Ball Park Music and Guineafowl Super Commuter Part 3

The Toff 05/05/2011 – Ball Park Music

Hey people of the internet land! Welcome to the final instalment of Ball Park and Guineafowl tour diaries. This episode is sure to be one hell of a ride.

This week we travelled to many different places. (I drew on a map: attached) We woke up bright and early after playing at a college ball. We had a good sleep (except Brock, who didn’t sleep) and felt excited for the last leg of our tour. First stop: Melbourne! How exciting! We were playing at The Toff and gee whiz, was it going to be a fun gig. We decided to sleep for most of the day (we work really hard) and then we walked to The Toff with all our gear. We hurt a bit. The gig went well! Husky played a fabulous set and knocked everyone’s socks off. Then we played and Sam walked on the top of people’s tables because he wasn’t satisfied with their level of party participation. Guineafowl rocked the house down.

We all walked home sleepy, and a French guy found a bear hat and gave it to Jen. She found 40c in it and was very happy. Sam found a half eaten chocolate bar in his pocket and gave it to Dan. He was very happy. Best pocket Mars bar ever. Brock and Paul didn’t come home & we didn’t see them again.

We got a parking fine because we didn’t put more money in the parking meter at 5am. COME ON! 5am?!?! Horrible idea. We didn’t really mind because we had more partying to do!

The Toff 05/05/2011 – Guineafowl

We had set ourselves quite a goal for the first day of the final leg of the tour. To get from Sydney to Melbourne, before five thirty, after leaving at eight A.M. To achieve this time we had to enforce sparse bathroom breaks and even phoned our lunch ahead at Holbrook’s famous and only Bakery. Traffic coming into Melbourne almost ruined our plans but some quick thinking from Nick meant that we followed the example set by some ambitious locals and drove down most of the gridlocked freeway on the shoulder of the road to avoid the queue. I know… we are little devils.

It seems that the time between sound check and our set went way too quickly. After watching amazing support Husky and our Co-Tour compatriots Ball Park Music play brilliantly, we took to the stage. For some reason, the venue managers at The Toff had not removed the tables or chairs from the middle of the dance floor, and so we played a very hyper set to a very seated crowd. I think this made us try and compensate by dancing and moving more than usual.

After the gig, things became a tad hazy and all I remember is stumbling down the stairs at Cookie after being asked by a bouncer to leave. The classic line “But my band played tonight” line didn’t at first work, but eventually, I was allowed to load my gear out.

The next day we all spent together rummaging through the streets of Melbourne. Yaz bought some ridiculously expensive pants that probably belonged to Aladdin, whilst the rest of us found some outlet stores and all bought our Mother’s faulty Country Road Items.

Karova Lounge 06/05/2011 – Ball Park Music

We slept most of the day (we work really hard) and then journeyed off to Ballarat. We saw the most amazing space-age McDonalds we have ever seen. Sam had curry because McDonalds is bad. With some yummy food under our belts, we went back & watched Pioneers of Good Science rock the Korova Lounge. We looked at all the framed posters on the walls and wondered if one day we would have our tour poster up there too. Next up was Guineafowl and we danced and they were handsome. We played and everyone looked like tiny little ants from up on stage. We all gave the sound guy some merch because he was so lovely. Guineafowl were lucky and were staying in Ballarat, but us Ball Parkers drove back to Melbourne. Plenty of us fell asleep on the way home and Dean had to carry us all to bed.

Karova Lounge 06/05/2011 – Guineafowl

Some Missing Footage…

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Ed Castle 07/05/2011 – Ball Park Music

The end was nigh. With the final gig in sight, we hopped a plane to the city of many amazing things, the beautiful Adelaide. On arrival, we found our hotel and Jen had a sleep (she works really hard) and the boys played cards and did other manly things. We had a great pub meal and watched the football, accompanied by reasonable beers.

Adelaideans start late. The first band 20th Century Graduates went on a little after 10:30pm. And what a start! These guys and girl are seriously the best support band we’ve ever had. They are so talented and sweet and make great music. You should listen to them, now. Seriously, open a new window and look them up. The crowd went wild and danced a lot. Guineafowl took to the stage and the audience were just as thrilled!

Much dancing and drinking and sticking to the floor was experienced by all. Guineafowl finished off their set with a bang and we were sad that the tour was almost over. With that in mind, we knew it needed to be a big party. We told the audience we needed tonight to be a good show, so they obliged and helped us out. We played loudly and Sam danced like a maniac. The kids loved it. Sam went and cuddled the men in the audience during the last song. We were sweaty and happy and everybody had a nice time. After the set we met some exuberant locals and said goodbye to our new friends from Guineafowl.

They had a lot of driving to do and were very sleepy! (They work really hard) A few of us partied with the dudes from 20th Century Graduates and got home really late, but not after partaking in some famous Adelaide Yiros. It was satisfying. We were happy we organised late checkout, and had a great day of flying back to Brisbane. We were very glad to be back with our mums and girlfriends so they could cook us a nice meal. We had a fantastic tour with Guineafowl and all the amazing support bands we met along the way. Can’t wait to be back on the road again soon.

Until next time,

Xo Ball Park Music

Ed Castle 07/05/2011 – Guineafowl

We left kinda lazily for Adelaide, as the drive was not too bad from Ballarat. Things started to get a little wild in the van when we were forcing Lochie to swig from a bottle of vodka every four minutes for the last hour of the trip. By the time he got out of the van at the Ed Castle, he was pretty trolleyed. The crew from Ball Park Music found this amusing, as did we.

Being a club night, we were not to take to the stage until quite late and so went roaming for some food. We had been told by the good people at the YHA that the best pizza in the entire planet had been crowned at a local pizzeria but a few blocks from our hostel. Like true Rock and Roll legends, we ate the pizza in a dark, deserted park. It was pleasant, but I would not call it the best in the world. Surely there is some pizza place in Italy, where if you eat a slice, you become immortal.

The gig at the Ed Castle was great, although there were a few random guys down the front who were kinda heckling us as we played. But they were not bad heckles like “you suck”, rather they were meaningless and mundane heckles like “play another song!” which coincidentally we were going to.

All in all the tour has been fantastic. It was such a privilege to travel around our great land with an awesome band like Ball Park Music. They are a true new Australian talent and I can’t wait to hear their album when they are ready to unleash it upon the world.

Thank you to everyone who came to the shows. I hope you enjoyed yourselves enough to want to come and see us again, this time following around those rascals that call themselves The Grates as part of the Secret Rituals Tour.

Until then.

Guineafowl