Redcoats' Tour Diary: Part Three

Thursday 22 to Tuesday 27 November
Queensland and Northern NSW

Good morning campers! This leg of our Who's Rollin' tour began in Fairfield, Melbourne, on a sticky Tuesday afternoon with a regularly interrupted kick of the footy on the road as we awaited the arrival of our captain, Dr. Paul Martin, and our vessel of transport. Our first drive was a hefty bitch; Melbourne to Brisbane. We travelled as far as Forbes, NSW, and stayed the night, before awaking at sparrows' fart to continue the trek to sunny Queensland. A long, flat, straight and steady road was our path. Over great flat plains of farmland, the harvest was at its end, the vast wheat fields but a stubbly memory of what once flourished there. The headers humming through the balmy evening as our guiding light, a burning red harvest moon, lingered on the horizon, drawing us on. 

After many hours and many rude conversations, a few smoke breaks and many chapters of whatever literature was chosen by each of us, we reached Brisbane.

The following night, we played at Alhambra lounge in the valley. The night began with friends, Blonde On Blonde, locals to the valley, and possibly the most rockin' band in the area. The crowd this night was fuckin' rockin'! A wonderful reception beyond expectation. Dear friends and Who's Rollin' resident rockers, Royston Vasie, were back for another leg, this time with a different drummer, the wonderful Dan, joining us courtesy of fellow Victorians, Hunting Grounds. A beautiful man, a vibrant soul.

Alhambra lounge was alive and rockin'! The crowd really filling us with excitement, sharing love and amazing vibes. It was here that we came across a man by the name of Chop. Chop is a rock fan, his arms coated from wrist to shoulder with many of his favourite rock bands from Pearl Jam to Foo Fighters and all in between. It was requested that we sign his arm on a blank spot on the inside of his left arm above the elbow. More about Chop later. The show was a sweaty affair, our fair Victorian epidermis' ripe with northern humidity. The crowd requested more after our set was completed, and we gave them some mean money. As soon as the last note was struck, the eager DJ, sitting in the corner behind his buttons awaiting the completion of our offering, cranked out some 99 Problems and just like that, we were stuck in the middle of a night club. Hundreds of partiers then stood between our gear, and our van. We made our way through the crowds to our van and retreated. Brisbane was a fuckin' gas!

Our vinyl arrived!

The next morning, we drank coffee and picked up a box of Redcoats vinyl, it arrived! We had been awaiting their arrival for some time and greeted it with open arms and quivering thighs. This afternoon we travelled south to Byron Bay.

Up until this point it had not occurred to us what was happening in Byron Bay.. schoolies. Fucking schoolies. God damn wasted teenagers. The town was positively crawling. Teenage waste land! They're all wasted! My god, what a sight. We played this night at the Great Northern. It is a wonderful room! We had played there with the ever impressive Karnivool earlier this year, but was great to have the entire stage to ourselves, with a PA system that could very well blow the top of ya noggin clean off. Tonight's show was free entry, at our request, and the people did appreciate this, the numbers proved this point. Another fine night, with friends Blonde On Blonde and Royston Vasie along for the trip. 

Seeing as it was schoolies, the town was ripe with law enforcement. Pigs everywhere. Spying out anything they could pin on anyone. At soundcheck, we were greeted by a gaggle of said enforcers and they're lovely pet dog, who didn't seem to be having the greatest time… how could you enjoy that life? Poor mutt... I'm sure though, they aren't in as much shit as the poor, beautiful horses that are forced to ride down streets of asphalt all through the night, surrounded by loud, obnoxious behaviour… anyhow, the show was a great time.

After we had played, we were informed that our dear friend and cosmic brother, Fadi Hosn, had been escorted out for having too much fun and that aforementioned enforcement pooch had strolled through our show, whilst we were playing, and went about hunting stoners. Why would you? We don't know. What harm is a high man at a rock show? All they are guilty of is omitting vibes of pure happiness into the universe... but we can't have that now, can we?! NO! He was promptly escorted from our show, but not before they stopped by our merch desk and inspected our cargo. They didn't find a thing, clean as a whistle, officer! The gaggle exited the premises, destined for the sty, but one female officer made her way back to the most wonderful Sophia at our merch stand and asked what time we would be playing Dreamshaker… "I love that song…" 

We were staying upstairs that night, so the three bands made our way upstairs with our riders after we had packed down, and sat on the balcony overlooking teenage wasteland long into the night. Dan, drummer of Vasie/Hunting Grounds was the star of the evening, ending his evening by standing on the balcony, dropping his dacks (which he does at every opportunity) and mooning the teens, screaming "OI FUCKEADS!" to streams of laughter followed there after by tears of hilarity. Good, good times!

The next morning we awoke, packed the van, and got outta there! This night we were destined for Toowoomba. This was our first time to Toowoomba, and we were most pleasantly surprised by the wonderful town. So clean! So neat. Toowoomba is high above sea level, atop a mountain/high plain, so the air is clear and crisp, not so much of the Queensland humidity we have become accustomed to.

We played at the Spotted Cow in the front bar, which is a first for us, not having played a front bar show before, and it was a rather enjoyable vibe! After soundcheck, we were treated to a trough of spaghetti Bolognese from the staff which we shared among fifteen odd hungry musicians/road warriors. The beer was cold and it was flowing! The bar filled up through Blonde On Blonde and Royston Vasie, and by the time we played, the vibe was great. We played an inappropriately loud show (as is tradition) and those who were there seemed to enjoy it very much.

Our friend, Chop, made the mission over from Brisbane, as did a few other beautiful people. See, when we signed Chop's arm in Brisbane, he mentioned that his mate, Sparkie, was a tattoo artist. He had done the rest of his ink and mentioned that he wanted to tattoo our signatures on his arm… we weren't too sure of how sincere he was about it, or about making the mission to Toowoomba, but lo and behold, our mate Chop is a fuckin' man of his word. Chop now has the four of our signatures tattooed on his arm. True story! This is, obviously, a first for us and took us quite by surprise!

Our new best friend, Chop.

We have been so sincerely blown away by the love, magic and cosmic affection that radiates from our fans. When we are all in the same room, all engulfed in the same vibrations, the love that radiates in incendiary. As this is our first headline tour, this is the first time we have been able to gauge this on a sincere, and national, scale, and it is flippin' our wigs! (Thank you, you are fucking beautiful).

After Toowoomba, we made our way back down to Byron Bay for another night of rest upstairs at the Great Northern. Schoolies had seriously kicked up a level since last we were there and the town was crawling. We were invited to watch Nina Las Vegas DJ downstairs, so wandered down for a beer and a boogie, (until the dubstep kicked in… ew) but not before an adventure along the beach from Watego's beach to town. It was beautiful. We climbed a cliff and I felt like Jimmy Page in The Song Remains The Same, climbing to the summit where stood the hermit, with staff and lantern. It was a wonderful experience though rather than finding enlightenment, we found nought but wasted teenagers.

After a nights rest we continued our journey down to Newcastle on our way to Sydney, and stayed the night. We were welcomed to town by a lightning storm of absolute power and epic proportions to which Led Zeppelin & Gustav Hulsts' Mars, The Bringer Of War of the planets suite, was our soundtrack. It was quite a moment! After yet another rest (it's a hard life) we hit the road, a.m. styles, for Sydney, where we had been invited to play a song at the fifth birthday party for our record label, Island Records. We were told we could play anything, so we chose to play our version of TV On The Radios' Wolf Like Me, which we have been playing as a regular in our set this tour. The wildest thing was that the label had forked out and hired a seven-piece horn section! So we had the privilege to play along side some amazing musicians, and the arrangement that was put together was fucking WILD! So discordant and fucked up, it really stood out against the other acts of the night and was a lot of fun for all involved. It was great to see the Hilltop Hoods in such a small room, and with a horn section! Also Clare Bowditch, and the many others that performed. (Clare Bowditch is a complete champion by the way, a beautiful spirit, and a total rock fan!). We got drunk, partied, got yelled at by hotel security, slept, woke up, and wrote a tour diary. Sweet life, Who's Rollin'.