Tim's Blog!

Ever since his first album, I have been hooked- his style, chords, voice and song-writing heart have always resonated very strongly with me. I have the utmost respect for his ability to synthesise in words a common feeling, frustration or love and then marry a tune to those words, a tune that transcends the essence of those words right to the very heart of that emotion lying inside.

Yes John Mayer, you are one of my heroes.

On Saturday night John Mayer and his band finished up the Australian leg of their current tour with a performance at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Out of the thousands of adoring fans that packed the Centre I can say without a shadow of doubt I was one of the most excited and fortunate.

John Mayer and his band had performed earlier in the week at an Australian TV awards ceremony called the Logie awards and Hi-5 had been nominated for one of the awards. So I also flew down to Melbourne to be at the event. After the ceremony John Mayer and his band spent time getting to know the Australian TV personalities and ended up spending time with us, the Hi-5 group.

Knowing they were coming to Sydney to perform it was a secret hope of mine to be able to see them again, as they were a lovely group of people and I didn’t have much of an opportunity to talk to them at the awards evening.

Late yesterday afternoon I had a call from another member of Hi-5 telling me that Charlie Wilson (the keyboardist) had called and arranged V.I.P backstage passes for us so we could spend time with the group before and after the show.

Wow!!

We picked up an envelope at the box office and in it were tickets for our seats and a sticker that had to be displayed at all times with the letters V.I.P- three little symbols that meant so much at events like these. The really friendly Charlie came out to the entrance to escort us backstage and into a room entitled ‘John Mayer Band’.

The hospitable band shared their room, food, drink and life stories with us. They were an exceptionally lovely group of individuals. One of the members Sean Hurley told us with pride that he had some young children and that he wanted to see some Hi-5 videos to show them when he finished his tour. So within seconds ‘You tube’ was up and he was grooving away to the ‘Happy Monster Dance’.

The band got their call to get ready. We left the room, headed to our seats and waited for the show to begin.

The lights dimmed…

A massive cheer erupted throughout the Sydney Entertainment Centre…

The show commenced and John Mayer opened with ‘Heartbreak Warfare’ from his new album.

The sound was clear, the lighting fantastic, so I sat back for the next two hours and enjoyed listening, watching and singing along with one of my heroes. He performed like the true professional that he is.

The audience seemed to lap up every soundwave that was emitted, every thought that was shared and every guitar pick that was thrown. John held the room in the palm of his hand as well as on his guitar. The band throughout the show popped over smiling glances to our area and at the very end, as they were leaving the stage for the very last time, they put their palms up in the air and yelled out HI-5!

What a rush!

After the show we went backstage to congratulate them all. As we headed there we passed a road case containing all of John’s guitars including the famous Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster. I took a quick photo, but because I took it on my cellphone it didn’t turn out too well.

The band seemed happy with how the show went and remarked on the very responsive crowd which had added to the show.

After more conversations and greetings we all headed to the famous Ivy Pool Bar called ‘Marco Polo’ above which John had hired out an apartment for us to all share, at a cost of over $10,000AUS a night. This place was amazingly lavish and there were only a small group of us populating it, so it was a really lovely way to finish off a great night. I had a chat to Melanie Taylor, a truly special person. I then got to have some time talking with John Mayer himself.

I thanked him and let him know that for years his music has given me a lot of happiness and I wished him all the best. Somewhat deep for 2:30 am, but he seemed touched as he shook my hand. As I departed, he gave me a pat on the back and thanked me.

After that conversation I was done. I wished the band all the best for the rest of the tour and gave them a big thank you for sharing the night with all of us.

As I walked to my car, I took a breath in and realised that I had just had a truly special night.

Thank you John Mayer and the John Mayer band. I wish you all success and happiness.

Until next time,

Tim Maddren

From Left. Tim Maddren, John Mayer, Melanie Taylor, Stephanie Tulloch