Wangaratta Jazz Festival: Lowering the tone.. (2012)

The first of quite a few Wangarattas

Ben, Amy,The Captain, Jack, TW and Ashley Wangaratta 2012

Guided by the Captain’s detailed instructions, we circled the town seven times before finding the rented accommodation… 8 sessions over three days ensued, leaving us all exhausted. Photographs? You should be so lucky… I managed to delete them all in a senior moment (can’t remember the last time I had one of those…), probably much to the relief of the guilty. I am in receipt of the Headmaster’s end of year report, however, which reads as follows;

Captain Chaos (saxophone) Head Prefect. Maintained some sort of order, apparently has limited understanding of the words “sleep”, “tired”, and “can we have a break”

La Smiff (class trouble maker) Clearly has a lot of growing up to do. Majored in Needlework, kept us all in stitches. Entertaining.

Young Kay: worked hard, but will undoubtedly come to a bad end. Eventually.

Ben (guitar) And roadie, seeing as he set up the PA eight times. Big improver, impeccable attendance record: we even told him to turn his guitar up…

Keef (saxophone) Brought plentiful charts, of which we played precisely … err… none. Keef had a fine term studying classics, and shows a firm grasp of the Homeric Saga: more the length than the form…

Marion (recorders): Requires an excessive amount of equipment to blow through a wooden pipe. Bie Mir Bist Du Schon was fun, but…

Amy (eyelashes). Sang rather well, in fine “form” . Which she spells fmro or fffr or mfor, depending on which words she can remember at the time…

Ruby Rogers (party Animal) Rumoured to have ended up at the Golf Club not the Jazz Club. Fine singing when conscious.

Avi : Played twice as many notes in half the sessions, mainly due to trying to keep up with Miss Rogers.

Stan (bass): The Professor started rather stolidly but ended by swing the tits of most everything.

Ann Hayres: vocals: after some quality singing, her rendition of C’Est Si Bon was in the finest traditions of the jammers. Tended to be absent due to a predilection for listening to music.

Buddy (smooth vocals and PA) His fine and detailed adjustment of the foldback controls left Buddy satisfied with the sound system. The foldback controls were not connected. Could sing through a bucket and still sound good: might suggest that to him..

Jack The Lad: When not playing some fine trombonic solos, amused himself by telling the pianist to just play all the black notes. Helpful..

Toni: (drums) Carried them in and out of every venue, assisted by Simon who helpfully tested them every time the kit was assembled.

Ashley: duettist and drummer. Favoured treatment due to close local association with the landlord. Needs another session at the Grand to recover…

Ted (piano) Brilliant all weekend, then stopped dreaming and woke up.. TW