Campbell Mc Cance, bigpipe king, played with us at Revelry a couple of weeks ago (to rousing applause). Here’s a great shot of Campbell on stage with us at our Cherry Bar show in Melbourne, November 2010.

CLFO.

We’re planning a TOF Christmas party. We’re thinking it’ll be in the park across the road in Nicholson St, Abbotsford. Free BBQs there, bathroom (toilet) back across the street at our place. Looks like being an acoustic show (with a tiny bit of amplification). A weekend afternoon before Christmas, weather-permitting, it’ll be awesome. Few beers, food, guest artists, kicking back for the day in the park.

Max & Mat at last year’s TOF Christmas party in the park.

We’ll be a little more specific about the day & time shortly.

Have a good weekend.
CLFO

This fantastic photographer, Long Truong, took the shot below when we played Mao Livehouse, Beijing 2011. He’s uploaded a bunch of shots from that show on his Facebook. We met Long again this year at Strawberry Festival Beijing, where he took some amazing live shots – many of which make up our current web site background.

The On Fires live at Mao Livehouse Beijing 2011. Pic by Long Truong.

We salute you Long!

CLFO

After months of rehearsing & planning for last weekend’s Revelry show, we jumped in the van & headed for Bendigo to spend this weekend sitting on Sandy’s back verandah. The beers were flowing (the ladies were on the cider) and the weather was fantastic. Winner of Revelry’s meat raffle, Clive dropped in with Maria & cooked the barbie Saturday night.

Me and Sandy at her place in Bendigo, this weekend – pic by Max.

Bendigo has certainly changed over the past 10 years. It’s now a bustling, cosmopolitan city with a cafe around every corner – and they take their coffee way seriously. We spent a few hours on Saturday looking around the city’s main art gallery, which is huge & getting bigger. Sandy works there, so we got this amazing guided tour. Awesome.

Dropped in to see Steve Lane (Steve Lane and the Autocrats) on the way home yesterday. Great to catch up.

A fine weekend it was…
Back to work.

CLFO.

The scene out front of Sunday’s Revelry show (the pic below). The day felt more like a festival than a gig. That’s Steve from The Vagrants, chief sausage-sizzler at the barbie…

Off to Bendigo this weekend to visit Sandy, Maria & Mr Clive Cooke who took out the meat raffle at the show… AGAIN. We don’t know how he keeps winning that thing. Is it fixed? How the hell is he doing it??? (that’s Clive in the white cowboy hat)

CLFO

It was a massive day on Sunday. We started early in the morning, teams of helpers lugging equipment, food and beer into cars and vans for the short trip around to Abbotsford Hall, where set-up began at 10:30am for Remembrance Day Revelry. It was a mammoth effort. By 2pm we were ready to roll when Michael Gallichio opened the show. We hit the stage at 2:30 – and hit our first technical issue which forced us to start again. But after that, things got settled & off we went.

It was fantastic to see so many familiar faces, people who’d come from near and far (including the northern NSW & country VIC). The room was packed, the community vibe flowing – the On Fires family gathered. The best thing I’ve heard about the day was the sense of family and friendship everybody felt. The great thing about putting on our own show (outside of a pub or club) is being able to set up exactly how we like & play our own kinda show  – on a sunny Melbourne arvo. A lotta people brought their kids along too, which was fantastic. We don’t normally have that kind of experience.

The wash up: We’re still looking over how the day went. For us, it was a great success & we’ve already started planning the next one – and some local shows beforehand in 2013. We’ll definitely host an On Fires Christmas arvo before this year is out – details coming soon.

Thanks to everybody who helped us put Sunday’s show together. It could not have happened without you –  the cooks, the raffle organisers, the production & set-up crews, the bar staff, balloon-blower-uppers and everybody who got down to see it. At last count, we had between 180 and 200 folks spend the arvo with us.

Singing ‘Abbotsford Song’ at Remembrance Day Revelry, Sunday 11th Nov 2012.

CLFO

It’s Saturday arvo, the day before the big show tomorrow. Remembrance Day Revelry – we open the doors tomorrow at 1pm, when the bar opens for our biggest show in a long while. The show starts at 2pm, opened by Michael Gallichio. The On Fires hit the stage shortly after that. Right now we’re doing some last minute running-around, picking up that extra roll of Gaff, making sure the smoke machine still works, testing the beer for tomorrow…

It’s a free show & kids are welcome. Come down for a special arvo with The On Fires & friends, cheap beer, wine & spirits, free party-pies & party food. Abbotsford Hall, 141 Gipps St Abbotsford (Collingwood Masonic Centre).

Seeya there.

CLFO.

We had an awesome meeting at our place last night for the many folks involved in this Sunday’s Revelry show – bar volunteers, set-up crew, the cooks who’ll be preparing food, meat-raffle organisers, musicians, DJ Crackles & our illustrious MC. It was a great night – and an education in what it takes to organise a major producion, from the bar to the meat-raffle, from set-up to tear-down.

 
The Great Wall of Carlton, currently in our hallway in readiness for Sunday’s Remembrance Day Revelry.

There are so many people to thank so I’m going to start now, in advance –
Our big thanks to Scott Davies, DJ Crackles (Craig McGrath), Dean Hill, Stalk Stabb, Cujo (Kim) Allen, Keran Sandhu, Heidi, Jaimie, MC Michael Carney, Ross Buckingham, Tony Cartledge, Lucian Rowe, Graham, Kate, Gerome & Robert. We’ll get to thanking all the guest artists after the show…

See you at Revelry on Sunday, 141 Gipps St Abbotsford – The Abbotsford Hall (Collingwood Masonic Centre). Doors & bar open at 1pm, show starts at 2.

DJ Crackles is all set to spin tunes at Revelry on Sunday. He’ll be programming songs before the show & during the breaks – and winding up the day with a magic set, taking us out to closing time (about 6pm). DJ Crackles is a man of eclectic taste, and his set looks certain to take us through 50 years of cool toons with surprises-aplenty.

DJ Crackles.

Seeya Sunday at Remembrance Day Revelry. Doors open at 1pm. Show starts at 2pm. (Abbotsford Hall, 141 Gipps St Abbotsford)

CLFO

It’s coming up to midday in Melbourne. In just a few hours Australia will stop to watch the Melbourne Cup (today is a public holiday in Melbourne, specifically this horse race). Apart from the hundred-thousand people who’ll actually be at the track in Flemington, Aussies everywhere will be holed up around a TV screen between the bar and the BBQ – watching their horse belt it out for two miles.

Melbourne Cup.

We’ll be at Stalk & Kim’s place, a Melbourne Cup tradition. Let the the horses run, the beer flow and the punters punt.

Seeya Sunday at Remembrance Day Revelry.
CLFO