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I was chatting with a friend of mine a week or so back and the topic of original music came up, in particular anything I’d played or written that had a bit of an Irish and/or Folk theme to it. At the time I couldn’t think of anything but when we were talking again yesterday it occurred to me that I had actually written something original that could reasonably fit into that category.

“Not a Reel” is a tune I wrote for the Kevin Windross Band and was fortunate to play live with the lads in late 2015 – a show that turned out sadly to be our last, at least for now, but that a story for another day perhaps. I recalled that I’d written a post on Facebook about it along with a recording and managed to fish it out, so will borrow a little bit of the text from same, lightly edited for context;

“About five years (c. 2011) ago a friend of mine kindly gave me a lovely old Beale acoustic piano for nothing more than the cost of freight. Based on the serial number (24780) she was made in Annandale, NSW in 1909 or 1910 and was lovely to play – something quite special about an acoustic instrument no matter its age or condition.”

“Fast forward to today (14 October 2016) and I’ve passed her on to another friend and his family for safekeeping for a few years ahead of my move to Melbourne.”

“I had a bit of a farewell tinkle last night and on a bit of a whim recorded this instrumental “Not a Reel”, a tune I wrote for the Kevin Windross Band and was fortunate enough to play live with the lads a year or so back.”

“Having the phone -sitting- at the end of the piano isn’t the ideal location and she was overdue for a tune, but hopefully you enjoy the rough take, the odd wonky timed note and all :) “

The name of course is a bit of a play on words in so far as it’s not really a Reel proper, but has a bit of that vibe to it I think, particularly in the “B” section.

If you’re curious, this link should take you through to aforementioned recording https://photos.app.goo.gl/A3rGw9A4zZ8ZvHjc9

• Date: 13 June 2014
• Venue: ANU Bar (part of the “Groovin the ANU” series of gigs)
• Bill: Despite Eviction, Scotts, The Feldons and Kevin Windross Band

Gig went off really well, the other three acts were both seriously nice guys and very able players – were pleased to be on the same bill as them.

Numbers were down a little, as we found out it was the last few days of exams so not much of a student crowd and lousy weather conspired against a broader audience.  I think we had about 30-40 people – an enthusiastic crowd though for which we were grateful

The calibre of production courtesy of Garry from the Green Room was first class – he’s a great live sound engineer and the rig is fat. Richard from AtRTPhotos took some great photos and Dene captured it all to multitrak for potential You Tube use later.  Ben and Glenn took some video too which we’re in the process of sifting through.

Pretty happy with how I played, a minor technical glitch in the form of not powering up my top controller keyboard with the sustain pedal plugged in.  Had the effect of meaning it was stuck on until I reset it – thankfully sussed out what was happening during the song in question and was able to sort it before the next tune.  Tried some backing vocals but didn’t position mike very well, note to self there.  Ben, Kev and Brendon cranked it out.

Other thing I’ve gotta work out is how to setup, I ended up off too far to stage left as is plain in some of the photos.  No biggie, but as start to think about the performance aspect of things, need to sort this.

Oh and we had beer and bottled water in the rider, how cool is that ? :)

Last year I was fortunate enough to spend two weeks in Tokyo doing a series of gigs with the Kevin Windross Band – a remarkable adventure indeed and one I hope to repeat one day – but that something to elaborate on another time [1].

The convenience store chain “Family Mart” ended up being a big part of the side story of those two weeks.  We’d usually return from a gig around midnight and forage at the Family Mart opposite our hotel – amongst other things they did a pretty good line of pre-packaged Sushi which tasted pretty decent and gave the (hopefully accurate) impression of being somewhat healthy.

Fast forward to two days ago and I find myself in Taipei and sure enough, there are Family Marts everywhere – prompting a post to Facebook declaring that the catering for any upcoming Kevin Windross Band tours of Taiwan was all sorted now :)

Family Mart in Taipei

What was kinda funny though was after an lovely catchup lunch with some of my friends from my Canonical days I remarked that Family Mart had been a staple while gigging in Tokyo.  I was reminded by them that the shop in Taipei 101 that I had frequented virtually every day of my previous visits to Taipei was in fact a Family Mart.  No wonder it felt curiously like coming home when we first hit the one near our Tokyo hotel…

I wonder if we should approach them about an endorsement deal ?

[1] As an aside, our intrepid bassist, Brendon has been writing up his impressions of the adventure here. For the feint of heart I will forewarn you that there are some rude words, but it is an excellent and amusing read and thus far commendably accurate.