The Famous Spiegeltent

Ok, I have kept you in suspense long enough. Sorry folks... life gets in the way sometimes!!

So... I went to the hairdressers first thing in the morning - I had John this time who is Irish and a bit deaf which makes for some confusing conversations! He is also very rough... and, he has never got my fringe quite right. I think I will have to make sure I don't get John in the future. I managed to fix the fringe at home later in the shaving mirror with hairdressing scissors I keep for such emergencies. Phew!

I spent a lot of the day practising and before I knew it it was time to get ready. I glammed up in the new frock I bought in Brisbane for the occasion - black strapless with a pink beaded floral design on the front. Sounds gross but looks stunning! Yes even I do say so. And, it was quite chilly so I was able to wear the extremely glamorous Alannah Hill coat Adam gave me for my birthday. I didn't expect to be able to wear this in December, it is fake fur, a deep pinkish red, very wintry but worked with my outfit.

My taxi was half an hour late so I was a bit panicky by the time I got there, but they were still setting up the drums and I really wasn't needed. Rebecca introduced me to the other band members - Ross, the bass player, and Ian, the drummer. Or Kit and Caboodle as Rebecca calls him. Ross was funny, he had been joking about what a bitch I am and how he's going to freeze me out of the band, before he'd even met me. Ian was very lovely and friendly. They were both GREAT to play with. It's amazing how different it is playing with different musicians, especially ones as experienced as these guys. During sound check we didn't have much time, but ran through the songs I was doing and they ran pieces of a few other songs as well. Ross and Shane offered some suggestions which I tried to incorporate, and they seemed pretty happy with things. The sound in the Spiegeltent is quite weird, the foldback wasn't very powerful, and I couldn't hear much piano or vocals. Funny since I was playing on a huge grand piano. But once you get drums in the mix you tend to lose those frequencies. While we rehearsed, Harry (their son) wandered round taking digital photos of us. Official photographer extraordinaire!

The show was a sell out, and soon it was time to let the audience in. We were all a bit nervous I think, and hovered between the storage area behind the stage, and the "band room", a little portable room behind the tent. Rebecca looked lovely, she had on a silky dress in a similar colour scheme to mine. Shane got changed into a great shirt, a country style black number with a red and green floral design studded with diamentes. Rebecca proceeded to call him Mr Fancy Shirt for the rest of the night.

At the last minute Shane said to me "I hope you're not offended but I don't think you should play Nobody Breaks This Heart Of Mine. It's just that the band doesn't know it very well and we always stuff it up." I was slightly disappointed as I had worked hard to learn the song, and it was my favourite recording on the album, but I understood exactly what he meant. As we hadn't had the chance to rehearse it properly with the whole band, if they mucked it up and I played what was on the CD, or vice versa, it would sound terrible. Plus, this was the song I was least comfortable with anyway, so that would certainly relieve some stress. I told him it was cool.

The Spiegeltent is an incredibly intimate venue, a round room lined with mirrors with most audience members seated in rows in the centre, and booths around the perimeter. The audience were seated, with all the seats full and lots of people standing at the back.



"Ladies and Gentlement, would you please welcome to the stage, Rebecca Barnard!"

It was on. The four band members filed onto the stage and I stood somewhat awkwardly to the side, waiting to be invited onstage. The audience could mostly all see me, but there was nowhere for me to sit so I just had to ignore them and watch the show. I did so, sipping champagne to calm my nerves.

Rebecca was on fire. She is hilarious onstage, completely comfortable with herself and the band, and most importantly, the audience. She's not afraid to be a dag, something I've always admired her for, but she can also be very quick and witty. I noticed even my dad was laughing at her banter. He can be a tough nut to crack, I was impressed.

They started fairly upbeat, meaning "Nobody Breaks..." a slow sumptuous jazz number, was stunning. I was so glad I wasn't playing it, it was perfect as it was, really minimal and heartbreaking, really. I had tears in my eyes by the end.

Finally I was invited to the stage, getting a huge cheer from my fanclub. Mum had bought about 10 tickets and they were all sitting together yelling "Cara!". Also I spotted Hayley down the back with her friend Inneke, who was getting right into it. I clambered onstage quite unglamorously - the piano stool was right at the front of the stage and the people in the front row had their drinks all sitting on the stage, leaving nowhere for me to step.

The band immediately included me in their onstage banter, and with Ross bagging me out to everyone, saying I was a Myspace stalker, I immediately had the crowd on my side. Plus Rebecca told everyone about how she had looked after Chester, so I really sounded like a stalker!!

We started off with the "Bob" (To Make You Feel My Love), which went really well. It's so much nicer playing on a grand piano than the digital one, and Rebecca's delivery was so smoky and beautiful. Then the band came back and we did the other two, "As Free As You Can Be" and "Fortified", which went well. The la la la backing vocals in the first one are heaps of fun, I love singing backing vocals! Most of Shane's last minute instructions flew out of my head but I remembered enough and got a great reception from the audience.

It was over all too quickly and I went back to my leaning position at the side of the stage for the final few songs. The Spiegeltent is run like clockwork, they have 3 shows a night there so you have to finish your set in the allocated 70 minutes or else!

The other Bob - "Boots of Spanish Leather" - brought the house down, just Rebecca singing accompanied by Shane, and then the band came back for the encore "I Hurt". I really would have loved to join in on this one, if we'd had a proper rehearsal I think that might have happened. I had jammed on it once just with Rebecca, and I could have done it quite easily, but I thought it would be a bit presumptuous to climb back onstage uninvited so I stayed put and enjoyed.

Afterwards I congratulated the band backstage, and they all complimented me and said I did really well. They were all glowing with that post performance buzz... this is what we do it for. It's certainly not for the money!!!

I went out and found my mum, dad, aunties and friends, who all thought the show was great and I was wonderful of course! Nothing like your family to stroke your ego. I apologised for only doing 3 songs, they were all there just for me and I really didn't do very much. It would have been more but it just didn't work out. They all brushed it off and said I looked beautiful and sounded great, etc etc. And all went and bought a CD from Rebecca, got her to sign it, and introduced themselves as "Cara's mum", "Cara's aunty", etc.

They invited me to have dinner with them, and Hayley invited me to have dessert with them, but I politely declined. This was a night for hanging out with rockstars. Or adult contemporary stars with kids in tow. But whatever. Rebecca had alluded to going out afterwards so I assumed I was included but thought I'd better check. I asked Shane what they were doing.
"I think we're going to get some food."
I was starving. "Do you mind if I tag along?"
"I'd be offended if you didn't!!"

So that was that.

I joined Rebecca, Shane, Harry, and about7 or 8 other people for Peking Duck at Southbank. Including another female rockstar & her husband and son, a well known radio personality and a pirate. We consumed lots of delicious food and wine and enjoyed good conversation. They were genuinely interesting and intelligent people who had a lot to say and were genuinely interested in me and what I had to say as well. There was so much affection around the table, I felt extremely comfortable and had a great night.

Shane and Rebecca wouldn't hear of me catching a cab home so I climbed in the back seat of their Avalon and they dropped me off on their way over the Westgate. They came in to say hello to Chester, and he was all shy sleepy and cute. I was so happy, the whole night had gone so well and I felt that, whether or not I played any future gigs with these people, we would always have a lot of fondness for each other and I would see them again. I am so happy that I was brave enough that one day to track down Rebecca's email address and write to her.

I sent Rebecca a copy of Casbar's Rock - the mixtape I make every year at Christmas and send to my special people. She called me when she got it and she was so excited.
"They are such great songs!! Did you make this??? Thankyou so much!!"

So hopefully this story is really the beginning of a chapter rather than the end...

Photos pinched from the Spiegeltent website . I will add a couple from dinner later.

One more sleep...

So... I'm playing with Rebecca and her band tomorrow night at the Famous Spiegeltent. Well, tonight, technically. Very exciting!!! I can't quite believe it's really happening... the Spiegeltent is one of those legendary venues that sounds amazing to play at but you never think it will happen to you. Well I didn't.

We had a little run through this morning, the songs I'm doing sound lovely with piano, can't wait to hear it with the whole band. I've even got a new frock for the occasion!! And it's sold out - mostly thanks to my mum i think!!

Wish me luck - I found out Tim Rogers will be in the audience, as if playing with Rebecca & co isn't nervewracking enough!!! Holy crap!

I return to a city shrouded in smoke.

I return to a city shrouded in smoke. It sits thickly in the air like fog on a mid-winter morning, and like in mid-winter, you know it is not likely to lift by lunchtime, like it would have in the spring time. The sun is a pale pink disc hanging in the gloom, casting an eerie light over the grey city.

I have only been in the city for six hours but already I am feeling nauseous from the constant inhalation of impure air. Lucky I escaped the worst of it.

The weekend in Melbourne was reportedly horrendous. Forty three degrees (celsius) on Sunday, with bushfires burning out of control across half the state. While I was two states away, cruising in a convertible on a perfect day up the Sunshine Coast of Queensland.

After Sydney Came Brisbane...

Brisbane was great, a few days of relaxing with my boy.

Our friend Sammi has been living overseas for several years, but she is home for Christmas and was staying at her parents' flat on the Sunshine Coast. They were in Brisbane for the day, so she came to visit us and stayed the night. Sammi has recently gotten back together with Marc, her Canadian boyfriend, and is very excited about it. She sounds pretty sure that this time it's for real and I'm so happy for her. She is a gorgeous girl, very happy go lucky and positive and she deserves someone wonderful. Which by all accounts, Marc is.

The next day, we rented a convertible and drove up to the Sunshine Coast with the top down, singing at the top of our lungs. And I wonder why I had nodules!

The drive up was great, and when we reached Mooloolabah we had fish n chips by the beach. Awesome fish n chips!!!

We went to her parents' apartment and got ready for the beach. By the time we got there a big wad of clouds had made their way in front of the song, which was a bit disappointing. I didn't end up going in the water, I'm a complete wuss. Next time!!

Before the sun set Sammi wanted to take us up the mountain to check out some views, so we drove up with her in the driver's seat and me navigating! Ha, that's a joke. We managed not to get lost and the views were pretty spectacular. The town at the top of the mountain reminded me a lot of the towns in the Dandenongs in Victoria. I guess touristy little mountain towns are the same everywhere.

We topped off the day with dinner (Moreton Bay bug curry... mmm...) before Adam and I drove back to Brisbane.

Another day I walked the half an hour from Adam's apartment into the city to meet him and some work friends for lunch at one of those sushi train restaurants. It was nice except for the fact that he only invited me 10 minutes before I had to be there. I was quite happily lying on a banana lounge by the pool reading my book and soaking up some sun, when my phone rang. I quickly put some clothes on and headed to the city but they'd all pretty much finished eating by the time I got there. Oh well. It's always nice to remind people that I actually exist, I'm not a made-up girlfriend!!

I spent the rest of the day shopping and found a hot dress for my Spiegeltent gig. I always went into Allans (music store) and practiced the songs since Adam doesn't have a piano in his apartment.

The rest of the time I spent lounging by the pool, dealing with band emails (work doesn't stop when you go away) and practising songs on the tiniest little keyboard imaginable (the keys are like those on a kiddie keyboard).

So that was Brisbane, a nice change of scenery and a bit of a break from the insane Melbourne weather.

Sydney

It has been a busy week with my birthday amongst other things.

On Wednesday I was a freelance page turner (paid!) for the cast recording of a new Australian musical. This followed by my usual job (unpaid) as co-producer of Byte Into IT, the computer nerd show on RRR.

On Thursday I had to take Chester to the vet to see how the new medication is going and get more supplies. The good news is one of the tablets is definitely doing its job and his blood pressure has improved markedly. The bad news is his cough is still pretty bad so there is still some swelling around the heart obstructing his airway. There is another drug that might help this, but it only comes in a dosage for larger animals. It is in a capsule because it tastes foul, which means it's not as simple as breaking it in half like I do with his other medication (bear in mind he's only 2.5kg). There are a few alternatives but they all involve extra effort and expense. Of course I will do what it takes to alleviate his discomfort, but this is getting to be a pain in the butt. For someone to look after him for a few days, they will need to put half of one tablet and a quarter of another into his food and watch that he eats them, and either a capsule which he won't want to eat and will have to be shoved down his throat, or a syringe of paste into his mouth. Plus I will have to go to a special chemist place to get the capsules or paste made up.

Anyway, at least he's improving.

So the rest of Thursday was spent preparing for our gig in Sydney the next day, and my holiday in Brisbane following that. I had to pack (including clothes for the gig plus 5 days in Brisbane, as well as instruments, merch & other gig related stuff), make phone calls organising all sorts of things, pick up my reflux medication from the pharmacy, learn 2 more songs for my gig next week with Rebecca, pack Chester's things and drop him off at Rebecca's house to be looked after (she took such a shining to him right from the beginning), check out some shoes at Sportsgirl a friend had on yesterday that are awesome and would be perfect for the Sydney gig outfit, put some music on my new birthday ipod shuffle to listen to on the plane and by the pool in Brisbane.

When I was dropping off Chester, Rebecca told me she had had a vision, and asked me to learn another song - You Am I's "Heavy Heart". It is a beautiful song, I agreed readily but then wondered how I am going to nail all these songs since I will be in Brisbane without a piano for the majority of the week. I decided to take the little tiny synth we have borrowed for the gig (my vintage analogue synth is too delicate for the road) up to Brisbane so at least I could practice the chord progressions. It wasn't until later that Ric told me his friend was picking up the synth on Monday so it would have to come back to Melbourne with him. Shit, how would I learn these songs???? I begged him to call her and ask if we could keep it longer. He did so, without disclosing the fact that it would be travelling to Brisbane and back, and she consented. Thank God!

That night by about 9pm I was almost packed. That is, I had everything I needed laid out on my bed. I got the suitcases down from on top of the wardrobe. I had two small wheelies that I figured everything would fit into, and with any luck I could even send the one with all the musical gear in it back to Melbourne with the others rather than lugging it to Brisbane. I neatly packed everything into the cases and then retrieved the little synth from the next room. It was an inch too long for the biggest case. SHIT!!!!

There was another suitcase on top of the wardrobe, a humungous wheelie I didn't really want to use. Looks like I had no choice. I repacked everything into the huge case and zipped it up, hurrying as I had to catch a bus. Oh yeah I haven't explained this part of the plan. We were leaving on the first flight out the next morning: 6:15am. I was the only one who lived on this side of town and I didn't want to cop a $50 cab ride on my own. So I would make my way to the other side of the city and crash on Tom & Ric's couch for the night. Only problem is, there are major parking restrictions around their house and they don't have a visitor's permit, so I would have to catch the bus. This was fine, it was from the end of my street to the end of theirs. Not a huge deal. I dragged my suitcase to the front door with great difficulty. It was heavy thanks to all the musical gear. But it shouldn't be this hard! I looked at the base of the suitcase, sure enough, one wheel was broken. I remembered now, we had broken it moving Adam's stuff back from Sydney last year. There was no way I'd be able to wheel it to the bus stop by myself. Shit.

I called Ric, knowing he'd be on his way home from work. Good timing - he was just leaving and reluctantly said he'd come by. Reluctantly because it's SO not on the way. Oh well. Then I called Paris to explain my luggage crisis. I thought she might have a decent suitcase and since she was only going for one night and doesn't need an instrument, she might be able to lend me something. She answered the phone from work. At the bar. She told me that she was supposed to work till 4:30am. We had to leave for the airport at 5am. Uh-oh.

She did have a suitable suitcase, plus she offered for me to stay at her place where there was ample parking. She was going to find someone to replace her shift at work, and would be home soon. Perfect solution! I called Ric just in time to say don't bother coming, and to make sure the taxi stopped to pick us up at Paris' house on the way to the airport. Then I unpacked again and put everything back into the small suitcases. Much easier for me to transport and then Paris could use one of the small cases for an overnighter.

By the time I got to Paris' place I thought she'd be well and truly home but she was not. She arrived about 15 minutes later, apologising, saying it was tough to find someone to replace her. She'd had to offer $50 cash to get someone in. By now it was midnight.

At around one thirty I'd had enough of watching her check her emails and eating rice cakes with cheese and announced I'd be cranky as hell if I didn't go to bed soon. She laughed, remembering how tired & grumpy I'd been the day after my birthday party. "Go right ahead," she said, indicating the direction of her room. I got changed and took myself off to bed, hauling the piles of clothes off the unmade futon before setting the alarm on my phone for 4:45am and climbing in.

I didn't sleep too well and vaguely heard Paris climb in beside me much later. It seemed like a minute later and her phone was buzzing wildly on the chest of drawers. I picked up my phone. Four thirty. I looked over at Paris. Dead to the world. I curled up and waited till my phone went off fifteen minutes later before reluctantly heading off to the loo. I felt like I hadn't slept at all.

Suddenly the toilet erupted in shrill ringing. My phone. Was ringing. Loudly. At 4:45am. While I was peeing. With Paris' housemate asleep in the next room. Whoops.

I grabbed the phone, trying to mute the shrieking, finished peeing and answered a groggy "Hello?". Tom's voice was on the other end. "The taxi's at our place now. We'll be there soon."

That was an understatement. They lived less than two minutes away.

I immediately went and woke up Paris.
"The taxi's there. They're on their way!"
"What...? Shit, I haven't even packed yet."

I had tried so hard to get her sorted last night but eventually figured she was a grown up, a manager no less, and it wasn't my responsibility. Now, it was.

I rapidly dressed and took the small wheelie down to her room where she chucked some clothes off the floor into the case. I left her to it and went to brush my teeth. There was no time to put in contacts, I would have to wear my glasses. I never wear my glasses.

I got Tom to carry Paris' fairly large suitcase filled with my gear out to the maxicab, where the boys all made snide remarks about girls and clothes and was this a joint suitcase for everyone?

I sat in the cab for a while waiting for Paris, as the meter went up and up. Eventually I said, "I'm going in."

I went in to find her picking up various clothes off the floor and putting them down again.

"Are you ready?" I asked unecessarily.
"I can't find my jacket..."
"Which jacket?" I asked, scanning the room.
"My only jacket. It's black."
I left her searching the room and emerged a minute later from the living room. "This jacket?"
"Yes!! Where did you find it?"
"It was on the clothes horse. Now let's go!"

I was a bit frustrated that she, the manager, was holding up proceedings. But also a little bit pleased that it wasn't me. It usually is.

Ok it's getting late and I need sleep so I'm going to attempt to summarise from hereon in. Summary is not my strong poing! Attention to detail, that's what my resume boasts.

We made the flight even with the hassle of checking in guitars etc. Our friend and fellow musician Renny picked us up from the airport in his station wagon, a huge favour. He also lent me his 88 key digital piano - a lifesaver.

Paris didn't like the scungy cheap hotel in Kings Cross I had booked us into and refused to stay there. So we found another scungy even cheaper hotel with less old men hanging round it. This was more to her satisfaction, despite the rooms being like prison cells.

Ric borrowed his cousin's car and proceeded to almost kill us and several locals throughout the day. I don't blame him, Sydney's roads are horrendous.

Rehearsal that day was, interesting... the rented amps were atrocious, but I got a feel for the borrowed keyboards I would be using and also managed to see some semi-famous Sydney musos hanging round the rehearsal studios, and get a few minutes of shuteye waiting for the first lot of gear to be ferried to the venue (the borrowed car was not a station wagon).

Dinner was great, we had "The Best Thai" (yes the restaurant was really called that) and some wine to get the good vibes flowing. It worked, by the end of dinner we were in high spirits. Paris had spent the day meeting important people so was still buzzing from that.

The 3 boys leaving Sydney at 6am the next morning shared one prison cell and Paris, Tom and I shared the other. This caused Tom to OD on oestrogen and have to leave suddenly. I understood.

The venue, Candy's Apartment, was fantastic. The perfect size for us, nicely decked out with cute little private nooks and a big dance floor with about 50 mirror balls hanging above it. That was my favourite part. I've always loved mirror balls. Ahhh....

The show went surprisingly well. Considering half our gear was borrowed, we had all been up since 4am, and we were completely unknown in this city, we punched out a killer set and rather impressed the audience. Being on first, the venue was virtually empty for our first song. But by the last it had filled up to a respectable number. My cousin Matt and his two mates were there, and seemed to really enjoy it. Matt couldn't believe that this was the same band he saw up here 18 months ago. "You guys were SO much better than last time!" he kept saying.

Straight after the set we each downed two tequila slammers to get the party started and took lots of stupid photos on my camera. The other bands were really good, particularly Miyagi. Very post rock, more so than us, and very good at it. Dawn Collective were a very different band live to on record. Much better I think.

It was a fun night, I felt great in my new dress and enjoyed floating between various groups lapping up praise and discussing music, Sydney and random shit. This is what it's all about!!

For me the night probably should have ended when the bands finished and the DJ started playing bad techno (i thought that went out at least 5 years ago...?) but against better judgement agreed to go out with Paris. After the Unmentionable Taxi Incident (if you really want to know i'll email it to you, it's not something I want to blog), we met up with a friend of hers and went to some places that really weren't my scene. Eventually I disappointed her and took myself home. I had really only come with her so she wouldn't be alone, and now she was with people who would take care of her so I didn't feel too bad. I could feel my voice going and I needed sleep badly. I had been up for almost 24 hours.

I crashed out on the bottom bunk amid the smell of stale cigarette smoke, sweat and foot odour, satisfied that the night had been a success.

Enough for now!

Another year older...

Yesterday was my 28th birthday.

After a long weekend of birthday funness, I feel like the most loved and spoiled person in the world.

Adam flew down for the weekend, making it already special.

On Saturday night, 25 of my closest friends and family gathered for dinner at a Thai restaurant on Brunswick St, where everybody sits on cushions on the floor and eats way too much food and talks way too much crap. It was a great mixture of people from all my random friendship groups, and all got along well - some a little too well! I was given an astonishing array of gifts which I didn't expect, including an iPod shuffle, an amazing book about the gigs that changed the world, perfume (j'adore), champagne, vanilla vodka... the list goes on. And one group of friends all put in for a shopping expedition for "rockstar clothes" (more on that later).

I had a brilliant time, it was hilarious to see everyone including my dad sprawled on the floor sharing thai dishes and chatting to random people. A few people started to leave and I felt the night drawing to a close so asked the waiter for the bill. Ross was the one who said "but isn't there birthday cake?"

So we did birthday cake and then sorted out the bill which went remarkably smoothly given the number of people and the fact that everyone had eaten/drunk different things, shared meals etc.

Then a select group moved on to the Black Pearl, a gorgeous cozy bar just down the road for drinks. A few more people met us here and we stayed until about 3am drinking and talking yet more crap.

The next day I felt rather shabby, and unfortunately had to be at rehearsal at noon. Adam loaded up the car for me (not a small deal given the hundreds of kilos of gear I possess) and I headed off reluctantly. Usually I love rehearsal, but today I was a bit tired and cranky and just couldn't be bothered.

Rehearsal went ok anyway, and afterwards we headed to a nearby pizza shop to discuss our upcoming Sydney trip and the general future. At about 9pm I bailed, exhausted, bringing a takeaway Margarita home to my boy.

We sat on the couch, watched the end of Empire Strikes Back together and went to bed early. Couple happiness!

Monday was my actual birthday and we met Sandra for breakfast at 9.30 near the Botanical Gardens. She was her usual fun self and there was lots of sunshine so a brilliant start to the day.

Then Adam and I headed to Brunswick street to start the rockstar shopping expedition while we waited for Mich to join us. We found an amazing Alannah Hill furry coat majorly discounted (it's summer now) and a cute lightning bolt necklace. Adam bought me these. Spoiled!!

By the time Mich arrived I had found the perfect rockstar dress. I tried it on again to get her seal of approval and we agreed it was awesome. By this time we had been there for so long Adam was serving customers in the store.

All day text messages and phone calls were pouring in wishing me a happy birthday. I didn't know I knew this many people!! So lovely!!

We met Amber and Justin for lunch and then all five of us traipsed around while I looked for a belt to match the dress. Justin came up with the winning one.

For dinner we had dessert.

Amber works in a restaurant called Hot Chocolate, which only serves coffees, cakes & desserts (oh and cocktails) so we completely pigged out on sweet things until we felt completely sick.

Then I drove Adam to the airport (sniff), and went to RRR to fill for Local and/or General - a new music & demos program. By this time my voice was exhausted from partying, talking, singing and drinking too much for the last few days, so it was a bit of a flat show. I think the music was good though. Just struggled to get much sparkle into the presentation. Oh well...

I fell into bed at about 1am, pretty damn pleased with the great weekend I'd had. Lots of people don't like birthdays because either they don't like getting older or they don't like people making a fuss over them, but I love it!!! The getting older thing is starting to be less fun, but I always used to want to be older than I was so I have never really minded it. Now that it's getting closer to the big three oh it's a bit daunting, but I know heaps of people in their 30s having the time of their lives so I'm really not that worried. And as for people fussing over me... I love it!! What can I say??? Once a year I love having a good excuse for everything to be all about me and I don't think I'll ever get tired of that!

Spiegel Spiegel!

Right! So! Earlier this week I had some exciting news... I had an email from a famous person wanting me to play with them.

I responded to her email immediately and then spoke to her on the phone the following day. I asked her which songs I should start with (I had spent most of the day working out several of her songs on the piano). She surprised me by saying "Do you know Bob D - oh what am I saying - of course you know Bob Dylan,"
"Yeeees," I replied tentatively. "I don't have all of his albums or anything, but I am familiar with him..."

She then proceeded to give me half the name of the song she and her husband had been working out. She told me she'd send me the Mp3 later when Shane was home to do "all that techo stuff". I spent the ensuing hours trying to locate & download a copy of the song, to no avail (I don't have itunes or anything). It finally came through and I had a listen.

"You might not like it," she had warned. "It's really sweet, almost too much so."

To Make You Feel My Love was indeed very sweet, but not over the top and I could imagine her doing a beautiful version. She has a rather husky, quite low voice, and I was excited to hear how it would sound.

At first I was a bit daunted by the number of chords in the song. I managed to find a few versions of the guitar chords on the net (all conflicting of course), and extracted the correct progression, then transposed it into the key Rebecca wanted to try. I was hoping like hell this key would work because it was a bitch to transpose and I didn't want to do it again!!!

After a few plays through I realised it was quite a simple descending pattern and could easily venture into cheesy musical theatre territory. I would have to keep it very simple. Which suits me fine, I can only think of one thing at a time anyway!

She mentioned another song of hers "Keep Smiling", might also work well as a duet, so I spent the next day working on these two before our scheduled rehearsal at her place at 4.00. "Are you sure you don't mind coming to our place?" She asked. "I don't want to put you out." I don't think she understood that for me this was an opportunity of a lifetime, something I never thought would happen, and I would have driven to Sydney if I'd had to. Plus she lives just over the Westgate bridge from me, so it's literally a 5 minute drive.

Their house was just as I would have imagined it. Beautiful, slightly wild garden, lots of artwork and books everywhere, and of course music. Several guitars, piano, a wall of CDs... mmm.... heaven.

And Rebecca was gorgeous. She's much older than me, closer to my mum's age, but not condescending at all. We bonded immediately over dogs - their little bundle of energy Foxy greeted me at the door and I told her he was not much bigger than my little Chester and she demanded to see photos of him. I found some on my phone and it was love at first sight.

I met her husband and son who were off to cricket practice and we got down to business. They had a lovely upright piano in their living room, so that's where we rehearsed. It was very casual, but she was SO encouraging. After we ran through the Bob (as we called it) once, she said "Awwww, that was beautiful!!" And during another song when I piped in with some vocal harmonies she said "and you sing like an angel!". Which I know is far from the truth but it certainly bolstered my confidence!! Our voices did blend well together, we both have quite a breathy sound and she's so easy to sing with.

When I made a mistake & played the completely wrong chord, we would both burst out laughing and the same when she stuffed up. I'd say it was the funnest rehearsal I'd had in a long time.

We ran through several of her songs before deciding on Fortified as the one to do if they wanted a second song for the radio show we were doing.

During the session we had a visit from her mum, as well as several phone calls from musicians, some quite famous. No names, sorry!

After her son came home and kicked us out of the lounge room so he could watch Foxtel, we gravitated to the kitchen/dining area, a huge room with a massive table. She went to her computer to check out myspace... one of the musos she'd spoken to told her about a girl she was seeing in a local band & she wanted to check it out. She ended up asking me for help with adding videos to myspace and i became her favourite person!!

They ended up asking me to stay for dinner so I found myself sitting round the dinner table with two bona fide rockstars munching on Cambodian take away and sipping pinot gris.

I headed home after dinner to pinch myself and figure out whether the last few hours had actually happened. The best thing was that Rebecca was happy with how we sounded so I was definitely doing the live radio broadcast from the Spiegeltent. YAY!!!!!

****

The next day between practising the songs, I looked up the Spiegeltent website. I couldn't find the live broadcast anywhere. Hmmm... maybe try the ABC. Yep, there it was. Big Top Radio. Live from the Spiegeltent Forecourt... hang on. The Forecourt?

The whole reason I was doing this with Rebecca was that there is a grand piano in the Spiegeltent that she was dying to use. The Forecourt is the area outside. There is definitely no grand piano outside. Uh-oh...

I emailed her immediately. She responded later that day confirming that we would indeed be outside and this does indeed mean no piano. Bugger. But, she said she would come over the next day anyway and see what it sounds like with my Roland digital piano.

Arrgghhh! It dawned on me I was going to have a celebrity in my house. Better clean up!

I did a bit of tidying that night, and did so much more last minute tidying the next morning that I had just made breakfast when she arrived. So she sat on the fitball in the kitchen while I scoffed my sultana bran, muesli, yoghurt & fruit concoction and we discussed naturopaths. I gave her the card of mine, I think she's going to go see her.

You can probably gather by now that we really clicked. I don't know whether maybe she's the kind of person that really clicks with everyone, but if you think about it we're very different in age and experience and it's not a given that we would get along so well. But we did.

Anyway rehearsal went really well, by now I had memorised the songs and was feeling pretty confident. She was happy with how the digital piano sounded and so it was on! Yay again! She was going to pick me up at 8.00 and then afterwards I would go with her to see her husband play at the Spanish Club.

****

I don't want to tell you how long I spent getting ready, but lets just say that once I picked the dress, I tried on about 8 different bras to find one that worked, ended up wearing the first one i tried on but pulling my slip up over my boobs so that the lines of the bra weren't so obvious. Then I couldn't get my hair to do anything. I tried replicating this amazing french roll thing I fluked the other day, but of course it wouldn't work, and by the end there was so much hair spray and crap going on I didn't know what to do. Finally I shoved a comb in the top bit and pulled the rest into a low side pony just over my shoulder - sounds awful but actually very cute. And since I was wearing a yellow frock I bought in Hawaii and cute pink heels, cute was in order.

I was ready and had all my gear packed up when she got there (thank god I'd started getting ready so early!) and we got there in excellent time. I was surprised (for some reason although I'd texted just about everyone I know) to see several familiar faces sprinkled throughout the audience.

After a nervous wait, we were finally on and to my horror I could barely hear the keyboard at all. Due to this I got distracted and played the intro progression of Bob once instead of twice, without even realising it until Rebecca said 'sorry' under her breath, as if she'd missed the entry, not that I'd stuffed up. What a professional. I just played the first chord for a bit longer and she started and the rest went without hiccup. Oh, if you don't count the marching band and opera singers going on behind us in the Spiegeltent. And the music playing in the bar nearby. In fact, it's surprising anybody heard us at all!!

The second song was much easier, Rebecca was playing guitar and it was a lot less chords. And I got to sing.

While the presenter was chatting on air to Rebecca between songs, I went to the sound guy & asked if I could turn my keyboard up a bit, I could barely hear it. They ended up turning a speaker round for foldback, which made things much easier.

So Fortified went really well and I even managed to look up and smile at my friends, who were snapping away with their cameras.

Afterwards, Rebecca leaned in to kiss me on the cheek and looked happy with how it had gone. "That was great!" she said. Phew!

And my friends all congratulated me and said I looked "amazing". Which was pretty good considering the 8 bras and bad hair day!!


These are the photos Sandra took.

****

In the car afterwards Rebecca was very pleased with how it had gone. I said to her that I know it was a risk getting me to do it and thanked her for taking that risk. She shrugged it off but I was glad I'd said it. She certainly did not have to get some unknown piano player half her age to play a gig with her, but she genuinely seemed to enjoy it.

The Spanish Club was fun. My sister had achieved her monthly target in her travel agent job, scoring her a trip to New Zealand. So she met us for some celebratory sangrias. We met Rebecca's friends and various rockstars, and at about 11.30 Rebecca dropped me home, helping me unload all my gear and seeing Chester one more time. I think she might look after him when I go to Sydney/Brisbane next week. Oh, and in the car on the way home she talked about rehearsals for her real Spiegeltent gig coming up in 2 weeks.

"So, for the Spiegeltent gig, we could just use the piano at home again, and rehearse there if you like?"
In my head I'm going: "YES!! YES!!! AWESOME!!! WICKED!!! FUCK YEAH!!! WOO HOO!!! I'M IN!!!!"
Out loud I said: "Yeah, that sounds fine."
I guess I knew that tonight had been a sort of audition for the real show, and this was the final confirmation that I'd passed. Yay again again!

This morning I was a bit tired and slow-moving due to overexcited and vodka, and I never want to hear Bob again... well at least for a few days, anyway...