Victorian Tour (2 photos)
written: 10th January 2003

Happy New Year folks.
Is it going to be a good one?
I say yes its going to be massive and I really hope there are plenty of you out there who feel the same.

Firstly sorry we have been neglecting the road journal, from here on in we are going to do our best to keep all interested parties informed about our movements, our learning's and the condition of Mitches car.

I'll keep it short and sweet.

I'm going to back track to early December which saw us travel to a place I dearly love called South Victoria. We actually played our first gig of the tour in Albury which is a town on the border of N.S.W and Vicco. We've been there a few times and it keeps getting better such a humble bunch of crew and obviously right into their music.
Thanks to the folks of Albury for your support, it always gets the tour off to a good start and thanks to Nick and Anthony for rescuing us in time of need, ill get back to that.

Then it was off to Ballarat.
We'd never been there before so it excellent to get down there, only problem was, when we got there, we realised that my bass guitar and my amplifier were back in Albury! HEAVY
That's where Nick and Anthony come in we rang the boys and told them what was up
and with no hesitation they took to the Hume Highway and met us in a little town half way between Albury and Ballarat called Seymor. What a couple of top Aussies, we sorted them out with a couple of dollars and then it was all systems go.

The gig in Ballarat was completely fucking weird to say the least there was a woman standing right infront of the stage screaming at us from start to finish. Every time we finished a song, all you could hear was "ANIMAL!! CMON ANIMAL DO A DRUM SOLO". She was convinced that Mitch was animal from the Muppets and she really took a shining to him if Mat or myself started playing our guitars shed scream at us to shut up because she so desperately wanted to hear animal do it up on the drums. I pleaded with Mitch to do a solo in the vain hope that she might shut up but Mitch refused and she just kept on shouting. Don't let me paint a sorry picture here though
there were heaps of cool crew there too, some local folks, the boys from the local uni, and a few regulars were there to remind us that we were actually still on planet Earth.
The room we played in was a great little pub room too. The uni fellas had worked out this very cool and very unique coordinated dance for Periscopes aswell, that was definitely a highlight.

The next morning saw the boys hit the coast again we hit a beautiful little town called Queenscliff for the Queenscliff music festival.
What a place! If you ever get the chance, go to this festival. Such a chilled festival in such a cool place, it doesn't get much better than that

We actually got there a day before the festival started because we had a gig that nite in another awesome place called Barwon heads which is about 20 kms down the road near Torquay. We played in a little place called the Beachnik Café and what a place it was once again, the coolest crew. The people that work there were so good to us and they were all gorgeous too, except maybe for Joel.
We didn't really know what to expect but by the time we got up to play it was
obvious that it was going to be good fun. The place was packed from front back, there were people spilling out the front windows and out the doors and they just went off.
We also had some good friends down there who were on holiday and to be packed in there with them and all the Barwon crew who were hooting and dancing and carrying on just made it the best nite. We cant wait to get back down there

The next morning there was no surf down at Torquay but the Queenscliff festival was starting up so we got along and checked it out. It was such a good vibe down there
the sun was out, everyone was happy and there was music all around us. We danced out to The Bird for a while and had some chow and then we went and set up for our gig. We played in this cool little pub which looked like it used to be someone's house and the crowd were awesome. Everyone was sitting down relaxing and they were so at tentative, the poor people couldn't move even if they wanted too, it was packed.

The next day was the same vibe again, same gig, lots of people, good fun, but as soon as we finished we had to drive to Melbourne and play a midnite slot at the Espy, that was actually pretty heavy. We were all buggered and to tell you the truth, we weren't looking forward to the mission ahead but once we got there and got on stage and looked out at all the crew who had come to dance and party with us the energy lifted,
it was great to be there especially in that pub, the Espy rules!
After that, we slept and we slept well.

Morning came and it was back down to Queenscliff for our last gig of the tour, same stage, same pub and same chilled atmosphere. But after a few songs a friend of ours, Adam insisted that everyone that was sitting on the floor get off their arses and dance and they did just that everyone jumped up, we played, they danced and we ended the tour on a rocking note, it was smiles all round.

We went back to our place, packed our gear, said our goodbyes and drove Matty to the airport, he had to get to school the next morning back in Sydney so we drove back
without him.
Don't ever do this:
11 hours straight, thru the nite from Torquay to Sydney, the definition of pain.

Anyway, it was an awesome tour and we've got some beautiful memories from our week in Victoria.
Signing out,
Clay

Sharee And The Girls, Queenscliff, Victoria

Outside Youth Hostel, Queenscliff, Victoria