Tamworth Country Music Festival 2006

Well it's only taken me 3 months to finally sit down and write a proper run down of the Tamworth festival. I figure that I took enough photo's to remind me of what actually happened so I should be able to piece together what happened, because without the photo's there would be no hope!

I'm meant to be the guy who updates the web page - so far I'm doing a stellar job!! Strike while the irons hot I always say. Lets hope the iron has been left on for quite a while in this case. Let me just start by saying that I can't remember when I have even had so much fun. Maybe I should just stop right there and leave my story at that, because I think that sums up the whole experience for me. It was our first trip away together with the band, and what a trip to be going on - 6 shows at two of the largest venues in the town, and 10 days to soak up the atmosphere at Australia's largest country music festival.

Even the 16 hour drive up there was fun. Maybe it was the anticipation of what lay ahead, or the fact that I didn't have to drive and could sip beer while playing the playstation in Lee's car. Rob if you ever read this - I was letting you win just to keep you interested!

Before we left Darren built the band a spanking new trailer to take on the road (complete with fridge for the beer) - little did I know that he had it fully sign written the day before we left - great surprise! (thanks Dale)

I spent the first day wandering the streets of Tamworth, getting my bearings, and checking out the Central pub on the main street, which made me loose my bearings again. I guess this seemed like a good thing at the time, but 4 hours later I wasn't so sure. We had our first show at West's Legends Bar that night and what an incredible way to kick off our Tamworth trip. Legends is a massive venue which always seemed busy no matter what hour of the day, and we were so excited knowing we had 4 shows to play there. As a band we have always played our best when we were under pressure and all the shows in Tamworth were no exception. The reception we received after each show was fantastic, crowds loving our energetic show and our take on country rock. Or maybe it was just the sexy sax player? We're still not sure.

We also played two shows at West's Diggers Bar, right in the heart of the town. This newly renovated venue was perfect for us, with a younger crowd loving our shows in the outdoor beer garden. West's also had the advantage of an upstairs nightclub which ran till 3am all week long. We soon became big fans of the 'Coyote Ugly Bar' as it was known. It had an abundance of promo girls that's for sure, who feature prominently in our photo's (see below). It wasn't long before they knew who we were (well maybe just Rob). Actually I dubbed Rob 'promo Rob' for the entire trip. We would send him in like a lamb to the slaughter (not that he minded), to see how many promotional items he could get out of the girls before he had to buy their Jim Beam, VB, Bundy or Cougar........or whatever it was they were trying to sell? Anyway we all had Jim Beam cowboy hats by the end of the week so we were quite impressed, and felt like true promo cowboys. Gav still makes me wear my hat to gigs "Mitch you HAVE to wear that hat, it's just you" (see hat in above photo). I should also mention that we aren't a 14 piece band as you might think after looking at the above photo - we just had a crew of fabulous friends and loved ones come and help us party all week long. Most stayed for the whole week - helping the band unpack, set up, fetch drinks while we are playing and then help pack up again. Having all the added extras just made the trip even more special - and made everything a whole lot easier (except sleeping arrangements!!!). Actually while I touch on sleeping arrangements - 9 guys to sleep in a 2 bedroom hotel room was a new experience. After Rob tried to get 2nd knuckle (I won't explain this) I never slept properly for the remainder of the trip, between that and Gav's snoring. Oh and I hope Darren charged the hotel for the fumigation service he was providing.

Ok so I have heaps more to write and I probably should finish this now - but there is a Rolling Stones special on telly in 10 minutes - so I'm just going to post this for the minute - check back later this week for a full run down!

next day............Ok I'm back again - now it's been 3 months and one day - but who's counting!!

Ok now where was I..............one thing I can say that we did well was document on digital cameras the whole trip - between Rob, Shane and myself we took over 400 photo's - true tourists! I even took mine to the pub one night or two. Thanks to Simmsy for being my personal photographer - and thank god Rob found that hub cap! Gav not to be outdone put us all to shame with his effort a few days later, Rob and I realising that you just gotta have cowboy boots if you are going to be naked in Tamworth! Can't wait for next year!