Lost at E Minor

By Zolton in New Events on Tuesday 2 December 2008

A couple of week back we invited Aussie rockers, The Basics, to write a diary for us as they toured the deepest reaches of the vast Australian continent. This is the second half of their installments: ‘Tuesday, November 18: ‘We have an interview with the Longreach Leader newspaper today, before playing Longreach State School. It’s been a little hard to get press for this part of our tour, and understandably- no-one from the public can come to the school gigs we’re doing, and we’re not in any one town long enough to do a face to face interview that can actually go to print before we’ve moved on somewhere else. But the Longreach Leader has generously offered to do a short piece on our travels and about the Lifeline charity we’re supporting with our gigs out here. The editor of the paper is an older woman, maybe 50, with grey hair and a firm handshake. She’s straight-to-the-point. No wasting time here. What are our names? Where have we travelled? What’s the charity name? Okay, that sounds like enough. Thanks very much for your time gentlemen, and we’re out the door. It has to be the quickest interview we’ve ever done. Which is kinda nice.It means we can go to the bakery for lunch before the show today’.

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By Zolton in Cool Travel on Wednesday 19 November 2008

A little while back, we ran a week long diary from Australian pop band, The Grates. It was kinda to get a window into the world. Hell, voyeurism is the new black. So we asked Melbourne-based rock band, The Basics, to do the same thing as they bring their music to the deepest reaches of Australia’s Northern Territory. These are the words of bassist and vocalist, Kris Schroeder: ‘Friday November 7. Darwin. It’s a weird old joint this one — I can probably compare it closest to Queensland’s Cairns, with the backpacker industry making up the life and character of the Central Business District. This makes it particularly good for bands, as you’ve got a ready audience staying only metres away from the music venues. Today was our first Darwin gig (at Monsoons), and it was a ripper. I’d organised with my mate Nathan to bring up the Sunshine Reggae Band from Ikuntji in the Western Desert, and they were going to be the first Indigenous band to play in the main street of Darwin, which is apparently quite a cultural breakthrough. The best bit was how well received they were, someone saying “This is great, because it’s what you should expect to see in Darwin, not just bloody cover bands all the time.” Quite chuffed. By the time we played it was packed out, and everyone was loving it. Job done’.

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