Sean's Wedding

We headed up to Woodend Saturday morning to play at the wedding of my friend and work mate, Sean Payne. While I attended the ceremony, the rest of the boys set up the PA etc upstairs in the Victoria Hotel.

Weddings aren't our usual thing, and even though Sean wanted "Pure Perico", we thought we'd better get some covers together to better suit the expectations of all the guests. In the end we mixed about 30% original material with old faves from Paul Kelly to the Pogues, but, as is always the case at weddings, we went down an absolute treat, even when playing our original stuff.

Afterwards, we played accoustic guitars and snare drum/brushes way into the early hours of the morning back in the B & B.

Criterion Hotel - Yarrawonga

This was our first ever gig out of Melbourne and was set up primarily so we could have a holiday up on the Murray River over new year and combine it with a gig in Yarrawonga where we had a friend's house to stay at. The night before we set everything up for a party and played everything we had plus more until after midnight. With us was Sean Payne, whose wedding we're playing at on january 13th, so it was a good time to practice some of the "wedding material" and to get Sean up to play some songs with us.

It was a beautiful, warm and calm night and we played 4 sets between 7:15pm and 10:30pm. Though it was only our frineds there early on, the beer garden had swelled to around 30 or so people by 9:30 or so. Sean played 5 songs, of which we played along with 3 of those (all covers). The locals were all screaming for covers and they really seemed to get into Sean's set, so we're thankful he came along.

Still, the overall response was positive and I'm sure that the pub will have us back again.

Video footage from party at Yarrawonga

Brunswick Hotel 2007 Pagan Christmas

This ended up being probably our best gig to date, played in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd on the Friday night before Christmas. It was our first public gig with Tim back in the band and a lot of people had come along to see him in particular.

Jeff Samin and Ben Birchall played first and it was a perfect warm up. Talking to Jeff afterwards I was surprised to find that he'd only played with Ben a few times before, given how he (Jeff) had been playing lead and harmonising over some of Ben's original songs. Jeff assured me that he knew Ben's stuff "very well". Obviously.

Mark Sinton and the Prefabs played after us and it was them, afterall, who got us this gig in the first place. It's great to play with other bands that have a crossover of the crowd, which is why the numbers exceeded 80 people that night.

Tim was very impressed with the Brunswick's new PA which he hadn't experienced before.

Phil's birthday/Christmas BBQ

My cousin's husband Phil has an annual BBQ for Christmas and his birthday. Phil rang me in early December asking Perico to play this year. Every year a different band has played at the party.

The gig worked well with Perico's schedule. Tim had arrived back in the country only a few weeks before and we were in the process of reverting back to a four piece. This gig gave us the opportunity to provide "match practice" before our big gig at the brunswick the next week, as well as provide a relaxed atmosphere. Phil was also generous in paying us and providing us with food and drink - much appreciated, Phil.

The gig itself was great fun. Phil has a stage set up in his back yard, complete with PA. We were able to play 3 sets - nearly every song we knew - including some we didn't - between about 3pm and 8pm. some great response from some of the party-goers too, who were keen to see us again and have been added to our sms list.

Brunswick South Primary School Fete

CANCELLED.

Well, we sort of cancelled ourselves after it looked like they were running badly behind schedule, much to the relief of the stage co-ordinator. A pity, but we pulled the pin before unloading all our gear and, as Richo said "who wants to hear a bunch of dads playing at a school fete anyway?".