I started my Adelaide Fringe tour in the town of
Salisbury about 12 miles from Adelaide and played
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| The road to Auburn, Clare Valley |
at the RSL, which is like our Royal British Legion. They’ve just begun being a Fringe venue. They are still getting the hang of it and were sorry that more people hadn’t come but for a Fringe audience it was actually respectable – 26 people. Lord knows how they found out about it though – there was no way to tell it was happening apart from one of the smaller posters we sent which was all alone on a very long wall behind the parked cars outside. The building is next to a railway line and a warning bell dings to close the crossing as freight trains rumble through. During my encore – I am doing
Vincent Lindsay-Clark’s,
Pulsar – the dinging sounded in perfect time with some notes towards the end; and were also in tune! The people in charge were really friendly and the audience was full of enthusiasm. I met some good people afterwards who stayed to chat including Charlie, a local jazz musician. Nest day, at the
Migration Museum the room was full. My concert began at 6.00 pm and while it was blisteringly hot outside the air-conditioning inside made it a cool haven. We had a 10 minute comfort break at half time for people to get water outside on the terrace and then we started again. I began to notice, about halfway through
Variations on Sakura, that it was becoming darker. On I went, but there was no denying it – it was getting dark. I began on the horror story that is
Usher Waltz and by the time I’d finished that, I could hardly see the audience any more at all. It didn’t matter to me because the light from my iPad screen meant that for
Cazaapa (which I still don't know off by heart) I could easily see the notes. My last piece I do from memory and, as no-one mentioned the darkness I just carried on to the end and then, as the organiser came back into the room at the end, she exclaimed: ‘Oh my goodness I forgot all about putting the lights on!’ I have a second concert there next Thursday so everyone has made notes in their calendars to remember the lights.
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| HATS Courthouse |
On Friday night it was a great gig in Auburn. Cherie and Ivan, who run the
HATS Courthouse Cultural Centre, gave us a warm
welcome back along with Sound & Lighting man extraordinaire, Bob. The venue
is looking great as are they. They’ve added air-conditioning and a swish new
lighting rack since we came in 2014. It has a wonderful acoustic in any case
and it’s a delight to play here. Thank you, also, to the appreciative audience,
who’d come out on a very hot night. Such levels of heat can be disastrous and Cherie,
Ivan and Bob told us some sobering stories of heroism, from when the terrible bush
fire swept across the area in November, changing course as the wind swung round
until it was over a hundred miles across. There was evidence of the dreadful
damage it did all over the landscape as we drove through.
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| fire damage |
It was really hot the next day - 40 degrees by the time we set out for McLaren Vale. Down there the sea breeze made it cooler and we were
grateful for that as soon as we stepped out of the car. Kate and Dave who run
the
Singing Gallery, and Michael, who helps them, are another team who know how
to run a great venue and make performers feel welcome. You might remember me
mentioning the venue dog, Yanni, last time I played there and I am delighted to
say that Yanni is sprightly and well despite her advancing years. This is not
surprising - she is well fed and so were we, with deliciously cooked locally
produced food. During my Bach a very
strange noise made me think that someone had fallen over backstage taking a
stack of mops and brooms with them. I carried on playing, no-one else batted an
eyelid and a few seconds later it happened again but now sounded as if several
things were running about on the roof looking for a way to prise it apart and
get in. I carried on playing seeing as everyone else took no notice. Michael
told us later that it was possums. Darkness was falling as I started the Bach
and possums wake up and begin gambolling about once it’s dark. Later on I heard
one – it had an indescribably weird cry. It sounded accusing and was like
someone with a sore throat trying to turn a cough into a roar.
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| Singing Gallery |
Next day I played at
Trinity Sessions, the Church has a great acoustic and is cool inside. Roger
and Yvonne run it with supreme efficiency and there was a good walk up as well
as respectable sales on the Fringe. The heat had brought thunder with it. A
thunderclap accompanied my opening
O’Carolan piece and then the storm went
elsewhere. In the second half it came back and there were sundry other
thunderclaps. I managed OK with concentration and the audience was clearly used
to dramatic weather manifestations. And then as I began on my encore which was
suitably cosmological given the eruptions outside (Vincent Lindsay-Clark’s
Pulsar) the heavens opened and the mother and father of all downpours
descended, shaking the roof. So there was a bit of a competition between my
Pulsar and the deluge and when we went outside the car park had been turned
into a lake at one end.
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| The Fringe Garden |
Thus ended week 1 of my tour...
And now I am having three days off before starting on Week Two!
