Hilton RSL - 2 July 05

This was our first gig as The Negotiators and our first at an RSL. It was a fiftieth for a fellow called Wayne who Steve knew from his swim club. He had first seen us at a show we had played for the club about 1 ½ years ago under a marquee in a back yard.

Playing an RSL was great. These are generally licensed facilities composed of bars and decent catering facilities, usually with a large sized hall a part of the set up. They are the physical infrastructure of Australia’s fraternity of Returned Sevice men and woman, the veteran community. They are as much a part of the australian landscape as Anzac Day (our national day of remembrance) and the egalitarian myth of the people. As such, they exist in most towns and suburbs as part of the social landscape connecting this country with its important and proud military heritage. They are also people’s organisations, and have thus been a part of the australian mucic scene. A lot of great aussie bands have played the local RSL on the road to professionaldom. Not that The Negotiators intend to become professional, but I did enjoy joining the tradition of playing an RSL.

Wayne had over a hundred people at his party, and a lot of them stayed through the night. We had upto 20 people dancing several times, and there was almost always someone up. The waltz kept showing itself, sometimes to the strangest musical accompaniment!

My favorite moments were having a Cloe (10 years) almost reverantly checking our gear out as we set up, and later accompanying Nancy on the vocals for ‘Not Pretty Enough’ and ‘Nutbush’, and Steves winding riff through ‘Satisfaction’. The audience seemed to all enjoy us, with most either obviously enjoying by the grins, claps and dancing, or the surreptitious toe tapping that is almost always a give away. In the corner, the most sceptical of the audience was a table of veterans in their fifties. But they stayed all night, and they seemed to like our balls (having a go at some pretty hardcore rock, and pulling it off both energetically and passionately). I thought, if we can win those blokes over, we can win anybody! Of course, it may have had something to do with the time of the evening?

Onwards and upwards…