KURBAN BLOG – PART 2 AND THE REST
Thursday 7th, Jan 2010
Ha! I bet you didn’t think part two would ever materialise now did you? Well, truth be told, neither did I. Still, despite the tour ending some time ago and my already wishy washy memory likely to fail me, I shall nonetheless attempt to relay to you all, my loyal friends, some of the highlights that occurred during the second half of the tour with Keef Urban.
The Sydney Entertainment Centre....second only to Madison Square Gardens in New York as THE most important, prestigious and glorifying venue the world has ever seen. The S.E.C, (as pro’s like me like to refer to it), has been making and breaking reputations since 1983, or even longer if you include the history of the old Sydney Stadium. I knew as I walked onstage this particular evening that my entire career as I knew rested in the hands of the 10,000 discerning punters that lay before me. I would need to pull out every trick, every stage move and every witty one liner that I possessed and then, three minutes later, I would need to improvise as best i could. Fortunately, destiny was on my side and with the help of my trusty band we roll through the most blistering thirty minutes of support slot rock the audience has ever witnessed. We walk off triumphant, descending down the stairs and in to the wings of the Entertainment Centre followed only by the deafening roar of the rapturous crowd.
The next two Brisbane shows went pretty much the same.
During Keef’s final Brisbane show something quite extraordinary did happen. There I was, standing side of stage watching the show, drink in hand, when suddenly, Keef spontaneously asks the crowd if they would like Bob Evans to come and join him onstage for a song! Well, as you can imagine I spat a mouthful of gin tonic all over myself in shock! What was Keef thinking? Knowing full well that the show must go on I did the only thing I knew and that was to answer the call and join the man on stage. One of Keef’s tech’s hands me a guitar and I saunter on stage doing my best to appear cool, calm and collected. Keef, on the other hand, looks terrified as the sudden realisation of what he has done in the heat of the moment dawns upon him. Sensing his dread, I lean in to him and say, “Relax Keef, lets play ‘Better Be Home Soon’. Watch me for the changes and play some fancy widdly diddly’s on your guitar”. Keef nodded his approval of my plan and I started strumming the opening chords. Needless to say we slayed it. I could describe it to you but I think all the evidence you need is in contained in the following you tube clip.
http://www.youtube.com/user/BobEvansMusic
Take no notice of Booma112’s comment that refers to me as “Brian” instead of Bob. I’m sure that’s just an innocent typo, most likely caused by the ecstatic delirium of having just watched that clip.
So with the Kurban tour having come to an amazing end, it was time for me to separate from my band and fly to Sydney to rehearse Xmas songs for my shows at the Opera House. The Sydney Opera House is second only to Madison Square Gardens in New York as THE most important, prestigious and glorifying venue the world has ever seen. It has won the international award for the “Worlds Pointiest Concert Venue” an unprecedented 17 times. Suffice to say, I was a little bit chuffed to be performing there. The fact that I was singing Xmas songs with Tim Rogers, Paul Dempsey, Jade Macrae, Mahalia Barnes, Gin Wigmore and a 12 piece backing band just made it a little surreal. Truth be told, I had a wonderful time. I actually had to sing with a cordless microphone without a guitar for the first time in my life. Come to think of it, perhaps if I’d attached the microphone to a stand it would have freed up my arms to play the guitar, but that option just wasn’t made available to me! Fortunately, all those years of pretending to be Michael Jackson in the Jackson Five singing, “Can You Feel It” in my bedroom at night as a young boy finally paid off. The crowd rewarded me with the ultimate reaction a performer can ever dream of, that of silent awe. Some people are turned off by this type of crowd response but me, I love nothing more than finishing a song and walking off triumphantly to the sound of absolute silence, broken only by the occasional screech of feedback.
In all honesty, it was a great experience, performing at the Opera House with some of my good friends and amking some new ones. The highlight though, would have to be singing the third verse, duet style, of “Silent Night”with Jade Macrea, trying desperately to remember how the harmony I was meant to be singing went. After screwing it up on the first night I think I managed to nail it on the second. Jade was very patient and forgiving.
So that, in a nutshell, is the story of the last few weeks of my 2009. So what is next for me you may be asking? No? Well go away while I tell everyone else.
Next Saturday me and the boys will be playing at the Chill Island Festival with Living End and KMH, (that’s Kate Miller –Heidke for the uninitiated) at Phillip Island in Victoria. Then, it’s off to Tamworth. That’s right, after wowing them during the Kurban tour, it seems those country music lovers just can’t get enough of our mate Bob and have invited him to play a couple of nights at the Tamworth Country Music Festival. It has actually been a small dream of mine for about the last five years to one day go to this festival and I am just a little bit excited about it! I’ll be there on the 20th and 21st of January playing at the Tamworth Hotel. Finally, on Australia Day I shall be performing at none other than the nation’s capital, Melbourne!.....I mean Canberra! Yes, I shall be playing in Canberra on Australia Day as part of the official Australia Day concert on Australia Day celebrating that day we know as Australia Day!
Okay, that’s me done. One last bit of shameless self promotion to go. Please vote for me in Triple J’s Hottest 100! As a sweetener, the first 50 people to email through their Bob voting confirmation to info@bobevans.com.au will receive a personally signed GNBC Tour poster from me, Bob Evans! OMFG! What a great prize!
Here's the link to Triple J. Get voting...for me!
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hottest100/09/vote/
I happily accept pity votes!
Cheers!
XXXBOBXXX
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