What the Folk!

Thanks for the info, nonch! Just tweeted and posted an update about it from the What The Folk! accounts. Really hope they win!

I hope WIUO wins. But I really enjoyed Poulet Shack. "Chicken in the front... chicken in the back..."

Yikes...it's so close! I really like Bella's tune and that version of Billie Jean is tight. How does he do that?

I like Bella's tune too, she has such a sweet voice but I thought it went on a little too long. I am developing some serious admiration for Manitoba Hal though. Voodoo Thing is just amazing.

People must agree. Manitoba Hal has pulled into the lead. It's a bit too....um....backwoods for me.

I put the link on my FB....

It's the blues, woman! How can you not like the blues??

Nah...I don't know that much about genres...but I must take my blues a bit more jazzy and a lot less country...Norah Jones, Billie Holiday etc. Sexy, smoky, slinky, seductive and velvety smooth. Makes me want to pour a martini...kick off my pumps...slide out of my panty hose and slow dance barefoot in front of the fireplace. TMI?

I do like Manitoba Hal's logo. Sort of a sweet ukulele nod to B.B. King's 80.

Slow and slinky is good too. But then so is boogie on down with a pitcher of beer in a dive bar, lol. But then again, what moves my booty may not move yours. So turns the world, amen.

Regardless - I still have my fingers crossed for the WIUO.

My thoughts exactly! Seriously, how is that guy playing the uke? And Bella's tune is sweet.

It's currently close between Bella and Manitoba but I hope WIUO can still pull through.

Hi everyone!

It's been a while, I know, but I just had to share some memories from last night's epic WIUO gig here in Sydney.
In short: It was amazing. Pure, unmitigated joy.
The venue was great, the crowd was awesome, and I think the Orchestra were having a lot of fun. Oh, and they also raised a bunch of money for the NZ Red Cross

Amongst others (and in no particular order), they played Heartache and Hoki Mai (the 2 encore songs), Africa, Charming Man, Push It (I hadn't seen this live before, and it was AMAZING), Cry Me a River, Jolene, a Hawaiian song Carmel did hula dancing for, Ruby, I Love You Raylene, Afternoon Delight (this was hilarious. The audience did the "Peeew!" bit so perfectly and with such enthusiasm that Age just started laughing, and then afterwards he said "you guys really like that song, huh? We only just discovered it. I can't believe how rude it is. It's so rude!" )
They did John Farnham's "You're The Voice" just for us Aussies. They called it our 2nd National Anthem and Age played the bagpipe part on the vibraphone. The singing along was mind blowing. (If you aren't familiar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxlE7yCSHAM)
Sam got up in front to sing Happy Together ("it's me and you.. and you and me.." in his AMAZING one-piece. He said he'd sewn it himself out of an old bedspread, and it basically became the star of the show. More than once the chant "One! Piece! One! Piece! One! Piece!" broke out in the crowd. Sam seemed pretty much equally delighted and embarrassed, and at one point just did a little "yippee!" into his microphone
Another brave sartorial choice were Andy's tiny little yellow short shorts

Seriously though, the audience were amazing. And I say in full awareness of Sydney crowds sometimes being known to be obnoxious/ annoying whatever. But yep, we brought it. It was the perfect mix of responsive (LOTS of clapping and cheering, and incredible singing along), and quiet when they needed to be. One song Age introduced by saying "we're going to bring it right down now" and he said it was a bit of a special song so we had to listen, and it was just a duet between Nigel and Andy. So all this "sshhhh!"ing went round the crowd for a bit, and everyone DID "shh" and just listened to this beautiful song (I couldn't tell you what it was, I'm sorry...) and then just burst into applause and cheering at the end
After that Nigel said "thank you Sydney" and there was a general mumble-cheer, so Age said "The correct response is "Thank you Nigel"" so everyone was yelling that out

It finished pretty late, and I had one very tired friend with me, so we didn't hang around for very long, but I did get to have a pretty good chat with both Megan and Gemma, and said hi and exchanged a few words with Age and Sam

Oh! And on the train in we came across copies of the free MX Sydney "newspaper", and guess who was front page??
I grabbed 2 copies and gave one to Gemma

I didn't take any videos this time round, and only got a few photos on my iPhone, so they're not great quality. But here they are:

Ahaha! Awesome Hels!
I thought about you last night and wondered how it was going! Sounds like a sweet set - I've heard them do most of those songs at some point, and I LOVE it when the sing-alongs are loud! Their version of 'cry me a river' is pretty spectacular I think!
I absolutely ADORE Sam's bedspread jumpsuit, but I'm a tad concerned about those tiny shorts Andy is wearing
Glad they were able to indoctrinate a few more Aussies into the wily ways of the Welly Uke group

Hey Helen
Yeah, it was a brilliant set, so good to see quite a few I hadn't seen before And yes, Cry Me a River is AMAZING. So wonderful.
Oh, and I forgot to include before, they also played Dreaming of You and I Could Never Take The Place of Your Man

Andy's shorts were hilarious (especially teamed with his bowler hat and bare feet). We were right up the front (obvs.) and were kind of copping an eyeful-'o-Andy. We were a bit scared at first, but then we just went with it

And yes, I'm sure heaps of people were totally converted. It felt like the energy of the room just rose and rose through the night as people really got into it, and I know the friends I took were completely blown away. Even after all my extreme hyping

I like Andy's shorts. Looks like he's got a good pair of gams & nice feet.

Thanks, Hel! What a great show you got to see! I bet Gemma loved getting that paper....

Your pics are excellent- I love Andy's little shorts and Sam's homemade onesie, lol! And I like Francis' Mighty Boosh shirt. (It looked like Andy's shorts got shorter and tighter when he sat down....lol)

What a wonderful bunch of songs...maybe someone will be able to figure what the slow duet was, I'm really curious. They all have good voices, but Nigel's and Andy's (along with Age) are my favorites.