Negotiators Duo gigs - this weekend and last

This Weekend

This Friday Night (23 March) the Negotiators Duo (Nancy and Steve) play their little duo thing at the Excelsior Hotel on Hawker St in Brompton, I think they start fairly early (like around 7.30). Last time they played their it was by all accounts a good gig. I hear there's a few people planning on going so it might be a relatively biggish show. The things I most recall about the pub are its 'Phantom' decor and its food (lots of it and yum).

On Saturday Night, it's off to the midnorth again - this time in Jamestown. It'll be a latestarting gig (say, 10 pm or after?) and no doubt a fairly interesting night. There's a busload or two of jazz people coming by, my guess is they'll appreciate what they see and hear.

Last Weekend

The most recent show Nancy and Steve did was at The Taminga Hotel in Claire. There was a bit of competition on in town, with a band at the 'young' pub, a drunken Karaoke in the middle pub, and The Negotiators Duo in the front bar of the Taminga. Not that I'm biased but I thought the band was okay, I could listen to their pop punk and enjoy it. The Karaoke was crap. The best show in town was The Duo at the Taminga, they held a dozen til the end and had a couple dozen more through the evening. All rocking at one stage. Which is pretty good for a duo midi thing. Need I say more.

(By the way, the band is still rehersing. Not a lot of new stuff, but there's a lot of ground to recover with the old. My ear detects improvement, will be good when we start booking gigs again)

RIP Billy Thorpe & Negotiators Duo gig on Saturday

'The Negotiators Duo' (Steve and Nancy) are playing at Claire, lovely little town in South Australia's Mid-North, this Saturday Night (March 10). They start at around 9.00 pm. I'm not sure which pub it will be at, but there can't be too many! Would be good to see some of you there (knowing, as I do, that you don't mind getting away from the big smoke for a weekend in the country).

The band itself continues rehersal, though of a fractured kind. For example, due personal tragedy only us blokes could make it last Sunday. This allowed for a technically oriented practice which was good, but necessitates further delay in our return to the pubs of Adelaide.

Speaking of pubs, one of the greatest legends of Oz rock, Billy Thorpe, died of a heart attack in the last week, aged 60. Our sympathies to those who knew him. For those that don't know, Billy Thorpe almost singlehandedly put bands into pubs (as early as 1963!), was upsetting everyone with his loudness almost straight away and, with his band 'The Aztecs', made a name both nationally and internationally for loud and aggressive hard rock. The chaos which attended his following was legendary. He was still into the music game, and I understood had recently recorded another album which will now no doubt become a best seller when released.

RIP Billy.

February Flyer

Slightly Modified Version of the flyer we presently leave with potential patrons.

Negotiators Duo gigs review and band update

The Duo played at Excelsior last Friday, and Burra last night. Both were apparently successful gigs. I've seen some folk who were at the Excelsior and they loved it. I wasn't at Burra, but they played a long gig (1.30 stumps) so that's usually a sign everyone's enjoying themselves.

The performed our song 'Fucked Decisions', with a midi track! A 'midi' is an electronic device that allows you generate 'backing parts' over which you perform. Thus, Nancy sang, Steve played lead guitar, and the 'midi' generated drums, bass and rhythm. Usually, these two piece duos use a midi with preprogrammed cover music. That's what Nancy and Steve have been doing. With 'fucked decisions' however, Steve has started learning how to program the midi. This will be very interesting to see where it ends up in an artistic sense!

Finally, we meet for reherals as a band again tomorrow. Hopefully blow the cobwebs off another dozen or so songs, tightening ourselves up prior to remerging with the stream of consciousness and work which is live gigging.

Negotiators Duo - Burra Gig this Friday

Steve and Nancy by all accounts put on another ripper show lastnight at the Excelsior Hotel, Brompton. I left just before they kicked off. They played until well after time, and took a heavy loss of equipment due the audience getting too excited. Oh well.

We (ie The Negotiators) reherse again tomorrow, Sunday. It's expected to get to 40'C.

The Negotiators Duo (Steve and Nancy) will be playing again at the Burra Pub this coming Friday (9/2/07), starting around 7.30. They tend to pull a bit of an audience there. If you want to be part of a classic country pub in a rockin' mood, get on up there. It's not that far from Adelaide...

Negotiators Duo - Hamley Bridge Jan 27

Steve and Nancy at the Hamley Bridge Hotel on Saturday night. Many thanks to all those who came up to support them. Looked to me like everyone had a great time!

...

Reflective moment...

Steve and Nancy play the Excelsior Hotel (Corner Coglin and Hawker Streets, Brompton) this Friday (2/2/07) from about 7.30 pm. They play with a fair bit more guts than any other of the duo acts I've seen over recent years.

Hamley Bridge, The Excelsior, and Rehersals.

Nancy and Steve are playing their duo thingy reasonably often at the moment. This Saturday night at the Hamley Bridge Hotel from around 7.30 should be a fun expedition from Adelaide (Hamley Bridge lies a ways out the other side of Gawler). They've played at Burra a couple of times since christmas. Next Friday they play at the Excelsior Hotel, Corner Coglin and Hawker Streets, Brompton, from about 7.30.

They say it's just to keep them in touch while the band kicks into gear again, but I'm sure there's a certain pleasure to the lack of complexity when you only have singer, guitarist and Midi (computer) music - not all the dramas that go with the band. On the other hand, there's a certain wild energy that you can latch onto with the bootstrap mentality that comes with playing in the band.

We've started rehersing again, a bit more methodically than before. So it shouldn't be too long now...

Thanks Jo.