So I’ve got this tab on my website claiming I’m a musician. Well last week I decided to put that assertion to the test.

Happy Yess is open again in Darwin, and madly looking to book artists to fill their stage for the next few weeks. And by madly, I mean mad enough to ask Angus Robson and myself to take the stage for a night. It all went down something like this:

Wednesday: We were contacted by Happy Yess manager Dan Davies and asked if we could fill in on Saturday.

Thursday: Angus and I got together following his fantastic set at LOL Thursday at the Beachfront and decided we’d be fine, so we locked it in.

Friday: Angus and I compared notes on how many songs we both know and realised this was perhaps a comically large undertaking as a double act. We decided on a solo set each, followed by a few songs together to finish the night off.

Also on Friday: I was contacted by ABC radio presenter Lisa Pellegrino. I still don’t know why, but she was looking to do a promo interview for the gig. I can only imagine that ABC Darwin must be just as desperate for acts as Happy Yess.

Saturday Morning: I sat in a radio studio with Lisa and we chatted on air about the gig, about Angus (yep, a bit creepy in his absence, but whatever), about the Top End Comedy scene and about mullets. That was actually a lot of fun.

Saturday afternoon: Angus and I practiced like mad and ditched about half the songs we had planned. By about five that afternoon we figured we were ready to give it a shot.

So Saturday night rolled around, and Angus and I (and Kim, of course) made our way down to the Happy Yess. I was quite excited to be gigging as a musician again, especially when I saw this out the front:

Unfortunately no-one else was quite as excited about the prospect as we were. I guess they thronging crowds were more interested in the wildly more successful Asican CUp final being aired at the same time (Incidently: Hell yeah Socceroos). So when I say no-one came, that's exactly what I mean.

No-one.

By the toss of a coin, Angus got the honour of playing first, and pulled out an amazing set of original music for the benefit of me, Kim and the Happy Yess bar staff. About half way through his set three drunk and probably lost girls wandered in to cheer us on, possibly mistaking Angus for Timothy Cahill. They even stayed for my set.

By the time our double act came around, I not even sure why we were bothering. I mean, it was fun, but, there’s nothing quite like practicing all afternoon for a show to an empty room, and calling the whole thing off an hour early. At the very least, Kim was able to get some simple video footage, which I’ve started editing up. The first one’s been uploaded to the videos page, if you want to check it out.

I suppose you have to start somewhere.

Garry with 2 Rs

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