Point Plomer

I've briefly mentioned a place I go camping every now and then to get away from it all. This is not the usual camping trip I take every year to Sofala.

Point Plomer is a place I discovered through a friend over 15 years ago. Sadly, my friend died in a terrible car accident that is a story on its own. Point Plomer is a secret 60's surf spot. Today it's still a bit of a secret. Mainly because the road into the place is shit at best.

I put my little girly sized car through a lot to get there, and return. But she's a good car, and makes it there and back with never a complaint.

This time around was a bit different. I didn't exactly camp at Plomer. I stayed there in a house about 100 metres from where I usually camp. Funny part is, I've never seen that side of Point Plomer in the 15 years I've been going there.

Because of that, I had issues finding the place when I got there on Sunday night. Doing about 20 minutes of driving up to the point where the road had a sign that says "4WD Only".

Turning back around, I found some small houses lined up and then I found the bigger place thanks to my wife jumping out and asking for "The Plomer House"

Arriving there, we unpacked and made friends with some people we didn't know and caught up with friends with did know.

Since most of us are musicians, we had all brought our gear. The friend who organised the whole thing brought in a PA, so we had mics and proper sound. Then this guy rocked up, known in the local area as "Happy Days". A large hippy who lives 30 minutes away in a community share property, however the vague details suggest everyone there lives for themselves rather than communally. Not sure. But what I am sure of is Happy Days is a brilliant musician.

He turned up, set up his drum kit, and while people were a bit "strummed" out with their guitar playing and singing, Happy Days brought in a new breath of life and while he set up his drum kit, I played my bass, providing some tasty low end. He turned his skins and we were off, a bit of drum and bass to get the others warmed up and back into the rhythm of things.

We jammed together for a good 30 minutes before giving up because no one showed up. They were too busy eating, drinking and smoking.

Happy Days played the drums really well. Some of the rhythms he brought out were really technical, but not over done. They were simple, yet intricate.

Later than night he played my bass while I played along to the guys who finally got up to jam. I had jumped on my cajon, which I took up on the trip with my acoustic guitar and bass.

Man, Happy Days played bass really good too.

Later than night Happy Days had a few drinks and got on the guitar, played, started singing and everyone stopped what they were doing to have a listen to him. He was great. What a talented musician.

I won't lie. I was jealous. But my wife told me I was like him too. I just needed to stand in the lime light some more, instead of always trying to take a back seat. She's right. So, I've made myself a promise that I'm going to perform more of my stuff and get it out there rather than kick back and just play along.

The following day was sunny, so my wife and I went on a nice walk on the beach, though there were some areas that we couldn't walk around on the beach because the rocks reached out to the water, and the tide was coming in fast. So we said we'd try again the next day, but leave much earlier. The other side of the beach had some caves and stuff, so we headed back and ate lunch, enjoyed the rest of the day in the sun and played some more music.

Unfortunately Happy Days had to leave. I would have loved to have had more time to jam with him and also talk about the lifestyle he lives, off the land and off the grid.

The following day was much the same. Breakfast, music, walk on the beach, lunch, music. We watched some DVD's of concerts of famous musicians. Eat dinner and then had some nice cake that one of the visitors also staying at the house brought with them, running their own cake distribution business. This was perfect, as it was my wife's birthday. And while the trip away was mostly about getting away and forcing my wife to get away from her job for a short period of time, it was after all a good birthday present. Well, I thought so. The trip was all about relaxing and taking time to clear the mind, regather and head back into town a week later, ready to clear up some mess.

I think the trip worked out great in that regard.

I saw a side of Point Plomer I had never seen. I met some interesting people I'd like to see again. I gave my wife a good present. I had a break and caught up with friends I hadn't seen in a while.

I'll post photos over the next few days.

Gig last night with Craig

I haven't kept too many people in the loop on my cajon playing. There's a tonne of stuff about them on my website. And I have been playing a lot of gigs lately with the cajon. But last night was something else.

Craig, the legend from St.George Shire (hahahah), has a bucket load of good old fashioned Australian folk songs he recorded just as good old vinyl was being phased out, and CD's were the latest fashion. Sadly, he spent $4,000 on the record when it would have cost $40,000 to produce the same thing on CD back then.

When he got all the copies to distribute, people were buying CD players and throwing out their old record players on the street.

He later put his songs on CD, but the spark had fizzled, and people were listening to other stuff by then.

If you were to ask me "What's Craig's music about?" It's Australian folk. Good, honest songs about Australia's past and present.

I'm not in this video, but here's a sample of Craig's stuff.



Last night we played a couple of songs at Allawah Pub, which holds an open mic night courtesy of a good friend of mine in a neighbouring music school, Village Guitar. Which you might remember I spoke about when looking for a new career about 8 month or so ago.

Well, Craig and I were up there and we played two songs. We played them well. We played them so well than we won People's Choice award. And we were called up for not just one encore, but we did two more songs, finished up, and we were encored again.

People couldn't get enough of us. I wish someone got a recording of the night, but no one did.

What they did do however was sing along to the songs during the encores. There are two things a performer loves to hear the most. Applause and the crowd singing along. Amazing stuff.

Ah well. The night was enjoyable, and that's an understatement. Everyone was pumped up.

I love it when a gig goes that well.

Drum Circle

I was asked to facilitate a drum circle on Saturday. I was excited about it, being my first one on my own, as Revolution Guitars.

I had the help of Aurora Percussion who provided me with a great deal of the percussion instruments that I tried my best to provide, but ran out of money and time to get everything.

Fortunately one of the music shops I went to gave me a significant discount on some drums and hand percussion once I spoke to him about what I needed.... lots of drums, cheap as possible.

I got talking to the guy and found out he wanted more cajones, which is the plywood box drums I mainly play that originate from Peru.

He said he's been looking for an Australian supplier. So I told him I'm the guy, here's my card. I'll call him next week for a catch up now that I've spoken to my cajon supplier who is bumping up their system to have more in stock.

I went to see them yesterday and we worked out some issues of stock control, handling, shipping, etc. Also more on drum circles too because I had a muslim woman ask me about facilitating a drum circle, to which I said yes to. However, since being a man might be an issue surrounded by scarfed women, I suggested my cajon supplier might like to do that one. Don't you love how after so much progress, there is still segregation amongst human beings? Regardless of background, belief and culture.

Anyway, back to my drum circle I did on Saturday. It was great.

I started off introducing myself, then I asked everyone if they had ever been in a drum circle before. No one had. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing, a bad thing, or just not a thing at all. I decided to take the latter. It didn't worry me.

So I started to play a rhythm on my cowbell and asked everyone to join me when they were ready. They did, but there was no rhythm. I completely expected this, so I continued, un-phased.

5 minutes into it, 55 minutes to go.... Someone picked up on the rhythm I was playing, and then it spread like wild fire. Everyone got into the groove and off we went.

We played around with various drum circle games and before I knew it, my 60 minutes were up.

I thanked everyone for participating and hoped they all enjoyed themselves. Everyone appeared to love it. I called it a success, packed up my stuff and let the rest of the day continue.

My first official drum circle, on my own and 22 people in a circle around me. This is on the larger side for a single person to facilitate.

Looking back at it, I remembered a bit half way through when the beat started to fizzle out, but I stuck to my rhythm, strong and steady and let it all come back. It recovered well and carried on until my time was up.

A fantastic event, a good turnout, the feedback was positive and I enjoyed myself. Made a few dollars on the side which pretty much covers my time and setting up of the whole thing. There will me more, much much more.