At the start of May, we played in the River Room at Crown at a dinner for Deloitte Private to welcome their new partners. We started playing out in the foyer for canapes, and then moved into the River Room proper to play some swinging music behind the networking dinner. It's not clear in the video, but we were accompanied by the fireballs along the Yarra as we struck up our first tune, which made Ed's solo even more fiery than usual ....
Telstra in Melbourne enters a team each year in the One Ride fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and for several years now we've provided music for an auction before the ride, where members of the Telstra community come together to add some extra support for the cause. This year we took the quintet to the 31st floor of the Telstra building in Melbourne CBD, where the view provided a magnificent backdrop to the music and the mouth-watering cycling gear which was donated for the auction!
In April we journeyed down the Surf Coast to the hamlet of Moggs Creek where Suze and her family and friends had hired this beautiful beach house to celebrate a couple of special occasions. It was a pleasure to play in such a warm and friendly environment, and particularly to such a musically sophisticated audience!
On Easter Monday our quintet made the trip down the Mornington Peninsula, where Genevieve was hosting a bucks-hens night for her friends Peter and Colleen at her beautiful house in Flinders. I always love bringing live music into people's backyards and living rooms, and it was a special treat to have the whole quintet onboard this time. Our thanks to Genevieve for having us, and best wishes to Peter and Colleen for your future together.
On the evening of March 19, we were asked by Sophie and Guy to play for their wedding reception at the National Gallery of Victoria. We played our first set outside in the beautiful sculpture garden, and then moved into the equally lovely Persimmon Restaurant and played two more sets over dinner, before a DJ took over for the later part of the evening. The bridal couple particularly wanted a guitar-based ensemble, so I bought in the amazing Judd Niemann to join Myles and I for a total of seventeen hard-swinging strings.
If you'd like my thoughts about the importance of live music for outdoor-indoor events like this, and the logistics involved, please read on!
On the Saturday after St Patricks Day, the Geelong Racing Club held a special meeting and I was asked by Peter Hooper from SpiderJazz to bring along my newly-assembled battery-powered rolling PA rig and provide music inside the gates as punters arrived, then wheel up to the trackside corporate area and play between races. There were lots of people dressed for the occasion, including a bucks party of matched Luigis in Irish green, who I had to include in the video. Thanks to the GRC and SpiderJazz for a great day. Read on if you'd like to check out my extended discussion of battery-powered music.