Tuesday 8 March 2016

Adelaide Fringe: week 1...

I started my Adelaide Fringe tour in the town of Salisbury about 12 miles from Adelaide and played
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.


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.

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.
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.
The Fringe Garden

Thus ended week 1 of my tour...

And now I am having three days off before starting on Week Two!