Tony Cini « Murray Foote

Thirroul, New South Wales, Australia, September 2017.
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Before posting on Tasmania, here is a music event I was invited to last weekend. This was a celebration of my friend Tony Cini’s 50 years in the music industry with four blues bands playing on the one night.

The drive from Canberra to Thirroul, near Wollongong, should have taken about two hours twenty minutes. We left early and it was just as well we did because the highway to Sydney was closed due to an unseasonal bushfire. We quickly realised the traffic was going nowhere and it ended backed up seven kilometres for several hours. However, we were able to do a U-turn, getting there instead along the coast via Goulburn and Nerriga. This took five hours instead and we arrived just before the music started. We did better than one Canberra guitarist who was unable to get through. I found I was a bit tired to start with but all in all a great night.

Al Britten with Ginhouse Blues Band.

Tony Boyd with Ginhouse Blues Band.

P J O’Brien with Ginhouse Blues Band.

Tony Cini with Ginhouse Blues Band.

Ginhouse Blues Band.

Dancers, Ginhouse Blues Band.

Tomcat Playground, PJ O’Brien standing in for Dave Blanken.

Dan Sullivan with Tomcat Playground.

Mike Rix with Tomcat Playground.

Greg Clark with Tomcat Playground.

Stefano Cosentino with Arc Riders.

Tony Cini with Arc Riders.

Mark Clifford with Arc Riders.

Arc Riders.

Tony Boyd with Arc Riders.

Juan Pablo Ordoñez with Arc Riders.

19 Twenty taking off (Kane Denelly, Syd Green, John Gwilliam).

19 Twenty (Kane Denelly, John Gwilliam, Heath Denelly).

Syd Green.

19 Twenty.

8 April 2017, Sydney Harbour.

With the next post we will resume to journey to South Georgia in the South Atlantic. First, though, we will have a brief interlude with the BluesCruise on Sydney Harbour that we attended last weekend at the invitation of organiser Tony Cini.

We drove down from Canberra, stayed the night at Cremorne on the north side of the harbour and caught a ferry in the morning to Circular Quay, in the city near the Opera House. From there we walked but got confused by another Pier #6 on the way and nearly missed the ferry (thanks to Jools for working it out!).

This is the first band, the PJ O’Brien band.

We were sailing around the harbour for four hours so there was plenty of thime to observe sights on the way. This is a curious boat-launching dock on the side of a Navy ship, maybe a destroyer. The seats in it are also curiously high.