Diary - Archives: 2000.

A Message From Monique
24th December 2000

Thanks to all of you who sent me messages via email or via the message board this year. Your well wishes and encouragement are so greatly appreciated. It is hard to put into words but I just want to let you know that receiving them lifts my spirits and gives me strength to keep writing and playing. Sometimes we can search for things and when they are found we ask ourselves what it was all for anyway. I know why I write songs, I write to express an opinion, to tell a story, to shed some light, to expel inner demons and to be heard. Even if just by one person, it makes the world of difference to my feeling of well-being. We all have a voice and we all want to be heard. You have listened to my music and it means more to me than words can express. A sideways glance, the grabbing of a butt cheek or the wink of an eye perhaps could get across what I am wanting to say with a little more grace and elegance but I can't put it into words. Maybe I just did!

Anthony Horan must be congratulated on his very fine efforts and hard work that he has put into creating this website. He is truly brilliant. The site will be developed further next year and we aim to have CDs available for you to purchase and a whole lot more. Thanks to those of you who came to our live gigs this year. From all of the band, we want to put our hands together and applaud really loudly. If you listen, you may just be able to hear us. The new album Signal Hill will be out next year (2001). It has been two years in the making, many a note has been played and many a tear has been shed let me tell you! Hope when you hear it, you'll feel that the wait has been worthwhile.

Happy Xmas and New Year to you all.
Much love,
Monique XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX bite

Monique's Tour Diary: The ABC Tour
August - September 2000

Loading in and loading out, girls get dirty on the road.

Want to begin by letting you all know that Ah Naid and DC are vivacious, courageous, wondrous, triumphant, captivating, intoxicating, outrageous, magnificent rockin' babes. Loved touring with you, enjoyed your company and the songs you played/we played, after much deliberation. If I may take such liberties, on behalf of the girls, we apologise to the punters who missed our rendition of The Ramones' I Wanna Be Sedated - we finally managed to find some time to rehearse in between breast feeds and runny noses. A collective sigh of adoration for Diana and Deborah, both with babies so far away, with the exception of the precious bambino Hetty in tow. Gets tough if you're soft, that's what Stuart would say - and me too. Thanks for the strip tease! Thanks for asking me to sing ABC!

Monique's Tour Diary: 25/08/00 - BROADBEACH
Up at dawn's crack. Ate a banana, downed a coffee and waited for my guitarist Stuart Harrison to pick me up in his rent-a-bomb and get us to the airport. "Hurry, hurry, hurry, before I go insane." Stuart and I travelled with Deborah to the Gold Coast on a 9:35am bleary-eyed Ansett flight. Deborah is travelling with her 8 month old daughter Hetty, who is too cute. I entertained Hetty on the flight by playing the "boing boing" game; for an 8 month old she sure does have a firm grip. You rock girl, just like your mum.

We hooked up with Diana when we arrived and made our way to soundcheck, picking up a hired amp for Stuart on the way. Diana has the flu and isn't feeling all that great. In fact I have been surrounded by bad bugs 'cause Conway has the lurgy as well. I'm glad we each have our own microphone and I'm rapt that I packed my hair dryer! Just thought I'd throw that in.

Tonight we played at the Broadbeach Tavern. Stuart and I played first, and we got the crowd primed with a set that included songs from Thylacine, the Eventide EP and the new album Signal Hill. Some guy in the crowd yelled out and I asked him to step forward and speak to me right up close. He stepped forward, but was scared and stopped a metre short and exclaimed that I was a woman (no shit) and he didn't trust women. I don't know what he thought I was going to do to him? As the night progressed, some punters got pretty drunk and I should know, I was standing alongside them during D & D's sets. Met some ace people in the crowd tonight. Thanks to those of you who signed the mailing list and took a flyer, you made my night.

Monique's Tour Diary: 26/08/00 - BRISBANE
Today we loaded up the van and headed to Brisbane, where we played at the Waterloo Hotel. Great crowd, close to 500 punters. Diana had a few friends backstage during and after the gig playing Melissa Etheridge covers so hardcore that fingers did bleed. Sound strange? It was a night indeed. Deborah closed the evening with Mercedes Benz after much prompting, and the crowd went mad. Again I had the privilege of meeting some of the audience and they were friendly and excitable. It was nostalgic for me to play in Brisbane again, happy to have been a part of such a wonderful creation. Thanks for listening.

Monique's Tour Diary: 27/08/00 - BYRON BAY
Loading in loading out. The Great Northern, Byron Bay next stop. On the drive today I had Patti Smith blaring in my headphones. Gazing out at the beautiful landscape I felt inspired, and thrashed about in my seat like a mad thing. "We there yet? We there yet? We there yet?"

Stuart's been travelling in the front with Rupert, who is TM & sound engineer for this tour. The gals are all cosy in the back and bonding quite well. The screams could have been heard 5 miles away when we learned that our Byron accommodation was also at The Great Northern. Shall we just say that staying at The Great Northern is never conducive to a good nights sleep.

At soundcheck a group of people at a table asked me what my name was. Seemed that there was some conflict over my identity. A, B or C?....mmm.....I pondered for a moment as to what my answer was going to be. Obviously these people don't get out much. Am I alive and brilliant? Can't I believe the change in me? Or do I simply GO OFF?....mmm....I pointed at one of my flyers lying right in front of them and said "me!" "But what's your name?" Very strange behaviour I must say. I'm flattered however that I could have been mistaken as DA or DC. Had a great gig tonight, doesn't look like I'll be getting much sleep but the Cascade is going down a treat. Cheers Byron, here's lookin' up your dress!

Monique's Tour Diary: 29/08/00 - SYDNEY
Back in ol' Sydney town. The show at the Basement tonight was more than enjoyable, it was orgasmic. Great to be playing at the Basement again; the last time I played here was supporting Shawn Colvin in '97. All the girls had fun tonight, I could tell. Uplifting to play to such a receptive crowd. Thanks to everyone who came down to the gig, hope to see some of you back again on Thursday night.

Monique's Tour Diary: 30/08/00 - DAY OFF
Went looking in the guitar shops down Parramatta Road. We saw a Les Paul goldtop for sale and nearly bought it, but couldn't quite scrape together the funds necessary - $66,000!!! Yep, Stuart and I fell just a few cents short and left with our tails between our legs. I have to pass on a message for Fred Negro - Ching says g'day!

Monique's Tour Diary: 31/08/00 - SYDNEY
Earlier today D, D and I did an instore performance at The Hum in Newtown. Great to see so many turn up and show their support. Not wanting to sound like a total suck, but it truly is overwhelming for me to be back after such a struggle to be free and to find that people still remember me and my songs. What more could anyone ask for. Show 2 at the Basement tonight was pretty packed and I was really happy to see some people in the crowd who were also there on Tues. night. It was a special show for me because my sister was there all the way from Canada.

Finally the gals got it together and we performed I Wanna Be Sedated and Girls Get Dirty On The Road at the end of the show. We were a little shabby, but noone seemed to care and Deborah, Diana and I giggled and hugged when we got off stage. It was a defining moment. Backstage before and after the gig we were entertained with a spot of magic from Diana's Pontiac drivin' buddy which was very impressive - the car, the magic and the person.

Deborah, Diana and I took time out to compare underwear before the gig tonight which proved to be very interesting. Thanks again to all who came along and to those of you who took a flyer or signed the mailing list, you are totally ace. Stuart and I want to say a special thanks to the people in the kitchen who cooked us such a great dinner, we really appreciate it. Hope to be back soon.

Monique's Tour Diary: 01/09/00 - CANBERRA
People's reaction to my gig tonight at Tilleys was for the first part of the night a total mystery to me. For reasons that I could not explain, the crowd were cracking up every five seconds at what I considered to be my bag of pretty average jokes. It wasn't until I watched Diana's gig from front of house that I realised to my horror that the back wall was a mirror! This sounds strange, I know, but to suddenly realise that your arse has been in full view all night without you being aware of it definitely put things into perspective. I perhaps wouldn't have bent right over to take a sip of my drink in such an "arse flash" manner. Completely unaware, for example, that when I wiped the silver body paint "discreetly" off my palm onto the arse of my jeans, it was amplified and magnified 10 fold in full ARSE ON view to the audience, which must have looked like I was feeling myself up or something crass.

My balance was thrown before the gig as Stuart and I scrambled to get on stage after an introduction that we weren't ready for and then silence fell as the crowd waited for me to come on. I was a bundle of nerves stumbling onto the stage, and this caused me to do stupid things with my arms which unbeknownst to me looked a bit crazy from BEHIND. I felt like a bit of a freak, but the audience were wonderful and I'm pretty certain that they had a good time. The gals played well and we again performed together at the end of the night - and by that time I was fully aware of my surroundings. Black! When in doubt wear black!

Monique's Tour Diary: 02/09/00 - ADELAIDE
"I hope they remember us when we hit Adelaide." They sure did, and the night rocked at the Governor Hindmarsh. Diana ordered a scotch - not to drink, but just to have there to look at. Not wanting it to go to waste I offered to drink it when I got off stage, which I did. If I seemed a little weird toward the end of the night, that scotch was partly to blame, partly. I think we performed our best rendition yet of I Wanna Be Sedated. Del did a great job with the lights and as usual Rupert excelled with his front of house mix. To those of you who gave your details on the mailing list, I want you to know that I went through each name with a fine tooth comb and got all your quirky little messages, they are much appreciated. Adelaide, "you rock, no, seriously."

Monique's Tour Diary: 03/09/00 - MELBOURNE
The Gershwin Room at the Espy played host tonight to the final ABC show. Had a very relaxing afternoon at home, which proved to be just what the doctor ordered in order for me to muster the strength to finish the tour with gusto. I was so impressed with Conway, she actually did her hair for tonight's gig - and Ah naid didn't scrub up too bad either. As for me, I felt like Meryl Streep in the movie Death Becomes Her, just holding it all together until after the show when I could fall into a heap and sleep for a week.

Great to see my friends at the gig tonight, I've missed your sorry arses! The show went off without a hitch and the gals rocked once more. Love my new hard case, cheers for that one. Actually, there was one hitch during my set - 10 seconds into my acappella version of As Yet Untitled, I had to stop due to some sort of flute music playing in the background. It made it incredibly difficult to pitch, so I announced to the audience that it was probably best if I don't do that song. To my surprise a few folk yelled out to keep going, so I did and miraculously the background music stopped. I was rapt with that and finished the song. Phew!

Most of you got ushered out quick smart at the end, how very brutal! Hope to see you next time. So I guess this is my final diary entry for what has been an educational and marked tour for me, and I'm sure for those of you who managed to catch any of the shows. I am aware that some of you made it to at least 3 of the gigs, what a mighty fine effort. Can't wait to do it all again with my band in a month or two. See you all very soon.

Signing off for now,
Monique