Mark reflects on what has been happening during Covid-19 isolation.

Author:  Mark Seymour.

Date: 7 December 2020.

Original URL: N/A.

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Greetings Stuart Fenech,

We like to plan, but in the year of 2020, like everyone else, planning is the one thing we’ve had to put aside.

Still, what a year it’s been. To have witnessed the entire planet grappling with a devastating virus on an unprecedented scale has been both frightening and moving at the same time.

Some countries have handled it far better than others and we can count ourselves in that very small number who have come through relatively unscathed, partly though good management and dare I say, good luck.. given Australia has the natural advantage of being sparsely populated and surrounded by a moat!

At the beginning of the year it quickly became apparent that what touring plans we had in place would either have to be postponed or cancelled altogether so we waited, like everybody else, to see what would be allowed..

But as the scale of the disaster became clear we realised that the entire structure of the Australian music industry might be changed forever..

Which still might be the case.

Though gigs are starting to come in and without giving anything away, we are still waiting to see whether they are viable.

And make no mistake, there are people going ‘round promising a lot.

For us, when we finally get to play live again, it has to be good. It’s as simple as that. It’s got to sound good and there has to be decent number of people in the room to make it worthwhile for all concerned.

In the meantime we’ve been sitting on the new album ‘Slow Dawn’, which we finished right before the virus struck..

But hey you can’t help bad luck.. and that’s exactly what it’s been..

and very frustrating for a band who’s lifeblood is playing music.

To you.

The double with James Reyne still appears to be in the pipeline and there are some festival dates under discussion for 2021.

In the meantime we haven’t been idle.

In September we recorded the entire ‘Slow Dawn’ album live at the Forum, in the ‘round on the theatre floor, with lots of cameras, courtesy of Mushroom Productions, audio produced and mixed by Cameron McKenzie with special guest Missy Higgins on ‘Johanna’ and “The Whole World is Dreaming’.

Again, though we can’t give too much away on the release of this video right now we are.. you guessed it..

planning!

Cheers

Mark Seymour

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