Last week I was tooling around on YouTube and found a link to the band Railroad Gin and their singer Carol Lloyd performing at the Warana Festival in Brisbane in 1993. This intrigued me because I had done two of those festivals with what was our (then) festival line-up of Tony Barnard's jazz band which we called Four Brothers Ahead as it consisted of both Tony (guitar), his younger brother Adam (drums), the two Qua brothers, Willy (reeds/percussion) and Chris (bass) and myself ('Beachhead') on vocals and I couldn't recall seeing Carol or Gin playing.
It wasn't until later that I realised my error to be that we had actually done it in 1991 and 1992.
Thanks to Brisbane-based Blues enthusiast and film-maker, Harry however I have discovered 17 years on that we were filmed during our final performance at the 1992 festival and these have now been uploaded to YouTube.
The performance took place on the Eagle Street Pier Stage on the Saturday afternoon - September 26, 1992.
This is great for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that we didn't know there was any footage of the band until now. However, in the front row can also be seen on various occasions my darling late wife, Shirley enjoying the music with friends Roy & Pat Theoharris.
It was a wonderful time for us (Shirley and I) - even though we had very little money by that stage, we were travelling together, enjoying the music and friendships we made and having a great time with the boys who were more like family to us than band members. They still are!
The last time this particular band got together was over the weekend of March 3rd and 4th, 1999 when we played in the open air at the 'TRAILS Bistro' at Caves House, Jenolan Caves on the Saturday afternoon (the PA we used was stolen immediately following the gig by junkies) and then (with a borrowed PA) we did the Sunday afternoon in the Royal Hotel at Oberon and, much to the surprise and delight of the publican, packed the room and the rest of the pub from when we started right up until closing time. I think we must have come close to drinking the joint dry!
I should add that there are several audio recordings of the band in my collection, including one of our performances at Montsalvat in 1993 and at least one form an evening at the Unity Hall Hotel in Balmain when Chris and Willy were both playing with us.
This is the band playing my own composition 'Sunday Morning in Balmain' at the Powers Festival in September 1992.

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