A breath of fresh Eyre

The second half of the first week of the Shining Light tour found us getting used to the daily routine. Wake up, eat, pack up, drive, unpack, set up, play, sleep. More or less...
We played at the Streaky Bay Hotel on Friday night and did our best to fall into line with the dominant imbibing culture, talking Rory Gallagher with the locals and letting the girls join in with some occasional backing vocals. We met some good, fun people. We drew the line at playing "House of the Rising Sun" though. Everyone thinks they can sing it, yet so few can...
On Saturday we played at the Pier Hotel at Port Lincoln, doing our darnedest to win over an initially indifferent audience. It all went off, eventually, and we probably put on our best show so far. Again, there were a few in the audience that wanted to chat between sets, and buy us the odd beer. No need, really; ours were free.
Whyalla on Sunday afternoon was something different; obviously no-one knew (or perhaps cared) we were coming. We did our very best to entertain ten or so people for three hours. Oh well, a paid rehearsal is better than the unpaid version... We did get to catch up with ex-Urban Guerilla John Martin and 5YYY stalwart Neil Burns so it was quite a convivial session. It was bloody cold in the beer garden once the sun disappeared. Despite the paucity of punters, it was a hard day's night - I ended up nodding off while I was lying on the bed watching a documentary about the NSA.
On Monday we braved the foggy conditions and drove 100 metres to the cafe for a toasted sandwich and a coffee before hitting the highway. We also bought $1.10 Whyalla stickers from the newsagents. I reckon they'd been sitting there since they were priced up and put in the display tray sometime in the 1990s. We got back to Adelaide a little before 2.00 PM; time to unpack, repack, and catch up on things. And do a radio show that night. Songcatcher was fun - listen to it here.
After a day off, the Grace Emily in Adelaide was our Wednesday night venue. We did OK, enjoying the wide open spaces. We met a decent guy named Patrick, a Dutch fellow who enjoyed the show. He will be in Alice on Sunday; same day as us. Hope to see you again, Patrick!
Onwards to Woomera!

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