10am – It was a Saturday morning, exactly one minute after the store opened I was mildly surprised to find myself standing in line behind no less than 8 other people.
‘What do you want for it?’ asked the
seemingly polite, yet patronising gentleman behind the counter.
‘It’s worth at least 60 [I assume she meant
dollars]’, explained shivering junkie No. 1 (referring to her shitty bracelet).
‘I’ll give you $10 for it.’ Countered the
Cash Converters guy.
There were some minor unpleasantries spoken
shortly before shivering junkie No.1 accepted the offer, received her $10 and
left.
Junkie No. 2 sported a used whipper snipper
under her arm. I don’t know what she wanted for it as I wasn’t paying too much
attention and now unfortunately I will never know. As much as I like Antique
Roadshow, and could seriously appreciate a junkified spin off version of the
show, I had things to do that morning.
The real question is why was I at Cash
Converters at 10am on a Saturday morning? Social Experiment? Maybe. The need
for urgent money? Definitely!
As both a Houlahan and a hoarder, it was pretty
impressive to see me part with, let alone sell some of my ‘unused musical
equipment’ (even though there is no such thing as unused musical equipment).
The real underlying reason for me gaining
quick cash laid in the future plans to tour Tokyo, Japan, with the Kevin
Windross Band and apparently our rock star status did not yet (at this point)
include plane tickets.
The only thing different this time is that
the trip wasn’t just going to be a series of covers gigs. We were off to Tokyo
for two weeks to play originals, the music of Kevin Windross. Rylstone, Young,
Orange, Tokyo… it seemed to be the next logical step.
Now, we all knew that Kevin was mad…we just
didn’t know how deep the mad rabbit hole was.. The above is to set the scene.
The next installments are to paint a picture of one of the craziest and
influential experiences of my life.
Strap yourselves in, we’ve only just begun.
