Matchbox 20

Thanks to Donna we managed to get tickets to Matchbox 20 at the Entertainment Centre. It wasn't until we walked into the place that we realised that we had 3rd row from the front seats and the best view ever!!

When we arrived, Thirsty Merc were doing their thing to get the crowd going and doing a pretty good job of it too. They went through their hits such as 'In the summertime', 'Someday Someday' and '20 Good Reasons' - the whole time I was pestered by Julie to air guitar along!

Thirsty Merc do their thang...

Once Matchbox 20 stepped foot on stage as predicted the whole place went nuts and Rob Thomas launched into what would be a 2 hour performance of hit after hit. They rolled out the new (from Exile on Mainstream) and old and the crowd lapped it up.

Rob Thomas mid performance

As much as Donna & Jo wanted to, unfortunately there was no getting past the security guard to get to the front and once he spotted Donna's camera he made her put it away so I'm lucky to have these shots at all. Apparently they decided to play a different Australian song at every one of their gigs down-under and we were treated to a INXS cover version before they wrapped up their show with a great performance of Long Day.

Matchbox 20 take a bow

Kirsty & Craig's Wedding

Today was Kirsty & Craig's wedding. Kirsty is a good friend of Jo's as they worked together at IBM. We went to Kirsty's hens night a few weeks back and now it was time for the big day. We met Fiona in North Sydney and drove over the Harbour and Spit bridges to Freshwater (Harbord) where the outside wedding was taking place in a small reserve overlooking the beach.

Nice day for a white wedding...

The ceremony was beautiful in such a wonderful setting and on a day of perfectly clear and sunny weather. Our good friend Donna was the wedding photographer and she took some great shots including the ones above and below, I'm Kirsty and Craig won't be disappointed to have these in their wedding album!

The happy couple

After a glass of Champagne we all made our way to Shores at Middle Harbour for the reception. Another great setting overlooking the water the party got started after the round of speeches with the band grooving from the word go.

Paaaarty!

Downstairs there was also the 'Barefoot Ball' taking place (which we gate crashed a couple of times throughout the night!) where all the men were in Tuxedo's on the top half and boardshorts/thongs on the bottom! The girls were all in dresses and no shoes and everyone was dancing around to a great live band on the beach. The night went on with a fantastic three course meal followed by plenty of drinks and dancing to the band...

Billy Elliot liiiiike!

There is something distinctly odd about watching a Musical performed entirely in Geordie accents but that is what we experienced last Friday when we went to see Billy Elliot at the Capital Theatre.

I am a big fan of the movie so the musical was the next logical step, it's been playing in Sydney since last November and it finishes up next week so it was lucky we managed to get tickets.

Overall, I thought the show was excellent. The young actor who played 'Billy' was outstanding and was supported by an equally good cast. The show kept true to the original story line and embellished certain areas in true musical style (the Priscilla-inspired dancing dresses and the Maggie Thatcher fairground were additions that I don't recall from the movie!) that added to the humour as well as the seriousness.

The show started with some Pathe news reels of history and set the scene for the the miners strike of Maggie T's Tory era and the class war that followed. We watched as Billy 'F' and blinded his way through boxing, ballet, watching after his Nan and his families struggle with a year long strike and their working class son's love of dance not dirt.

As someone who spent many a year in Newcastle (ok, the story is set in Durham and true Geordie's can tell the difference between a Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, Durham, Middleborough and Northumberland accent) I felt more qualified than most to judge (and understand!) the accents being spoken and sung. Most did pretty well I thought and there was definitely enough swearing to make it authentic!

I believe if there was a 'crowd favourite' award though, it would've easily gone to the young lad who played the camp cross-dressing Michael - his parts where hilarious and had the crowd in stitches!