August 23, 2010
Hi Folks
As usual, apologies for the lack of postings recently on the Bogleblurb. Apart from
the usual excuses, sloth, drunkenness, wild partying etc. etc., I must admit that, on
many levels, it’s been a tough few months since my last blurb. Actually, it’s been a
bit of tough year altogether so far.......so, where to begin ?.... on my last Bogleblurb
I was just about to head off on the Australlian POT tour with John, Pete, and Emma....
I’ll start there then, makes sense......
On 21st April then, or thereabouts, (can’t actually remember when the whole thing
started) we piled into the luxurious Boglebus (see piccy on last blurb) and headed
out into the wild blue yonder, or, to be more accurate, the parched brown yonder, to
hopefully bring peace, harmony and joy to our audiences with our music, and fill our
own pockets with loot at the same time......two admirable aims.....
Within 10 minutes of being on the bus, we’d all fallen into our usual touring roles, i.e.
me driving, John fast asleep, Emma asking annoying and pointless questions, and
Pete locked safely up in the boot.( “trunk” to our North American cousins.....)
One unusual occurrence to start the tour....during the drive from Adelaide to New
South Wales, after about 2 hours on the road we began to run into swarms of
locusts, not big swarms, but constant, we kept going through them for about 4 hours
altogether. In no time at all the front of the Boglebus was absolutely covered with
dead locusts, which was extremely messy, but at least it was a change from the usual
dead kangaroos, cats and occasional pedestrian....it’s very early in the year for locust
plagues, usually they don’t happen until Spring, and the experts are predicting the
mother of all locust plagues for this coming Spring. We’ve already had a big mouse
plague in South Australia, now locusts, we’re all just waiting for the frogs to nicely
round out the biblical analogy......here’s a photo of John with the locust-covered front
of the Boglebus. You can’t really see the locusts very well, but I included this picture
mainly because John looks so indignant. The last time I saw him look so indignant
was when I farted in front of his wife at a dinner party at his house. But as he pointed
out, it was her turn..........
First stop, Wagga Wagga, the city so nice they named it twice....it was only a pit stop
on our way to Sydney though, where I had some media stuff lined up before the tour
proper started. As usual with media interviews, it all turned out to be mostly a total
waste of time, and I haven’t got all that much of that particular commodity left...but I
digress..... the stop in Wagga was only memorable for the fact that we let Pete out of
the boot for 5 minutes and took this piccy.....
The couple of days in Sydney were not a total waste of time as I took the opportunity
(between pointless interviews) to check up on my other business which is based
in that crowded harbour city, and which I started up about 10 years ago in order not
to solely rely on income from my musical endeavours, which was rather far-sighted
of me, even if I say so myself
It’s a nice little earner as they say.........
The first actual concert of the tour was in Newcastle, which was gratifyingly well
attended and the audience was enthusiastic and responsive, a good start, and
in touring, as in Formula One racing, a good start helps a lot. It was there too that we
met up with our sound engineeer, Ray Beaton. None of us had worked with Ray
before, all we knew about him was that he was an ex-policeman and had the scars
to prove it (literally!), that he’d worked with quite a few of the big names in the country
music scene, and that he was a smoker.This last fact had already predisposed me to
look upon him kindly......he turned out to be a very equable bloke and an excellent
sound engineeer, also someone that I could cadge cigarettes from, perfect.....
Here’s a photo of the Famous Five, as we called ourselves, though many other
people called us somewhat different and less flattering names. This photo was taken
at The Drum Theatre in Dandenong I think......
Next concert was at a venue called Lizottes on the NSW coast near Gosford. It was
one of those restaurant-type gigs which have musical shows as well as serving
food. I’m not usually keen on those type of venues, it’s hard competing with truffles
and Grange Hermitage, but this was an excellent venue, nice appreciative audience
who kept quiet in all the right spots, so a good night was had by all.This was followed
by an equally good morning for the Bogleband as we all had a lovely breakfast on
the beach in an attractive seaside town called Terrigal before getting back to the
mind-numbing drudgery of the POT tour. The following photo shows Pete, John
and Emma enjoying themselves in Terrigal before their minds got numbed again...
Then back to Sydney for an Anzac Day show at a very well known Sydney venue,
The Basement. I’ve played there a few times but not for the past 10 years or so.
I was a bit apprehensive about doing a concert on Anzac Day, it’s a public holiday
of course, so there was a chance that everyone would be having barbeques at home
or suchlike, and that no-one would turn up. My fears were groundless however, a full
house and a great night... and being Anzac Day of course, a few of my songs had
a special resonance at the concert that evening....
Then off to Milton on the NSW south coast, and Mittagong in the central highlands.
Both concerts performed in beautiful small local arts theatres, both full houses, and
both extremely enjoyable. So far, so good..... Pete’s bass playing was sounding
almost passable, John was enjoying doing his usual quality control check on all the
local beers, Emma was laughing at all my jokes even though I told her she’d still
be paid even if she didn’t, and I was having a most satisfying time ironing all the
banknotes being handed over in exchange for my CD’s and DVD, and then putting
them all in numerical order. “Could all these good times last?” I asked myself......
And the answer was, well, yes.......Canberra next, and the biggest audience of the
whole tour, God bless them......I started off my Australian musical journey in Canberra
way back in 1969 when I arrived there as penniless immigrant, apart from a Platinum
Visa card that is, so the Canberra people have always considered me as a
local boy made good, and have always been amongst my strongest supporters.
Most Australians don’t have a very high opinion of Canberra, it is our national capital
after all, home of our Federal politicians, so that attitude is understandable enough I
suppose. It’s a fairly newly created planned city as well, with all the advantages and
drawbacks of those types of creations. But my musical career started there, and I met
Carmel The Magnificent there, so I have a soft spot for the place, if not for the
politicians who infest it......
Back to Wagga Wagga, the city so nice etc. We had a few days off here, Emma
caught up with friends, John went on another quality control mission, and Pete spent
his time slaving over his life’s work, a novel he’s writing which is tentatively titled
“From Here To Paternity”, and which is based on an unfortunate incident that ocurred
in his youth. I ironed the banknotes again........good concert here at the lovely local
Wagga Civic Theatre, one of the nicest provincial arts theatres in NSW.
And so the merry dance continued..... we waltzed into Victoria now, Wangaratta next,
another great concert, another photo opportunity for Pete Titchener.....the rest of the
band entitled this photo “ Spot The Dummy”...........
Then on to concerts in Hepburn Springs, Warrnambool, Melbourne, Dandenong and
Sale, not necessarily in that order. All good, all well attended, all artistically satisfying
and a couple of them even financially rewarding.......but the end of this jolly jaunt was
in sight.Two concerts remained, and to do those we had to leave the Boglebus in
Melbourne and take the big silver bird across the Bass Strait to Tasmania. The
penultimate concert was in Launceston, and the final one in Hobart, which in my
opinion is the most attractive capital city in any of the States of Australia. Both
concerts were very enjoyable as per usual, it’s always a pleasure to visit Tassie, a
beautiful place.......here’s a photo of us actually working at the concert at the
Launceston Country Club. It’s not a great photo, but then again we’re a pretty ugly
bunch (excluding Emma of course), so no photo ever taken of us could turn out very
well anyway......
So three weeks after we’d started out, it was all over, and we flew back to Melbourne
and then the long drive back to Adelaide, minus locusts this time.........it was one of
the shortest tours I’ve ever done, but certainly one of the most enjoyable. It was a
pleasure working with John, Pete and Emma, we played some good music together
and had a lot of laughs along the way, aways a satisfying bonus to any tour.......in
fact it was so enjoyable I might even do it again one day. Watch this space.........
The only other musical foray of note was The National Celtic Music Festival at
Portarlington in Victoria in early June. My third appearance at that festival I think.
The weather in June in Victoria can be chilly, and so it came to pass......not
as wet as forecast though, and the festival was very well attended and everyone
seemed to have a good time. Being the National Celtic Festival I was intending to
appear at my concerts wearing my kilt, but after impassioned pleas from festival
organisers, my band, and various members of the public with weak stomachs,
I desisted.........
And that’s it for the musical happenings to date this year. I started this blurb by
saying that it’s been a pretty tough year so far, and that toughness happened mainly
on the personal side ......it kicked off in January with the death of the wife of one of
my former band members . A lot of you will remember Andy McGloin, or at least will
certainly remember his hat........Andy married a lady called Joy last October, Carmel
and I were at the wedding, and the following January we were at Joy’s funeral....very
sad indeed......Andy’s OK, he’s handling it pretty well all things considered, but as you
can imagine it’s a day to day thing.......then my twin sister Sandra in Edinburgh had to
have a major operation, and things were a bit touch and go for a wee while, but
thankfully she’s recovered well and long term prognosis is good. But she gave us
all a scare, and I’ve told her if she does it again I will stop sending food parcels from
Australia to Edinburgh...... I think it’s the Vegemite she’s fond of. Mind you, she likes
brussell sprouts and broccoli as well, which says a lot about her taste in food........
Then a couple of months ago Carmel’s dad Ron died at 99 years old, didn’t quite
make the century. But I think he was quite glad to go and join Carmel’s mum Freda,
who died last year. He told me a couple of times he missed her dreadfully, and was
sure they would meet up again in the afterlife. Must be good to have that conviction
of faith.......
And finally, to round off this sad litany, as you will no doubt have learned from the
poem I posted on the front of this web site, in July I lost my last remaining
Aunty, my lifetime favourite and much loved Aunty Ivy, a wee gem of a lady....
So there’s a few more empty spaces around me now, but as the years roll
remorselessly on, that’s how life goes I suppose......2010 has certainly reminded
me, as if I needed any further reminder, of my own mortality and just how precious
the gift of life is, and that every day should be regarded as just that, a gift......cliched
stuff I know, but those of you who know a bit about my songs shouldn’t be surprised
at my penchant for cliches.......... Brent Miller, another former band member, called
round to express his sympathies regarding Aunty Ivy and at one point said “The
last of the old guard gone now I suppose”. I replied” Yes, and now we’re the old
guard”.....a short silence ensued then we both simultaneously reached for the bottle
of whisky.......
And that’s it again folks. To end on a lighter note (thank God! I hear you say), one last
photo, as is now the custom on these blurbs. As some of you may know, my wife
Carmel is a keen gardener..... last year she decided to plant her own vegetable
garden. We spent $ 632.80 on pre-formed, raised galvanised iron garden beds,
$123.67 on potting mix, fertiliser, mulch, pea straw etc. and $198.68 on seeds and
plants. After countless hours of careful and at times back-breaking labour tending the
garden, allied to hundreds of gigalitres of water expended on it, after a couple of
months we gathered our first harvest...the following photo shows Carmel proudly
displaying it. I wanted to share her triumph with you all......
Cheers
Eric
