JUST WHAT THE DOC ORDERED

Gordi is opening for Tones and I and Missy Higgins at Mount Duneed Estate on Saturday.

Picture: ALEX COPPEL

MELBOURNE musician and doctor Gordi has volunteered to help in the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine, after returning to work in hospitals during the pandemic.

This time last year, Gordi — aka Sophie Payten — was ready to put her medical career on hold to focus on touring her album Our Two Skins. But, with her gigs scrapped, she reverted to working as a doctor.

As COVID cases dropped, she then started work at St Vincent’s rehabilitation unit, treating patients recovering from catastrophic neurological events.

“Next week I’m going to go back to music,” Payten said.

“I want to do some more live shows in February but I did just get an email offering work doing coronavirus vaccinations. It’d be cool to be part of vaccinating the country against a pandemic.

“The story began with me losing all my music plans because of COVID, then I start working in hospitals seeing people who had COVID.

“Hopefully the story ends vaccinating people against the disease.”

As a musician and a doctor, Payten has been on both sides of pandemic’s impact.

“When I’m pursuing music I spend a lot of time focusing on myself — I’m writing songs, I’m doing photos, I’m doing interviews, I’m posting photos of myself on social media,” she said.

“It does seem quite inward-looking, which can be exhausting.

“The hospital is the opposite of that. But eight months of lockdown in this pandemic has shown that music can have a broader impact. I put out one song and it can affect thousands of people, whereas I can only see one person in the hospital at a time.”

On Saturday Payten will play at Mount Duneed Estate with Tones And I, Didirri and her musical hero Missy Higgins.

“It seems like we’re on an upwards trajectory however slow that may be. We’re playing to 5000 people this weekend,” she said.

“My musician friends overseas just cannot imagine that happening where they are.

“So we’re very lucky here. The music industry is very ready for its comeback.”

Tones And I, Missy Higgins, Gordi, Didirri, Mount Duneed Estate Geelong, Saturday, $49.90, Ticketmaster