Melbourne International Streetfood Festival

This Long "Austraylia" day weekend was spent with my Band Manager cap on as Inka Marka took to the stage on Saturday afternoon at  Melbourne International Streetfood Festival .

It was an amazing affair. The local Latin stage was organised by Jose Vargas & his team Tono Events
I have to admit that the $38 charge set by the ISFF people ,to get in was rather steep, but once you got passed those front gates, the sensory overload form the smells of food certainly assaulted the senses.
We of course headed straight to the "Latin" food area, where the smell of Argentine Assado or BBQ from "El Gaucho "  restaurant wafted straight to hungry tummies.  From there we headed to Empanadas and amazing Chilean cakes, before more desert of Colombian Frozen Guava Juice sticks.

It has been awhile since the  Inka Marka full team had performed together, so the first task of the day was to get the song list sorted.!

After that was out of the way, Sound check with Alfredo Cerda, who has many years of working with World Class musicians around the world at major events. Alfredo made us sound as if we were at a major international event! His years of International touring experience and your no fuss, get on with the job approach, left the guys feeling comfortable and secure knowing that you would make them sound the best that they could. He also speaks Spanish, which helps with the subtle game  of insulting the sound engineer , and knowing that he will understand you, because he "speaks your language" and you'd better be careful ! You can contact him directly on dovesystems@hotmail.com if you need a sound systm, sound designer, or just an engineer, Alfredo can set you up.!

The team for the day was Jose, Karen, Michel, Henry and Jose ( from Sydney on Bass)
Missing was Limbert our Charangero extraordinaire who happens to be in Bolivia on holidays.
Its taken us years to perfect the Inka Marka line-up !  Missing also was our Golden voiced Enrique Berbis . As a completely unbiased manager of almost 18 years, Inka Marka are a world class Andean group, putting aside, cultural differences and political issues to present Andean music in the best way they know how.
The band now consists of Four  Bolivians, A Chilean, an Aussie via Ecuador, and an Argentinean. This is the "DREAM TEAM"  of Andean Music in Australia ,an extremely talented,well rehearsed,world class group , performing songs from all across the continent. These guys seem to instinctively know what the others are about to do or play, Years of working together, have honed them into one fluid voice. A great combo of indigenous and classically trained musicians creating "sabor" Andino!

Okay so I'm biased, but take a listen for yourself,  Click the link to go to YouTube..
Atahualpa   This Clip taken at Sundays event.

This is Karen, our talented Violinist, classically trained, with the ability to fit right in with the Andean "swing" . The violin brings the true taste of Ecuador to the Inka Marka repertoire.

Managing Inka Marka has been a large part of my life over the past 17 years or so, but I try to keep a balance of music, work and social activities , some times I do a better job of it than others, but since the loverly Karen has joined the guys, its been easier , because she is also one of my best buddies, and helps to keep me grounded when we are out on the road, and when things are going every way except how they are supposed to be, she  brings us the ability to be able to laugh at the situation and find a quick and practical solution.

Celine Dion & other Celebrity interludes

In my many jobs and travels, I've run into many celebrities, some famous, some not so famous, but the thing that has made the greatest impression on me is that sometimes the more famous the musician the nicer they actually are to their fans.

This was a "Meet & Greet " circa 1993/94 organised by her record company when she was virtually unknown in Australia, photo taken at The the Hotel Windsor Melbourne at the event.
She was a loverly chatty woman, yet to have children. She's been shopping that day in the Bourke street mall, and bought her dress at  Cue  Clothing   , I was happy to tell her that I had bought the same dress in black, ( hers was red ) . These lovely girls were my friends for the ten years I worked at JB Hi Fi. 

Back In the day, scoring a job at JB Hi FI in those days meant usually 10 hours a day of hard work, and then a Free pass to whatever was the concert, floor-show, bar, or event of the moment touring Melbourne. 
Every night of the week was the possibility of a "night to remember ".
I met so many famous Musicians, singers, & groups over that time, and have photos of so many of them that I feel like Im showing off by bringing them out. Most of our interaction with them a was a few seconds, a photo op with a smile, and a hug or kiss if we were really lucky ( or pushy) . Looking back on the pics, many of these people were on the rising side of their stardom , and had to go through the motions of "butt kissing" as it was known, doing everything their record companies wanted and expected of them to push their latest Single, Album, or touring show. We didn't mind playing along with the whole shebang. Especially good concerts  for us, meant a free unlimited drink card as well, at the expense of the record label. Often e would turn up to work heavily hung over from the night before,or too scared to drive to work in case we were still .05
some of the most memorable moments were when I met the following starts, Gloria Estefan, Julio Iglesias, Stevie Ray Vaughan, ( boy could he play guitar) Carlos Santana, Nigel Kennedy, strange that a classical musician could make such an impact, but when he opened the lid of grand piano that his accompanist  was playing and all the cocktails and glasses slide right into the open piano like in the movies, that was something to see! Doc Neissan & the Angels at the Palais theatre.in melbourne , that was a night to remember, ( or not as the case was for many! ) I look back at those years as a blur of great music, lots of cocktails, wild outrageous clothing, and the search for the "Night to Remember "

We had some wild nights, and some good memories !