Well… It’s been quite some time since anything was written for the gates of hell page – last May, I see – and that was when the Pup joined the band. Lord! There’s a good reason for this. We’ve been far too busy. Busy with touring, busy with the latest album, busy scratching our own bums – all that sort of thing. That aside, it seemed appropriate to comment on the events of the 2006 Country Music Festival because it was so good. Good for The Re-mains and good for the Coalface Coalition.

First up, The Re-mains only played 4 shows; one in acoustic mode at the Family Hotel and the other 3 in full assault mode at the Courthouse. Everybody knows that The City Tavern was our stronghold for the last 3 years, but the change of venue was circumstantial. With Savvy D out of the ranks of entertainment booking, things seemed better directly across the road for this festival. It wouldn’t have mattered where we were at the end of the day because the fans of CR&R want to get it on and that they did. The front bar of the Courthouse for all three shows was a pressure cooker. We now hear the stories of how many people couldn’t/wouldn’t come in due to the intenseness of the atmosphere. It was chockers.

The band was in fine form having warmed up with a few shows in Sydney we hit the ground running playing 2 sets per night over a three hour slot. In the breaks and before and after the shows, it was a serious mission to get a drink or even a legible conversation, so dense was the throng. Too much happened over the course of the festival but here are some of the highlights:

We had a few guest stars: Sarah Carroll – that rocking’ spunk from ex-Melbourne coalfacers GIT, Tonchi McIntosh – he of the subtle word and powerful intent and Neville Anderson – possibly the only legit cowboy singer in the business. Sarah was staying at Camp Re-mains and while making that particular location a lot more fun and gorgeous she managed to find time to perform her own brand of country flavoured sass around town. Resplendent in a variety of colourful dress and other habiliments she charmed the arses off way too many people. No doubt she will be back in Tamworth next year with gigs of her own. Tonchi got up on the final night to lead us through one of his more rockin’ tunes “Evolution”. A real highlight of the set it was with it’s catchy “YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH !!!” chorus and slippery, mutant 12 bar feel. Neville Anderson showed the gathered coalface congregation how to really sing a country song. It’s hard to put a finger on what Nev does but he is bona-fide and a real gentleman to boot. He could croon to a rabble such as we had assembled or to a flock of lamington scoffing grey-nomads. It wouldn’t matter.

Our song “Don’t Go Back” towards the end of the last show brought to the stage Tonchi, Sarah and Georgina Savic, who has graced the stage with us on a couple of occasions. Other guests were up for the count also: Gleny Rae Virus injected her patented brand of estrogen charged fiddle to the fore, she and the Owl exchanging many tossy solos to and fro. On the last show another stellar fiddler John Kendall from Melbourne got up and came on like some sort of countrified Jean Luc Ponty. Amazing to see and hear. Also worthy of a mention was our new tune “Country Rock and Roll Is No. 1” that the audience took to heart by singing along with the chorus, led by the irrepressible Den Hanrahan, who’s beaming mug could be spotted with ease above the heads of the massed believers. We felt like it was Longbeach Arena or something. Or to quote Den himself, “It was GOLD!”

That was how our shows unravelled – more of the same from previous years but in a truly electrified setting and mood. It was the best you can hope for from our angle. I know we were all on the stage looking back at the audience thanking the good lord above that we were not out there in the crowd. Thanks to the Courthouse for the CR&R friendly timeslot and a prayer that in hindsight the outdoor marquee will be a more suitable venue for us next year.

Other festival highlights were Gleny Rae Virus’s Tamworth Playboys gigs at the Southgate Inn. Along with Grant Bedford, Dougy Bull, Marty Moose and Ray “The Pres” Cullen, Gleny but forward a facet of the country sound that is woefully under represented at the Fest – or anywhere for that matter. Swing was the order of the day and her retinue of guests was a thing to behold – Wilson Dixon with his dry comedy, the awesome Lairy Farmers, clearly honed into a seriously sharp act following their European touring exploits, Sarah Carroll and many more. Cheers to Gleny for presenting a show like this and cheers to the Southgate Inn for taking it on. There is no doubt ther’ll be more stuff like this to come.

Elsewhere The Detonators lit up the stage wherever they went, Madviolet charmed the pants off many over at the Albert Hotel. Wanita blasted out her usual rockin’ country blues at several venues and the Blue Cowboys 12 barred it till the wee hours – or until the police turned up. Den Hanrahan turned up the heat and punished his acoustic guitar some more at the Albert and the Impy. The Red Hot Poker Dots held court over 10 days down at Joe McGuires – Gleny, The Owl and Sarah went on to guest with those favourites of ours. The indominatable Neil Murray put on some truly inspiring shows with his band and even did idealogical battle with the mainstream country music fraternity. It was great to see someone of Neil’s stature telling it like it is and singing and playin some real country songs about real people and real events. Let’s see Neil back next year as well. Matt Scullion put some rev into his shows this time with a crack band. His album is a fine piece of work and all of us at the coalface wish him the very best of luck with all his hard work. The Tamworth Truth, an informative little newsletter appeared this year to keep the world up to speed on what’s really happening in the world of Aust. alt-country and more than ever, a sense of unity was forged among the present coalface operators.

There is a spirit of kinship among all the artists mentioned in this report and everything should be done to sustain and foster that kinship. In the pipe for next CMF is a venue we can call our own. A place where there is only good music and there is an emphasis on taking it seriously with the respect it deserves rather that being forced to eek out an existence against the established country music hierarchy and among the confusion of buskers and karaoke inspired mediocrities downtown. A lot of us felt that we were too spread out and as peers we hardly appeared beside each other as far as gigs were concerned. We can and should change that.

But that’s it for now. It was a serious HOOT!