The Red Shift Diaries

Mt Hotham, im now here.

2009-06-16T17:50:00.000+12:00

Well, its been ages since my last report, but that’s just a sign of how full on it has been for me. These last few weeks have been a bloody ripper I can tell you. I have spent some great time with my family. Have been up to Brisbane and spent time with my great friends Tim and Charlie. Performed as Freddy Fargon for Victor Brays team at the Winter National Drags at Willowbank Raceway. I spent a couple of days at Wintersun Nostalgia Festival in Coolangatta. And then flew back to Melbourne and spent a couple more days with my brother John working on his 32 Ford Roadtser.

John dropped me off to Maffra (my hometown) on Sunday 14-6-09, and then the following Monday I was off to Post Office to sort out my ‘working with children’ card, which is a legal requirement here in Australia when working in jobs that entail being around kids. A bloody good idea I reckon.

Sue (my sister) and I did some running around getting last minute things sorted, as it was to be the day that I head for Mt Hotham. We arrived into Hotham around 6pm, and as we drove up the mountain it started snowing. Luckily the snow wasn’t thick enough that we had to fit the tyre chains. Now, I’ve never really been in snow like this, so it was a real trip for me to see what it looks like to drive into falling snow in the dark. Only way I can describe it, is that it looks like sci-fi movies when they hit a button that sends them into hyper speed and the universe goes rushing by at a ridiculous speed. It was awesome.

We parked our car down the hill (as you cant leave cars up in the township at night unless you pay stupid amounts of money to do so) and we caught the bus up the remainder of the way, which wasn’t that far up really. Naturally being nighttime means that I actually haven’t really seen that much yet. But the inside of the lodge is freakin amazing. There are 3 levels. Top floor is the sleeping quarters, which contains nine bedrooms that mostly have a double bed and two bunks. I currently have a nice single room with a double bed in it, but that will change when it’s booked out, and I will then jump into the mangers room with my sister, which has four bunk beds.

The middle floor is the kitchen and lounge room. These are both massive areas, and one side of the rooms is completely roof to wall glass that spans the width of the lodge. There is a direct drop outside that then overlooks the hills that are in the west, and the sun sets behind them (which I’ve been told, is a sight to behold. I will get pics asap and show you all). The bottom floor has a TV room incase anyone wants to just chill out and get all square eyed.

Once I had the lodge tour, it was off up the hill (walking through the snow) to the local pub known as ‘the General’. Here I met Amanda, who will be my boss whilst I work for the ski school as what they call a Day Attendant. Basically from what I know, I will be making sure kids enrolled in the ski school get fed and looked after and that staff are looking after the place and cleaning up etc. im yet to be given the official rundown, but for now that’s pretty cool and will be a very different pace for me.

We ordered pizza to go, as we needed to be at a one-hour course that taught us how to inject adrenalin needles into kids that may suffer from allergies and asthma etc. So if they have an attack, we all need to know how to administer the adrenalin and getting the ambulance on the way and so forth. It wasn’t intense, but the guy who presented it opened the night in a weird way. He explained a bit of his life story and told how he was a ambulance officer for 26 years, and that he then had a major bike accident that left his back stuffed and as a result became addicted to his medicine etc. At which point, I humbly asked him if I had mistakenly come to an AA meeting. The guy took it well, and now I understand that all those years ago when I was a kid in school, why my reports always said ‘Ricki insists on being the clown of the class’. Old habits die hard.

Once the course was complete, it was back to the General for a meet and greet with staff, and then home to the lodge. It’s cold outside, but not freezing like I thought it would be. I could still walk around in jeans, tshirt and a couple of polar fleece jumpers without feeling it. And once inside the lodge, it’s constantly warm anyways, so it’s great. I reckon these next eight weeks are going to be a pretty awesome experience. I’ve basically got the next week off, although for the next 3 nights at the lodge, we have 29 people staying as part of a training session for ski instructors. So the lodge will be busy, but im not in full on work mode just yet. So hopefully I will get time to have a good look around over the next few days and get some great pictures of the area for you all to see.

some pics from the last few days.

2009-05-25T00:45:00.002+12:00

ok, so i finally got them loaded up on photobucket. here we go.

this is the car i stole from my mum. its a classic aussie icon of a driver. solid as a rock, and drinks fuel like a samoan family drinks taro.

driving to melbourne in thre fog, and this was around 1030am. insane.

the billykart that my brother has made for his 2 daughters. he made it in one day and a night worth of work. freakin awesome

and here we go. hot rod building time. this is how i found my brother John when i arrived at the shed at lunchtime thursday. he is giving his usual friendly greeting

we had a LOT of work to do within 2 days in order to have the roadster ready for primer on the saturday. john focused on the body, i did all the little jobs that needed doing like interior trim panels, floor panels, brackets etc.

floor template made from cardboard

then when complete, i cut them out of plywood and here ya go. too easy

body off

then i dropped out thre rear end

front end on

front end off

then pulled apart the front end so i could polish up the axle ready for paint.

i took 5 and grabbed a pic of the day outside and the view over the top of the shed. not bad aye.

then we flipped the body up on its end so john could get the underneath sorted. this rod will be as mint underneath as it is on top

on the dolly trolley and all body complete and ready to go on trailer and down to the local smash repairs for primer

and the engine put to the side to await the return of the chassis

with all that done, it was decided to grab some brews and head round to good friends Dave and Mels to sit in their spa and watch movies. the massive TV is in front of the spa, so its an awesome way to unwind.

numbnuts (johnny) was first in

then dave and i joined. i call this picture 'the birth'. now you can see why chicks go nuts for me huh? LOL

then afterwards, i snuck into Daves shed and snapped some pics of his cars and his current project

then on my way home from melbourne to my hometown, i found this.one massive farkin bird. i dropped a piece of bread and got into a fist fight with this bastard for about 15 minutes until i judo chopped it in the right eye and it fell over and died. at least the locals can rest easy at night now after almost 3 decades of being trapped under its evil rule. long live me, there new hero.

some hot rod going ons

2009-05-24T16:52:00.002+12:00

Tuesday may 19th, 2009

Today started in a most perculiar way. To start, I awoke around 6am and wandered to the toilet, only to find the back door wide open. I went into immediate ninja stealth mode and made my through my sisters house to ensure all was safe. I flicked on the lounge room light to find someone curled up on the couch. I couldn’t see who it was, but figured they had arrived in the middle of the night and just hadn’t closed the door properly. I went back to bed.

I was then awoken at 7.30am by my loving mother. Who shook me and asked, ‘Where is my breakfast’? I then explained to her that I had made it the night before and could be found in the cupboard in a box with ‘cornflakes’ written on it. Got to love ya mum….ha.

Once mum took off, my sister, sue and I headed over to the town of Sale to meet up with my other sister Sandra and my niece Rochelle who is due to drop a baby in August. Was great to have lunch with them, after which, I looked into different mobile phone plans etc to see if it was worth getting a new phone, or another sim card. Im yet to decide on what option is best.

Shopped around a bit looking at jackets etc for the mountain, but decided to hold off a little bit before I buy anything. Went and opened a new bank account here, and then back to Maffra (my hometown), where I grabbed a ‘working with children’ form from the post office. Over here it is law to possess a WWC card if you are to be employed in any job that may involve contact with children on a prolonged basis. And seeing as I may be working alongside kids on the mountain, I have to get one of these cards.

Its now close to tea time, so im just typing in my daily report and then heading off for tea. My 14yo niece Elizabeth (Lizzie) is an amazing cook who has lots of potential to be a top chef if she wanted too. But alas, she wants to be a lawyer first, then wants to be prime minister of Australia. And frankly, I don’t doubt in any way that she will achieve her goal.

And im off to eat. Laters.

Wednesday 20th may, 2009

Today was a pretty relaxed day (as are all my days at the moment). I fell out of bed, which was the couch last night due to my snoring and my niece not getting any sleep the night before when I invaded her lower bunk bed, haha. Once I was up and showered I took off for a walk to the other side of town to my mums place where I would then acquire her car to use for a week or so. During my walk I stopped in at a local clothing store and grabbed a warm top as I only have a jacket with me here and the chill is enough to need a bit more warmth.

My mum wasn’t at her house, but my step dad Norm was there hand painting the number plate on the car I was to borrow. Somewhat confused, he informed me that it was due to the plate being quite old and worn and he was worried that Police may pull me up on it. Well, im pretty sure they will be even more attracted to a number plate that had been crudely hand painted, so will be interesting to see how many cops pull me over.

Came home to my sisters and did some house cleaning, grabbed in the washing etc and then had a delicious stirfry for dinner, yet again cooked by talented niece, Lizzie. Yum. And now reporting in before I head to bed soon to get a good sleep on the couch again.

Tomorrow I’m off to Melbourne to spend a couple of days in the shed with my brother working on his 1932 Ford Roadster. I can’t wait to get into it.

Till tomorrow, seeya.

Thursday 21st May, 2009

So I awoke all fired up about getting to Melbourne and hooking into my brothers roadster, but my sister sue gave me a heads up that I should wait an hour or so as by all reports there was a white out on the roads. Basically, it was foggy as hell and you couldn’t see much in front of you. So I had a nice slow start, saw the nieces off to school, had breakfast and then made tracks.

Sue wasn’t joking. The fog was insane and I could barely see 15 metres in front of me. I kept the pace a little less than the speed limit as I was in no hurry. Fast forward an hour or so, and I was STILL driving in dense fog. Go figure, but it was odd as it was 11.20am, not exactly normal fog times. As I got closer to Melbourne it wore thin and before I knew it I was standing in the shed with my brother John. I whipped down the road and got us some lunch, and then we tore into it.

We had great progress as my brother worked on the body and I made up the MDF interior panels, plywood floor panels and dropped the rear end off the chassis, amidst a few other small jobs. It wasn’t till around 11pm that we decided that we had done enough for the day, as tomorrow was a full on day if we were to have the body completely prepped in time for priming it on Saturday.

I head inside, enjoyed a hot shower and was asleep in no time.

Friday 22nd May, 2009

After a very broken sleep, I woke up feeling very sore. My back, arms and legs were killing me (I’m not used to working a normal day, LOL). I scoffed me some toast and shot into the shed where it was all guns blazing to get the roadster done on time for priming tomorrow. Johnny worked hard finishing off the body, getting all last pin-spot holes filled with skims of bog. I focused on making brackets for mounting the trim panels, some sanding and taking the engine and trans off the chassis. And also disassembled the superbell front end and polished it up ready for sand blasting and paint.

By 6pm we had everything ready to go. The body was now on the home made dolly and with the help of a good mate Dave (doesn’t everyone have a good mate named Dave??), we put the body onto the trailer ready for tomorrow. We chin wagged with Dave for a bit and decided it would be best to grab a couple of Jim Beams and head over to his place to sit in the spa and watch a DVD. The best part? We could do both at the same time. Yes, thanks to the wonders of good design, the spa bath in part of the entertainment room, so we sat in the spa for a good 4 hours and watched a couple of movies, including the Aussie classic car flick “Running on empty”. Pure brilliance.

Dave and his lovely missus Mel, are salt of the earth folk, and a pure pleasure to spend time with. In the shed Dave has his 55 Ford Customline, a 34 Ford coupe, and a Hemi powered Model A Roadster in the works. Bloody awesome.

Its now 3am, im tired, I look like Grandpa Simpson but with teeth, and im ready for bed. Enjoy the pictures, I reckon the one of the three of us blokes in the spa could become quite the scandal pic for Womans Day Mag. Haha.

Saturday 23rd May, 2009 (and some Sunday too)

Today was a more relaxed affair. With the car all ready for primer and loaded on the trailer I went for a lonely wander to the local Mall to look at stuff. There was stuff there, and then I left, pretty awesome really. Caught up with my Dad and said ‘hello’. He said ‘hello’ back. That was pretty much it, not bad after pretty much 7 years of not talking. Stubborn old bugger. Hahaha.

I then grabbed the Melways (Melbourne map) and took off into the unknown to catch up with my mate Jason who was part of the USA trip in august last year. We went for a cruise to his Mum and Dads place to have a look at dads 36 Ford 5 window coupe and 56 Ford Victoria, and stupid me, forgot my camera. DOH!!!/ oh well.

Back to Jasons and we decided to start cracking cans of Jim Beam. And lo and behold, we drank much, and then we walked (or more staggered) down to the shops and got some mean arse pizzas and stocked up on Jim Beams. We then sat for the rest of the night, drinking, jamming tunes on the guitars, watching tv and youtube searching drag racing, bmx stunts and bands. A farkin cool night if I may say so myself.

Got to bed round 3am, up at 8am and then showered and hung round a but and then made tracks back to Maffra. And here I sit, writing this and uploading pictures. Its bloody warm outside and it’s another great day in Aussie. I’m about to jump in the car with my sister and head back towards Melbourne to pick up my nieces from their Dad. Stupid me, if I had thought about it, I could have picked them up from there and bought them home. I just wasn’t thinking. I need more Jim Beam to help me I think.

Hope you’re all well back home or wherever you may be.

Rock on.

Me

pictures to come a little later. or you can check out http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=85493&id=627921924&saved
if youre not patient enough

2009-05-18T17:38:00.002+12:00

Right, well im catching up on last few days here, and trying to remember everything that has happened, so bare with me a minute.

I was lucky enough to have sorted out some time with my girls on Saturday morning before I had to shoot off to Tauranga for a party involving mostly fellow Mavericks (a hot rod related club of people made up of good bastards, and me, haha). So I picked up Ash and Jess at 9am and we headed out to my good friend Angela’s place to see her and be there when a couple of guys came to look at the 1939 Ford she is selling.

Once that was completed, we jumped in the car and did the classic ‘Dad takes us to McDonalds’ lunch trick. Good old solo dad trick from way back. Hehe. Then we popped round to say see-ya-later to Rachael of ritasue clothing. Then dropped the girls off before taking my trusty mitsi to its resting place whilst im away, at my good friends the Fishers.

With that done, it was off to Tauranga for the night, where I knew full well I wouldn’t get any sleep as I needed to be at the airport on Sunday morning by 530am. Yay for that. Sheesh. Now the Mavericks were mainly gathering in recognition of one of our members turning 21, and only 2 mavericks even knew I was coming, as I wanted it to be a surprise. Well, it seems it was, and it was great to see so many Mavericks in one place (not many people would understand why, but it just was).

Then come 130am, and it was time for Angela and I to head back towards Auckland. I was driving, so it was a nice slow paced drive back as I felt no need to rush. I got to the airport, Ange threw me out and I booked in. all smooth sailing there. Although I was over the weight for luggage, the lady was nice to me and didn’t charge me extra. Yay.

On the plane and away we go. All was going smoothly when all of a sudden.

‘This is your captain speaking, is there a medical doctor onboard?’. Nope.

A little later.

‘This is your captain speaking again, is there anyone on board who suffers diabietes that may have some insulin onboard with them?’. nope.

A little later again.

‘This is your captain speaking, we are now changing course for Sydney as we have a medical emergency on our hands, and its closer and we need to get to ground asap and it’s closer than Melbourne’.

No worries, we diverted and knew we would get to Melbourne approx 2 hours late. The medics took off with the person on the plane and I had just enough power on my mobile to text my brother and tell him to delay meeting me, no problem. Landed, got to the luggage part and scored my suitcase, but alas, no guitar. Hmmmmm. I asked around and got pointed to the oversize luggage collection area. Alas, still no guitar, however, there was a large group of people waiting there and it turned out the conveyor belt was broken. Now of course you would think they would just put everything on a trolley and bring it round??? No, that made sense, so instead they just waited till it got fixed. Which meant, we waited till it got fixed too. Oh well, at least I got my guitar and I headed out to be greeted by my brother and my two absolutely too beyond cute neicec Emma-Jane and Abbey-Lee.

I was in dire need of a shower as I had been wearing the same clothes since Saturday morning, and I was rather………pungent. I feel so sorry for the two girls who had to sit by my side on the plane. They tolerated me somehow. Eegads. Shower and fresh clothes and my brother John and I were off to a rockabilly show in Ferntree Gully, which as luck would have it, is were he lives, so it was a 2minute drive down the road.

Had a great time there, a couple of beers, watched a few bands, and missed out on seeing about 4 others that played after we left. Its weird here in aus, rock n roll people are strange. If songs had a certain tempo, they danced, but wouldn’t clap at the end of the song they would just stand there and look at their watches until the next song started. Then if the song was too fast or slow, they would just walk off and sit down and complain about it. Its almost like you could play ‘rock around the clock’ a hundred times over and they would be in heaven. Weirdos.

With that done, we grabbed a bite and headed east to my hometown of Maffra where we stayed at my sister Sue’s place. When I got to bed it was around 11pm (1am nz time). So I had 4 hours sleep on Friday night, so that was the only sleep I got from Friday morning, till last night. I was beyond tired, and I slept like a dream. Apparently, I snored like a chainsaw and kept the whole house awake, but I don’t care, I needed the sleep.

And now here I am writing you, its warm, its clear blue skies, and its great to be here. I do however miss you all very much. It’s going to be weird to not be able to just pop up the road to see many of you. But im sure you’re all going to love the break. Hahaha.

See you in my next report.

Ricki

Ps – I forgot to take my camera to the rockabilly show, dumb. Was some kool cars in the carpark. Next time.

here i stand with a box of fuel in hand. good old JIM

having a big ole hug with fellow maverickian Jerry

group shot. this is one hell of a bunch of people to party with

It's been ages. But here we go

2009-05-13T00:17:00.002+12:00

ok, so there's a lot of catching up to do as its been a good month since my last blog. life has been very full on. between the red shift, doing my normal gigs, doing a few voodoo kreepers gigs, trying to get time with my kids (not successfully thanks to their mother may i add? not happy), and packing up house and getting ready to fly to aussie in 4 days, has meant my attention has been elsewhere.

so sorry for the delay, but yeah, i promise to get my ass into gear and be more frequent once i land in aussie and start getting to shows etc. i have a lot to take in in my first 5 weeks in aussie, including time with family, going to brisbane for wintersun and winternational drags. sydney for about 10 days to see friends, then back to melbourne where i will then get reasdy to head to Mt Hotham to help my sister manage a ski lodge. its gunna be a LOT of fun and i cant wait to learn how to ski / snowboard. im hoping it will help me a lot with getting back into shape.

anyways, i will try get some pics loaded up soon with some updates, but it may be easier to just focus on starting everything rolling once i hit aussie.

take care

ricki

Freddy does it again

2009-04-08T00:14:00.001+12:00

what's next from this guy? he sings, he works out, he is always fighting off hot chicks, and now he plays guitar. sheeesh

The Red Shift - Nostalgia Drag footage

2009-04-07T16:45:00.001+12:00

thats right folks, its hit the youtube screen already. just a snippet of whats to come on The Red Shift

2009-04-06T14:54:00.001+12:00

and yet more footage of Freddy Fargon hits the interwebby

Beach Hop 09

2009-03-31T11:20:00.003+13:00

Right, here we go. What a massive weekend I have just had, what with two major car events planned for the same weekend, but fortunately they were a mere 2 hour drive apart from each other.

For me it all started on Thursday 26th as I very sadly drove my stupid Mitsubishi down to the town of Whangamata (pron Fong a ma tar). Now, I wasn’t sad because of anything actually sad, but I was hoping to have had the VW legal so that I could take it down to the Beach Hop, but my goal was quashed and it just wasn’t worth the risk to drive it so far and get fines or have it taken off me. So for once in my life, sensibility prevailed.

I rocked into the township to be greeted by incredible weather, barely a cloud in the sky and there were hot rods, muscle cars and people all over the place. For many, the event had been going for several days already, so the place was pretty alive from the get go for me. Being in a yucky jap import, I tried to avoid being seen driving through the main areas of town, haha.

I found my abode and discovered the others I was staying with hadn’t arrived into town yet, so I drove around to Rachael’s from Rita Sue Clothing, and we jumped in her Buick and headed into the main street to go check out the cars and have a beer. Now she was a very well behaved girl and only had two drinks knowing full well she would need to drive her car home a few hours later.

Now, me on the other hand, I wasn’t driving, so it became I little bit too easy to have a few drinks too many as I caught up with old friends and walked around checking out the cars (and maybe a girl or two here and there). We walked on down to the Whangamata Club to go see Recliner Rockers perform and as always, I was completely blown away with Al’s guitar prowess, very inspiring. Eventually the music came to an end and it was time to go home, but it wasn’t the end of the party I tell you.

It was about 3.30am when I finally fell into bed, well, not a bed so much as a two-seater couch that I curled up on under my duvet. It wasn’t until the next morning when I awoke that I discovered it was in fact a fold out bed couch thingy and that I could have had a much more comfortable sleep. Oh well.

Friday is always my personal favorite day at BH, being the cruise out to Onemana Beach. Rachael was kind enough to be my chauffer and allowed me to throw my guitar and amp in her Buick so that I didn’t have to suffer the embarrassment of driving the Mitsi through the throngs of people who were all out to see cool cars. We found the stage area (and by that I mean the piece of grass under the trees up the very back of the field) and parked up.

Now, for me it was an awesome buzz knowing that in a couple of hours I would be playing with my band mates in The Voodoo Kreepers again, which we hadn’t done for almost a year now. So I was really excited about playing again and just rocking out and having some laughs.

The Plymouth Fury’s were setting up their gear and were so kind in allowing us to not only use their PA system, but to also actually cut into their playing time to allow us the opportunity to play. I speak for all three members of TVK when I say a sincere thank you to TPF’s for giving us the opportunity.

Now as it turns out, just as I was setting up my gear I cut my finger on a guitar string, and it ruled me out of playing the gig. Fortunately for me, one of our biggest fans happened to be at BH and he knows how to play and sing all of our tunes (even the one’s he hadn’t heard yet). Freddy Fargon is his name, and he quite the ladies man, and its rather intimidating for me handing over my guitar to such a guy, knowing full well it could spell the end of my time in the band if Geoff and Jules got wind that he was a billion times better at playing guitar than me. Heck, he’s better at everything than me.

The band took to the grass, and I sat up the back of the crowd nursing my life threatening cut finger as TVK’s simply rocked out harder than the abs of Mucho Man Randy Savage. Freddy was on fire, his hips thrust much to the ladies delight, and he did lunges that showed off his muscular thighs, how on earth would I ever compete with this guy in the future?

Well, in what seemed like seconds, but was in fact at least an hour, the gig was over. Freddy gave me back my guitar and I swear to God, I heard it cry as he let go of it. Not even my guitar wants to be touched by me anymore. I can only but hope that the sweat from Freddy’s hands has somehow magically transferred onto my guitar and will somehow magically be absorbed by my own hands, and that I will possess just a fraction of his talent.

Well, with that done, it was back to town to check out the always impressive, Friday Night Cruise. The streets are blocked off, and only registered entrant cars are allowed upon what many would consider hollow ground, if even just for a few hours. My Red Shift duties had kicked in, and Cal and I hatched up plans for some funny little snippets in the show, which of course you will see when it airs in a Mega Beach Hop special with a full episode dedicated to the event. Be watching Prime TV on Saturday’s at 5pm.

Once completed, I took off to see Aussie band The Flying Saucers, and to be honest, I was very impressed. I can be a bit cynical about bands at times, and im a very honest person who tends to speak my mind quite freely if I am disappointed, but there would be no such thing for tonight. They rocked the Lion Red tent and had people up dancing in no time. Good show guys, I look forward to coming see you play when I get to Melbourne.

After watching them for an hour I took a lonely wander around the streets and was hit up by a mate who encouraged me to enter into Hop Idol. Basically it’s a singing competition where contestants chose from a list of 50’s and 60’s songs and give it a shot to get into the top 8, who then perform on Saturday at the Kicker Reserve to battle it out for the top prize of $500 cash. I was very reluctant as oddly, I hate karaoke styled singing, but my mates wouldn’t have a bar of it, and pushed me onstage. I chose to sing Suspicious Minds by Elvis, and well, it turns out I got into the Top 8 and was told to report to the side of stage at 3pm the following day. I will speak more of this later.

Friday was a slightly earlier night than Saturday, but only by about 30 minutes. Geeez. But as I was in no rush to get into town for the big parade, I decided to enjoy resting until around 11am before setting off into town to see all the cars parked up along the streets. Now, the silliest thing about this whole trip was that I was so busy with the band, The Red Shift and just generally catching up with people that I didn’t take any photos of cars at all. I only took 2 pictures of an awesome early 1900’s Indian Motorcycle for a friend who couldn’t make it down for the BH.

Cal and Stu were running round like mad men filming as much as they could, and I ran into them and we filmed a couple of ‘piece to cam’ segments. That’s tech talk for ‘the bits were im in front of the camera’. With my input completed by around 2.30pm, I jumped in Cal’s Rambler with him and he drove us down to the Kicker Reserve so I could report in for the Hop Idol finals. I registered and chose the same song, and watched, as very lovely ladies got ready for the Rita Sue Fashion Show was about to hit the catwalk. Mmmmm, ladies are lovely.

Well, with the fashion show done, the Hop Idol got underway and just as my name was called out I walked the stairs on the side of stage only to trip and hurt my knee. I knew there was no way I could go out there and sing with the amount of pain pulsing through my body, so I had no choice but to pull out. Just as I was about to pull out, up steps Freddy Fargon in my place, and man, he simply took that crowd of 20,000 people (yes, there were actually 20,000 people, im not making that bit up) and turned them playdoh in his hands, and then he made little farm animals out of them and ran over them with his Tonka Truck.

Once again he gyrated, thrust, swooned and the ladies went wild. Two ladies even threw their bras onto the stage, CRIKEY. He belted out that tune better than Elvis himself, and as it so happened, Elvis was at the event and when he saw Freddy Fargon stealing his thunder, he stormed up onstage and ordered Freddy to stop singing and get off stage. Man, that Elvis is one jealous cat I tell you. But Freddy got the last laugh by winning the Hop Idol competition and taking away the $500 cash booty like the pirate he is. Yyyeeeaaarrrrggggghhhhh

To see Freddy’s show stealing performance, click below

With that done, Freddy walked off stage into the throng of women awaiting him side of stage, and he was seen disappearing into the changing tent with no less than 6 women. He emerged about 20 minutes later with a grin from ear to ear only to have some shiela throw a piece of paper with the number 20 on it. When he asked what it was about, it turns out that they had entered him into the beauty pageant, which of course he strutted his stuff with all the sexiness and poise of an Rhino in heat. And when he lost, he stormed the stage and threw a hissy that would make the girls on Rock Of Love look like angels. Sorry to hear of your loss Freddy, but you can’t win them all mate.

Anyhow, with that done it was time for me to make tracks back to Auckland and try getting some sleep to be ready for the Scroungers Hot Rod Blowout the following day. A great weekend was a bout to get a heck load sweeter.

Sorry there are no pictures of cars, but I have managed to score some of Freddy doing his thing with The Voodoo Kreepers. Thanks again for covering me Freddy, you sex freak.

Freddy Fargon takes to the grass with The Voodoo Kreepers - who can resist those pearly whites?

even Chip Foose from Rides dropped by get a photo opportunity with the infamour Freddy Fargon.

2009-03-12T00:05:00.002+13:00

NEWS RELEASE

The Voodoo Kreepers are alive and kicking. And to get the show back on the road we will be doing a SPECIAL PERFORMANCE at The Beach Hop on Friday 27th of March at the at beach on the Onemana cruise. We will be performing with The Plymouth Furys and we will hit the stage (or the grassy area that we will be standing on) around 12pm. So make sure you get there early enough to park up, grab a cold one and join us for a performance that i promise will rock out. It will be our only performance at Beach Hop this year due to other commitments with filming for The Red Shift and Geoff playing with the awesome Recliner Rockers (who you have GOT to see if you havent already)

A huge thanks to Noddy and The Plymouth Fury's for allowing us such a short notice comeback show.

Also, there is a chance, and i say again, a chance, that we will also be performing on Sunday 29th March at the ever growing Hot Rod Blowout, which is held at the Avondale Speedway track just by the motorway on the North Western Motorway. this is always an awesome event chockablock with dragsters, traditional hot rods and customs, live music, and sexy ladies being........sexy. gates usually open around 9am, and bands usually kick off around 10 ish. so get your asses out of bed and come spend the day being kooler than kool.

we'll see you out there folks. cant wait to be playing for you all again.

check out www.myspace.com/thevoodookreepers to listen to some tracks.

Today i was a naughty naughty boy

2009-03-10T00:37:00.004+13:00

thats right, i was naughty. for years now ive had a weird dream of one day owning a slammed vw beetle. i love the californian look from the early 60's, so when one popped on trade me (local auction site) at a reasonable price, i went and had a look. as soon as i saw it i decided i would like to own it. of course it wasnt an easy choice to just go ahead and buy it as i am saving for my aussie trip. but i figured out a budget, made an offer that i could afford and waited for a call.

the dubby wasnt owned by the guy selling, but by his brother inlaw who now lives in phoenix, arizona, usa. so once he replied to counter offer my offer (naturally expected) i returned with a middle ground offer and a deal was struck. so my friend karen and i took off this arvo with cash in hand to pick it up.

the wof and reg are out of date, but will sort that out over the next day or two if all goes well. all up shes a pretty straight car with a few little bubbles of rust here and there. the clutch needs attention and a tune up should see it running pretty sweet. there is no rush to do anything major to the car as i pretty much love it as it is. will probably get some pinstriping done, maybe lower the rear a little further and thats about it.

so anyways, here it is.

and heres some more pics.

OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW - CONCERT

2009-03-05T13:36:00.003+13:00

Live at Powerstation 4-3-09

To be honest I had never really heard Old Crow Medicine Show apart from my mate Ben being into them in a big way and him mentioning them to me, and playing one song to me a year or so ago. I dig bluegrass, traditional country music etc, but just never chased up their stuff. But when I saw they were coming to NZ, I decided I would pot along and check them out.

No, I didn’t go buy any of their CD’s just so I could be one of the many ‘fan since yesterday’ types. I was happy to not be able to sing along with any of their tunes, apart from their awesome rendition of CC Ryder, which was in the encore bracket. And because I can’t sit here and list off all the songs they played etc, I will keep it very simple. They were good, very good.

But…….yes, there is a but, where were the awesome guitar solos? There weren’t any. GUTTED. The main singer could rip a mean fiddle solo, and the dobro player was very tasty at times. But no one ripped on the guitar or banjo, quite a shame really. They kicked out same fast tunes, which had the crowd almost as intense as a Slayer moshpit, but the musician in me wanted more.

But that’s my only gripe. Other than that they put on an awesome show, had the crowd eating out of their hands, even if they did say ‘We love Kiwis’, ‘We love New Zealand’ and ‘Hello land of the long white clouds’ over and over again. Hahaha. I guess it’s normal that most cities or countries go nuts when they hear an international band say the name. I’m going to give it a go when I play in Australia next.

After watching their first set from the front, I took the set break as an opportunity to head to the back of the room, and the sound back there was awesome. You could hear everything (unlike up front). Some slow blues tunes bought the crowd back down a bit until they slaughtered them with two more fast hillbilly anthems and then it was all over. A very worthwhile $55 spent I reckon.

Now I must also mention that the opening act was a band from Lyttleton Bay, Christchurch, known as The Eastern Family. They were good, have a lot of potential indeed once they get some more writing experience under their belt. The lead singer was hilarious, great sense of humor and the kind of guy I could watch regularly without getting bored or fear of repetition. His best line was delivered right at the beginning of the night. ‘We would like to thank Old Crow Medicine Show for being our closing act tonight. We asked the Feelers, but they said no, so thanks guys’. Classic stuff.

Go check out youtube for OCMS and see what you think. I reckon I could be in for getting a couple of their CD’s at some stage. Please note that the first 14 pictures are of The Eastern Family

Stray Cats - LIVE - the band, not just cats roaming the streets.

2009-03-04T12:10:00.003+13:00

Stray Cats – LIVE

Powerstation
Auckland
3-3-09

I was very fortunate to have heard about Stray Cats coming to NZ a little ahead of time thanks for a very hooked up friend in Australia that is absolutely a freak for Brian Setzer (guitarist / singer for SC). Of course it was my dream to be the opening band for the DC with my band The Voodoo Kreepers, but alas, we had pretty much ceased playing as a band and finding a drummer that fit our groove, just wasn’t as easy as one would hope. So, we put the idea on the back burner and that was that.

Fast forward several months and I still didn’t have a ticket for the show. I was a bit up in the air about the whole thing really. On one hand it was one of my favorite bands of all time and it is their last world tour. And on the other, it was $100 to go see them play in a dive of a venue. And being that im trying to save for my trip to aussie, I held off right up until the day of the show to buy my ticket.

Im really glad I did of course. Kiwi band ‘Labretta Suede and The Motel 6’ were the openers for the night. And they blasted through a great set and even got a couple of dancer girls during their tune ‘Boogaloo’, which was even more eye candy than watching Labretta parade around in her sexy lingerie. Mind you, nothing beats the raw sexual energy of watching Johnny Moondog with his low-slung guitar grinding away with reckless abandon. Pure magic. Good show guys. A few pictures are included at the start for your visual pleasure.

Once Labretta was done, it was all about the Roadies. Yes, they quickly started around getting the stage set, although it was already ready before, but I guess roadies just need that bit of attention to make them selves feel special about being jerks (im speaking of these guys in particular, not all roadies, these guys were jerks, arrogant to every degree).

Anyhow the lights went down as the Stray Cats stumbled onto stage casually and donned their instruments and BAM, it was all on. It was a great show. They kicked out some classics, opening the show with Rumble in Brighton. But they then kicked into several tunes, which (sad to say it) no one really knew. They danced and clapped obligingly of course, but it was easy to tell the Cats weren’t really feeling the vibe from the crowd. I guess they’re used to performing to crowds of thousands, and not about 800, which is my guess for last night’s crowd, maybe a little less.

It was still kool to see and hear tunes like ‘Stray Cat Strut’, ‘Sexy and 17’ and ‘Gene and Eddie’, but there was a lot of stuff missing off the list that after 17 years of not playing here, you would think they would have at least gone through the effort to give us more for our money. But hey, at least I can now say ‘I’ve seen the Stray Cats play live’.

One other thing that grates me a little is that in speaking to friends in Australia, the Cats played a lot longer over there and really got into it. They even did 2 lots of encores and played all their hits. Kind of made me feel like we’re nothing but the red headed stepson that no one loves. Damn it. Hahahaha. Oh well. It was still a kool night

Off to see Old Crow Medicine Show tonight. Really looking forward to seeing them play

AmeriCARna 09 - day four

2009-03-02T02:17:00.003+13:00

Day Four

Saturday 28 – 02 – 2009

The rain was still pelting down when I awoke at 8am. Yes, only six hours of sleep was to be my rest for the night. But I was feeling rather rejuvenated all the same. I bid farewell to Alison’s parents who where making the journey to Hawke’s Bay for The Mission concert, albeit crap weather, they were optimistic the concert would still go on.

After sitting around for the morning, I finally got a text from the guy coming to buy my wagon that they were all of 40kms away from Hawera. So I fired up the old girl and took her for my last cruise down through the desolate main street. Im not used to seeing an empty street on a Saturday, it was like stepping back 25 years to the days when shops closed at noon on Saturday and didn’t even bother opening on Sunday. It was eerie, but very fitting way to say goodbye to my faithful old girl.

Grinter (his nickname of course), showed up with his mates in a slammed Ford XM station wagon, and it was a slick ride, I should have grabbed a picture but didn’t have my camera. Grinter and I took my wagon for a cruise and he seemed completely stoked with her, and I pointed out all the little things I could think of that would / could need attention or cause him problems, as I didn’t want for him to think I was hiding anything. He was happy though, and we did the deal and he dropped me back to Alison’s house.

I tried to not watch as he drove off, but I couldn’t resist. I turned and stared, eyes glazed over like a man watching his woman walk off into the sunset embraced by another man. I fell to me knees, tears permeating from my swollen, bloodshot eyes, and as raised my arms I searched the sky and screamed like a man watching his best friend die in battle. ‘WHYYYYYYY, WHY GOD, WWWWWHHHHYYYYYY’????

Nah just shitting yah, I did look back as he cruised away, and it looked awesome cruising off, and I can only imagine the excitement Grinter would be feeling, just him and his kool old cruiser making their maiden voyage together. He will do great things with the Val that’s for sure.

Anyways, back at camp, Alison and I had resigned our selves to a very boring Saturday night in Hawera. We went to the shops and bought ingredients for chicken pasta, some chips and dip and headed home and simply splodged on the couch and watched TV. And that was it, day four, and thus, my journey was all but complete. Only one more day to go and that is just my journey back to Auckland. Yay, Auckland…………NOT

no pictures today. well, some of a cat, but i wont bother you with those cos it doesnt make me look very manly now does it? hahaha

ameriCARna 09 - day three

2009-03-02T01:40:00.002+13:00

Day Three

27-02-2009

I awoke relatively early this morning, and in fact, I barely slept at all in the first place. Not that I wasn’t comfortable, but I just had one of those ‘my brain wont stop thinking’ nights, but I relished in the rare occasion of my brain even thinking at all, so it’s all good. Being from Auckland it was blissful to be able to walk out the door and into an open field and breathe in fresh air first thing in the morning. And to be greeted by the mighty Mt Taranaki right at the doorstep was breath taking. I love this mountain; after all, it was a part of my daily life as I lived in New Plymouth for two years in my high school years.

I made tracks towards Hawera as the AmeriCARna cruise was destined to arrive and take over the streets around 2.30pm that afternoon. It was good to just chill out and enjoy a slow day and wash my wagon to get it ready for the arrival of its new owner due tomorrow to pick it up. I finally headed into town to catch up with Cal and Stu and start preparing for what footage would be filmed that day. The plan was to do what we call ‘piece to camera’ footage, which is basically the footage of me on camera talking about the event or just being an idiot really. I always enjoy this part of the show, as we don’t have scripts to follow and just make it up as we go, often to the amusement of an impromptu audience happy to laugh at my obvious screw-ups.

It didn’t take too long to get the footage we needed today, which is always a relief for Cal as the pressure is always on to have enough footage to be able to sift through to make sure our viewers get to see the best of event. But in this case, the poor bugger has so much footage to wade through that I fear for his sanity, haha. But if anyone can do it, he’s the man to get the job done.

With cars lining the main street of Hawera, the entire community was really getting in behind AmeriCARna. Shop windows were filled with American flags and so forth, kids were covered in red, white and blue, whether it was clothes, flags or face paint. Although I didn’t physically see the band, we could hear them all round the street, and they had a great range of songs to keep people entertained.

I didn’t get to take many pictures today, as you will be able to see. Frankly though, by the third day of seeing mostly the same cars, although I must admit, with events this size, even after 3 or 4 days you still seem to be able to see a car here or there that you haven’t noticed before. So don’t take my words as being a negative.

Once we completed our filming, I made tracks back to my Hawera base and chilled out for an hour or so until Alison was ready for us to head to New Plymouth for the night cruise. We decided to take her car and leave my wagon safely locked up in Hawera. Upon arrival in downtown New Plymouth we parked up and walked down Devon St, which was the focal point of the official ‘Night Cruise’. It’s always quite mesmerizing watching old cars cruise a downtown area at night. Reflections of shop lights bouncing off the curves of 50’s cruisers, the roar of open exhaust headers from hot rods, the sound of air bags purging as some cars slam to the ground and seeing cars cruising instead of just being parked up, makes for a far more enjoyable aspect of an event such as this.

Knowing well that Alison really loves old cars but not having really been in old cars apart from my wagon, I caught up with some very close, fellow Maverick friends who are affectionately known to me as ‘Mum and Dad’, Ray and Colleen Inwood. They have a few old cars, but tonight they were cruising in Mum’s 1959 Cadillac Coupe De Ville. It didn’t take much to convince Dad that he should take us for a cruise around the loop so that Alison could get her first taste of what it’s like to be in a true iconic 50’s car.

With a good hour or so of watching the rolling display we decided that maybe a drink was in order and with a group of mates from the NZ Mopar Forum, we stepped into a bar known as The Grumpy Mole (I wondered for a second if this bar was named after one of my exes, haha). It’s a pretty cool bar, but Alison and I only stayed for one drink and chose to catch up with my good mate Fish and jump in his ’55 Caddy De Ville (yes, it was a great night for cruising in Cadillac’s) and joined him and his wife Kelly back at their camp for a few quiet drinks and some good laughs.

Around 130am, it was decided to head for home via McDonalds, but it turned out about 30% of New Plymouth’s population had decided on doing the exact same thing. So we ditched the cue, and hit the local service station for a mystery pack, aka meat pie. Lord knows what you will get when you bite into one of these at almost two in the morning, but it was actually bloody good. As we drove, the rain started, and it got pretty damn heavy too. The forecast had warned us it was coming, but after crossing fingers, praying to Jesus, making sacrifices to Buddha and Vishnu, we were not heard, and the rain settled in for a pretty solid 12 hours non stop. As a result, I decided I would just stay in Hawera for the following day, and that I had personally, finished my trip to AmeriCARna.

the val sits in the morning dew awaiting a cruise back to Hawera

Mt Taranaki from my fellow Maverick John's back door. who could argue with this?

i went to Alison's daughter Jasmine's school to see her perform in a dance (which i missed due to it running late), but check out this awesome shark they have hanging in the school hall that the students made. its freakin rad

this sign clearly points to where Dawsons Creek must come to an end

and only a few pictures of cars as i was mostly focused on red shift duties. camera wasnt set right for night time cruises, so will practice that for next time.

ameriCARna 09 - day two

2009-03-02T01:14:00.002+13:00

Day Two

26-02-2009

I enjoyed a rather slow start to the day today. As much as I woke up at 650am, I had had a great sleep and was looking forward to a day of just checking out the cars and socializing with friends. I took off from Hawera just after 10am and headed through the small towns that make up the south side of Mt Taranaki (or Mt Egmont as some locals still prefer to call it). A bacon and egg pie and 42kms later I was in Opunake, which was only just starting to show signs of the car cruise arriving from New Plymouth on the north side of town.

Being in my Aussie wagon meant I was unable to park down with all the American cars, but it was only a short walk down to the seaside campgrounds, which were very empty at this stage. But over the next hour or so, cars piled in by the hundreds. I would estimate at least 400 too 500 cars were displayed around the grounds, and there was quite simply, something for everyone. From hot rods to street rods, restored to highly modified, from old to modern, if it was American, there was bound to be something that caught your eye.

The camp grounds came alive with many activities to do other than just look at cars. There were pools for the kids, and boy did the heat warrant a good swim. The beach was just over the dunes for those who could handle the waves. Food stalls had good options and even the local campground shop was open serving ice creams and ice-cold drinks. For the truly adventurous there were helicopter flights that for a mere $40, would fly you over the local area, over the cars and out over the ocean and banked high up in the air and almost onto its side (which I reckon would have scared the shit out of me) and back to terra firma. Some friends who went on it said it was a total blast. I really should have done it, but im on a budget for living at the moment, so maybe next year.

There was a band kicking out all sorts of tunes during the day, and I was impressed with their versatility, as they seemed to tackle most styles without too much effort at all. Im naturally very critical about music, but I was most impressed. I got to catch up with my fellow Mavericks (a loose club of hot rodding friends from all over NZ) who had made the journey, and we sat in the shade and updated each other with the comings and goings of our day-to-day lives.

I had caught up with Cal and Stuart briefly as they jumped left, right and centre filming as many cars and people as possible, but they were on a mission and didn’t really want me around, so I took the hint and racked off. Ha. I took time to take pictures of as many cars as I could, but had to bear in mind there was still another three days to go yet, so no hurry. It was around 3pm when the Mavericks decided to uproot and head to Maverick member, Johnboy and SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) house, about 10 minutes drive from Opunake Township.

Their house is actually a huge barn, but with living quarters built inside. I love places like this, just heaps of room for working on cars really. Inside resides their cool as Nissan powered Morris Minor, their caravan and one mean as fire breathing 429-powered AC Cobra. Some nice toys indeed. A few Woodstock bourbon and cokes, a bbq, some cheap jokes at each other’s expense, a wind down in the lounge and it was time for bed. It was only early (heck, its only 11pm as I write this from my bed), but it had been a long hot day, and tomorrow is set to be even more full on with the Friday night cruise happening in Downtown New Plymouth.

Two more sleeps till my wagon goes to its new owner. Will be a sad day for sure.

AmeriCARna 09 - day one

2009-03-02T01:09:00.002+13:00

Day one

25-01-2009

As per most big American car / hot rod related events, I had really been looking forward to AmeriCARna this year. Having attended the very first one in 2007, I missed out on 2008 due to work commitments. I decided I definitely would not miss this year, and booked the time off work well in advance to guarantee there wouldn’t be any hassles.

The day kicked off with an urgent run to DSM Studios in Auckland to record the narration for episode 5 of The Red Shift, due to the fact I would be away for almost a week and I normally go to the studio on Fridays. I flew through the script and all was done in less than 10 minutes (another tough day at the office haha). It was then time to hit the road and head for New Plymouth.

It was around 10.30am when I began my journey, and getting out of Auckland is one of life’s treats. Mind you, dealing with the traffic getting out of Auckland, is NOT. After an hour of battling, I finally broke free and was able to push the Valiant Safari Wagon to a whopping 50 mph (around 85 – 90 kph). Now, I wasn’t actually going to take the Valiant on this journey, and had resigned myself to driving the japper for sake of fuel economy and also being an American based event, my Aussie wagon wouldn’t be valid for the cruises anyway.

But alas, as I had been trying to sell the wagon, it turned out an offer came in from a bloke in Wellington the day before I was departing for Taranaki (about half way to Wellington). So to save him a full journey, I told him I would meet him in New Plymouth and save him some petrol money. The hard part has been that my journey down was awesome. The car ran like a dream, apart from running low on trans fluid till I got to a servo to top her up. With windows down and sun shining, it was nice just cruising through the hills, stopping off at beaches and driving slow like Grandad would.

The trip took me longer than expected due to a couple of stops and road works everywhere, which meant many periods of driving at crawling speed. But im not complaining; it still beats doing a normal days work. But with said delays, I finally arrived in the township of Inglewood just after 5pm. The main street was blocked off, so I found a park and had a quick browse at the cars on display. Talk about a shit load of cars, American cars everywhere, it was awesome.

Knowing full well that I had another four days of cars ahead of me, I focused more on finding old friends and sorting out what gatherings we would have in order to catch up properly over a few drinks during the course of the coming days. With that done I made tracks further south to Hawera, where I would catch up with my friend Alison and crash at her folks place for the night. Her parents are cool as, and her dad is ex Navy and just a great guy to hang out with. After chatting for a while it was bedtime. I was knackered, and I fell asleep within seconds of falling on the mattress. God I love sleep.

A Great Sunday Indeed

2009-02-22T19:01:00.002+13:00

I love Sundays, especially cruisy ones. The day started with waking up after my usual minimal amount of sleep after a Saturday night gig in order to prepare for my day with Ash and Jess (my kids) who usually arrive around 9am. I love hearing them bundle their way up the stairs outside as they yell my name the whole way. It’s awesome.

We spent an hour just catching up and chatting about school and kindy and then watched Sponge Bob Squarepants. After out chill out session we headed to our fave Sunday bakery for lunch, and then back home to pull the Valiant out of the shed and take it for a blat up to Dairy Flat for a car gathering that was arranged there. Apparently there was a reason behind the gathering to do with forming a new car club, but I basically just went up for the sake of checking out some cars and seeing some good friends and enjoy the weather.

It was a good gathering in all, some good variety with some European cars mixed in with the American and Aussie rides. I didn’t take any pics of the euro stuff, sorry, I just don’t really care for them. Check out the pics I did take though, some kool stuff there.

After a couple of hours I headed homeward and dropped the kids back to mum for tea. And now here I sit, writing this. A good weekend in all, hope you all had the same.

Ricki

Muscle Car Madness 09

2009-02-21T09:24:00.002+13:00

I don’t ever get to say this, but this is going to be a long one. hahaha

Muscle Car Madness

Sure it’s supposed to have a much longer name, but I can’t remember it off the top of my head, and everyone calls it MCM anyways, so get over it. So, what is it? Well, let me tell you. It occurs in Rangiora in the South Island of NZ, and It is hands down one of the best car shows you could hope to attend, that’s what it is. I had been lucky enough to been once before many years back when I served time writing for NZV8 magazine. I had a blast then, but didn’t get the opportunity to really take in the show as I was there in job capacity.

This year was a little different. First off, event promoter Craig Stare, had contacted me to ask if my band The Voodoo Kreepers could play. Unfortunately the band doesn’t really exist anymore, so I was unable to accommodate his request. However, I did have a bass player (Steve) and drummer (Skot) whom I used to play with many moons ago in a band called Loose Unit. And as it so happened, they both now live in Christchurch, a mere 20 minutes from Rangiora. I put forward the idea to Craig that maybe I could throw together a set of songs with them in order to play the one-hour performance, and the sucker agreed. Hahahahaha

The bonus to playing down at the MCM, was that The Red Shift crew would be there filming also, so it was a double whammy weekend for me, that I knew would see me get very little sleep, but would be a lot of fun.

I arrived into CHCH on Thursday morning were my limo and driver awaited me (actually it was Craig in his piece of crap late model Ford, lol). We hit the road and he showed me around a bit whilst we discussed the ins and outs of the weekend and what was required of me etc. It was all too easy. Actually it wasn’t, not for Craig anyways. How that guy doesn’t have a heart attack I will never know. At a glance, anyone would think he’s a mad scientist with a million things running through his head at any one time. For me, it was plain amusing, and a pleasure to watch him work. And as a consequence, I have offered him my services to help out with certain areas of the show for next year to try and take some weight off his shoulders. He’s a good man.

Thursday night was a planned practice to run through songs with Steve and Skot, and their new guitarist Matt. We nailed through the songs quickly, and I was stoked that the boys had taken time to even learn two Voodoo Kreepers songs for me. Thanks lads. I knew we were ready for the following night of rock n roll mayhem.

Friday dawns, and its off to help piece a few final things together and meet up with some fellow forumites from the NZ Mopar Forum that had been arranged by forum member Daryl Morris. He's a good bastard and i joined him in his 1969 Dodge Polara convertible, which is a mint ride. there were about 6 cars all up, and we cruised out to some place that i cant for the likes of me remember the name of (and i was only drinking coke that day). lucky for me, daryl decided to have one beer too many, so i got the keys to the 69, it was one sweet ride. ah the benfits of being sober driver.

we made our way to the showgrounds to enjoy the ‘show before the show’ aspect of MCM as most entrants arrived early to set up camp spots etc. The layout is awesome, it’s basically a few massive fields, one for camping and cruising cars around a marked loop, one for the show cars on the sat and sun, and one for general parking and go kart racing on the grass etc.

I spent all day walking around getting dusty and just meeting some awesome people. I ran into some friends that I had only made the week prior to heading down to MCM. I was fortunate enough to meet BJ and his lovely missus Raney at Danny Doolans (my place of work) the Sat night of Kumeu Show. They had come to town to simply have a pint and look around Auckland city, and ended up listening to me sing all night (poor buggers). They came up and said gday afterwards and we talked briefly and I noticed that BJ was wearing a ‘Reno’ t-shirt. I pointed out I had been there in August 08, and it turned out they had also.

“You’re not filthy hot rodders are you?” I probed. It turned out, they were. Awesome. Even better, they were from CHCH and were up for Kumeu. “Oh, well I’m heading to CHCH next week for MCM” I explained. Well, from there I gave them my business card and said ‘keep in touch’. I had gotten a text from them Thursday arvo asking if I had landed yet? A few texts back and forth and we agreed we would meet up on Friday at the campgrounds, and through the wonders of technology we ran into each other on the fields and hung out for a while.

As the night rolled on I was mentally preparing myself to do a gig with a band that I had jammed with for only a matter of two hours. I wasn’t nervous about playing, I rarely ever am, but I was really excited about how it would sound to play with a band again after so many years of mostly playing solo and duo work. Midnight arrived and we hit stage, I need not have worried, it kicked ass. The guys did and awesome job and the crowd really got into it. They even danced during the four original tunes we performed (two old Loose Unit tunes and two Voodoo Kreepers tunes). And heck, when we played ‘sex is on fire’ by Kings Of Leon, some girls up the front obliged us by lifting their shirts to show us bits that we really weren’t supposed to see. Best part of all, a few rather large men in the crowd decided to do the same, and they had bigger racks than the chicks. Hahahahaha.

With gig completed we had a celebratory beer and made tracks for home, well, skots’ home actually. It was 3am by time head hit the pillow, and a mere 4.5 hours later, my alarm was doing its job. I had to get out to MCM early and catch up with Cal and Stu and work out what was required of me that day for The Red Shift. I found them hard at work making their way round the cars, and we hatched our plan of attack. Some quick filming of some introductions etc, we grabbed some interviews with people and their cars and then he headed for the burnout competition.

The atmosphere at MCM is hard to describe. Simply, to me it’s one of the best shows of the year, and the people (both entrants and public) are just awesome. There is a huge variety of people and cars, and for some reason, they all just seem to get along and all appreciate each other’s cars. Not like up north where you have to own cars within certain year brackets to be considered ‘cool’ in their books. Jerks. haha

The clock hits 5pm and the public is sent home and the Poker Run begins. For those who don’t know, a poker run is where you are given directions to 5 locations and at each location you pick a card from a deck of cards. When you reach your destination, your five cards are your poker hand. And usually you win prizes etc based on your hand. There were no prizes that I know of, but it was kool cruising around in the 1958 Chev Impala that was kindly thrown my way by BJ and Raney. Yes, the same two people I had only met the week before threw me the keys to one of their cars. Again, you will hardly find this happens in the North Island, even if you’ve known the people for years.

The poker run concluded at the local Museum in Rangiora and we joined the cue to get our dinner. And what an awesome dinner it was. With food in the belly, we went for a walk through the museum. This was no ordinary museum either; this was decked out with some of the coolest old stuff I had ever seen. And it was all jumbled together as if it had all just been piled in as it arrived, so you could find all sorts of weird and wonderful things in nooks and crannies everywhere.

The best thing I found was an electric mobile chair for old people. And it worked, so I jumped on and made my way through the narrow isles. People looked at me funny, so the only way I knew to get away with my actions was to act slightly handicapped (although most people would argue that I was still normal, haha). I reached a section of ramp, which was about 1.5 meters long with very gradual incline. As there was no way to fit around me, I only very lightly touched the ‘forward’ button on the chair. I was moving so slow it wasn’t funny. Well it wasn’t funny to the people behind me anyways. There was a cue of around 12 people behind me and I could hear them getting a little frustrated, but I wouldn’t turn around to look at them, but instead just make some ‘nnnggg nnnggg nnnggg’ noises.

When I reached the top of the ramp I perked up and said ‘oh wait, I can just do this’ at which point I pushed the button to full speed and off I went. I then stopped, stood up and looked at the now rather annoyed crowd. From amongst the crowd my friends (yes, I have friends) started shouting ‘It’s a miracle, he can walk again, Hallelujah’. It amused us immensely. With our joking completed we headed back to campgrounds and I said my goodbyes and headed for the gate. Ah sweet sleep, how I was looking forward to you.

I awoke Sunday morning and made my way into Skot and Karen’s kitchen and caught up with current events in their neck of the woods. I jumped through the shower and made tracks yet again for Rangiora. This time it was to be a shorter day for me, as I had planned to make the 4.5 hour journey south to Dunedin to go and see my son Danya, and daughter Nika, who live their with their mum and step dad (that’s another blog)

The show was yet again packed to the brim, and if I had to guess, I would say around 800 to 1000 cars rolled through the gates that day. It is just mind blowing to be able to walk around a show ground that boasts such variety. Top show cars sitting next to projects that still have a long way to go, Aussie muscle cars, street machines, hell, even a couple of jap imports were on display. It just has everything.

So in conclusion to the event, I have to say that my second visit was even better than my first time there. And my third visit will be 2010 as it will be MCM’s 21st birthday. That’s right, its been going that long. It’s a real testament to Craig Stare and his loyal subjects (volunteers) who make it all happen year after year. I would highly recommend getting your ass down to Rangiora next year, cause I guarantee you, it will be huge.

Travel plans confirmed

2009-02-19T12:30:00.003+13:00

Well, after saying im heading overseas, i figured i best actually book my tickets. In review of bookings, i have adjusted my plans slightly. I now wont be driving to Christchurch, but instead will fly down on May 1st, and return on inetrnational Star Wars day (May the fourth be with you). From then i will either work until 13th of May, or will go for a tiki tour around the North Island. Just waiting to hear from work in regards to me working up till 13th, if so, i will take every opportunity i can to make some extra money for the journey.

i have put more stuff up for sale on trade me. namely my 67 Valiant Safari Wagon. $6000 ono people, someone could be scoring a great deal.

Galaxy of Cars Show - 1st, February 2009

2009-02-17T14:16:00.003+13:00

Galaxy of Cars

1st, February 2009

You can tell it’s summer purely based on the number of car related shows that are popping up everywhere all over the country. Some we make it to with the Red Shift cameras, and most we don’t. It’s hard to be everywhere at once. As stated in the previous blog, I don’t get to make it to every show that Cal and Stu make it too, and it’s often vice versa too. Galaxy of Cars is a fine example of this very fact. Its not specifically a Hot Rod show, and being that the boys were off filming elsewhere down the line, I decided I would zip to it with my trusty $168 panasonic camera and get some stills for ya’s.

This would be about the 4th or 5th time I have made the trip to the MOTAT grounds in Auckland to enjoy what is normally a pretty laid back day. This was to be no different with the usual array of classics and hot rods on display. Being that this is an open category type show, you get cars show up that frankly bore me to death. I mean, people show up in their late model Holdens and Fords (and even a couple of jappers), and no offence, but BORING!!!! I can see those cars every day at the supermarket parking lot, and I just don’t get the point of showing them off at a show.

Anyways, that’s not really important is it? Im just ranting. I convoyed over in my Valiant with my good mate Fish in his 57 Buick, and a fellow New Zealand Mopar Forumite named Richard in his Valiant Charger. We arrived to find the cue to get in a lot shorter than previous years, but I believe this to be due to the opening up of a two-lane entrance as opposed to single lanes of previous years, good call on the promoter’s behalf.

Most cars were shuffled into one large field and mostly segregated to areas based upon which car club they belonged too, or if not affiliated to a club, they sent you down the back. Sooooo, down the back we went. But that’s where most of the coolest cars were parked anyways, haha. So I parked up, grabbed the camera and had a perve around whilst enjoying catching up with many good friends along the way.

It was a bloody hot day I can tell you that much, and it didn’t take long to get my tan on. Being the red headed, freckled monger that I am, I am impervious to the suns rays, so it had no effect on me really……YEAH RIGHT. I was redder than the neck of a southern boy with his pants down chasing a squealing pig through a mud pit.

The band (don’t know their name sorry) was playing some great tunes, there were vendors selling the usual junk food with no flavor and over priced bottles of water. The swap meet left a bit to be desired, but that’s pretty normal for swap meets that aren’t automotive dedicated. After a quick look there I headed round the airplane sheds, which is mostly made up of English oriented car clubs. A good range of Army vehicles resided at the far end of the sheds, and kids were having fun climbing all over them and being told how everything works. Cool.

With all that taken in, I decided it was home time. I was hungry (a wasn’t going to risk eating the junk that was up for grabs), so I made tracks around 1pm. I will now let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Ps – I don’t know who took the picture of the girl in the black socks…….honest. ;-)

Raglan Classic Car and Rock 'n' Roll Show

2009-02-17T12:17:00.002+13:00

Time for me to play catch up now and post a few quick blogs on shows I've been to over the last few months. So here we go

Raglan Classic Car and Rock and Roll Festival

15th, February 2009

I was chilling out at home when I got a text from Cal (producer of TRS) saying ‘hdu jhggbsu kskshdbsj’. I replied ‘dude, are you drunk?’ Then I realized I was, so I waited a day and re read the message with sober eyes. It actually read ‘hey mate, I have a wedding to go to on the 15th, is there a chance you can make it down to Raglan with Stu (camera) and help him with getting interviews etc?’

Like I really need to be asked if I can make it to a Hot Rod show!!!! Well actually, I usually can’t make many shows on the grounds that it means taking time off work, and therefore lost income. But being a Sunday, I figured, no problem, it will be a great way to spend the day with my kids, and see some awesome rides.

Being that I did a gig on Saturday night and got home around 4am in the morning, it was rather daunting to think I would need to be awake at 630am in order to pick up my kids from their mum, and be on our way to raglan which is roughly a two hour drive from my house. So I set the alarm and promptly fell asleep before my head even hit the pillow.

After what felt like 12 whole minutes of sleep, I was up and on my way. A couple of bottles of V (hey that could be considered as advertising, they should give me loads of money for sponsorship) and I was almost awake. With my kids and my good friend Karen in tow, we headed south to Raglan.

Now Saturday was a particularly dismal day, so I wasn’t holding high hopes for Sunday at all. But as we journeyed south, there were no clouds in the morning sky and the day looked set to be a cracker. And a cracker it was. We arrived around 930am, parked the japper piece of crap well out of sight from everyone, and walked down into the sectioned off streets, which by this time, were fully lined with an awesome array of classics, hot rods, street machines and aussie cruisers.

After a quick wander around, I found Stu with camera in hand working his way around the cars on show. We made our plan of attack, and away we went. Basically, the plan was for Stu to do all the work and call me when he needed me. I like it. Nah, we split company with an agreement to text when it was time to interview people. For those who maybe don’t know how this process works, we find someone who has a good story to tell, who owns a kool car etc, and we put a microphone on them. I then stand right beside the camera and they then answer questions that I fire at them. its pretty easy really.

So if you’re at a show, and I walk up and say ‘how’s about we throw you in front of the camera?’ I’m not trying to talk you into starring in an ‘adult oriented movie’, we just want to talk about cars with you ok?

Anyways, back to the task at hand. With just over 200 cars on display and people smothering the streets, Stu was tackling his mission with zest whilst I hunted for a couple of candidates to interview and checked out the awesome rides and took still shots with my cheap digital camera. There was some awesome cars on display, and it was great to see the community of Raglan embrace the event, as it really puts some good money into the pockets of local businesses.

Anyways, we got through our day well, we got some great footage for the show, and we met some really fantastic people along the way. Here are some pictures for you to check out of the day. Now keep an eye out for next years Raglan show, cos its guaranteed to be a corker.

and now for a bunch of thumbnails for you to perve at

what's all this then?

2009-02-17T11:02:00.003+13:00

Welcome to The Red Shift Diaries. You may ask yourself, what is this ‘Red Shift Diaries’? Well, in a nutshell its clearly a blog (yep, I’m finally doing what everyone else was doing 6 years ago, I’m that far behind) where I will share with whoever wishes to read, my journeys, adventures and boring bits of life, like, ‘Today, I scratched my bum’. But first, allow me to break a few things down for you so you get a better picture of whom I am and what I do and what you’re likely to read about on here.

Who am I?

My name is Ricki Wood. I am Australian by birth but for the majority of my life, have lived in New Zealand. For the last 13 years of my life, I have been blessed in that I make a living as a full time musician. I have had normal day jobs along the way, but I have always focused on entertaining as being my main job, although I don’t look at it as a job at all. I love it, I breathe it, and I recognize it as an honor to be able to share music with others around me and actually make money from it.

For the most part, I perform in two bars in Auckland’s Viaduct in the downtown part of the city. Danny Doolans and O’hagans are the bars I primarily perform in, and it’s usually hard out party time all the time. Hence why im taking a big step to the left and am off to have new adventures, but more on that soon.

Apart from singing in pubs and doing private functions (weddings, parties etc) I also had a band called The Voodoo Kreepers. We played a style known essentially as rockabilly, but we stepped widely out of that genre to encompass many other territories. Now, the band still essentially exists, but gigs are few and far between, but you can still check out some of our tunes on our myspace page at www.myspace.com/thevoodookreepers

Music aside, I have four children (1 son and 3 daughters) who absolutely rock my world. They bring me so many laughs with all their quirks and mannerisms. I highly recommend having some if you don’t already. They’re much more entertaining than TV. In typical ‘rockstar’ fashion, the four kids were evenly divided between two women, whom I am no longer with. Both are absolutely awesome women whom I still hold with the highest regard to this day.

The Red Shift Diaries?

So how does The Red Shift name come into all of this? Well, apart from music and children as hobbies (hehehe) I present / narrate a TV show here in NZ called The Red Shift. It is a car show, which focuses primarily on hot rods, muscle cars and related events. We are just heading into our 3rd season now, which goes to air on Prime TV on Saturday 21st of February at 5pm. If you’re a kiwi, and have Prime TV, watch it, you wont regret it……well, maybe apart from having to see my ugly mug here and there. You can also check out more on our show at www.theredshift.co.nz

So why the diary / blog?

Well, as part of my journey these past few years, I have found myself with a yearning to just go and do something a little different for a while. So as of April 20th, im throwing what very few possessions I will have (I’m selling everything I own at the moment) and will be shooting off on a 10 to 12 day road trip around New Zealand, which will see me finish in Christchurch in the South Island. From there I will be leaving for Melbourne, Australia around May 6th. My trip to Australia will be a mixture of travel, car shows, catching up with family and friends and work.

After a couple of weeks in the Melbourne area with family, I will endeavor to journey up the east coast of Australia taking my time to take in the sights etc. the plan is to make it to as many car shows as possible and take in what’s going on in the aussie hot rod scene. Once the travel section of my journey is done, the plan is to join my sister Sue for roughly three months on Mt Hotham, Victoria for the ski season. Sue manages a ski lodge on Hotham, and has invited me to be a bit of all-rounder guy on the mountain. So I could go from being a ski lift operator, barman, bouncer (damn straight I will deal to ya, ya bloody drunken yobbos, LOL) or maybe even share managing the lodge.

Once completed I will make my journey back to NZ in early October to be back to gigging and being ready for the summer season of The Red Shift (fingers crossed that Cal ‘producer’, wants me back). So whilst I will be traveling, I decided to keep a running diary of what’s going on with my adventures. I will post blogs and pics of car shows, friends and family, the touristy bits etc, all so that anyone interested can follow my journey with me. I will attempt to report in at least every few days.

So what now?

Well, as of right now, I still have a couple of months to kill before I depart. During this time I will be posting some pictures and reports on some cars shows I have been to and will go to, and any other little pieces of interest as I prepare to basically live out of a suitcase for five months. I hope you will all enjoy having a read and feel free to post messages and updates on life back home or anywhere you may be from.

Email – hillbillylover@gmail.com

this is me in the studio recording voice overs for The Red Shift. as you can clearly see, its very demanding......

this is Big Jim from DSM Studios. He's an awesome chap, and he puts up with me being a dick all the time

and this is my car, its a 1967 Valiant Safari Station Wagon. its for sale for $6500 ono. i NEED to sell it to make my journey to aussie much more viable, so if you or anyone you know wants it, BUY IT. thanks.