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Tag Archive for 'concert'

Peter Combe and the Juicy Juicy Green Grass Band

Saturday night, what a night it was at The Zoo, by far my favourite show of the year and I think the favourite show of the year for many of the other punters there. Why? Well Peter Combe was in town and playing at The Zoo :D. I was going to wear a newspaper hat but thought that was a bit too ordinary so I went with toothbrushes in my hair. As I walked past people, they would smile and make comments or start singing Mr Clicketty Cane. Later on as I moved through the crowd, people would exclaim “You’re the girl with the toothbrushes” to which I would smile and ponder the fact that people were actually talking about me. Let me tell you know that putting toothbrushes in your hair is no easy feat, it involved numerous hair ties and I would have to push them up every so often.

The Crowd, Yay Newspaper Hats :D
Newspaper hats

First up was Deb Suckling and Craig Spann as Peachfish providing some of their fine folksy, alt-country romance.
peachfish

Then there was a band, well they were a band and a half. They were The Danaj Show. The lead singer came on stage with a briefcase. With much lead up he opened that case to reveal a newspaper hat!! This was not just any newspaper had though this was a newspaper hat covered with stars (those stars that you used to be put on your forehead when you were good in class). The crowd went wild.
The Danaj Show

I had left my Spagetti Bolagnaise LP at home, as I had left I had thought of bringing it with me to wave at the right moment. I decided against it though. As the second band played I kept on thinking about the sign that said Peter would be doing a signing at the end of the night. I rang Matthew and paid him $20 to grab the LP and drive into The Valley to drop it off for me.

I got it signed :D and you can see the toothbrushes.
Signed

After long wait the Juicy Juicy Green Grass Band came out, led of course by the icon that is Phil. Phil, Phil, Phil is what was chanted as he took is rightful seat behind the keyboards. Then they played a crowd rousing tune as the chants for Peter, Peter, Peter got louder and louder. Then our child icon ran onto the stage, grabbed his mike and everything was ok. Peter Combe was on stage, we knew the words, he knew our faces and no one could be happier.

When he played Tadpole Blues, I smiled, for as much as Matthew denies it, that was his favourite song. Then there was Rain, Rain, Rain, my favourite song now. There was the blow fly song, Down in Bathroom, Nutrition Blues, Rock ‘N’ Roll Is All You Need, Chops & Sausages, Jack & The Beanstalk, Syntax Error, Newspaper Mama, Spaghetti Bolognaise, Toffee Apple, Phone Calls Daddy, Jellybean Road (well I think he played this). He has written a song for each of his children and since his son Tom is in The Juicy Juicy Green Grass Band, they played Lullaby (For Tom). The crowd let out a collective sigh during this. No Parcel in the Post though or 12345, that is life though.

Of course the last song they played was Juicy Juicy Green Grass and it was something special :D

Band

It was the happiest gig of the year, every where you turned people where smiling and singing/shouting/miming along with the words. As people poured out of The Zoo onto Ann St, the smiles were there, people were milling around humming tunes, clutching their new Peter Combe T-shirts and just going yeah :) I went with Ms Clare and her friend Jackie/Jacquie who was smiling and singing along with me the entire time.

The rest of the photos are here

Angus and Julia Stone, The Tivoli

Thursday night saw me at The Tivoli with The Dwarf for the second night of Angus and Julia Stone. What is most likely a shock to most people is that I haven’t really heard that much of the Stones prior to the concert and what I had heard, I found enjoyable but was by no means a fan. Leaving the show I appreciated them a whole lot more. However the treat for the night was not the Stones but Víctor Valdés, the support act. Man, that man can play the harp. Doing requests from the audience is always the way to go, though I was hoping he would pull out Stairway to Heaven for some strange reason but he didn’t. He did though do a Gypsy King song (I think it was Chan Chan) what had me going was of course Guantanamera. I also got to meet a few other photographers for the first time and a chance to catch up with Eleny again. Quite a nice night indeed.

The Harp Man
Victor the man

One of the things I loved watching was his fingers dart over the strings, it was so magical!
harp fingers

Doesn’t Julia just look so happy to be up on stage?
Julia

I love the focus on this one though, sigh nice borrowed glass.
Julia

Angus had his hat on all night which meant some pretty nasty face shadows so this is about the best I grabbed
Angus Stone

The siblings Stone
siblings

and the rest of the photos are over here in a gallery

Unlike a yoyo craze, unlike a marble phase

I love it everyday - Spaghetti Bolognaise!

Life is an interesting thing. Or perhaps more the internet is an interesting thing or even more precise Facebook. Last Sunday night Mum and I went to see Peter Combe. The very next day I got a message on Facebook saying that Catherine Riddle had added me as a friend.

Catherine and I grew up together. A fair swack of my childhood was spent playing in Catherine’s back yard, swimming in the pool, playing dress-ups in her Mum’s old ballet costumes and generally just having fun. We went to the same primary school but after her dad spent a year on exchange in England and they went up to Charters Towers to live/teach we pretty much lost contact. We have seen each other a few times over the years but I don’t think I have seen Catherine for probably four years now. I nearly fell off my chair when I got the notification on facebook because a few weeks before when I had joined facebook again as it now seemed like all my friends had it now, one of the first people I searched for was Catherine but she wasn’t to be found.

This is us when we are young tykes, Catherine and I had just turned 4 ( our birthdays are 10 days apart) and Matthew was/still is my little brother.
Catherine, Helen & Matthew

What made it all the more special was that the night before as Mum and I were walking down the steps out of the Zoo after seeing Peter Combe, Mum was commenting on how Margaret (Catherine’s mum) had introduced us to Peter Combe as I was mentioning that a lot of my friends had not been exposed to Peter when they were young and that she was going to send Margaret a letter and her Peter Combe ticket.

Peter Combe was a fantastic night. The Zoo was sold out and it was full of newspaper hats and pure glee amongst the punters who had forgotten just how much we had loved Peter Combe as children and that we would still sing those songs word for word. I can’t wait for him to come back north again as I would be there in a split second. I have gone to a fair amount of concerts and whilst there was no fancy lights or sound effects, I have to say I think it was the only concert I have been to where every single person there had a huge grin on their face all night long.

Peter Combe