Stormcellar Band Home Page

Howdy Folks.

As we gear up for the recording of SC5 (Hired Guns & Borrowed Glory), we were invited to go check out Garth P's studio. I thought our various audiophile mates would appreciate some audio-geekery photos for drooling purposes.

Big desk, big room...

Outside the control room, in the main studio area

heh - caveat auditor!

Great place, and just ike us on Saturday...a Lot of Mikes. I can't even identify all these, but I'm sure if I ask Geoff C nicely he'll fill me in, he knows that sort of thing.

Great sounding place, it was a pleasure to get a look at a high end studio thats produced so many big names :-). Research continues!

It's December, it's raining, it's cold, we're playing! Yay!

Back in Bondi this Saturday night at the Royal Hotel, Bondi, from 8pm. Backpackers, Beaches and Bro's!

You had to be there.

Mostly because I didn't get as many pics and vids as I wanted because the music was non stop.

We must start by confirming that Theo is The Machine - he drummed at high intensity for 3 and a bit hours straight, providing the rhythm for the band and our guests. Way to go Theo, that was amazing. His drumming during George Rigatos's version of Little Wing was peerless. What a night.

We were joined on Bass by the freshly travelled Mr Rix, who is also Georges band mate in the Midnight Ramblers, and what a three piece combo (with Theo) they made. Ah but I am getting ahead of myself again.

Ahem.

Right, so as predicted we had more Muso's than space (or time) and all of them warranted more time than we had. It was like a mini festival :-). It is appropriate to give each of them special thanks, which I shall now do:

Firstly, our profound thanks go to Fettler (Mike Kerin) for sitting in with us. Playing with someone of his calibre necessitates that we lift our game and last night was no exception. I highly recommend his new album 'Fiddle: The Devils Instrument'. Cheers Fettler and Tinka! 

 As we finished our first set, Ross Ward got up to do a set supported by Theo, Rixie and Mr Wizard and blasted out some terrific Blues, we wanted him to go longer but  he claimed he had to get up early (likely story Ross!). It turns out that Ross and Theo are old playing buddies, so it was a musical reunion. Great work Ross, thanks for coming down and bringing your lovely partner.

For those of you who couldn't make it, here's some of what ya missed.

 Ok, 1 set from us, 1 set from Ross, time to take a brea....nope, its time for George to get up!

George is a heck of a guitarist, here's a few snippets from a version of Little Wing

And of course, Mr Wizard was into it as well (hey its his Birthday Bash and who's gonna tell him no?)

 So after three blistering sets, its time to pause, take a moment and...no..whats that? The Bald Rock closes by midnight? We have to go straight on with...oh...

Yikes. Poor Theo. We had to combine our second and third sets, drop a bunch of songs and cram as much as in as we could. We tried out another new song last night, Country Radio, which has been hovering in the wings for the last few weeks. It got a good reception but I think it still needs some cooking, however even on its first appearance, it looks like another strong contender for the next album.

During the set I was handed a note saying 'play Classical Gas, don't be scared, we're at the Bald Rock' LOL...I've been handed notes with requests before, but that's a new one :-)

We send our thanks to all of our guest muso's, and a special thanks to all the folks that came down, including (but not limited to, cos it was a busy night), Josh, Sue B, Sue K, Claudette H, Steve, Ingrid, Joan (thanks for getting Elsa to boogie) , Walter, Terry, Dave T, CB, Ken and omg that's where my brain shuts down. It was a truly busy night :-). Thank you all.

Walter (I think) made a comment that he'd  'seen the band before, and it was nice to see all the guests and the different arrangements with the Fiddle player' :-) No worries Walter, we like it too! That's why we do it :-)

That was one of those evenings that remind you why its worth going out to catch some live music, with a great crowd, a whole range of styles, non stop music and a lot of dancing.

We're back on deck in Bondi this coming weekend, back to being a 5 piece (awwww.....) but we're likely to continue mixing it up like this, so stay tuned, there are some nights in particular that you wont want to miss.

MJEB

Here's a great videoclip sent to me by GC. In an alternate universe, James Brown was Japanese!

 Cheers GC! 

Howdy Folks.

We did a dash to the central coast and back on Friday night for a gig at the Wyong RSL and its now official, we are no longer a 'Station Wagon' Band.

What the heck happened?

Oh well, we headed for the Central Coast late Friday afternoon, and traffic conditions were sketchy:

No that's not a parking lot, that's the Pacific Highway. Still, after we cleared town and made the freeway it was back to open road and another scenic trip out of town. Ah, relaxing.

We made our way to Wyong and the very swankily titled 'Club Wyong' (Wyong RSL) for our first gig there.

At the Stevie Nivcks gig last week one of her support acts, a certain Irish Performer, made some mention of playing at RSL's and he didnt sound too thrilled about it. something about 'Meat Trays' and Raffles and the constant sound of Pokie Machines. He would have felt right at home at Wyong...

But how can you knock a Raffle for a Meat Tray? Look at what you get!

And I am sure that particular performer would have been as happy as Vertical, our honorary Roadie, when his number came up and he won a Breakfast Tray!

Here's Theo with Dave as Dave contemplates a big breakfast tray! Funny, Theo is smiling more than Dave

See? Playing at RSL's is fun! And Meat Filled!!

We were very glad to see some of our central coast regulars, cheers to Sandi (love the new ink), Jimmy, Les and Judi, and thanks to Grant for looking after us so well.

We had another solid night of playing and received Sandi's tick of approval for the new songs, so all was well.

After a full three sets, we packed up, got on the road and headed for home just after midnight, expecting a smooth run into...ARGH!!

Roadworks!!! Ye Gods.

We're playing closer to home this weekend with Mr Wizards Birthday Bash at the Bald Rock. No meat trays, but hopefully no traffic! Hope to see you there!