The Wishing Well Band

In this newsletter :

• Thornbury Theatre Show (Melb), Nov 28 (Sat), tickets selling fas
• New album update
• Nannas for the night: calling all hospitable Australians (SA, NSW, QLD, TAS, WA
• Poster Pimps OR kid version froupies (SA, NSW, QLD, TAS, WA
• Caravaniseri – come on tour with us sort of
• Triple J and radio airpla
• House concert anyone
• Europe and Canada – please keep reading!
• The Wishing Well is turning 3 years old (anyone in the tour bus witnessing our antics would agree with this age description)
• Gig Guide:  South Australia (Nov), regional Victoria (Dec), Tasmania (Jan), East Coast – NSW, ACT, QLD (Jan), WA (Feb
• Facebook, Twitter join up won’t ya?

Calm Before The Storm…

October has been the quietest month in our 2 and a bit year history together.  We only played four times as we have been working our butts off on the new album – rehearsing, arranging, writing and recording.   The transition from performing constantly to recording has given us the chance to sit back and think about how we want to record all these songs that were written on the road during our many tours. We still managed to squeeze in a wonderful and intimate house concert, a couple of street performances and The Maldon Folk Festival in October just to remind us of what a magical experience it is to play live together. And of course a few hospital visits that have come to be part and parcel of any gigs numbering greater than 3 outside Melbourne

Thornbury Theatre, Nov 28 (Sat), dinner and show, tickets selling fast

We are really looking forward to playing again in Melbourne and in particular at this beautiful theatre.  We’ll be showcasing a number of new tunes from our forthcoming second album and be joined by the graceful Francesca Mountfort on cello and wonderful Willow on acoustic guitar, mandolin and harmony vocals.   There will be a yummy dinner and two great supports for you to feast on (Tash Parker and April Maze) before we set fire to the stage with some great new tunes of our second album and a couple of surprises.  Don’t miss out! Tickets can be purchased online here: Thornbury Theatre Ticket Sales

New album

Under the guidance of the uber talented Pete Dacey, the texture and sound of our second album is gradually taking shape.

The bodaciously cool and talented Lord Pete Dacey in the 60’s love pad that is his studio.

It is an exciting process to watch listening to the tracks grow and develop each week.  Rod has laid down all the drums incorporating some really cool effects and pulling out all of his tai chi drum moves.

Bob Marley, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin all kept Rod good company as laid down some tasty grooves

Jai has finished laying down all the mighty guitars and much of the warm bass and the Sezorchestra is hard at work laying down all those beautiful strings and crafting magnificent solos for I Face Myself Alone and Sweet Song.

The vibe in here is so cool I have to wear a jacket and scarf!!!

We’ve been jamming with the oceanness of cello, which is Fran who will add to the Sezorchestra in November.  Willow is to add mandolin and harmony vocals and last but not least Jai will record his lead vocals in December and then badabing a new album ready for you in January so don’t blow all your cash over the Christmas cause you won’t want to miss out!

What to call the album?

So far, we like the idea of calling the album Fire In The Valley.  For those of you who know the song, it is a mysterious and ambient tune, whispering violin, softly rumbling drums and breathy vocals. At first listen, it might not seem to sum up the entirety of the album since it certainly doesn’t rock out like the other tracks and stands out in comparison to the others.  But it is at the heart of what The Wishing Well is for us.  With all the space and minimalist instrumentation, it reminds us of what is at the heart of our music – the soulfulness and sincerity of the sound and the meaningful lyrics that are such a distinctive part of what our band is to us.

As a track it is about the beauty and regeneration that comes out of destruction and was written after our old drummer Mikey’s house burned down in the forest fires in February this year.  For us it is about the many great things that are forged in fire despite its obvious destructiveness something we have experienced as individuals and also through the many peaks and troughs of our band’s development.

We’ve added another track to the second album called Long Way Down, which no one has heard live – even us since we haven’t had a chance to rehearse it up yet!  Jai wrote it on the fly when he was trying to finish the arrangement for Shadows but Sir Pete said no way could we wait to record it for album three so it is a little bit of a surprise track for us since the others we have played to most of you while on the road.   We will be playing Long Way Down live during our Adelaide tour and at The Thornbury Theatre show.

It is about “going for it” musically, cutting out all the other everyday crap that steals you and your time away from your dreams.  Long Way Down summarizes the sacrifices you need to sometimes make for your passion.   We always liked that saying from The Dalai Llama “judge your success by what you have given up”.  We can’t wait for you to hear it.  It’s going to be the first single launched off the album.

Apart from all the work we have been doing on the new album, Sez is quitting her job as head of strings at Mckillop College so she can dedicate every waking moment to The Wishing Well instead of training little kids to shift into third position on the violin.  A wise choice, we think and apart from violin gymnastics she is going to help out with the management of our little band of trippers as long as we keep her topped up with Kitkats.

Thats the way aha aha…

Nannas for the nights

Thanks to everybody who has agreed to be our nanna for the night in the coming months along the many upcoming touring destinations.  You guys rock!  It brings a great smile to our face knowing we will be spending a little less time at Formula 1.  If anyone else is interested in being our nanna for the night just check the tour dates and let us know if you would be able to put us up for the night in any of the destinations close to you.   We are very well-behaved house guests and can cram into the tiniest of places and go unnoticed sort of like The Terminator (in the sense you will need your heat sensor goggles to notice us). You can email us at thewishingwellband@gmail.com

Want to be a poster pimp or a froupie?

Colin from Adelaide emailed us asking about putting up some posters for us (thanks Colin) so if you like roaming the streets and taping or glueing why not join in the fun of putting up posters to help promote our gigs and tours?  Get in touch with your artsy and craftsy side.  Looking for a way to entertain your kids on Saturday arvo? It’s great fun, if you haven’t tried it and is good for fitness too.  Just think goodbye Weightwatchers, hello poster putting up for The Wishing Well.  You can email us at:  thewishingwellband@gmail.com and we can send you some posters to put up in some of the towns we will be passing through.  You get special perks as a poster pimp or froupie (kind of like a groupie but a whole lot more fun – you have to become one to find out how).

Caravaniserai – come on tour with us sort of…

Do you have a spare van or turago or any large vehicle that sits around feeling neglected and un-loved?  Don’t you think your large vehicle DESERVES to see just more than the inside of your garage or that same stretch of Melbourne road to your job?  We can help.  Loan us your van or large vehicle for one of our tours and we will pay you .10 per kilometer travelled.  That’s right your car earns money and gets out a bit to see the world.  All of the other logistics regarding liability and insurance can be worked out.  Isn’t your car worth it? But seriously, you would be saving us half the price of those extortionists Budget and Europe car (no offence) and we would prefer to give that money to somebody we know anyway.

We are looking for caravaniseris for these tour legs:
Melbourne – Adelaide (Nov 18 -23)
Melbourne – Shepparton/Albury/Bright (Dec 11-14)
Melbourne – Queensland (14 Jan- 1 Feb)

If you would like to help, we love you  and you can email Rivkah at thewishingwellband@gmail.com

Triple J and other radio plugs

Seeing as we are already asking for favors we thought might as well chuck a few extra in.  Want to hear our tunes but are too cheap to buy our CD, well then this one is for you!  Why not request us on these radio stations and then tune in?  It’s easy, we both win – you save your money and we get radio airplay yay!   Request and review our songs here : The Wishing Well on JJJ

House concerts

Don’t forget about our fabulously intimate house concerts complete with Sez absailing across the living room violin in tow.   Bookings can be made through the friendly Rivkah on 0423 425 009.

Before the show at a recent house concert

Dear Europe, Dear Canada

We haven’t forgotten you guys! Just waiting to hear back from some festivals before we begin booking our next invasion.  We know that by patiently perusing these newsletters each month you probably know more now about Australian geography then you ever wanted to but please hang in there!  We promise to have some European and Canada newsworthy updates for you before the end of the year.  Be patient, won’t ya? We promise to be back by June 2010.

Next month is The Wishing Well’s 3rd year anniversary

That’s right our anniversary is just around the corner.  3 years ago on December 5, Rivkah’s birthday, we played our very first gig.   It’s been a wild and unexpected ride since that first gig 3 years ago.  We’ve worked our butts off, had so much fun and learned so much. Thanks so much to the over 600 venues and festivals that have taken a gamble on us by giving us gigs even when all we had were some really bad demos to listen to. Thanks to the 32 former band members who have passed through our band like diarrhea (maybe this a bad metaphor?) but left behind some great musical splendor and fun times and sacrificed a lot of their personal lives and time to help shimmy us along to the next stage.  Special thanks to the over 5,000 people who have bought a copy of Life On The Border, your generosity has funded everything from petrol to toilet rolls, maccas (sorry Sez) to the recording of our second album.  Thanks especially to all those people we met early on who encouraged us to keep going and continue to do so.  And even a special thanks to those few killjoys who failed to convince us that we would never be able to do what we are doing or that our music should just sound a little bit more something like whatever– we are so glad we ignored you!  We have so much more exciting work to do, gigs and festivals to play, obstacles to overcome but we feel very grateful to have made it so far to our 3rd birthday, to be lucky enough to play music as much as we do and to be recording our second album.  The show must go on! And it will

Gig Guide – Here we come far and wide across this great continent, please dejammify yourself and get your butt down to one of the gigs!

South Australia – November
18 Nov 2009, 8:00pm
The Grace Emily, 232 Waymouth St
Adelaide, South Australia

22 Nov 2009 8:00 P
Red Poles, McMurtrie Rd
McClarenvale,  South Australia

Victoria – December
28 Nov 2009, 9:00pm
The Thornbury Theatre, 859 High Street, Thornbury
Tickets available here:

http://thornburytheatre.webtickets.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=2207

5 Dec 2009, 9:00pm
Baha Tacos, 2409 Point Nepean Rd
Rye, Victoria

11 Dec 2009  9:00pm
The Yahoo Bar, 45 High St
Shepparton, Victoria

12 Dec 2009, 2:00pm
Bridgewater Brewers, Old Coach House Brewers Lane, Ford Street
Beechworth, Victoria

12 Dec 2009, 9:00pm
Tanswell’s Commercial Hotel, 50 Ford Street,
Beechworth, New South Wales

13 Dec 2009
The Astor Hotel, Albury, NSW
Young St., Albury NSW

Tasmania – January
1 Jan 2010, 8:00pm
The Brookfield Vineyard, 1640 Channel Highway
Margate, Tasmania

2 Jan 2010, 8:00pm
The Republic Bar, 299 Elizabeth Street
Hobart, Tasmania

3 Jan 2010, 4:00pm
The Bridge Hotel, corner of Leith and Forth Roads
Forth, Tasmania

ACT, NSW, QLD – January
Canberra:
18 Jan 2010  9:00pm
The Phoenix Bar, 21 East Row
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

New South Wales:
20 Jan 2010, 6:00pm
The Rails, Jonson Street, Railway Station
Byron Bay, New South Wales

29 Jan 2010, 8:00pm
Wauchope Community Arts, Oxley Lane
Wauchope, New South Wales

Queensland:

23 Jan 2010  9:00pm
Crystal Waters Community Deck, off Kilcoy Lane Conondale
Crystal Waters, Queensland

27 Jan 2010, 8:00pm
The Troubadour, 3/322 Brunswick St, Fortitude
Brisbane, Queensland

Western Australia – February
5 Feb 2010, 9pm
The Prince of Wales
41 Stephen Street
Bunburry, Western Australia

6 Feb 2010, 9:00pm
Settler’s Tavern, 114 Bussell Hwy
Margaret River, Western Australia

7 Feb 2010, 8:00pm
The Indi Bar, 23 Hastings Street
Scarborough, Western Australia

9 Feb 2010, 8:00pm
Mojo’s, 237 Queen Victoria St
Perth, Western Australia

12 Feb 2010              8:00pm
The Camel Bar
20 Chapman Road

Geralton, Western Australia

13 Feb 2010              8:00pm
Rainbow Jungle
14 Bridgeman Road
Kalbarri, Western Australia

14 Feb 2010, 9:00pm
Southerley’s Tavern
Dongara, Western Australia

Facebook, Twitter join up won’t ya?

Myspace is SOOO 2006.   Give us a tweet on Twitter.  You can join here: http://twitter.com/wishingwellband

Be our fwiend on

To buy your copy of Life on the Border please go to The Wishing Well Store at

www.lifeontheborder.net

Thanks for reading ☺ and to all the people who throw change in our
case, buy our CDs, come to our shows and take time out of their busy
lives to let us know how much our music resonates with them.  It’s the
highest reward for us to connect with you through our music.  We often
share moments and meet people through playing our music that we
otherwise wouldn’t.  To see someone jamming along with us who speaks
English as a second language or comes from a place we have never been
to or even heard of or who lives a life that is so different from
anything we have ever experienced and to be able to connect through
music is a beautiful and rare experience we never tire of!

See you soon
x The Wishing Well (Jai, Sarah, Rivkah, Willow, Oscar and Rod)

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