A somewhat reduced but incredibly vibrant BO provided music for The Anti Cancer Council Relay for Life event held at the Rotunda in Commonwealth Reserve, Williamstown. Very much like the speech given by Rowan, the keynote speaker and cancer survivor, we, in our small way turned a series of setbacks into a joyful and productive evening. Over 60 mm of rain tried to dampen the proceedings, which had already been shifted twice and made the reserve a rather soggy spot for our audience to picnic. Someone had the idea of inviting everybody up onto the rotunda to hang out with the band. We just turned around and reversed our direction and Bob's your uncle, we created an intimate gathering that defied the rain (much needed tho it is) and we partied hard.
Present: Kathryn, Annette, Rhonwyn , Mike Stewart, Mike de Valle, Dave Isom, Steve Martin, Greg O'L, Nancy. We hammered away as usual, the vibe generated lighting up the whole reserve, fingers flashing and bows shivering, Mike de Valle dressed as Sherlock Holmes, Annette straight from the Melbourne Theatre Company dressing room, lipstick blazing and eyes shining. We pulverised em with polkas and even some songs.... Garry Adams Foootscray and the rather ironic You Are My Sunshine. We wowed em with walzes and jollied em with jigs, had em rolliking with reels and then......... paused for the piper.
Speeches came next and Rowan told us something about his travails and described the effect they had on him. I don't particularly like speeches but this one was so real, relevant and profound that I found myself overwhelmed with his uplifting message. There is nothing like getting it from the horses' mouth and I think we all wonder how we will shape up when our test comes. Rowan in a few simple words gave me at the least, hope that I will not let myself down and even hope that such adversity will make me a better person. He even said he enjoyed parts of it!
I think I can speak for the whole Bush Orchestra, when I say it was a privilege to be asked to play for this event and I have a feeling we all got much more out of it than we expected. The poignancy was further enhanced as one of our members has been on a similar journey to Rowan. We all have been touched one way or another by cancer and it was an honour to be asked to help do something positive about it.
Music makes me smile and more so in the company of friends and I positively beam when we can make it to entertain others.
Thanks to all who made the effort to come ....it was not wasted.
Greg O'L
p.s. a couple of frames from the short video:
Click to see the short video on Youtube
Steve
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