Review: Bryan Ferry
Tempus Two Vinery, Hunter Valley, Australia
24th November 2007
Keith Austin
Sydney Morning Herald 27th November 2007
This outdoor concert was cancelled due to rain.
In 35 years as a Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music fan the open-air concert at the Hunter Valley's Tempus Two winery was to be one of the high points. Roxy at Hammersmith Odeon? Tick. Ferry solo at the Royal Albert Hall? Tick. Bryan and Roxy separately in Sydney? Tick. But we're older now, Bryan and me, and it seemed only fitting that we should get together with 4499 other middle-aged but still ever-so-cool members of the In Crowd to celebrate with a rather decent red and a slab of pate and cheese. After all it was, according to the Tempus Two website, a 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see two of England's musical legends [Joan Armatrading] with one of Australia's finest [Daryl Braithwaite], all on the same night in a wonderful evening of quality music'.
And didn't Bryan say, when I interviewed him on the phone recently for the Metro section, that he would like to meet me while he was here? Terribly civilised, dontcha know. So I paid $160 each for two tickets (the other half isn't much of a Ferryphile but she'll crawl over broken glass for a Pepper Tree shiraz), hired a car for the trip up there and booked a hotel. It was a dull, drizzly old drive up the F3 but three hours after setting off, with Ferry's As Time Goes By and Dylanesque albums still echoing in our ears, the receptionist at the Best Western in Cessnock smiled a greeting and asked if we were up for The Concert (the Ferry effect was such that a few weeks earlier it had been nigh on impossible to book a hotel in the area). ``Yes, indeed, and looking forward to it very much.'' ``Well, it's been cancelled. Due to the rain. But Carlotta's appearing at the Leagues Club next door. You might still be able to get tickets.'' Given that it was now 4pm and the concert was due to begin at 5pm (with God on at 8.30pm) I rang the local tourism information office, still not quite able to believe it. Tell me it's not so, Joe.... ``Well, sir,'' explained an aggrieved woman at the other end of the line, ``it HAS been raining solidly for the past three hours. The whole place is waterlogged.'' A whole three hours? We were agog. What a pity we weren't in Glastonbury, where torrential rain and mud up to the armpits is somewhat de rigueur. Go to a gig at Glastonbury and they return your money if it DOESN'T rain. Mind you, the winery later pointed out that it got 100ml of rain in a little over two hours while nearby Cessnock hardly got any. Somewhat devastated I rang a friend and colleague who was also heading to the concert. He was still on the road. ``You have got to be kidding me!'' In his case the news was twofold devastating as he had purchased $90 BYO seating tickets. It was only when he mentioned to his wife that it seemed odd to have to take your own booze to a concert in a vineyard that she politely (as far as you can be polite while laughing your socks off) pointed out that it meant you had to Bring Your Own seats. So now he was the proud owner of two fold-up picnic seats, bought in a mad rush at Tuggerah Mall, that he was unable to use. We drove out to Tempus Two anyway, where a man at the gate explained that the cancellation was due to a combination of the rain and an afternoon lightning storm which had made it too dangerous to continue. There was nothing to it but to continue on to Harrigan's Irish pub nearby and drown our sorrows in Guinness. At 8.30pm, when the Ferry man would have been coming on to the stage, a low sun came out from behind the clouds and we raised a glass or three to the Inn Crowd. PS. They're expecting 22,000 people there for Elton John's two concerts this weekend. Let's hope it stays dry or Saturday night might be alright for fighting... * According to TicketMaster, ticket holders who paid by credit card will be automatically refunded and anybody else should go
