Last year I was blown away to find out that we would be touring with Stevie Nicks and The Pretenders as apart of the Day on the Green Music Festival! The tour would consist of three massive shows along the east coast; QLD, NSW, VIC. Warming up the stage for two iconic acts in front of 15,000 people each night. Without a doubt the coolest (and dare I say… most impressive!) shows I’ve ever played in my life.
Starting the trip in our home town of Melbourne, we made the journey from drummer Andrew Braidner’s house to the airport (as per usual), MEL > SYD, then from Sydney Airport to the picturesque Hunter Valley by way of the 12 seater hire van for the first show of the tour. I can’t remember the sounds of our arrival. Was it that silent excitement that falls over a gang of humans who are too anxious to speak? Or was it jovial whooping from a rock band overcome with triumphant joy? All I remember was what I saw; the teams of road crew and on site staff all bustling around like their lives depended on it, the numerous trailers for the bands and affiliates, the catering tent that filled the air with the fragrance of vegan and carnivorous foods, and the wardrobe trunks that read “Stevie Nicks”.
As it was towards the end of the year, we hit the stage each evening at 5pm with the Australian sun’s rays beating down on us (with the exception of VIC of course, which was reliably erratic in the weather department). There’s nothing quite the feeling you get when your peering out over thousands upon thousands of gig goers through the dark tinted lenses of your sunglasses. Particularly when, surprisingly, many people are singing along to your artist’s songs when you thought they would be gazing down at their naked wrists, conveying their impatience to the stranger next to them.
Even though the tour was only short, I felt like we had accomplished so much when it was done and dusted. Most importantly, we had proved ourselves as a band to the cast and crew of two iconic musical acts. Stevie Nick’s bass player sought me out after the first show to congratulate me and tell me what a great band he thought we were, Chrissie Hynde did the same to Ali and everyone in our crew bro’d down hard with seasoned road lord John Taggart (guitar tech in Stevie’s crew). And shit… now I get to tell this cool arse story…
