| It's been a very social start to the year and I've enjoyed some intimate catch-ups with friends and shared tales and adventures - I think that sort of thing is my favourite activity - sharing good times with good people. Bad people can be fun sometimes, but there is a time and a place.
I have been thinking about using my blog to write about some deeper matters - some thoughts and ideas etc. then I thought again and decided that people aren't really interested, so not just now. But it may happen soon - I do have things to say and if my blog isn't the place to put them, then I don't know where is.
But for now, I'll just use it as a place to store the things that I've been doing. So looking in my diary, the pre-booked catch-ups in January have included Foxy, Lisa, Matt, Sarah, Karin, John, Sharon, Steph and Charlotte. And in February, some of the same names and additional ones of Tonia, Bec, Terri, Mara and also Trudi.
There have been some musical highlights worth mentioning and they start with when I saw Casey Donovan at Bennett's Lane. First of all, I love the venue as they are active in ensuring that there isn't any talking when the gigs are happening - it is mainly a jazz gig, but others play there too. Casey is a young woman with an incredible voice. Having won Australian Idol in 2008 at the age of 16, she backed off from the music industry and has slowly found herself and decided what she wanted to do. As a result, we get to see a stunning performer who sings wonderful songs and they all have something special in them. Whenever she performs, you can feel what she is putting into that performance. She is a pleasure to see and I see her when I can, but as she lives in Sydney, the chances aren’t that often. But there you go.
Another gig was Billy Ocean who shared a gig with UB40 at the Palais Theatre. Now let me say here and now that Billy was my disco hero – I loved all that he did and I had never seen him live before. He was out here just after I started going out with Carolyn but she isn’t a fan at all, so I didn’t go. But I wasn’t going to miss him again and I went on my own and it was well worth it. He did just 60 minutes of all his hits – he gave it a fine go and the crowd were singing along and were on their feet – it was a great gig.
I also got to see some other favourite acts in February including the incredible Dan Sultan – I don’t understand why he isn’t an even bigger star than he is – I love going to see him do his stuff. Then there is the incredible Archie Roach who I saw do a short set and he was was moving as ever.
And another great gig was seeing Rod Stewart who was doing the rounds in a Greatest Hits tour that had almost all my favourites in it – he played for about 2.5 hours and I was very happy to be there.
And I also went a blues gig where some of our finest guitarists were parading their wares. Included at the event were Geoff Achison (the finest guitarist I have ever seen), Jimi Hocking and Lloyd Speigel. It was a good night and it reminds me how blessed we are to have talent at that so available to fans. Excellent stuff.
And that is about it for January and February. |
