Advertisement
Published: August 10th 2006
Edit Blog Post
The anticipation was overwhelming...
Alanna struggles to maintain her excitement before Nollsy's grand entrance. It had been a long month for this little black duck on the Gold Coast. A lot of down time, work that drove me insane, a week at a less than desirable hostel. But all that was a small price to pay for the luck that befell me in the form of a phonecall from old mate Alanna. It went something like this...
Mark:
Good afternoon this is Mark, how may I help you today?
Alanna:
It's me you idiot
Mark:
Sorry
Alanna:
Do you wanna go to the Shannon Noll Concert on Sunday
Mark:
Lengthy pause Alanna:
Hello?
Mark:
Are you serious???
Alanna:
Yeah.
Mark:
OH... MY... GOD!!!!!!! Orma'GawdOrma'GawdOrma'GawdOrma'Gawd!!!! Turns to Em, puts hand over phone I'm going to Shannon Noll!!! I'm going to Shannon Noll!!! Oh my God!!! back into phone This isn't some kind of sick joke is it?
Alanna:
You're a tool. Do you wanna go or not? I got free tickets from work.
Mark: Of course I wanna bloody go
Alanna: Well if you can't find anyone and you get desperate I'll come with you. Hangs up
So there it was. I was going to be able to tick the first box on my "Things to do while travelling round Australia list". That just leaves "take significant steps towards reconciliation with our Indigenous peoples" and "have a beer with Lee Kernighan".
The next few days I was like a kid before Christmas - so excited, so happy, yet the days dragging painfully slow. Finally the big night came.
As a thank you I took Alanna out for a romantic meal at Big Chief's in Broadbeach where we both had the Blues Burger combo with chips and a drink for just $6.90. Best fast food ever - how come
Stealing the show
Dan English made for a semi-adequate support act for my boy Nollsy, but the entire night was stolen by his back-up Mr Mitchell Courtin (pictured right). In this still shot it's hard to appreciate the full impact of the man who had the musical version of little man syndrome, but someone clearly forgot to tell Mitch that when you're playing second guitar to the support act for an Australian Idol runner up, people aren't there to see you! Good on the kid for having a red hot crack though. there are none in Melbourne? We continued on to Jupiter's Casino where the fun began.
The show was opened by Australian Idol season 3 reject Dan English (the guy with the dreadlocks). I shouldn't be rude, he's actually a bloody good musician and did some quality acoustic covers including "Try a Little Tenderness" and "Unchained Melody" as well as some decent originals. Unfortunately for him however his thunder was stolen by his second guitar/backup vocalist Mitchell "The Man" Courtin. This bloke was HILARIOUS. He was about 3 foot tall, dressed like a 16 year old and he rocked out on acoustic guitar like a man posessed. Alanna and I, perfectly positioned 4 rows back dead centre, were in a perfect spot for his show. It was fantastic.
After Dan and "The Man's" short set, we were almost blown away as the techies dedided it would add to the moment if they pumped out enough dried ice to choke a small child. A 35 year old long haired guitarist who looked like he was still fixated on his childhood emphatuation with Guns'N'Roses came storming on to the stage and hard core ROOOOOOCK music started blaring. Alanna turned to me
Got a license for those guns Nollsy?
Nollsy provides his many adoring female fans with the magical touch of his god-like fingers and a bit of a flex too. Note his support guitarist (far right) who thought he was actually playing with Guns'N'Roses till he arrived at the show to find the crowd full of women aged 3-15 and 35-60 (and me). In fairness to him, even though he's not quite living his dream he isn't a bad guitarist. and said "I can't wait for the blow up devil to fall from the ceiling". Then, the moment we'd all been waiting for... Shannon Noll, the boy from Condobolin, a man who had risen from the red dust of Australia's harsh outback to meteoric fame, winning the hearts of our nation's people as he did so, strutted on to the stage as only a pop star could. The crowd, made up largely of females aged 5-15 and 30-65 went bananas. It was like we were watching the Beatles. Women were fainting, people in the front row reached out to touch the hand of their hero. Alanna and I sat back tapping our feet and humming to a few familiar tunes.
As the night went on the show got better. "Lift", "The Big Black Shiny Car Song", "Now I Run" and of course, everyone's favourite "What About Me" were belted out by the great man. During "What About Me?" he enlisted the help of audience members, giving the microphone to people in the front row and letting them sing a line each. He sung like a genius, but my god the man can't dance!
All piss-taking aside, I am proud to admit that it seriously was an AWESOME concert and I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT. Nollsy is a genius. Funny too. I wouldn't say he's as good as Springsteen, but no-one's as good as Springsteen. He's like Bradman. Only he bowls too. But Nollsy entertained the crowd like a seasoned veteran. Even Alanna who attended the concert only because she felt bad making me go by myself and really didn't want to be there was converted by his performance. In coming days she defended me several times in conversation when I was trying to tell people how good it was and they just laughed. She'd say, "seriously, even I liked it." The funniest part was when she bumped into her long lost teenage sweetheart who was there coz he works on the sound system at the venue and she went bright red and tried to explain that she was only there coz she got free tickets from work and had to come to keep her friend from Melbourne company. Alanna, no matter what the other guys think, Shannon Noll is cool in my book!
In summary, best concert since Bruce Springsteen at Telstra Dome in 2001 on the Rising Tour. Rock on Nollsy!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.051s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 22; dbt: 0.0221s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb