud those V8’s are, even with ear plugs in. It took a little while to settle in but once we had checked out the race track and surroundings we had an awesome day. Thank you to Dale, Barb and Lyndon for an outstanding new experience. Sunday we just chilled out, had a swim and went for a drive around Adelaide, oh did you see us in the corvette, cool eh. We have very cool friends and it was sad to say goodbye on Monday morning as we headed for home and a full month ahead in March. So we will catch you then.
Take care and remember to keep it country.
Best wishes
Annette and Kim
