Who could have ever predicted what would happen last saturday (mar 15th).
Firstly, Just a bit of background for you.
Molong is a very small highway town in the central west of NSW, It has a couple pubs, 3 cops, one bakery and a post office. It also is the town that my mum grew up in. yep, Debbie Conroy - Molong Hockey team.
My whole family took a weekend off last year and went to the mighty metropolis of Molong just for a break, Thats where Mum met Dad, a travelling musician.
We had no idea we would stumble onto a music festival, run by mums best mate from school. Enter Jenny Barrow. The weekend was fun, filled with laughs.
8 months later Jenny would see me open for James Blundell in Orange NSW, same night she met Jetty Road. Discussions were had about playing the Molong festival in 2008.. I figured i’d take the gig as a break just like the last time and take the family up with me for some partying and fun. Play the show Sat night.
On Saturday morning, heading up the Gt Western Hwy i wondered what awaited.. had a good gut feeling that tonight was gonna be amazing.. Or is it just that i’d made my mind up already? I still dont know the answer. All i know is i was looking forward to it, Immensely.
At the motel i ran through the set and arrangements with Ben, Simon and Rusty.. from Jetty Road. They, along with Mitchell the fiddler, are my band tonight.
Being aware that it is the shave for a cure weekend, a big charity drive for the Leukemia Foundattion.. Part of me wants to raise alot of money.. But i didn’t have any ideas. I asked simon (who usually is shaven anyway but tonight has hair) if we could shave his head on stage. we set a target. raise $500 to do it.
Here’s where it gets good.
At the pub before the gig, a local man comes up and asks if i can dedicate a song to Katie Fullwood tonight. She is a local girl who has captured every heart in Molong, tonight she is in westmead hospital, diagnosed two weeks ago with Leukemia. She is 4 years old. Already in hardships, this family didn’t need this.
The scale of this situation hit me immediately. How could he have known about the conversation at the motel.. the $500 and the leukemia foundation?
Turns out he didn’t.. But as Karma (you all know now how much i believe in it) would have it, he came to me with that story. I believe as human spirits on this earth that if we can do something, anything, to help someone.. we should.
As a performer and public profile, the responsibility is greater and in my case, very welcome. I knew that once the guys and i took the stage, it was us that controlled what happened tonight. I told no-one of the new plan.
I asked Jenny Barrow to have a hairdresser here immediately.
So, On we went.. the town was alive, my god was there a buzz in molong tonight. I could see my mum and dad watching from under a steet lamp with pride.. maybe the same lamp they stood under and stole kisses from eachother over 30 years ago. Oh time flies. the memories of this town for them are evident.
A few songs seem to fly past and i bring Michelle on stage, everybody wonders who she is and what she’s gonna sing.. then i explain she is a hairdresser.. and she’s here to shave the heads of every person onstage tonight, Including mine, providing we can get $2500 in the bucket for Katie Fullwood’s trust.
The town went crazy. Like i’ve never seen before. Katie’s kindergarten friends took the buckets around.. 20 buckets in total. Magic was in the air. Something great was happening.. People were cheering, some were crying, others just looked on with that gobsmacked ’in-awe’ look. This was really happening.
My very nervous mother (who later sang backing vocals) watched on with her hand covering her mouth in disbelief. What a sight to see! haha
Anyway, The Band, Myself, My two brothers, 5 other blokes and a husband and wife couple Paula and Peg all shaved our heads that night, on the stage.
Katie Fullwood’s trust is now around $4000 better off from that one night alone.
There is an amazing picture taken by BJ from the drumkit, It shows the whole band, My brothers and I onstage, bald, with the crowd of molong just firing in the background.. Twenty of these will be printed, framed and signed by the bald guys in the front. I will the sell them (only 20) at $100 and those proceeds will also go to Katies Fullwoods trust to finish off our job here. Its another couple thousand dollars in her trust, it’ll help a family in hardship. Here is the picture.
L-R: Mitchell King, Rusty Cochrane, Travis Collins, Terry (Tez) Collins, Shannon Collins, Simon Ross and Ben (BJ) Cant.
We can not always fix the problem, but we can all help in dealing with it.
Let me know if your interested please, I dont plan on being bald again and i wont be photgraphed much while i am.. these are rare. Thanks for reading.
Peace,
Trav