The boredom! The empty rooms! The drunk punters! Living The Dream!
To promote the band’s debut album release, in Spring of 2008 The Ray Mann Three embarked on a 30-date tour of regional Australia that nobody asked for. These 10 videos feature the 12 people who caught it.
The band mostly played pub bistros in small towns to white folks who didn’t care about “that funk soul crap”, just “Play us something we bloody know ay, give us a bloody sing ay” – exhibit A:
“Give us a bloody sing ay” – exhibit B:
By day, we’d been watching videos of Bootsy Collins – who, believe it or not, Byron hadn’t actually seen before. So, by night:
“Play us something we bloody know ay” – exhibit C:
Perhaps the most stellar booking of the tour: the Gold Coast. We were contractually obligated to play to an empty pokie room for two hours, even after being pushed back a further two hours by the venue (due to a mess-up on their end). Our response: to play one song – one riff – for two hours. You can pinpoint the moment our heads collectively caved in:
And finally, ladies and gentlemen, we give you: Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia.
Watch more on the Video Page.