Some of my young fans at Gympie.
Hello again to all my friends and fans
The last two months has gone so fast and I am very excited to tell you that my 2nd single "You Better Run" has now been released to radio and its accompanying video clip will be up on CMC as of today. As most of you know I had an awesome time in Canada & Nashville but found it a little hard to settle back in after arriving home at the end of July, but with a couple of busy months ahead of me I didn't have a lot of time to think about it.
August started off with the filming of my new video clip which was shot in 3 difference locations around the Camden & Razorback areas, our first location was Cawdor, a little town just out of Camden where we found an old farm slab hut built in the early 1800's. The owners Kristen & Craig were thrilled that we wanted to use their property and Craig actually ended up played my dad and did a great job as the professional actor we booked did not show.
After taking a short break for lunch we headed up the mountain to our 2nd location at Razorback to an old timber shearing shed where we filmed all the band scenes with the production team, band and extra's having lots of laughs and re-shoots before we finally got it right. Our final shoot was on the Sunday morning where we had some of my good friends come and be 'extras' and I can't thank them enough, It was a busy two days and a lot of work but our producer Duncan Toombs did a great job and I am incredibly pleased with the finished product.
The filming weekend was a busy weekend for me as I also had to rush off to my regular gig at Menangle House on the Sunday afternoon as I really love playing here, the venue is a beautiful restaurant set on 7 acres with an old dairy farm, beautiful old sandstone buildings and the staff are always fantastic with great local crowds, my good friend Caitlin Harnett helped me out with a couple of sets as I was also to perform at Campbelltown RSL later in the afternoon for a Prostate Cancer Fundraiser, run by 2MCR with an amazing line up featuring Adam Harvey, Tamara Stewart, Camile & Stuie French, Victoria Baillie and Amber Lawrence just to name a few, the fundraiser raised over $6,000 for Prostate Cancer research.
On 19th August I spend the day at the ABC Studio's in Sydney recording 4 acoustic tracks off my Debut EP which are now up on the ABC Country website (www.abccountry.net.au) as well as my brand new website www.toridarke.com under videos.
A couple of days later I performed at the "Cancer For Life" Concert which was held at St. Mary's Leagues Club with again another amazing line up featuring Kelly Hope, Tamara Stewart, Victoria Baillie, Gemma Luxton and Jonah's Road, that fundraiser raised a total of $12,600 for cancer research.
After taking a few relaxing days off after a busy couple of weeks we headed off to QLD for the National Gympie Muster, a festival that I would recommend everyone visit, I spent the first morning (Friday) with a wonderful TV crew from "Country Matters" doing a TV spot covering what the Muster meant to me and the involvement & excitement of what the Muster has to offer, the interview went for about 45mins and we had a lot of fun with the guys on the show which has since been aired to TV.
This year's Muster was extra special to me as I perform not only on The Muster Club Stage but also on Main Stage which was an amazing experience with a great audience and to have so many people come to see me in the signing tent afterwards to buy my CD and get signatures was just mind blowing, it was a great honour to know that so many people loved my music. The one thing I love about Gympie is being able to catch up with all my good friends and that's exactly what I did :)
After another great Muster we headed south west to a little place called Barmedman for the Barmedman Ute Show where I performed on the Friday and Saturday nights at the Barmedman Hotel and then got invited to be a guest judge for the Utes show on the Saturday afternoon. I had a great time checking out the awesome utes and learning about the passionate people who put so much work into their pride and joy (their Utes).... I must admit I was wishing I owned a few of them, they were so nice.
This was my second year at Barmedman as I also performed at the show last year and had an absolute ball, at the end of the show it was time to do a lap of honour around the arena and I had the privilege of being the passenger in the Deni Ute Muster Ute with Ralph Clark the organizer of the Barmedman show and a great friend.
As I said earlier it has been a hectic couple of months but I have enjoyed it so much, my last trip away for the year was to the Mildura Country Music festival and I would have to say it has to be one of the best festivals I have attended, I did a total of 22 gigs over the 10 days with just about every venue booked out and CD sales exceptional, the audiences were great and so appreciative of the talent presented throughout the entire festival.
Saturday night was the Independent Artist Of The Year Awards and I was very proud to have been given the opportunity to perform alongside some of Australia's great Independent Artists at the Awards for 2009 of which I was also a Finalist in the Female Rising Star Category. A big congratulations to Lianna Rose who won Female Rising Star, and Jetty Road who pretty much scooped the pools and also named as Artist Of The Year, also a big congratulations to all of the other winners and finalists.
Well it is time for me to say cheerio for now and I would like to again take this opportunity to thank all the Radio DJ's who continue to support my music and I hope you enjoy my 2nd single 'You Better Run'. It is great to be back home for a while now, so until next time, Keep safe and well.
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