That exactly one year ago today I was at the Corner Hotel in Richmond, watching Crowded House who are my most absolute favourite band in ever. I was brought up listening to Crowdies but they broke up when I was 10 and I figured that I'd never get to see them live. My fantasy, never-gonna-happen gig was always to see them play the Corner Hotel which is a great intimate live venue. Then last year they reformed and blah blah blah, they announced a fan club show at the Corner. First of all I nearly died because the announcement came on email while I was procrastinating going to bed, and I wouldn't have got the email in time otherwise. Talk about lucky. So yeah, this time last year I was living my dream gig. Good times!
This is how close I was! It doesn't get much better than that.
I should add, both those guitars are Gretsches. I own one like the black one, but it's silver (and a much less expensive model!). I don't play it much though because it's way, way, way too heavy and cumbersome, and the strings need changing which are a biatch to do on that sort of guitar (it has a bigsby, which is a spring loaded tremolo arm) and the wiring's gone funny and I'm too lazy to go get it fixed.
This is my died and gone to heaven moment though...I met Mark Hart, the guitarist/keyboardist for Crowded House. He is like my ultimate musician hero because he's AWESOME at guitar and keyboard and piano and melodica and lap steel and singing and pretty much everything. Plus he's the nicest guy ever.
Oh, and please excuse the hoodie and backpack. I'd been in Sydney for Live Earth, then flown back down that morning and gone straight to the Corner at about 12:30 pm to wait all day for a good position (me, obsessed? Never!). I compromised by wearing my Chanel red lipstick...shame it didn't suit me!
So yeah...no interesting outfit today because I was working, although funnily enough my friend Pat, who I had met at this gig and hadn't seen since the beginning of the year, dropped in to say hi, so that was cool. He's a pilot and is working one month on, one month off. Bastard. Tomorrow I'm going to the Grates Melbourne Surprise Party so expect a very costumey outfit (ooh I should post my Split Enz costume photos...they were very strange!).
- Robyn