February 22, we opened for Cyndi Lauper in King's Park, Perth, and it was one of the most memorable nights of my life.
CL was half an hour late arriving, and the tension backstage was palpable.
As soon as she started Keir rushed to the side of the stage with the camera, and in his excitement, he fell in a duck pond on the way. Luckily the camera didn't get wet.
She gave a heart-stoppingly brilliant, energetic, moving performance. 'True Colours' made me cry – I think it's the most perfect pop ballad ever written.
Before her encore, she came over to where we were watching side of stage and said in her funny little accent, 'Hey, did you guys play just before?'
'Yees' we wobbled.
'Well do you wanna come up and sing Girls with me?'
There was a silence.
'Yes please, that would be great' Nicole and I said (or something like that).
CL then did another song while we skulled our beers in shock. It was Nicole's first gig with the band, and she was just about losing it. So was I. We were saying, 'Do you think she really meant it?' Ben kept ordering us 'Go and stand at the top of the stairs and wait there, so she doesn't forget about you.'
She didn't forget about us. My memory of the actual song is hazy, but it was a ramshackle jamming extended thing. I think I sang 'they just wanna, they just wanna' about 100 times.
CL came over to us towards the end of the song and told me she liked my shoes. She then said into the mic, 'Ladies and Gentlemen, Kate Miller-Hunky!!! I've listened to her cd and I just love it! Kate, do you have any words for the crowd?'
In an explosion of joy, and feeling really on the spot, I blurted out 'This is fucking amazing!'
Afterwards, we had a bit of a talk and she gave me some words of advice, namely to 'never stop being kooky'.
All of us came away that night feeling utterly uplifted and inspired. Wow.
Nicole and I got our photo with her:
EPILOGUE:
The following day, I received many lovely emails from people who had liked our set. I also received the following (with the subject heading 'Tash' but I think he meant to write 'Trash'):
Just felt it was appropriate to write and submit my disappointment at the trashy display that was demonstrated by Kate at last nights 'Cyndi Lauper' concert at Kings Park. The concert last night was attended by all age groups including young children. Kate's choice of words and expletives was not only offensive to the young children present at the venue but was also a bad representation of Australians in front of our guest Cyndi. What an embarresment!!!! I didn't manage to get to the concert early enough to see Kate's act and I thank God that I didn't waste my time.
Kate needs to grow up and respect her audience.
'Over excited Trailor trash' comes to mind when I try and describe my thoughts on the incidence that was presented to us and our children.
I will not be anticipating Kates next visit to our city.
From Darran Long