Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER
The first time I was turned on to percussion was seeing Strike Percussion from New Zealand perform at a Creative Arts NZ showcase in Wellington. I thought they were fabulous and I was entranced. Through my efforts they got to perform the following year at 2000 Melbourne Festival where I was Program Manager. I met up with the group again in 2004 at the Australian Performing Arts Market in Adelaide. By then I had left Melbourne Festival and was running my own business, based in Melbourne, as an event producer and an artist agent (Australian and international artists and companies). Strike asked me if I would consider being their international manager/producer/agent. After some to-ing and fro-ing by email I submitted a proposal. We subsequently signed an agreement and the door opened in my business to promoting this pretty amazing percussion group – and a lovely bunch of guys and a gal to boot! Over the next few years I secured some exciting engagements for them in Australia and overseas. One of the overseas gigs was with the Hong Kong Leisure Centre. This was a government organization and they weren’t very flexible but having read the ‘Art of War’ – and spending my early childhood in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur – I have a reasonable Asian mindset and found a way to stand firm on several of Strike requirements. The HKLC folk weren’t keen on paying per diems. It was suggested Hong Kong $10 was enough per day but I insisted it wasn’t and eventually got them to agree to the equivalent of the Aussie union rate of $56 dollars per day. And then we finalised the contract, flights were booked and paid for, freight packed and shipped and the day of departure drew nearer. Funny isn’t that when you plan these things you try to dot every ‘i‘ and cross every ‘t’. But occasionally gremlins – or is that goblins? – get into it the mix and things go awry.
When Strike arrived in Hong Kong their luggage was taken to the hotel but the group went straight to the venue as they wanted to check out the instruments that were being provided locally. When they got there and saw the drum kit Muz, the leader, said, “it’s the wrong one! It hasn’t got a snare drum or timps with it”. So the Hong Kong minders scurried around to arrange an exchange before Strike came back for the rehearsal and sound checks. All during the show the audience sat there very quietly and didn’t appear to respond to the music/percussion at all. Strike played the last note of the finale and came forward to take a bow. Next minute the place erupted with applause and cheers and whistles. They were a hit!
Back at the hotel later the musos were having a drink and telling stories and jokes. Muz told the one about the woman who was standing at a bus stop looking at a dog and asked a man standing nearby, “Does your dog bite?” The man replied, “No.” So she reached down to pat the dog which immediately lunged and snapped at her. She leapt back and shouted at the man, “You said your dog doesn’t bite”. Unperturbed the man replied, “He doesn’t. This is not my dog.”