"Proper top sh** Geezer"
Finally we have arrived at the last stop on the Australian tour the cool city of Brisbane. Canberra had its moments the Convention Centre where the concert was held is a typical large event space the type that you find in most big cities now, all new and looking like blocks of Lego! Which was a bit of a shock to the system after the cosiness of The Sydney Opera House and the Hamer Hall in Melbourne, which of course are both dedicated world class Arts venues. Canberra itself well, what can I say about Canberra? My first impression of Canberra was that it had a cold calculated designed by committee look about it and did not for me have any redeeming features that can give you a sense of history or just warmth that you get from Sydney and Melbourne or even the feeling that people actually live there! Everything just looks too clean, too new, too corporate!No size to the place as well, I mean you could go around the whole place in ten minutes and then not even notice that you had. Canberra being a new town seems to also have that annoying preponderance of Road signs and too many rules i.e No left turn, no Right Turn, Oh look there’s yet another Roundabout sign every 10 feet, so it gives you the impression that you can see where you want to go to but you have to do a Snakes and ladders course to get there! It reminded me of somewhere like Milton Keynes in the U.K. Nearly everyone I spoke to leading up to the Canberra show had all said “why are you going there, there is nothing there? and my personal favourite “Man that place is the Ug in Ugly”! Still it was a good turnout and the music was well received by a highly appreciative audience.
For the musicians the concert went very well and some friendly faces back stage at the after party meant that as usual everything went with a bang! Even better back stage various young Violinist were turning up and playing Solo pieces to Nigel. Of course the party then continued back in Nigel’s suite at the Hotel and that of course went into the late hours of the next morning, Guitarist Doug ended up with an unplanned new Haircut that looked quite scary, while Gary had fallen asleep on a sofa and then awoke to find a mountain of furniture stacked neatly to the ceiling with items placed strategically on top of him by the partygoers led by certain culprits in the band. That and various fruit were also placed on top of him while he slept, when he finally woke and tried to get up of course it all came crashing down!!
That morning as we were leaving the hotel, It was absolutely chucking it down with rain at the same time as the band were checking out of the hotel, Meeting in the foyer area the band looked like they had been ten rounds with boxers Mike Tyson and the Valyuev with Gary’s new haircut taking the top spot for “Weird Happenings in the night”!
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