FRIDAY 30/8/02 - Driving to Brisbane

At least the hideous hour of the beginning of my day had been set back so that now it was just a silly hour. Silly enough to make me very tired.

We took, on Wesley's request, whatever road it is that takes us up the non-coast way to Brisbane. I've never had anything against winter. In fact, I've often been known to proclaim my fondness for it (partly because I have sympathy for it: it seems like everyone involved is more cruel to winter than they really should be). Today, though, it is quite warm. And more than ever, I think everything feels better when its warm. I can't wait for the warmer weather. Nearing the end of winter, it seems like there is no end. And this winter has been relatively mild. How did I ever get through the cold ones?

It is also very dry out here: all the creeks are dried up and the dams are all but empty. It looks and feels like the people are being defeated.

Writing in the car makes your hand feel like a seismograph.

We played the band game on the way up, and it was an exhausting episode. It went for five or more hours, and for the first time, not only did I not get out first, but I was triumphantly victorious!

As usual we were running late, and so didn't have time for a soundcheck. Regardless, our show was great tonight, all the right elements combining to make it equally good for the crowd and for us.

SATURDAY 31/8/02 - Brisbane to Byron

The weather up here is great, and it's making me pine for summer down south to get out of bed. Unfortunately all non-band members got to gallivant around all day. Ben, Jamie and I spent all day in a rehearsal studio, auditioning drummers. None of which were quite right. It's a very exhausting procedure, especially when this leg is a little bit of a whirlwind leg. This took most of the day, and so by the time we got to Byron we had just enough time to catch some zeds or get some dinner before beginning to gear up for the show. Gearing up began quite early for some of us tonight...

I was suspicious, some years ago, that (not quite) every time I walked into an organisation's building, I made the computers crash. A number of times, as I walked into the building, their computers went down. Jamie had a radio interview with a Byron Bay radio station this evening. Halfway through the interview the transmitter for the whole radio station had a melt down, and the interview promptly ended...

The show tonight was almost typical. Well, almost typical up to the point where Jamie gets smashed on the head with a guitar.

Right at the beginning of our set, I had decided I would not be playing it nice and cool and tight tonight to a few people in a big empty-ish room with lots of space, and that instead I would have a bit of fun jumping around etcetera. Ben, I believe, made the same decision as I did, and while was not the tightest we've ever played, it could be described as deliciously raucous. We did play an encore, "I Put A Spell On You", and in the heat of the emotion of the moment, Ben threw his guitar over his head, and it was due to sail entirely across the stage and into the far wall. Instead, Ben was standing on the cord, and when the guitar was exactly over Jamie's head, the cord pulled taught, and the guitar plummeted weightily and struck Jamie square on the top of the head...

SUNDAY 1/9/02 - Byron to Sydney

One of the best outcomes of the drive back to Sydney (apart from it getting us back to Sydney) was that we made up names we would use if we were in the State Emergency Service (this discussion commenced because we saw some SES volunteers at one of our stops). Were we wrestlers, I believe these names would be equally appropriate. I was 'Viper', Jamie was 'The King', and Ben was (no his own choice) 'Mr Poopy Pants'.