Hi there my friends,

and so goes another year. And what a year it was!

Thanks to the support of all of you who have needed my time and skills to make your instruments work properly, in the wake of the flood the shop has slowly crept its way back towards normal.

Thanks also to all of you who have asked about Lisa, and expressed concern about her illness. She is still recovering, albeit very slowly. We are hoping that her recovery will continue, and hopefully at an increased rate.

The next post on this page will be about guitars, repairs, and the big backlog I have that I will be addressing in the first three or four weeks of 2023. 

But meanwhile...

If you walk around the Lismore CBD now you'll see that about 70% (and perhaps even more) of the businesses have re-opened. And there are even several new businesses!

One of the important ones for us is that Planet Music has been sold, dismantled , and reconstructed at 81 Keen Street Lismore. With a new owner! 

The new owner is Matt Bone, former employee of both Planet Music and Byron Music, a genuine working musician (bass player), and I'm sure that many of you will know him.

I can't think of a better person than Matt to take over Planet Music. He is well-known and well-regarded, knows the music retail industry from both sides (all sides!), and is a thoroughly splendid chap!

In uncertain times, this is the best news for Lismore's music scene that I can imagine.

The February 2022 flood was a genuine disaster. And a huge test of personal philosophy - "do you believe that the glass is half-full or half-empty"!

The recovery from such an enormous event was always going to take a while, but the level of commitment shown by every single business owner, and every single home owner, to clean up and move back-in shows that there are plenty of those of us that are optimists.

And every one of us has a newly-modified plan should an event even a fraction of that one happen again.

Shame that the authorities don't seem to have one. Divert Leycester Creek, dredge the Wilsons River, have some upstream plan in order, and complete the Richmond River Overflow outlets to the ocean between Woodburn and Wardell.

All of which plans have had technical approval and even government budgeting, but none of which have been enacted due to "cost".

The cost to people who lost absolutely everything, and also those who didn't but whose lives were still irrevocably changed, is immeasurable in the real world. 

Meanwhile, sports stadiums and nuclear submarines are regarded as money wisely spent...

Oh NO!! I've gone political again! I spent my whole life trying to avoid this stuff, and within a few strikes of the keyboard I've joined the damn system!

In too deep now, trying to scramble my way out...

2023 will be about nothing but guitars. Promise!

Andrew

 

 

 Hi Everyone,

just a short note to let you know that I have removed all of the guitars from the shop and placed them in safe-storage. Again!

I do this any time that there is even a hint of flooding.

This event has followed a very similar pattern to February (albeit with a lot less rainfall). The weather bureau's response has been similar too - an incremental increase in the forecast rainfall over a couple of days. Whatever computer modelling they use to predict the development of these weather events is clearly rubbish. 

It doesn't look like the river will get into the CBD this time, but better safe than sorry.

And I am despairing of the fact that the "authorities" seem to have no intention of undertaking any flood mitigation measures. The town was trashed in February and all that has happened since is a lot of political posturing. There ARE measures that can be taken to reduce the risk, and they are all much cheaper than the restoration costs.

1. Divert Leycester Creek! Leycester Creek actually brings more water into Lismore than the Wilsons River. Diverting Leycester Creek behind the airport has been suggested for 100 years or more, and has actually been approved! After 2017 it was approved and budgeted at $200 million - a lot less than the cost of recovery. But the "authorities" decided that was too expensive.

2. Dredge Wilsons River! If you lower the bottom of the river you also lower the TOP!

3. Re-direct the storm-water channels! It is almost surreal to think that many of the storm-water channels that direct the flow from the hills around Lismore outflow into the river UPSTREAM of the CBD rather than downstream.

4. Build a series of small reservoirs upstream of Lismore to regulate the flow. This is an idea that I was told about that I'm not sure would be effective. But the chap that told me has spent a lot more time than I have studying this subject.

Surely anything that would effect even a small decrease in river levels during a major rainfall event is worth considering?

But the "authorities" seem to think that building a new sports stadium in Sydney has a greater priority than saving a regional town, and all of its citizens and businesses...

OK. That's my first and last venture into the shadow world of politics!!

Your guitars are fine (as always) and I will re-open the shop later in the week.

Andrew

 Hi Everyone,

my shop is now back open as normal.

Still a few bits of organising and decorating to do, but back to full pre-flood status.

I am pretty-well as up-to-date as usual with smaller jobs (set-ups, wiring and such), and routine mid-range jobs (refrets etc.), but still quite a bit behind on the bigger and longer-term jobs (restorations and rebuilds). I will catch back up over the next couple of months.

Thanks for reading this, and thanks for your support.

Best wishes to all of you who have suffered through this disaster, I know that many of you have been affected WAY more than I have. Being back open and trading as usual, it seems as if my little business has crossed a watershed. Hopefully the rest of the town will do so too.

Andrew

FINALLY!!

Hey everyone,

well there you go. After five months my shop now has electricity, telephone, and a new alarm and security system. Phew. Which means that very soon I will be properly back open. Double phew...

Over the next couple of weeks I will be moving stuff back into the shop - the tools, the parts, guitar-repairs to be collected, guitars for sale, as well as all of the posters and pictures and bits and pieces of paraphernalia that made the current stark bare rooms previously a bit of a cool place to visit.

More importantly, I will be able to clear the workshop at home and be able to do again do all repairs at the usual rate, rather than having to shift guitar cases and boxes of stuff every time I start a new job. It also means that I will be able to begin to catch up on the huge backlog of major repairs, including a lot of flood-damaged stuff.

There is a huge backlog, so it will take some time to get back up to speed with that.

But at least it would seem that we have emerged from the tunnel! 

I am still going to have to book new work in at a slightly slower rate than normal, but over the next few months I should be able to bring the turnaround times for regular work back into the usual one-week window. The longer-term jobs will take longer...

Thank you all for riding this whole thing out with me.

And best wishes to you all as ever. I am more than sure that some of you who read this have been through way more pain than I have.

Andrew

 

 

 Hi everyone,

in the words of Captain Beefheart...ELECTRICITY!!!

Yes, after four-and-a-half months I finally have power re-installed at the shop. 

I have the security people coming tomorrow, and so hopefully things will be back to "normal" very soon.

Phone may be a little longer. The NBN tech came out today and found that there is a fault somewhere deep within the labyrinthine chaos that is the Telstra wiring of the old building. I'm guessing that it will all be archaic PMG stuff, with old wobbly copper-cable 'phone lines

I might have to train a team of carrier pigeons...

And on it goes!

But we are getting closer.

Meanwhile, my business is effectively trading as usual - regular hours and hopefully soon regular turn-around times.

Andrew

.

Hi everyone,

back open and still trying to get the electricity and phone fixed. Aaargghhh...!

Slowly getting there...

So I thought I would share one of the wackiest nights of my life...

We have a very dear friend who is a BIG Bruce Springsteen fan. Now I remember the hype back in 1975, when Springsteen was going to be the "future of rock'n'roll" and the "new Dylan" and all of that stuff. I bought "Born To Run" and it was ok.  Etc.

I am not a huge Springsteen fan, but yes he has done some good stuff.

Our friend Alex shouted us tickets to see Springsteen at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre back in February 2014. He scored tickets to "general admission", which is the acre or so of clear space directly in front of the seating. With most bands this is an area crammed with fans (the so-called "mosh pit"), but with Springsteen it was like an open field! Alex had been to every show on the tour so far, and knew the plan.

We got to the venue early, in time to get a burger from one of the concessions, and sat just outside the auditorium doors. We could hear the sound-check and it was an unfamiliar tune. The Springsteen loonies were puzzled, and Lisa said "that sounds like the Bee Gees song, "Stayin' Alive". Everyone laughed!

The doors opened and we filed in. General admission before the seated punters. The riggers were still climbing the scaffolds. About an hour to wait. Yay. Alex said "whatever I tell you to do, you must do it immediately". OK.

The band came on and lo-and-behold the first song was "Staying Alive"!

Here is the clip:

 

Good lord!

About a quarter into the show Alex grabs us and says "come this way". He takes us to the catwalk where Springsteen moves into the audience. Alex says, "stand right here and hold your hands above your head". "What??" "Just do it!!".

And Springsteen leaps off the catwalk and I catch him!

Beyond crazy! He's doing a "crowd surf" and I'm the guy that catches him. Along with another guy to the left, who is clearly a huge fan as he has tears rolling down his face!

Very, very silly!

I've done work for lots of well-known and well-respected musicians, met more than a few famous people, but this was the only time I ever caught a rock-star!

I also got to stand right next to Nils Lofgren (!) and I have actually been a fan of Nils since before I ever heard of Bruce Springsteen, so that was pretty funny too.  

The show was great - four hours long (!) that seemed like one or two. If you have even the slightest interest in Springsteen, and he comes this way again, you won't be disappointed if you can get tickets.

I think of stupid stuff like this every time I start to despair about the snail-pace restoration of my shop. Four months. Yikes.

But I am slowly getting things back in place, slowly being able to have the space and time to work on the bigger jobs I have booked in, and am slowly getting back to "normal".

But there is no doubt that the prevailing word is "slowly".

It is the same for all of Lismore - there just aren't enough tradies. They are all juggling 20 jobs.

Patience...

AK

 

 

 

rr

 Hi everyone,

my shop IS BACK OPEN! Usual times: Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 1.00pm - 5.00pm.

Please drop by if you can, and let anyone else that you know.

The shop remains compromised by not having either electricity or a functional telephone, but the solution to these problems remains in progress. 

Repairs are still being dealt with as usual, but with a slightly somewhat slower time-frame. Almost normal, but not quite. Getting there... 

Basically, I have one head and four walls. The method required to re-instate both the electricity and the telephone seems to be to choose precisely which of the four walls I should bang my head against.

The poor tradies are over-worked and under-supplied, but they are edging their way towards normal.

It won't be long. 

First track on the Beatles second record and perhaps the best start to an LP ever!

It Won't Be Long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVKU6SevefY 

Things will soon be back on an even keel, and I look forward to seeing y'all again!

Andrew