05/03/05 - BIMBADGEN ESTATE, POKOLBIN, HUNTER VALLEY

Review by Delia:
We had a great trip up to the Hunter Valley for the beginning of the Open Road leg of our tour with BA. A quick stop into Woolies for some supplies. Essential travelling nibbles and co-ordinating beverages. Of course we had a list…including ponchos… But forgot our snakes and other sweeties for the Drive. Actually nothing really happened…we were going Nowhere Fast. Well more specifically the Hunter… without much excitement. We were pretty pumped for the gig and our 3 star accom was awesome!!! HUH!! The proprietor greeted us with a greasy chin dripping with…???? we thought we would give the offer of a Room Service breakfast a miss. Yikes!! Wendy sent us a message after arriving in Newcastle that is was raining!!! So it was threatening for a mid afternoon thunderstorm. We decided we might be wise to purchase some waterproof ponchcos. Cessnock doesn’t have many shops. but we managed to go in them all!!!! We spent the rest of the day searching for poncho’s, only to discover they had been sold out weeks ago at a previous Day on the Green gig. We settled for matching red raincoats that luckily we didn’t even need ;-) This was a our first outdoor Bryan gig so we were really hoping for good weather. Noticed a few familiar faces in the crowd…. especially those in the Best and Less zipper jackets!!!

We got to the gig a little later than anticipated only to hear that the first of the support acts, Casey Barnes had been cancelled due to the weather and the delay the wind had on setting up the stage etc. Vanessa Amorossi was great, She Was a Little too good. She has an amazing voice.

Bryan came on stage a little later than planned and the wind dropped – almost on cue (well he is the messiah). Bryan seemed quite impressed with the setting and asked the crowd if we got free wine with our tickets. When we answered no, he said “what a crap show” lol . Quite a bit of interaction with the crowd. The setlist was similar to the other gigs, although he replaced Somebody with It’s Only Love. The WYG girl was a local who worked at the vineyard and didn’t know the words, so we’ll say no more.

It of course was fanbloodytastic!! Pity that it was a little wet underfoot, we were glad we weren’t sitting on the grass. And of course the drastic change in the weather had us all having to rethink our wardrobe!!!! Strappy sandals, sunhats, sunscreen and tanktops were replaced winter woolies and muddy runners!!! And why oh why!!! Were we parked all the other way across the vineyard!!! And trudging back through the vines with no lights at all!!!

Of course a late night with not much sleep!!! Only to be woken up by a bunch of blokes yakking on about their home brew!!! Honestly!!! There was about 12 guys in a minibus on a golf tour!! Oh well, on to Mudgee!!

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Pictures by Delia

Norm and Keith

Nice shot of Mickey

The WYGG and BA

(Above) Local Radio Station KO FM's website's (www.kofm.com.au) rumour section story about BrYan! Looks like the 'bus of love' is in Australia chaps!