Redcoats' Tour Diary: Part Two

Thursday 15 November
Star Bar, Bendigo

Today we ventured to Bendigo, the hometown of our mighty cosmic jiving axe-wielding hero, Neil Wilkinsword. This is the second time the 'coats have played in the 'Go and we were all very excited to meet and greet the local crew, their friends and family.

We scooted up the old Calder Highway which is very familiar to us as we have spent many days in this part of central Victoria writing and jamming tunes in farm houses. However, whilst we were all singing along to Paul Simon's Call Me Al, Christmas came early and we were rudely interrupted by the Victorian Police. Once again it was for revenue raising, not protection of the people.

After a successful sound check and a small tour of the Bendigo back streets, we had an epic BBQ feast at the Wilkinson residence. Catching up with friends and family in cities we don't constantly visit is always an important part of touring and it's a great opportunity to share stories and of course display our hard work by playing them a kickass rock show.

After we gorged ourselves on meat and beer we headed back to the Star Bar to watch some of Neil's childhood friends play in the band called The Tyson Hodges Trio. They play psych-rock instrumental blues jams. It was their first show in long time as they've had new members join and a new direction in sound. Keep an eye for these guys, they're a very classy three-piece with tasteful musicianship.

Tonight's show was a killer one, great energy and a rowdy response. Neil did Bendigo proud and we will definitely be coming back to the 'Go for future tours.

Friday 16 November
The Waler's Hole, Warrnambool

The next stop on the Who's Rollin? Tour is Warrnambool or as we like to call it, the 'Horny Bull'. This town has been good to us over the last couple of years. We've had some great shows and the locals have really supported our welcome. However tonight's show turned into shambles. We like to play loud in the Redcoats and unfortunately the PA provided could only handle vocals and a bit of kick drum. We rock up on time after travelling four hours from Bendigo only to find out that there's a wake service happening at the same time as sound check. The deceased was a lady 91 years of age who had died peacefully. We decide to just leave sound check for now and just wing it when it's show time. We wait around, drink beer, get a feed and wait for doors to open so we can start making loud noises.

First act for the evening is old mate's band Child. They play loud and fuzzy stoner blues rock. It was one of the better performances I've seen from them for a while. Next band on the evening is Royston Vasie. Their performance really sprung some ear drums in the pub and sent positive vibrations that definitely changed some of the punters moods from grieving to groovy. After watching their performance tonight I thought we had made the right choice for our main support. These guys are fun and genuine and I'm enjoying their music more and more every night and finding myself singing their melodies in the morning.

Our show tonight was pretty rough the sound was awful, the foldback kept feeding back on us and there was a fight in front of Neil first song into the set. The sound was like a swamp monster lurking along the stage leaving a trail of mud and slime. Neil threw his guitar, broke a machine head and Emilio almost unleashed his serpent charmer after it was requested from a rowdy dancing girl in the front. As soon we walk off stage some dude ran after us telling how much he enjoyed the show and asked if we wanted to punch some cones with him in celebration of what he heard and witnessed, we politely declined and proceeded to do the pack-up. The vibe amongst the gang after the show was the same as the wake service we walked into that afternoon... lest we forget and move on!

Saturday 17 November
Jive Bar, Adelaide

Early start today as we have to drive for six hours to Adelaide. We start the morning off with breakfast with all the bands at a cafe called Fish Tales. The waitresses were babes, lots of laughs and spirits were high besides only having a few hours sleep. The drive from Warrnambool to Adelaide is a new one for us; we went through Mount Gambier, which is a beautiful part of Australia. Rocked up in Adelaide on time, we went straight to the Jive Bar and did our set up and sound check.  Doc Paul Martin did a thorough tuning of the PA and onstage monitors, so the sound was superior, it was very clear and very clean.

The Child lads kicked off the evening again. Their show lacked a bit of energy as they were dealing with some technical difficulties. It was a quite start for both Child and Vasie but it did start to fill up towards the end of Vasie's set.  Our set tonight is a strong one and we introduce a new song to the set called Feast Of The Howling Wolves. It's definitely a highlight of the show as it is the first time we've played it live since recording it for the album. Unfortunately, the song only made it as a B-side and going by its response we all agree it should have gone on the album. Oh well, hindsight is a bitch.

People of Adelaide got into it tonight, besides not being as many people as we would have liked, it was well received. We got the chance to catch up and have a photo with some of our die-hard fans Liz and Gus. They're great cool people and it's comforting to know that our music has had a profound effect on them.

On the way home from Adelaide somewhere in SA