It was the first public performance of Highway 79 – a long-time-coming collaboration between Rattlin’ Bones Blackwood and Colin Thompson.
“Yeah, Highway 79 is a reference to the Calder.” Bones told me, “I live in Sunbury, and Col is in Bendigo. It’s the highway that connects us. It’s simple and honest.”
It’s a collaboration that was probably always going to happen. The story starts in 2011.
“We were introduced by Scott Seymour,” says Colin Thompson, taking up the story, “Scotty had been banging on to me saying I had to see this guy Bones Blackwood; that I won’t believe the show he puts on. Sure enough, when I got to see Bones in action I was blown away by the raw energy and grooves he laid down with his vintage guitars, kick drum and over-sized hi-hats. That he kept it up for three sets was astounding. This guy leaves nothing in the tank.”
Fast forward a few years.
“A couple of years back I was crashing at Col’s place after a late Saturday show,” continues Blackwood, “he said he’d love to jam sometime. I was a fan of his drumming and somewhat humbled that he’d wanna play with me. I wasn’t sure about playing my one man band material with a drummer, but it always stayed in my mind that if I ever got something else together I’d look to him straight away.”
Fast forwarder to Good Friday 2016.
A busy Golden Vine crowd has just enjoyed a mellow, slightly rocking and certainly crooning set from the talented Emilee South.
10pm and up step Highway 79 for their debut gig. A thunderous 50 minutes unfolds with Blackwood and Thompson working frenetically though new versions of some of Blackwood’s solo material and feverishly-rendered dirty blues classics like Stagger Lee, CC Rider and Who Do You Love?
The rousing reception at the end of their set on this most solemn-for-some days told Bones and Col what the punters thought.
“Is this going to be a long-term collaboration?” I had asked them a week earlier for my Bendigo Weekly article. At that point they weren’t sure, but two weeks later after their debut they were back, doing it all over again – an overnight sensation five years in the making.