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A few days in W.A. (has anyone seen my beanie?)
written: 27th April2003
By Clay

Hello people,
I hope everybody is happy and healthy
I’m certainly very happy, but healthy?
I don’t know about that one. A surf this afternoon and a quick catch up with some friends at Mitch’s Folks deli and I’m on the road to recovery though.

We just got back from W.A. again. We cant get enough of the place.

You know what?
I’ve just realised that I haven’t posted anything about our Newcastle gig and our Cronulla gig. And of course, there’s the infamous north Bondi Golf Club gig that didn’t even happen. If any of you guys reading this were part of the crew who actually showed up to the Golf Club that nite, we sincerely apologise that it fell thru. We are very, very pissed off about the whole scenario. It was out of our hands. On the other hand though we, along with a hundred kids or so, from Cronulla, had a wicked nite the nite following the Bondi debacle. I think it was Saturday the 5th. The Brass Monkey hosted a very intimate evening for all of us who were there. We had brilliant supports from Neal Hunt and Lloyd Hughes. Good food, good music and no smoking which is a plus for those who enjoy clean air. It reminds me of the Basement in Circular Quay. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend the Brass Monkey for musical consumption. It was a really cool nite to say the least.

Then, of course, there was the gig at the Cambridge in Newcastle the week before that. That was fucking rocking. I don’t mean the music, I mean the audience. Yeah, that was really, really cool. The people at the venue were cool, the audience were right into it, we had a ball. All the gigs we’ve played in Newcastle have been thumbs up. Its a good place overall I think.
You’ve got the uni vibe so there’s heaps of young crew, you’ve got the ocean and if you want to party there’s heaps of places to go out. Newcastle is a very cool town indeed. You can take me up there anytime.

Now, back to where I started, we just got back from W.A. again. We were lucky enough to have been invited back there, shortly after our last West Oz tour, to play at the legendary Margaret River Masters concert thingy. Just in case you don’t know what it is, its the gig/festival that coincides with the Margaret River Masters surf comp. held every year around Easter, which, by the way, Mick Campbell won. Big ups to Mick. What a charger. so yeah, the gig. On the bill were The Violent Femmes, Resin Dogs, The Superjesus, Downsyde, The Beautiful Girls and Xavier Rudd.
The Femmes were sick, they played so many old songs that i love. It was really cool to see those guys doing it up. you’ve all seen the Resin Dogs yeah? So sick.
I missed The Superjesus. I saw Downsyde though. We had just come off stage so we were amped. Then those guys kicked in and we bolted around the front and boogied down. It really is a pleasure to watch and listen to them. The crowd love them too.
Top notch hip-hop. We played before Downsyde and it was awesome. There were so many people there and everyone was going off. It was a cold nite so everybody was keeping each other warm by getting down, and we got to provide the music. It was very short, but it was a very cool gig. Then, of course, there was the man who kicked off the whole gig, Xavier Rudd. What a legend. We’ve played with him before and I have to say that he is nothing short of fucking amazing. Ask anyone that has seen him and im sure that they will agree. A one man band, he plays guitars, didgeridoos, Percussion, a stomp box and to top it off he’s a wicked singer. Do yourself a favour and check him out ok? Same goes for the Downsyde lads.
So anyway, having said all that, you can imagine that we had an awesome nite yeah? and i didnt even mention all the cool crew we met. the Mandurah crew and the the girls from Margies High and everyone else that we partied with. alot of fun was had that nite so thanks alot guys from all of us.

The next day we headed back up to Fremantle for a gig at the Newport Hotel with our mate Carus. it was a welcome change from the craziness of down south. We all had a big weekend and a mellowed gig was a good call. There was a really cool vibe in there when we played, our friends did the done thing and started up the dancefloor for everyone, and that always makes the gig a whole lot more fun doesn’t it. I was actually in a little bit of pain but no one noticed apparently.
After the gig we jumped off and got to chill out with our friends and watch Carus. I’ve just got to pause for a second to say that Fremantle breeds some of the coolest people in the world. there, i said it, sorry. Carus went off. I’ve seen him play heaps of gigs solo, ive also seen him with a band. but that nite he had dudes on violin, mandolin, harp, organ, percussion, bass, drums and there was probably something else aswell. Fuck knows, there were so many crew up there at one point i thought the stage was gonna collapse.
It could have been an overload of instruments but it wasnt. It really came together and made for some awesome sounds. Everyone was losing it. They had a cracker of a gig. it was very cool to be there.

Anyway, enough about Carus, more about us.
you might not be able to read this until after Easter cause Tom`s on holiday and i was slow writing it. Tomorrow nite we start our little tour with G-love and then its straight up to the Blues. We’re so excited. Thanks for checking out how we’ve been.
We’ll let you know how the Blues Fest went when we get back ok?
See you soon.
Clay.