Actually, that weekend in Townsville shortly after the release of Screaming Targets almost matches the Little Feat encounter at the Byron Bay Bluesfest twenty-something years later as the most surreal experience of Hughesy’s concert-going years.
Things started off more or less as soon as school got out on the Friday afternoon, when it was a case of heading straight to Wavelength Records, where I knew there was the opportunity to get my copy of Screaming Targets autographed.
I arrived on the scene to find Joe Camilleri and Wilbur Wilde ensconced in the middle of the Townsville Permanent Arcade, and with the signature obtained I hung around waiting to rendezvous with the missus after she finished work.
I’d been known to spend lengthy periods of time (and considerable amounts of money) at Wavelength, so that wasn’t exactly anything new, though I didn’t make a habit of spending Friday afternoons there. Given the likelihood of a reasonable soundtrack, interesting conversation and a range of passing acquaintances it wasn’t a bad place to spend an hour or two, but on this occasion there was the chance to watch the sales pitch of a great Australian rocker.
Given a leggy bikini-clad blonde who was impervious to that sales pitch, however, Joe turned to those present (myself, Gary and Randy from the shop and whoever else happened to be on site) and inquired what he needed to do to sell another copy.
You could, I suggested, grovel...
And grovel he did. Unfortunately it didn’t work.
After five we headed home, showered, put on the concert-going gear and headed out to eat before parking the car close to the Dean Park Sound Shell and finding a suitable vantage point in the grassy amphitheatre.