This time round, I thought I’d do some reminiscing – it always brings a bit of a smile to your face.
Let’s set the Wayback Machine to 2010. I thought we’d do this in two phases – venues and musicians/bands.
It’s amazing to look at the list of venues that existed back in 2010.
The Blues Train of course, and the Piping Hot Chicken Shop. Beav’s Bar, Elephant and Castle, Barwon Club, Way Out West, Wolesley’s Winery and the Potato Shed were also high in the list. Wine Justice was still there, as was the much-lamented Nash. Harvester Moon was still serving up excellent locally sourced food, along with sets on the stage from a variety of musicians.
No longer with us at all or as music venues are Martian’s Café, The Loft , Apollo Bay Music Festival, The Wintergarden, Deakin Waterfront Café. I think that was the year that the De la Ville became the Black Hatt. The Maxx is now The Deck, not to be confused with The Deck, Highton, now Malee Thai. The Bended Elbow is now The Geelong. Cloud 9 has been replaced by The Green Room.
Sleepy Hollow Blues Club is still having gigs at the Geelong Trades Hall dancehall.
Moving on to the musicians and bands we were listening to…
Quite a few have left town: Chubby Rae and the Elevators, Mia Dyson, Stringybark McDowell, Rory Ellis, Tiff Eckhart & Dave Steel.
Some of our legendary musicians have passed on: Dutch Tilders and Chris Wilson most notably.
A few came to the end of their performances: Vasco Era, Red Whyte has moved on from Surfusion to other interesting projects. I haven’t seen Pearly (Rose Bygrave & Marcia Howard) on the board for ages, but they are still playing. Jeff Raglus and Vicky are still together as Victoriana Gaye, but there’s no FOGG around anymore. I don’t think that The Junes are still together, but Sarah Carroll is doing solo work and playing with the Left Wing as well as with her boys, Fenn and George, now excellent musicians in their own right. Blue Heat may have disbanded, but Marco is still playing with a new line-up, Blue Sunday. Mojo Corner have each gone their separate ways.
I’m also glad to report that we have many of our favourites are still playing: Hot Club Swing still takes to the boards. Phil Manning seems to be Australia’s equivalent of Keith Richards and is still playing. Brian Fraser has a wide audience and is playing in Geelong and further afield. Rhys Crimmin is a name frequently seen. Richard Tankard is performing solo, and Wayne Jury will kill me if I call him a senior figure on the scene, but there’s no doubt his Blues Boot Camps and other activities beyond his performance have made a name for him.
It remains to be seen what comes when we emerge from the COVID-19 cocoon.
Meanwhile, keep your eyes out for a July online festival – Americana on the Bellarine. Some names already up include Sarah Carroll, Wayne Jury, Andrea Robertson, Nathan Seeckts and Gretta Zilla. Alt-country, Blues, Roots, Folk & Rock, what’s not to like!
Written by Dr John Lamp
