| Wards Express - NSW |
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| Friday, 17 July 2009 08:09 | ||||||||||||
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ROSS WARD’S SOLO BIO, IN HIS OWN WORDS! G’day there! While I do have a long history as a musician ( 40 yrs!! ), its nearly always been on the electric guitar, and so my songs were always written in a band capacity, as..well, I always played in bands! That was until I moved up to Byron Bay from Sydney in ’95. I’d started work in the area playing, and I had a little day gig at the local music store. At this stage, I didn’t even own an acoustic guitar, and I’d only ever had one as a practice instrument. Sometime towards the end of that winter, and after a string of great band gigs ( I always tried to pick the Friday closest to the full moon! ) at Byron Bay’s ‘The Railway Friendly Bar’, the manager of the place wandered into the music shop, and offered me a gig that night, working solo. I took the gig, borrowed an acoustic guitar and PA system, and commenced what turned into a 7-year residence there, as well as working most of the gigs in and around the NSW Northern Rivers area. I got quite taken by the freedom that playing solo offers, and since 2000, it’s also enabled me to travel extensively, taking in many great towns, places and faces, and living the best ( and the worst! ) of what the ‘Travelling-Troubadour’ lifestyle has to offer, although it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of family and some very good friends. I’ve travelled by train’s, bus, planes, vans and limo’s. I’ve played in front-bars, back-bars, back-yards, festivals, stadiums, halls, restaurants, weddings, corporate functions, international stages, trucks, theatres, garages and a train. I’ve slept in cars, on couches, slouches and sheds, trains, planes, trucks, caravans, tents, verandah’s, no-star’s through to international 1st Class hotels. Robbed by crooked agents, threatened by drunks, had a beer-glass swung at me mid-song, had to get security at a crappy pub to escort me to my car because a looney there thought I put shit on Tenterfield ( I was 550k’s from there at the time!), but, I’ve also been treated like a king by festival promoters, venues, bookers and publicans alike. I’ve seen stuff that will one day fill a book, it’s certainly been an interesting education for me, sitting up there on a stool, with a 100% birds-eye view, watching what usually is ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’, every time I go out to play, and all I do is supply the music, and hope you at least enjoy it! It’s certainly been a great trip so far, there’s more to come, but here’s a bit of stuff I have done: Well, since 1995, the acoustic/solo thing has got me some cool gig’s. Let’s see here; ahh, I’ve opened for The Angel’s, Alice Stewart, Vince Jones, Del Ray, The Bondi Cigars, Chain, Phil Manning……. I’ve been honoured to have been asked to sit in or jam with The Brewster Bros, Ash Grunwald, Brett Hunt, Brian Fraser, Lloyd Speigal, Kate Meehan……. I’ve also been in duo modes for short tours and/or festival’s with Doc Span, Jim Kelly, Dave Tice, Ernie Van Veen, Chris White, Gavan Anderson, Nathan Ward, Travis New, etc, on top of the solo’s! I put six acoustic tracks on Transit Lounge back in 2003, that was a while back, but I’ve got new stuff I’ll have ready on CD by the summer of 2009. Oh yeah, I’ve also appeared solo at the Bridgetown Blues Fest, and played on multiple occasions at the Broadbeach, Narooma and Thredbo Blues festivals. There are of course more gigs ‘n tours in acoustic mode, and I’ll keep you up-to-date with them all, plus ‘Ward’s Xpress’ still shows up around the place, as strapping on the electric guitar is still a big part of what I do, and I dearly love the band! All details incl.downloadable photo’s, full bio’s, CD’s, merchandise, tours, soundbytes, film clips:
PLAYING AT SYDNEY BLUES FESTIVAL
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Most artists would want to write their bio’s like some-one else has written it for them, thus avoiding the screams of ‘blatant self-promoter’ by not writing directly about one’s self, and one’s ‘claim’s to err.. fames’ ( had to make it rhyme! ), and I’ve done that on the more comprehensive bio sections of some other sites I’m on, but I also decided that I’d write this one a bit more direct, as its also the way I perform when I’m on my own.