Call the Shots

The rainiest April in over 70 years here in Sydney had started to get to a few people, and wasn't really a great introduction for Sarah who'd come all the way from my hometown in Essex to discover just how wet and cold Australia; the "Red land", could be.

As much as everyone locally moans about these adverse elements, I sometimes have to remind myself that even though 16-20degrees does feel quite cold these days, I'm still far away from the days of scraping frost off car windows and skidding across frozen puddles as a child.

Certain events in Australia now seem synonymous with anniversaries and as much as Anzac Day is in place to remember those that faught brave and hard for their country, it also tells me I’ve been in Sydney for an extra year. So my 3rd Anzac Day public Holiday was spent in similar fashion to the last 2, drinking beers and playing two-up in Coogee; after-all, why break the habit? This year I scaled to the dizzy heights of $70 up from an initial $10 stake, which I promptly reduced to about $30 just as they called time on the traditional annual gambling event.

We finished up there and a bunch of us headed back to Bundock for some early evening refreshments and Guitar Hero shenanigans. The Metro was then the venue for a long awaited gig; Karnivool. Sarah came along too for an intro to Aussie rock… and in the bargain got an intro to 4 Aussie guys and an Englishman quite drunk on a random wander across the city of Sydney taking in such sites as the entrance to Star City, and a dingy Korean karaoke bar… till 3am.

Of course I was being sensible in doing this, as I knew that I had a ticket to the following days Lawn Party at Randwick Race Course. Here, our tickets would allow all you could eat and drink all afternoon whilst watching men on horseback running round in circles. Needless to say I was a little quiet going into the event with the guys and girls I was with, all dressed up for the grand occasion.

I managed to turn $10 into $100 on my first flutter… and then managed to lose the profit there $10 a time throughout the afternoon… this blog post should be a lesson to all aspiring gamblers, and no – even picking the ‘apparent’ dead-certs does not pay dividends. Bah.

A special shout out for the weather on a day that ended a couple of weeks of constant rainy conditions, reports even say some people needed sunscreen! And how’s this, we bumped into a guy that we met in our hotel whilst staying in Kashmir by accident… now it really is a small world!

A Whole Lotta Love

Labour Day Public Holiday - Long Weekend

Another weekend, another public holiday, they seem to have been coming around quite quickly recently. This time, was Labour day - my first ever in Australia. No particular themes or traditions seem to have gone hand in hand with this one but it was most welcome given then heavy days preceding it.

Friday night, our old friend Emily was back in town from Cairns, and so a catch up session at the Royal in Randwick kicked things off. Having been avoiding alcoholic consumption on the most part, I bailed early fearing I'd had enough already.

Saturday was the Aussie Rules football Grand Final. Given that we'd just got a new BBQ for our back yard, we hosted a get together of friends to watch Geelong take on Port Adelaide - a match which Geelong thrashed Port by about a hundred points. I'd lost interest by the end of the 1st quarter and instead went on to grill vast quantities of meat.

The drinking stretched from 1pm, to the early evening when we disbanded from the party and headed on to another. Which then meant the beverage consuming was stretched further still... until, about 4am.

So with about 5hours sleep, it was time to get up and head to Todds for pre-festival drinks. Shakier than an altzeimers sufferer on a sugar low, I put a red-bull in my belly and marched onward to the showgrounds in front of the local cricket and football stadia. By 1 o clock, I had been re-aquainted with my old friend 'Beer'. He made me feel better and I was happy to hang around with him for the rest of the afternoon.

The problem with my mate Beer, is that he made me dance, scream & shout all afternoon. He made me feel so tired, yet he has this way of instilling motivation in even the most tired of legs. So After I'd shifted shapes in front of the headlining Shapeshifter, I was happy to leave Beers side, and head home for a long, long sleep. And then play Halo 3 for the entirety of my public holiday. Perfecto.

Bump

Unplanned, Unwired & Ultimately good fun.

With last weekends adrenaline fuelled frolics still strong in my memory, I had planned to keep this weekend low-key. To an extent it was, but not to quite the levels I'd hoped.

Friday night saw me out for a few beers and games of pool with some guys from work, before heading to Bondi's Beach Road Hotel for a few more beers and catch up chats with my friends, old and new.

After getting over Friday with a Thai lunch in the Junction, and some token shopping, it was time to get back onto the merry go round of life with a beer with good friends in the company of a band. This time it was The Butterfly Effect, a Brisbane band I saw before at last years Homebake festival. The venue was pretty cool - albeir a uni bar, the Roundhouse allowed for an awesomely in your face volume. See a clip I took of the band performing my favourite of their tracks 'Gone' complete with lead-singer hissy fit when his mic packs up here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0yCiR1I8YY

I finally got a decent sleep after a couple of weeks of many short short ones, and slowly got motivated to getting myself out into the world. This weeks activity of choice being a trip to the Aroma festival - Coffee, Chocolate & Spices. It was clear I wouldn't last long at this one, for one, I've never finished a cup of coffee in my life, in fact, I've only tried the stuff about 4 times in various guises. We bought some fudge which sicked me out straight away, it didn't help that I'd already eaten some liquorice and a packet of Crispy M&Ms not long before. Since all coffees were just a dollar, I figured I should try the stuff again.

A flat white was to be my next dabble with the dark drink. I decided to avoid sugar, but I still sprinkled some choc dust across it, there's something safe about chocolate. My verdict was "well it still has that disgusting coffee taste lingering after each mouthfull, but it ain't bad". I finished it. Well I got as far as the cold horrible bitter bit near the bottom.

So how could I beat that? Well, I couldn't. Instead, we convened outside one of the better Sydney pubs - "The Australian" and ate the chunkiest topped pizzas and guzzled a full set of taps worth of pinted variety beers. All was left to do of a lazy Sunday arvo, was to head home. But we accidentally managed to fall into one of Sydney's hottest new bars; The Argyle. A huge place that you just have to see to believe was so impressive to behold upon arrival... the only thing was a distinct lack of the opposite sex.

Aaron pointed this out to me, and eventually my senses realised it. Yup. Gay Night.We managed to snag a corner away from the err... action and of course still had a good fun weekend sundown.

PS. Happy 2nd birthday to http://www.starsofcctv.blogspot.com/

Luke Fonfara

I Love Rock 'n' Roll

This is Bundstock 2007.

On the way back from meeting Bill Preston, Aaron & Luke had a vision.

"We must put on a party,
- oh yes, we must put on a party"

For several months, the rock lovers banged heads for ideas to make this the best themed house warming parties they could... sadly, they forgot to put in a plan. If you book them, they will come. With invites sent out a month in advance, inviting friends to come and get their ROCK on, they couldn't back out, but with new jobs and other commitments eating up there time like Pacman popping pills, things were always gonna get left late in the day.

A week before June 2, the boys suddenly realised, that all of the great ideas were likely to be cast to the depths of their minds should they fail to get the asses into gear. So, they shopped. Paints & canvasses bought for decorations, mirrors and novelty goods bought to aide costumes and party props.

A week of work went by, with a couple of nights allowing for some extra preparation, Luke taking his usual Friday night Sydney jolly off to paint. Then after that final sleep, it was time to really get moving on things. Aaron still had parts of his costume to buy, Luke still had parts of it to paint. So with as much creative flare and edge, banners were painted and strewn across the walls of one Bundock Lane home. Their costumes were finalised to applomb, and with Jarrads help, the final, edible elements of this party were set in place. With around 30minutes left to spare before guests started to arrive, the trio could finally sup on a cold beer.

Good Evening Sydney, and welcome to Bundstock

It seemed kinda fitting, that we asked everyone to get into character as a rock star, and then come party at our place as if they were at a gig, that we as hosts, be hosts of a rock festival. So as Wayne and Garth of Waynes World fame (did I really need to say this?) we welcomed first ACDC & Britney, then through the night we said a big hello to Guns n Roses, Tina Turner, Marilyn Manson, Wolfmother, Good Charlotte, a pre-jail Paris Hilton (she'll get in on any party apparantly) and many many more rockers, rockettes and groupies... and even a pet rock.

The rockers rocked out, sang, danced, even played some Guitar Hero on xbox, as some of the greatest rock legends belted out some of the greatest songs of all time. We couldn't have wished for the night to turn out any better... the good luck charm must have been the giant brandy glass full of M&Ms (we couldn't be bothered to seperate the brown ones)... which I last saw being paraded across the front room full of red wine...

With no wierd naked Indian there to help, we awoke after around 4hours sleep on Sunday to just a little mess... with the bottles and trash cleared up, we couldn't face the rest of the cleanup operation. We did however find some left over grog, and in keeping with the rock and roll theme, we steamed right through Sunday with our friend Jim Beam... sat out in the middle of the road, out the front of our new messy home.

Until next year. This was Bundstock 2007. Our love and thanks to everyone that made it such a great party. You're all rock legends.

Madder

V Festival, Centennial Parklands, Sydney
Well I was hardly not gonna go to V, the first time it made it to the Sunny side of the world. After doing 8 back in Blighty - so close to home was always a 25minute drive to Chelmsford. Now however, it's 45minute walk from home.

Only problem was for me, the lineup, pretty week and it's only a one day event, though I had a large crew of friends going, so I figured it would be unlikely I'd have a crappy time.

Myself, Craig and new temporary housemates Rich & Lou, Martin & Tracy rocked up about 3.30pm to find what I can only describe as one of the most fun-killing things I've ever seen at a festival - yes, an hour long queue for beer. Almost a carbon copy layout of Good Vibes the other month - on the same site, they really managed to get the drink situation so horrendously wrong.

Eventually, walking away with 4beers in my hands (I was hardly gonna queue up again any time soon), I settled to watch a band I've not seen before from the US - The Rapture. I was dead impressed. The sound and the band were great. However time was tight and it was time to whizz off to go see Britpop legend gone solo; Jarvis Cocker.

Despite only hearing all new stuff and no Pulp classics, I thoroughly enjoyed the set and especially his quips between tunes.

Next up, Groove Armada. My 4beers had kicked into play as had everybody elses 4 drinks so we had a really lively time as the English boys saw the crowd 'shakin dat ass'.

My final hit of the day was gonna need some more juice, and Australia V gets a plus point for the Jaeger tent. A couple of bombs and I was ready to go party hard to the first band I've seen play twice in Australia - 2Many DJS. As expected, an absolute pearler of a set rounded off the evening.

The tyro organisers have a lot to learn to get something as successful as the UK leg of this festival, but it was a real pleasure to be part of the first one here.

After V we fell into a nearby pub where as luck would have it, Craig was able to see his beloved Arsenal take on Liverpool... I'll just leave a picture as a memento of this occasion:

We are your Friends

TropFest 2007, Sydney

The weekend played out with a trip to TropFest 2007. The worlds largest short film festival... in the world!! Back down at the domain, site of the Homebake festival I visited last year the organisers throw up a tri-sided jumbo-tron screen rig and the crowds surround to indulge in some artsy-fartsy film fun.

We took along a picnic and some beers and chatter-boxed our way to dusk when the short flics finally beamed onto the screen amidst an air of anticipation. I was in two words, pleasently surprised with what I saw before me. All Australian amateur talents (my apologies if they were professional!), the films were with only a few exceptions, fun and innovative to hold everyones attention all the way through.

The most surprising thing to come of the event was the winner. I usually assume that some weird/alterntive bit of film would pick up the overall winners gong, but an animated short did it. My Imaginary Friend... I'm sure it'll be available on YouTube soon enough.

Another hard week of job hunting to follow, it was to be laced with some very sad news.

***

To Marc Deakin, my friend from days gone by and beyond at Thurrock council, a guy who seemed to have accomplished a lot in his youth. He started out in fashion, and with his learnings in this field, shifted his creative mind to web design and work at TBC (I was always dead impressed that he'd made his own shirts that he wore to work). In his spare time he also pimped out his car to an awesome standard. His passions spread to music, where a few nights, he played bass guitar at the Orsett Cock in front of good friends rocking out in the front row. I had a chance to say hi last October when I visited my old workplace, I could never have guessed it would be the last time I would see him...

So to one of the nicest guys you'd have come across, may you rest in peace mate.

Toop Toop

Good Vibrations, Centennial Parklands, Sydney,

Since last the last time I chatted, life has ground down to a situation I'd much less rather be in. I've been job hunting now for a couple of weeks and things have only just started to look positive.
Aside from this, I still find myself looking forward to weekends due to the fact I still get some time off from my current (sadly unpaid) full time occupation of trying to catch me some employment. However this Saturday was to be a little random and spontaneous.

I met with Aaron in the morning simply to pick up my football before he headed to a pre-festival party. Since I knew a few of the guys n gals there, I decided to go along to say hi... but of course, the vibe was a little infectious. As the gang departed Randwick for Centennial Park, I felt a little out of the loop, so I decided to see if I could get in the best way I can... for cheap or for free.

After the walk down there (first ever festival in walking distance of where I live!), I was asking people if they had any spare tickets, but alas, no yield. A tout/scalper was selling tickets for $30 above face value... which was still more than my budget oriented wallet could handle right now. The front gates had a box office, so decided to line up and see if there were any tikets available and for how much... though 1 minute of queueing and an Englishguy came up to me asking if I needed a ticket. He offered it to me for less than half face value, and after I'd eyeballed some other tickets to check for authenticity, I was soon through the front gate.

So, another day, another festival in the life and times of Luke Fonfara. The general vibe of Good Vibrations tends to lean to the current trend of electronic music, ranging from synthesiser machine backed guitar bands through to hip hop acts and DJs.

After dancing away to the Cut Copy and Sneaky Sound System (both highly recommended), I managed to catch a bit of Jurassic 5 before moving on down to the Laundry Tent to see Cassius - the French DJs that have been around for a bit. These were my most anticipated act of the day, and they didn't disappoint me. We danced hard and was eventually glad in my legs at least that they handed over the decks to the big Dutch guy Timo Maas, a trance master no less. However, he seemed to be in a pretty serious mood and his set didn't really do much to lift me up for the final slot of the evening... so off I went.

Next Stop, the Beastie Boys on the main stage. I arrived as Snoop Dogg was leaving the stage as a special guest, after this, the set remained, well, a bit dull as I chatted to some guy. Eventually it picked up a little but not enough to hold my attention and I walked away still unconvinced by the Beastie Boys in general. My final stop was Dirty Laundry - almost like 2 Many DJs, they make a habit of mashing up well known songs and beats together... The best of a pretty average bunch of headliners played on as I left the venue to catch up with some friends for a post festival chillout session... all in all a very enjoyable day, and a bargain too!

Why Does It Always Rain On Me?

Homebake, Sydney

Another weekend rapidly fell upon me, and with it the associated celebratory Friday night drinks that drifted from the relatively upper class ECQ bar (not far from the Opera House) to the other end of the slider - at the Coogee Beach Hotel, a haunt as old as my time in Sydney. I did however register a personal first, in managing to get thrown out of the said establishment for being too drunk. I still to this minute have no idea how the door monkeys worked this out (I'd not even had that much to drink), since I'd been sitting down chatting for the majority of the evening, and had strolled up to the mensroom, before emerging back out into the bar to be greeted with my marching orders.

So Saturday was all set to be a better day than Friday. I managed to get a last minute ticket to Homebake, a 1 day music festival that dedicates its time slots to, as you can kinda guess from the name, home made acts (Australian & Kiwi). Myself and Aaron rolled up and met up with some friends before settling into a rambunctuous afternoon/evening routine. Though the heavens opened and gave the crowd the best of an English festival, we still partied on through to some great acts.

It was quite a different festival for me in that I'd never seen a single act before and was generally able to judge each act on their own merits rather than pre-told media plauditry. A hip-hop kiwi outfit called Scribe sounded great, Butterfly Effect gave me a good taste of Queensland rock before we made it to see a band I was more than familiar with. Loving a couple of their albums though, I thought the Vines sounded a little off, and the set-list didn't seem to do too much to get the crowd pumped. That said, the big-top tent they played in did offer us shelter as heavy rains bore down again on The Domain.

With the outlook a little clearer, we plodded on to see the climax of the evening; Eskimo Joe and Silverchair. Both of which delivering high quality live performances before the night was capped off with some low quality culinary McDelights.

With the weather really not doing it for us this weekend, all was left to do was have a good old fashioned English Sunday... Xbox 360, some great pizzas in Randwick followed by Borat at the movies.

The Dance

V Festival - Chelmsford August 20th-21st 2005

So, my last big kick of the Summer... Glastonbury, Newquay and now V finally rolled its way around. It was the tenth anniversary so the lineup was stronger than usual. In addition they'd increased capacity this year too, so it was starting to get a bit crowded.

This year was the first since 98 that I hadn't camped, so on Friday night I went out with the boys for a few jars on the town. A few jars became a lot of jars and we didn't end up closing our eyes till just before 5am. I awoke at 8.30am - a great way to get your festival weekend off! All the same I got a shower and was ready to get going. The first days highlights included Protocol, The La's, Jet, The Bravery, Kaiser Chiefs, Robert Plant and then finally Oasis - back to their awesome live best. I've not seen such a good set from them since the mid nineties - I was simply stunned! By that point I'd had a quite a bit to drink, and sampled a few balloons full of laughing gas!

So, a walk back to our comfy carpet-floored home for the night, I got some sleep and headed off for day 2. After Oasis the night before, I didn't expect too much for Sunday... I was pleasently surprised. I watched a great set from Idlewild, then caught a couple of songs from Jem including a cover of "In My Place" before that tent just got too hot under the midday sunshine. So, on to the Ordinary Boys, Turin Brakes, The Music (Rob Harvey - my dance god!) and then the slightly OTT Hives - made for an awesome, and far livelier afternoon than I can ever remember at V. To cap off the evening, I saw Franz Ferdinand in superb jovial form followed by the ever hardcore Prodigy live set. My neck was still aching 2 days later... Until 2007, good bye V festival...