Live music boom

High-profile contemporary musicians are bobbing up across the Wimmera and southern Mallee and performing to intimate and enthusiastic crowds.

Announcements that artists such as Alex Lloyd, The Audreys, Neil Murray and Mick Thomas and the Roaming Commission will or have played in far-flung rural localities have caught many fans by surprise.

In fact, people have had to look twice to see the names headlining shows at places such as Banyena, Rainbow and Birchip.

But it is far from coincidental, with a loosely connected group of rural original-music lovers simply ‘making it happen’.

While Ben Gosling has been teeing up shows with a band of volunteers at Rainbow’s The Oasis, Chad Frost has been opening the doors to Banyena Hall and Jarrod Tyler keeping things ticking at Birchip. Glenn Dallinger from Glenorchy and Big Brother television fame has also jumped on board.

Each organises their own community gigs but, after an initial prompting by Rupanyup’s Ray Kingston, come together via social media to share ideas and information.

Each has a passion from generating sparks of life in their rural communities as well as a love for original music.

Mr Gosling, perhaps best known as being part of Rainbow band Lazy Farmer’s Sons, said the idea was simply getting high-quality acts to the regions and trying to cover costs.

“We’re just music lovers and as well as the music we’re keen to keep our small towns alive and make things happen,” he said.

“We had basically crossed each other’s paths through music and while we all work on separate

shows, we think about these shows in the same way and stay in contact.”

Mr Frost agreed, adding that a long-term project was to become sustainable and to encourage artists to perform in the region while travelling between major shows.

“We started with Alex Lloyd two years ago, had The Audreys last year and now Mick Thomas and the Roving Commission with a support act on May 10 – all at Banyena Hall, which I reckon is pretty good,” he said.

“Our tickets are always only $30 and we can accommodate up to 150 people. We front up the money to hopefully cover costs and it seems to work.

“Getting these acts isn’t necessarily that expensive. Our first two shows were sold out and we’ve already sold more than half the tickets for Mick Thomas.

“When I was a kid in Hopetoun I would spend hours on a bus to see a show in Melbourne. It’s great to have acts perform in your home town.

“It’s great to be able to experience live original music and cool to have people come to our community and have a good relaxing time. Often these performers have never played in a venue like it and have enjoyed themselves.”

Mr Gosling said Rainbow had been lucky enough to host artists including Neil Murray, Michael Waugh and Cat Canteri and would present international award-winning American folk act Ordinary Elephant in a sold-out show tomorrow.

“We have a couple of different spaces at The Oasis, which is the old primary school, and we’re running Old School Sessions in one of the old classrooms that seat 70 people. It might not sound a lot but in a town of 400 it’s plenty and means it is well patronised,” he said.

“Of course we also have stage and marquee for bigger events like last year.”