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helloooo from West Oz
written: 25th February 2003
By Clay

helloooo from West Oz
best wishes to all of you out there
we’ve just finished a mini tour over here and this is kinda how it went

Mojos, North Fremantle, 27th Feb
3 Bears, Dunsborough, 28th Feb
Prince of Wales, Bunbury, 1st March
Settlers Tavern, Margaret River, 2nd March

Mojo’s is a cool place, its small, its generally chilled and its got padding on the walls. Sounds nice huh? We have lots of friends in Freo so it makes for a good gig. It was Thursday so it was a little bit hard for everyone with work the next day, but it was an awesome turn out and everyone was in the mood. It was a really cool gig with a great sound on and off stage. We really missed Clive though. We had rooms in a haunted hotel that nite. Rosie O’Gradies. Awesome hotel hey. If you need a good room for the nite and you happen to be in Fremantle, that’s the place. We never saw anything scary though. Maybe Mats head in the morning. That was a bit of a worry.

In the morning we drove down to Dunsborough. What a gem of a place. We we’re greeted at the door by one of Australia’s finest AFL footballers, Teague
Higham, who then forced me to buy him a beer and give him cigarettes. That was fair trade though cause he lent Mat his board and we all went for an afternoon surf to clear the cobwebs. he also has been lending me his car and giving me a bed to crash in. its cobbers like Teague, Allison, and their
duaghter Isabella that keep this band alive. Bless their hearts.

Later that nite we had a few hundred crew come down and party it up with us at the 3 Bears. it was so cool to get a turn out like that after having our
doubts. WA people like their music, we should have known better. a few songs in and there was a good dance floor and everyone was having fun when all of a sudden everyone was stunned and they pretty much stopped dancing. A strange woman had decided to jump on stage, uninvited, and started bootscooting and doing other rare shit like grabbing her crotch and so on. We finished the song and i asked her politely to leave the stage. She told me to fuck off and when we started the next song, she started rubbing
herself on Mat while he was trying to play. and then she was dragged off the
stage. Weird. After that everyone was back into it and it was a cool gig.

The next day there were no waves so we headed on up to Bunbury. Last time we played there we played to about 3 people so we had our reservations. This time we had heaps of people and it was a really cool vibe in there. The sound was excellent too. we had two special guests play with us that nite. Firstly a friend of ours from Byron Bay, Jez. he is origonally from Bunbury and was in town for a wedding. Jez is a pleasure to watch and listen too. He plays solo with a stomp box, and he plays a crazy blend of bluegrass, country, folk and maybe even reggae. its hard to describe. just believe when i say he`ll blow you away. why he isnt on the Bluesfest this year really is a mystery to me. Check him out anyway guys, he lives in Byron.

Our next guest was a woman who just jumped out of the crowd on her own
accord, grabbed the mic and tore it apart. everyone was gobsmacked. she had a wicked voice. she jumped up and she just busted out this adlib little bit
of vocals over a jam we were doing and it sounded fucking awesome and we
were all losing it laughing. it really topped off our gig. the whole room was in awe. also a big thankyou to all the crew on the dancefloor that nite.

Morning time came and went and for the first time ever on tour, we were
aloud to sleep till 1 o`clock. thankyou to the crew from the Prince of Wales. when we got up, we headed down to Margaret River for our last of the four gigs. we set up and played ping pong. what a great game it is. i suppose i should also mention that i have been playing a bit of competition indoor cricket with my mates since ive been over here too. something about the South West says "play ping pong and indoor cricket". they`re good sports. get into em.

Anyway, back to Margies. massive gig. a few hundred people got in there with us and as far as i could see, we were all having a ball. all the Margaret
River celebrities were out that nite and we even had some appearances from the Fremantle crew. to say the least, we all had alot of fun that nite. it
was extra cool because it was our last gig too. i feel a little sorry for Mitch and Mat though because they drove 3 hours back to Perth straight after we finished. they had to fly out the next day, so that was a bummer. we had an awesome little tour though.

i love this part of the world.
if youre in a band, come and play some gigs over here.
if youre on your own, come and travel
its a very beautiful and powerful place
god bless it.

im out
take care
Clay