Weather Bird Report - June 2005
The End of the Financial Year and review of the
audience at MGOs Umbria in Melbourne gig.

Weather Bird fans were probably wondering where the wandering seagull has been these last 6 months.
Well I got a bit under the weather at Christmas, and then I had trouble with my webbing and I don't mean between my toes.
But now I'm back from my peregrinations, and was fortunate enough to attend a concert givenby the MGO at Chapel off chapel on Friday the 13th May.

It was the Umbria Jazz Festival in Melbourne and I must immediately declare my interest in the MGO. I'm hardly impartial, so therefore could not give an unbiassed review of their efforts. It would be inappropriate of me to say anything more than that all the music was original bar one tune "Friday the 13th " by Thelonius Monk, and another
part borrowing was "No breaks Espress" which was a reworking of Ellington's
"Daybreak Exprress". what I can do however is review the audience. I was fortunate enough to be invited on stage and had a bird's -eye view of the procedings.

The audience were very numerous! Every seat had a bum parked on it.
I believe that's really good..... and, they were quite well dressed, like even hip every now and then.... and , all genders were in attendance, men , women, perhaps even the
occasional representative from the clergy!Occasionally they roared with approval, they often clapped and many even smiled. Some of them went "whoop whoop" byt very appropriately.They would always be welcome again!

No reviewers from the press were there, but as they are often rather
unhappy people, their absence may have lifted the general mood.
Now on another note, Weather Bird wants to advise everyone who's out there that it's close to the end of the financial year, a time when all jazz
musician's look ruefully back over the year and the pitiful total of their earnings.
But we had a lot of fun, didn't we?
I'm reluctant to say that, because if the taxman finds we're having fun, I'm
sure that would become taxable too.
Any way here's some free advice if you can't attend one of the current
Weather Bird small business/jazz tax minimization seminars being held
in your favourite jazz club.

Buy as many plectrums (plectra) as you can possibly afford before the end of June.
Deduct that amount from your gross income (tools of trade).
Depreciate them at 50% p.a. Bury them in the back yard.
If you've been successful in cornering the plectrum market, you can sell them later on the black market and triple your money.Keep that money in a biscuit tin.
Mum's the word. No , Bird's the word!

W.B. June 2005

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