Geese and Gigs at the Adelaide Fringe

Reunited with my errant guitar I took the train into Adelaide from Marion, where I'm staying. It's only a few hundred yards to Kintore Avenue from the station and The Migration Museum gig was a great way to open my Adelaide Fringe experience as it sold out. The room had an excellent acoustic and even though occasionally you could hear the racing cars of the Clipsal roaring  in the distance it was not an intrusion. There is a review of the gig here which I'm very pleased with. It was a pleasure to perform there. The people who run it are really helpful and made sure that I had everything I needed so it was a good start.
The next day we hired a car and drove north to Auburn.




Here's a film to show something of the magic of the place - just at the edge of the famous Clare Valley wine region. Cherie and Ivan, who run the HATS Courthouse Cultural Centre gave us a warm welcome and it was an inspiring venue to perform at. Once again, I was bowled over by the appreciation and enthusiasm of the audience.

It's official - I'm going to Adelaide!

The Adelaide Fringe to be precise.

You can't argue with black and white. There I am listed in the Adelaide Fringe Programme 2014. I've always said it would be nice to miss out some of the dank dark chilly days of the British early Spring and have sunshine instead. Suddenly the arrangements need making.

 We need to see about accommodation and car hire and flights and visas and check the passport is not going to be out of date come the day...
I'm practising with great focus and determination so as to do Adelaide proud. I'm practising another from Vincent Lindsey-Clark's Fiesta Americana, called Vuelo de la Mariposa - a gorgeous piece with delicate cascades of harmonics and some quite fiendish arpeggios. Hence the Australian butterflies. (The one on the right has a cool name - the Ulysses butterfly).
I shall be appearing for one performance in each of five different venues across the two weekends of the Fringe. My first venue, on February 28th, is a quite extraordinary place in its own right - the Migration Museum at 82 Kintore Avenue. After that I drive to Auburn in the Clare Valley (a famous wine region - hurrah) to perform at HATS Courthouse Cultural Centre on March 1st - a great chance to see more of the area and quite possibly sample some wine! Mind you there might not be time. The next day I'm on at Trinity Sessions in Clarence Park so it's a drive back to Adelaide. Then we have a week to do some sightseeing before it's time to drive to McLaren Vale - another famous wine growing region! The venue there, on March 7th, is The Singing Gallery. Then back to Adelaide and the final show, on March 9th,  which is in the State Dining Room at Ayers House which is like a big National Trust place and the oldest such building in South Australia. It is all very exciting and I can't wait.