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Wednesday, 24 August 2005
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I've just returned from Robe, where the 2nd year diploma band from Salisbury TAFE ran workshops for a band from the Kingston Community School on Sunday. As well as this, they played at the Robe Hotel on Saturday night, and the Caledonian Hotel on Sunday night.
The students ranged in age from 20
to the early 40s. The two lecturers who went, are of course, in their
quite late 40s (50 very soon in my case).
The Robe Hotel
gig was a cracker. The band is very used to performing short sets from
3 songs to maybe 20 minutes. Here they had to play for three and a half
hours. At TAFE they had to be careful about sound pressure levels. Here, when someone called for Cold Chisel, they had to rock out, no matter what they were playing. I'm pleased to say they learned quickly.
The students were absolute
troopers. They learnt so much that we can't teach them. Only drunk
punters can teach you how to play in pubs.
It was a great success; both pubs
want the band back for the summer season, and are prepared to pay.
Because of the restrictions of the educational process, the students
could not be paid on this trip, but the pubs fed them and gave them
free booze.
The kids from Kingston Community School
were gorgeous and so open to learning tips for developing their
musicianship it was very rewarding and humbling for our students.
The TAFE
students also gained, I think, a respect for the experience of the
lecturers, me included, who went with them. After all our trying to get
them to quiet down in so many venues and situations, it was Tony
Lillywhite and I who kept pushing the volume and intensity, because,
ugly though it may be, that was what was needed in the pubs.
There was some interesting student
feedback from the trip. I love it that one student reflected that if
the music industry was this hard, touring was this tough, she was not
sure she wanted to be part of it! On reflection, she thought back on
the fun, the love, the camaraderie, and decided of course she wanted to
do this for the rest of her life!
We have received some feedback
from the students from the workshops which has been very positive. We
very much want to follow this up.
10:11:42 PM 
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© Copyright 2005 Peter Nixon.
Last update: 27/9/05; 9:55:31 PM.
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