We received the following update from GRAVE FORSAKEN front man Vaughan:
G’day GF supporters, Vaughan here. Welcome to the latest update! We have had a hectic couple of months of band activity, culminating in our recent performance at Easterfest in Toowoomba. In January, we put the lineup of myself, Elias Salmela, Matt Skipworth, Simon Hoggett and Dave Kilgallon back together to play the Easterfest shows. We played warm up shows at Swan Lounge, Railway Hotel and Market City Tavern, then headed over to Queensland for Easterfest.
The warm up shows went fairly well. In my opinion our best performance was the first one at Swan Lounge, and we also played pretty well at Market City Tavern. The Railway gig was hurt by some technical difficulties, but overall we played well.
So we got on the plane on the Thursday before Good Friday and headed across the country to Toowoomba. We arrived at Easterfest at around 10.30am and began getting ourselves organised. We were all pretty tired, but we got it together and were ready for our set at 5.50. I was fortunate enough to see Petra play a set before our gig, and that was every bit as good as I thought it would be. Unfortunately come gig time, the tiredness got to us somewhat, and we made some pretty bad mistakes during the show. It was a shame, and I’ve got to admit, I was pretty disappointed with myself for forgetting some of the lyrics. Still, the 50 or so people in the tent really seemed to enjoy it, and we got a lot of very positive feedback after the show. That was cool. It was also really good to meet some new people who hadn’t seen the band before.
So we went back, got a relatively early night and prepared ourselves for the next day. It’s funny, we all woke up feeling pretty good, and ready for the show that night. We spent the day chilling out and having a bit of a look around Toowoomba. It was a nice day, and a good vibe, and we couldn’t possibly realise what was going to happen later on.
At about 7 o’clock, just as we were getting ready to load in our gear, the rain started. We’re from a pretty dry city, and I knew straight away this was no normal rain. Add to that the fact that Toowoomba had badly flooded just a couple of months earlier, there was a degree of concern coming from the locals. It wasn’t long before we realised that there was no gig that night.
The ground quickly went from slushy underfoot to ankle deep in water. Security came into the tent and demanded that we all get out. I’m forever thankful to the individual who moved my camera gear from the ground to the stage, as this certainly saved it. Having been evacuated, the 5 of us then met up at our tent and loaded everything we possibly could into the hire car. We were fortunate that Simon has relatives in Brisbane, so we got some accommodation there. A huge thanks to them for their hospitality!
Our Easterfest adventure was over basically before it began. We went back to Toowoomba the next day to collect some leftover bits and pieces, and then we were pretty much done. The festival had been officially cancelled, but there was a pretty positive vibe around the place under the circumstances. The whole site was covered in mud. There had been 50 mL of rain in just 30 minutes – a massive amount of water! It was one of those things that was disappointing, but character building at the same time. We can file the experience away in the collective memory of the band and have a good laugh about it down the track.
Easterfest draws to an end our stint with Dave back in the live lineup. Dave is very busy with his other band Cold Fate, so he won’t be available live for the foreseeable future. We had all hoped that Dave would be able to do both bands, but it is just too much for him and his family. I understand entirely, as there is no way I could play in two bands either. We hope to find a replacement drummer in the near future for live work, but fortunately for us (and you people) Dave will still be in the recording lineup of the band.
We are working on a new album right now. We hope to get Dave’s drum tracks recorded later this month, followed by guitars and vocals throughout June. I’m still hopeful of a late 2011/early 2012 release. The material follows on directly from This Day Forth and Fight To The Death, so fans of those albums will enjoy this one. Elias has drawn the cover artwork, and it is getting sent to Ari in Finland for colouring. Ari is responsible for the colouring of all our album covers, and we see his final touch as an essential ingredient of the Grave Forsaken look.
Well, thanks for reading the update, and you’ll hear from us again soon.
God Bless and Rock On
Vaughan and GF.
