Went down to The Resignator’s 9-Years-of Skankin’ show last Friday night. It was a fantastic night and great to experience a band doing something different. Ska-punkers, The Resignators, were indeed celebrating 9 years together and you could buy ‘dinner & show’ or standing room tix. I’m told the food was excellent, about a hundred people chowing down on a 3-course meal before their beloved headliners hit the stage at the Eureka Hotel in Richmond. Max was MC for the night, introducing the bands & requesting people switch off their phones (which they actually did).

Max MC’s the Resignators 9th anniversary show – Eureka Hotel Richmond 23rd May 2014.

I had a ball at this show. The guys had a highlights video playing on TV screens around the room, showing tour & live footage from across the globe. Great merch ideas – including their own brand of chili sauce. Well done guys – here’s to another 9.

Fires out.

Mick Brown, drummer extraordinaire and master builder, cutting tiles at the rear door of the new venue (this arvo).

Mick the builder, 22nd May 2014 at the new venue.

A man of many talents, Mick played drums on our first album ‘Sky Caves In’ (and a bunch of local shows over the years).

Fires out.

Max cleaning bricks in the ‘beer garden’.

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Working on the new venue over the weekend. Toward the rear of the building (right behind the venue) we’ve got a few rooms that, in the beginning, will probably be artist studios, galleries or something like that. They’d also make a killer addition to the venue – a separate bar area from the main room, but that’ll be down the track if need be. In any case, the original dirty & broken windows in said rooms need replacing – my job over the weekend. Here’s me not posing for this shot…

Coffee with window, Saturday 17 May 2014 at the new venue.

Fires out.

The band van has been doing it’s share of dirty work here at the new venue. Apart from saving us thousands in material delivery fees (we’ve got roof racks these days) we’ve made plenty of trips to the tip. The shot below, a little bit of Collingwood (from the beer garden), dumped at our closest tip in Reservoir last week.

Dumping at Reservoir tip last week.

And again, another weekend working along side the building crew starting tomorrow at 7am. It’s all hands on deck & 7 day weeks at the moment.

Fires out.

Last Wednesday, went down to the Vagrant’s brand spankin’ new Harley Monroe store in Box Hill North for opening night. They’d set up a marquis on the footpath out front, Dogsday playing loud rockabilly tunes to a quiet suburban street – small line of shops on one side, houses on the other. BBQ, beer & wine supplied. A great night & a great way to celebrate the opening of a new store selling all kinds of rock & roll memorabilia & other nostalgic stuff including clothes, funky record players, gift cards, art & so on.

Harley Monroe opening night 8th May 2014.

Fires out.

Been a flat-out week here at the new venue. Cutting back the old floors with industrial sander for the past 4 or 5 days. Still going. Lots of nails to punch in, putty, varnish etc etc. Frenetic work rate required. Sorry for lack of posts. More soon.

Marty masked & floor polishing in the new venue.

Fires out.

Flat out on the new venue (been a few days since the last post). Here’s a shot of Stu the plumber up a ladder on Friday. Gutsy stuff – not something I’d be happy about. He’s about 8 metres up (it was raining lightly making for slippery grip). Spent the weekend on a work frenzy again here. Need a shower – been a couple of days.

Fires out.

New ‘smart’ meters installed in the venue yesterday – replaced the old power meters. We like to keep the excitement coming…

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Awesome drummer Albi Fabri just returned from 3 dates in Perth with the Australian INXS Show. I see on their website they’re heading to Darwin in June.

Albi Fabri on drums with the Australian INXS Show.

Albi was one of our lesser-known drummers – probably because we never actually got to play live with him (that’ll do it). But he was absolutely sensational. It was a real shame we lost him. At the time (2006) we just couldn’t keep a rhythm section together. Guys were coming & going like shoppers through a revolving door. Anyway, fast forward & it’s great to see Albi out there rockin’ the road. Good on ya mate.

Fires out.
PS – blistering weekend gone, working on the new venue.