Bye Bye Sydney



















The last night of Sydney at the Opera house was as they say off the hook!Having a day off was great and it was good to have a small rest after 3 nights of concerts, just to recharge our batteries and get focused again for the last concert there.The night flew by and was probably the smoothest on the tour so before we knew it we were once again in the hospitality lounge courtesy of Verve Clicquot!!! Monday night was another one of those full houses were the audience are seated right around the Opera House so for the musicians it's a bit strange because you are very aware that there are people watching you from behind and at the side of you not just in front! Backstage everyone was celebrating but at the same time we were getting ready to rush off to the Basement club for a Jam session that Nigel and the Quintet would kick off with keys player Alan Zavvod Ex Zappa/Luc Ponty fame who had flown in from Melbourne! The session started about 12;30 and yet again a well deserved round of applause for the Basement delivering the unbelievable sight of a packed Jazz club on a Monday night. The Basement was packed and buzzing as always.I bumped into good friend Trombonist Trevor Myles & other musicians from the U.K who are on a 9 month tour with Tom Jones,Trevor actually got up on stage and blew some warm melodic lines with the band at one stage that excited the crowd no end!
A big downer was the constant blocking of sight lines to the stage by two huge video camera carrying pals of one of the musicians who were acting as if they were intent on making a video out of the whole night,who knows? but it got very annoying trying to see around them!
A couple of the musicians from the band that had been playing in the Pizzeria earlier that week also turned up and sat in with Nigel which for me was the best part of the night playing some eastern european songs! I was slowing down drastically so I made my excuses and went back to the hotel after that.I understand surprise surprise a party broke out after that at the Basement and at the Hotel!
Next day was another day off for packing and generally just chillin before travelling to Canberra.
Had a last meal at a restaurant overlooking the harbour looking over at the always impressive sight of the Harbour bridge and mentally said good bye to Sydney! a great place and one that I hope it's not so long before I visit again.Now for Canberra and Brisbane.
Below is a review of the last night from the Sydney Herald.


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Random Audio Dude said…
Glad to hear the Sydney concerts went so well. Unfortunately last night in Brisbane (6 March) was marred by poor sound. Up in the balcony where I was the sound was rather muffled -- there was no dynamic emerging between the instruments. The only time when the sound come through clearly was when musicians got a solo. Orphy, yours was great. I just wish I'd been able to hear everything you'd been playing throughout the night. There were a lot of complaints made during the break but the sound only marginally improved in the second half.

Hard to know what it was that went wrong. It certainly wasn't the musicians. At a guess I'd say they didn't have the stage miked well enough for that particular hall. You could really tell the difference when Nigel was playing directly under the overhead mike, then the sound from his violin was sweet.

Hope QPAC get it sorted for the "Hendrix " concert tonight.
2:34 AM
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