Inside Job blog

4/3
The Melbourne part of the tour is now behind us as we are headed to Sydney and then a drive to Canberra. Melbourne went very well, after allowing everyone the a couple of days to get rid of the jetlag, by the time the first show came everybody was very ready to get out and play, and it really showed up in the shows. We got the news about Duane Jarvis the morning of the second show nd that made for a very sad and reflective day.
We had talked about Duane on the flight over, in fact he once toured Australia with her and she told me the story of their flight together in the middle of a thunderstorm with lightning outside the plane and she was very terrified and she said “Duane, look out there it ‘s lightning”, and he said “Yeah!! Isn’t it cool?”. She told me how Duane was always like that pesty little bother type to her and how that response was so typical Duane. After we got the news we both felt very grateful that we not only did we get to see Duane at the Valentine’s Day party that we had, but also that so many of his old friends came and got to see him one last time. We feel now that that party, as unlikely as it was to have happened, was for Duane.
The show the second night in Melbourne was something very very special. She of course added Still I Long For Your Kiss, which Duane co wrote with her, and she sang it with such a force, almost an anger, with eyes shut and arms flailing, it was as if she was shouting at the gods who take those close to us too early. After closing the show with Long Way To The Top, she came back out and sang Angel, hanging and pausing on some of the words for emphasis, it was just pure unadorned emotion. She walked off the stage with tears streaming down her face. Duane, my friend, I hope you were watching. You are missed.

Trying to stay caught up is proving to be a challenge:
4/6
There are occasionally times when we are on the road that causes me to wonder how she does it, how the band and the crew do it– how anybody does it. You do your best to plan the shows to avoid the difficult days, but sometimes shit just happens.. After flying to Sydney, we woke up to a complete power blackout that had shutdown most of Sydney. After calling down to the front desk- we quickly realized that we were f’ed. Everything was out and the hotel was down to one elevator running on an emergency generator and they strongly recommended not using it unless we had an emergency. They also were not allowing hotel staff to use it either so that ruled out room service. At that moment we quickly realized that we were trapped on the 24th floor in lovely downtown Sydney–CBD as they call it here. Not a great way to start the day because we were facing a 3 ½ hour drive to Canberra to do the show that night and then the 3 ½ hr drive back immediately after the show. The plan was that Lu would get ready for the show before we left Sydney, but with the power out there wasn’t much she could do. At least we had a great view overlooking the Sydney Opera house. After close to 2 hours the power did eventually get restored and we were able to leave in time to get to Canberra for the show. Lu somehow managed to stay in great spirits all day but was met with a rather difficult audience which just made a hard day a little harder. It was great to read later some of the positive responses in this forum about the show, that people had driven in to to see the show etc. I later shared that with Lucinda and it really helped her to hear that. These are also the nights that really separate the men/women from the boys/girls –that ability to fight through less than great circumstances, that you have to have if going to succeed at anything–and she really has it. While it may not have been her best show she really hung in there and turned it into a very solid show. For the drive back to Sydney, Lucinda decided to get on the mini-bus with the band because she needed a little cheering up, and they are always great for that. It was a long drive back but some wine was consumed and the band- well one member in particular shared some rather incredible tales of colorful moments in his touring history. Let’s just leave it at that. This was also the night that the debate about Long Way To The Top started to became a serious topic…….
More on that later.