Tamworth 2000
Friday the 21st was a hot start to the 9 day trip to Tamworth the so-called Country Music Capital of Australia.
All in all the weather lived up to its reputation at festival time with 40 C days intermingled with rain and Storms, the only saving grace was that it didn't flood.
The boys were supposed to play five shows, starting on the 21st. After a long hot trip & problems with the sound, it wasn't one of their best shows, but the professionals that they are the boys carried on and did a fine job all things considering.
Sunday nights show was cancelled, but that gave us an excellent opportunity to catch up with some prime bands including a Hawksbury based band named Rough Stock, who made the finals of the talent contest and their Guitar player also made the finals of the guitar player of the festival competition. I caught up the guys finally to get the GREAT news. The boys won the talent quest, coming away with a record deal with Stallion Records. Unfortunately the news wasn't as good for Pete in the guitar comp.
Tuesday and Wednesday nights shows went well, with the sound problems all sorted out and the new sound man Justin doing an excellent job, the crowd got an excellent show with the boys having a great time feeding off the crowds energy.
Thursday was a rest day, giving the boys time to catch up on some sleep, Rick also decided that it was a good time to do some bargain hunting with the purchase of a pair of new boots and another shirt to go with the one he bought earlier in the week. He's turning into a walking talking clothes rack, but oh boy is it worth it…
Friday nights show was, of course, the best one all week. Fitzroy's Tavern was packed & the "Hog's" blew the back wall off the place.
The crowd was peaking with people climbing up on the stage and the dance floor remained packed solid all night.
After the show the boys were mobbed by autograph hunters, luckily I had remembered the black pens and Rick had several broken drumsticks to be signed.
The week also allowed us to catch up with old friends and to make lots of new ones. We managed to catch up with our good friends from Melbourne; a top class band named CrakAjak.
The "Jak" have just released their third album and to my way of thinking, it is their best so far. These guys have a style all of their own. Their original stuff is phenomenal and once you see them live your hooked. I saw them 4 times, twice "unplugged" and twice full on and everyone I took with me fell under their spell and are now avid fans.
Harry and the boys always finish with "The Devil went down to Georgia" and Jay J Williams is one of the best fiddle players in the country in my opinion.
This Band is by far one of the best in the country and really nice guys to go with it. For more information on CrakAjak. pop in and visit their web page at www.crakajak.com.au. You can pick up copies of their CD's as well as T-shirts Caps and posters.
We also ran into the Wolverines down the street on Monday the 24th as they were doing a street walk promoting their shows and CD… Nice to see them again. They haven't changed at all, which is nice to see.
The Coffee tent at turned out to be the meeting place of the festival. It's amazing the interesting people you meet when you're dying of caffeine deprivation, which Guy and I seem to do on a regular basis.We'd just like to say Hi to Karen, Joy, Pam, Brett, Jenny, Barb, Cath, Nat and all our other new friends. Thanks for making the festival better than we though possible.
The boys from Crakajak (L to R)
Jay J Williams, Robert Walker, Steve Malkin, Harry Jon Nanos, Tony Patricks and Tony Arena.