My baby, my world, my best friend, my dog. He has gone up to heaven. From the moment I saw him leaping out of the puppy pen, I knew I had to have him. He has watched me grow and grown with me, from that first little woof to the boisterous bark. Yes, he scratched all the doors and made us get up to let him in. Yes, he ruffled up my bed all the time and left fur everywhere. And yes, he woke me up several times during some nights to lift him up on the bed. But he has been with me, always right there when I needed him, licking my hand when I was sad, for the majority of my life. He put up with my singing and learning of other instruments, and even sat next to my piano on the odd occasion while I played. He brought me joy, laughter and happiness. I’ll never forget all his little personality traits that made him so special. He was a born star and would always pose for the camera, as many saw in ‘WHO’ Magazine once. I was so happy that I got to be with him for some time before he left this world but now I don’t know what I’ll do without him. That earth trembling snore won’t fill the hallway or comfort me to sleep anymore. No more big brown eyes looking up at me with love. No more pepper corns to pull out of his wittle paws. I made a photo album especially for him on my computer because I knew this day would come. I had secretly hoped he was immortal but I’m glad he went so peacefully. He was a special one. Take care of him up there. I love you Toby, dont forget me.
RIP Toby
June 13, 2002 - April 17, 2013
Well, it’s been a couple of big weeks for me. Touring with Delta, in the early stages of my new album, filmed a commercial and recorded a song for said commercial.
The tour has been one of the most thrilling experiences of my life. Delta Goodrem’s was the first concert I ever went to and I vowed to myself I’d be up there touring one day too. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be up there WITH her.
So here are some thank you’s I have to do because without these people it would’ve been a personal flip-flop for me…
My manager and his team for all the organisation of the bits and pieces. Without these people, I would not have been able to go on tour, thank you!
Delta’s various crew for helping me out with little things I needed like lighting and sound. Also would have been quite difficult/impossible without you, thank you!
The Retro Clothing Company (http://www.theretroclothingcompany.com/) and Mac Duggal (designer - http://www.macduggal.com/) for generously supplying me with the most breathtaking dresses for each night of the tour. I seriously recommend checking them out, even though they never asked for recognition, because they are all so BEAUTIFUL! :’) thank you!
My band, Dan and Warwick, for keyboarding and guitaring so well. You both rock so much and I love ya, thank you!
Timothy Marshall (http://www.timarshdi.net/) for taking amazing photos of me to cherish forever. The still images will definitely preserve an epic memory, thank you!
My family for being so supportive and especially my mum for doing my hair and make up, THE WHOLE TOUR, thank you!
The people who came to the concerts to support Delta and I, thank you!
Delta Goodrem, for EVERYTHING, thank you!
If I have forgotten anyone, I’m genuinely so sorry but as you can see, there were so many people involved to make this tour happen/special. If you were involved in making this tour happen/special and you aren’t on the list, thank you!
<3
The parts where I’ve put a ? are surprises ;)
TOUR WITH DELTA
Found out that I will be joining Delta Goodrem on her promotional tour of “Child of the Universe”. When my manager called and told me the news, I bounced off the walls with excitement for what was to come. Hers was the first concert I ever went to and now I get to live the journey with her! HERE WE GO!!!
DAY 1, BRISBANE: FRI 26th OCT, 2012
Rehearsed with pianist (Dan Biederman) and guitarist (Warwick Wilson).
Setlist:
Granada (backing)
Over the Rainbow (guitar)
Smile (guitar/piano)
Shooting Star (guitar/piano)
Words (guitar/piano/backing)
La Vie en Rose (piano)
We Are the Champions (backing)
DAY 2, BRISBANE: SAT 27th Oct, 2012
Listened to Delta’s sound check, did a few interviews and got in the paper. Mum then did my hair and went to the convention centre for my sound check. Delta’s sound check went over time so I had to cut a song from the list (“We Are the Champions”). Mum then did make up and dinner was served in the green room, it was delicious!
In sound check I found out that I didn’t get the props that I had asked for (ie swing to sit on, flower petals, fairy lights) for various reasons but it looked okay for a support act anyway. It was a fantastic team and amazing musicians to work with. Merchandise were CDs, posters and light up pens as per my request. Can’t believe I have merchandise!
I wore a turquoise, one shouldered dress with a train from The Retro Clothing Company (Mac Duggal design).
First show was exciting! There was lots of cheering. They all laughed at my Gangnam Style joke, ha ha. Flash photography everywhere!!! “Words”track started while I was still talking, ha ha. There used to be a random cymbal sound at the end in the middle of me singing the ending in that song but it was removed thankfully.
People came backstage to say hello and get photos.
Delta and I did “The Prayer” after her set as an encore. I wore pink sparkly sequins and white chiffon.
DAY 3, BRISBANE/SYDNEY: SUN 28th Oct, 2012
Flew to Sydney with mum. Apartment was one big room, no couch, tiny bathroom. This is where we stayed for our time in Sydney but it wasn’t too bad. Went to shops, bought presents for a birthday. Went to dinner for it.
DAY 4, SYDNEY: MON 29th OCT, 2012
First day in the studio with Bryon! (Producer)
Found the best keys for the songs and narrowed down the song list.
DAY 5, SYDNEY: TUES 30th OCT, 2012
Same as day four.
Went out again for the actual birthday and had pancakes with lots of people.
DAY 6, SYDNEY: WED 31st OCT, 2012
Short day in studio due to the show that night. Finalised the list of songs.
First Sydney show! Late sound check, not a lot of time to get ready. State theatre had beautiful chandeliers, balconies and structure. Good sound and acoustics. Dressed in pink, blue and white feathery dress. Tim photographed.
After the show, met up with Tayla, Zara, Naomi, Karissa, Tyler, Viktoria and Tim and others. Had a picture with a fan, Joe.
Had sushi, changed then watched Delta from the back. Amazing!!
Went back and changed again, duet ended the night. It was incredible.
DAY 7, SYDNEY: THURS 1st NOV, 2012
Started recording demo songs. Did “?”, “?”, “?” (which we chucked) and an original by me, “?”. Was awesome.
Pretty tired but satisfied.
Tomorrow more recordings. Hopefully more originals.
DAY 8, SYDNEY: FRI 2nd NOV, 2012
Recorded “?” and most of “?”. Short day because of concert.
Found out Delta burnt her legs by knocking the steamer’s boiling water onto herself. She tried to go through with the show anyway. She was limping in sound check.
I had an interview with The Voice website team about the tour, Italy trip, life post Voice and future plans.
Showtime. I went on stage and asked everyone to sing along to “Shooting Star”. Not many did, so I requested them to sing along to “La Vie en Rose” as a joke. They all laughed and thought it was amusing. I wore a fitted dress with big sequins and a high neck.
Delta started late and had to keep going off stage to rest her legs. In the end, she couldn’t continue as she was close to fainting. Our duet didn’t happen that night. Poor Delta!!!
I saw Danni and her husband, Janet and her husband, and Bryon and his daughter backstage. We took photos and ate more sushi!
Delta went to hospital after having to cancel the rest of the show.
DAY 9, SYDNEY: SAT 3rd NOV, 2012
Recorded the rest of “?”, “?”, “?” and “?” in English. Considered doing it in ?. Tried getting Luke’s friend Samuel to translate. I asked Marine as well just in case.
DAY 10, SYDNEY: SUN 4thNOV, 2012
Today was spent learning a ton of songs. “?”, “?”, “?”, “?”and ? part of “?”. Samuel sent ? translation of “?” and it was perfect. Marine said it was technically correct but not exact. He made the words fit the melody and it was still very clever.
DAY 11, SYDNEY: MON 5thNOV, 2012
We’ve been taking heaps of photos with the life-sized Star Wars characters in the studio. Yoda and I got almost 800 likes on Facebook on the day I put it up!
Recorded “?”, “?”, “?”, “?”, “?” and “?”. I hit a big note in “?” that surprised me. I was planning to sing it like ? but it didn’t work on the day. Such a big day for recording!
DAY 12, SYDNEY: TUES 6th NOV, 2012
Interviews!!! Today, I met a little girl called Natalija. She is a gorgeous legally blind ambassador for Vision Australia. Really eccentric! She brought all her family along and the make up artist brought her daughter. It was pretty crowded but fun!!
After make up and hair, we went to the rooftop garden for an interview and photo shoot for Woman’s Day magazine. I talked about ?, ?, ? and ?.
We headed down to the studio then to do interviews with The Today Show. Natalija did very well!
After they filmed Natalija and I singing ? and ? together, I got onto recording again when they left.
I recorded “?”, “?”, “?”, “?” and after I couldn’t learn it in ? the night before, I recorded “?”… LINE BY LINE!!! It was fun…
I spent my last night in Sydney learning the song for Vision Australia’s “Light a Candle” song for the Carols by Candlelight.
DAY 13, SYDNEY/MELBOURNE: WED 7th NOV, 2012
First show in Melbourne!
We flew in after I had a dream about a plane crash. Woohoo! :/ Dad was now with us again.
Had a few hours off to have lunch and get ready with hair. Mum and I then met up with Warwick and Dan and caught a maxi cab to Hamer Hall. The taxi driver hardly spoke English, had no idea where he was going and could hardly hear us, especially when he turned up the radio. It took us about 50 minutes to get to sound check… the place was only a couple of blocks away!
The show went well apart from a hiccup with the lighting. They blacked out twice (once in the key change of “Smile”!!) and were flickering the entire time! Oops…
I asked everyone to sing along to “La Vie en Rose” and they laughed again. No one speaks French?? Haha.
I watched Delta’s show backstage in the green room. It had bad sound on the little TV but still amazing.
We finished the show with “The Prayer” as usual and then I met people backstage. Kevin and Hayley from The Retro Clothing Company came. I had thanked them during the show for all the dresses. Then I met Joy, who had sent me a music box that plays “La Vie en Rose” while I was on The Voice. She gave me some flowers and a copy of the CD she recorded called “Vision”. She then felt the dress I wore that night underneath the plastic it was contained in to find out what it looked like because she is totally blind. It was a touching moment.
DAY 14, MELBOURNE: THURS 8th NOV, 2012
This was a HUGE day.
Got to Channel Nine at 11am and went into wardrobe. Our favourite dress was the only one that fit me, yay! Make up for TV was done and they pulled my hair to the side.
We left after 1pm and were a bit late to the recording studio. They filmed a bit of me singing along to “?” (which I’d learnt properly that morning) then I chose a key and recorded it properly. I hadn’t had any rehearsal time with that particular key so it took longer than it normally would.
After this, while we were walking along to the car, a lady came up to me bursting with emotion and stopped me for a hug. She started crying when she spoke about Delta and I singing “The Prayer” on The Voice. Must’ve had a huge significance in her life.
We had to walk quickly after that because we were really late (again) for the commercial filming. Then we couldn’t find where we were supposed to be going so dad gave us directions. We had a quick lunch at this studio and I had make up/hair touch ups. Then they set up lights and camera, and filmed it as fast as possible so we could get back to Hamer Hall. I quickly took some pictures for TV Week with cute props like a ? and a ?.
We rushed back to the hotel to get stuff for the concert. Mum quickly undid my hair and we got swept away in a taxi to Hamer Hall for sound check.
Mum found Delta and we gave her a hypertube (designed in honour of my beautiful cousin Suzanna who passed away from a brain tumour) and music box/piano that played “Over the Rainbow” for her birthday the next day. It had a plaque that said “Thank you for believing in me”.
The show went well apart from in “Words” when the drum track started with the sound down so Dan started playing the keyboard one click too late! I had to speed up the lyrics to keep in time, ha ha! Everyone in the audience looked a bit confused. I was this close to laughing… > <.
Delta and I sang the best version of “The Prayer” so far and I was happy because it was the last show! It ended with the audience singing happy birthday and a cake being brought out to Delta. There were tons of roses thrown onto the stage as well.
We bowed… and it was over.
Most people went out afterwards but I went straight to bed because I was exhausted.
CLOSING
There are links on Youtube to some performances and the reviews were so beautiful. It was an unforgettable tour with many amazing memories and experiences to cherish. As tiring as it was, it was sooo worth it.
THE END
To whoever watched the story on Sunday Night last night, this isn’t a huge deal but I feel like I need to clear a couple of things up.
First off, I don’t actually have macular degeneration as some people have mentioned, I have a condition called retinitis pigmentosa or “RP”.
Secondly, I am 100% supportive of the bionic eye and how it will help people in the future if it is funded enough to evolve into something HUGE! :) I hope you can all support it as well despite what I am about to share because it really is a revolutionary project.
Now to my main point… while people have been ever so lovely about wanting me to get my sight back, I thank you for that and appreciate the kind words very much… but it isn’t a desire of mine at this time. It might be handy in the future, but my life is absolutely perfect the way it is. It might be hard to understand and I don’t really expect anyone to, but I am the person I am because of having less sight than the average person. It may be different to “normal” but it has never held me back and I don’t see any reason why it would. In fact, I probably wouldn’t be a singer if it weren’t for my condition.
My wish is for society to change their attitude towards disabilities. Some people say it’s inspiring that someone with a disability can get on with their life as normal… but it would be nice if this was normal instead of inspiring. People seem to see the things that can’t be done once you lose your sight, which there are many of. But what about the things you can do? Consider this, if there is a blackout, I’d be the only one in my house who could still manouvre around!! I use my other senses a lot more. I can hear/feel things that others cannot or don’t notice because they rely on their sight more.
Personally for me, if life is perfect, why change it? Again, this is just me personally. I’m sure there are many people out there who would jump at the chance of having their sight back to improve their life and what they want to do with it, which is why I fully support the bionic eye. If anything changes in my life and I needed sight, I would want it too. But for now, until the project is perfected, I’m completely content with what I have and how life is going :)
That’s all. Thanks for reading!! :)
Outfit for the duet from The Retro Clothing Company (TRCC)
Outfit for show #5, Melb, from TRCC, w/ Warwick & Dan :-)
Outfit for show #4, Melbourne, from The Retro Clothing Company (TRCC)
I had an interesting conversation with the pianist from Spain while I was in Italy…
He told me that he did music 16-17 hours each day which blew my mind. I thought, “This guy must be very passionate about music!” He said that I should go to a music school so I could learn everything there is to know about music. I said that I’d already been to a school for music and that I thought it would box me in, make me think too logically and take the creativity out of it. He disagreed.
Later, while I was listening to a piece of music he wrote for the piano on his laptop, I asked him what he was feeling when he wrote it. He responded, “I wasn’t feeling anything. I was just using harmonies and melodies to form a song.”
I’m sure this is fine for piano but this is why I won’t go to school for my singing. The music I do is about pure emotion. It doesn’t matter if it is perfect or logical, as long as I know exactly what I’m singing about and FEEL where the music takes me. Some people may prefer to go to school and that’s fine too, but this is my path and I’m sticking with it!
Many of you have asked how I am and how my trip to Italy went. I felt like there was so many that I just had to sum it up in a blog post instead of replying the same thing to everyone!! Most of the trip was a big blur so I can’t remember everything that happened on each day but I’ll try:
Sunday - Flew to Melbourne then flew to Dubai. The flight to Dubai was about 13 hours… yich.
Monday - We got to Dubai and it was morning already because they were a few hours ahead. We checked into our hotel and took a little tour in a car. I took tons of photos of the tallest building in the world, numerous pieces of architecture and the man-made palm island. Visiting Dubai had never interested me much before but it sure was pretty. Super hot though, I heard it gets to about 55 degrees for some months.
Tuesday - Flew 6 hours to Rome and was picked up at the airport for the 2 hour drive to Isernia. We met everyone at the hotel and I swear I was almost going to collapse with tiredness, haha. It was nice to get some sleep that night.
Wednesday - From this day on, I can’t remember exactly what happened. Basically on this day I tried on the Eyeplusplus device. It is like a headband that wraps around your head with a little camera on the front. The camera transmits images to a box you carry around which sends the images to the headband. The headband then creates sensations on your forehead to form the basic shape of whatever is in front of you such as a doorway, zebra crossing, etc. I’m still not sure if this technology will be useful for me as I can still see basic shapes but maybe at night because I can’t see as much then. I was on the Isernia news with the device on my head.
They also generously gave me an iPhone to try some new voiceover app they have been working on. it looked pretty awesome. We then did a tour of the lab where the device would be worked on and other projects. They told us about several of their projects and I can say, if they go ahead it’ll be pretty amazing!
That night there was a five course dinner for all the guests Eyeplusplus had brought over from other parts of Italy and other countries. I met the other performers in the concert for Saturday. I sat next to a blind man from Spain who was an amazing pianist and tried to teach him some extra English. After our conversation, when people say music is their life, I never believe them. This guy does music 17 HOURS A DAY!!! That’s dedication right there! I used to be ashamed to say that music was all I did in my life and whenever someone asked, “so what do you like to do in your spare time?” I would list things that I’ve done once or twice in the year. Now I’m proud to say music is all I do. That and family/friends/fans stuff.
Thursday - Today I rehearsed with ANDREA BOCELLI’S ORCHESTRA! This was so surreal and I was not expecting what they gave me. I was jumping for joy and felt like crying, the music was so extraordinarily beautiful. Brought to life!
There was another huge dinner that night. Amaaaazing.
Friday - There was an information presentation. We went shopping afterwards and I bought a couple of tops. I just wanted something little to bring home from Italy because I didn’t get to the last time I was there :)
And… you guessed it, five more courses for dinner. But this one was for about 200 people!!!
Saturday (PERFORMANCE DAY) - The official launch/information presentation was on this morning. Basically the same information as yesterday but more detailed. The rest of the day was used for some rest time and to get ready for the concert.
While in my dressing room, I got my make up and hair done. I put on my dress. Then I focused. I focused as hard as I could. When I went out into the audience to watch the beginning, my mum told me that the stage was filled with baby sunflowers… which was my late cousin Suzie’s favourite flower. I took the flower and held it as tight as I could wishing for a good performance that night.
As my dad lead me to backstage and I did last minute things before my queue, I began to feel an amazing confidence inside me. I don’t know what it was about that night, maybe it was the incredible orchestra or the atmosphere but I gave everything that night. Hopefully I can obtain some of the footage and show everyone over here. I was in another world that night. Being around all the music and the most expressive people I have ever known must have had some contribution.
Sunday - All packed and ready to go home! I didn’t do too much sight-seeing but the trip was definitely worth it and… powerful to say the least. I have a newfound kind of passion for music from this experience. Not to say I wasn’t passionate before but I think I’m just looking at it from a different perspective. I guess Italy has that affect on people!
Flew to Dubai!!
Monday - Just a quick mention, I rode on a baggage wheeler thing. It was so fun!
Tuesday - HOME!
There’s my whole trip, top to tail! Hope it wasn’t too boring for you.
Here’s what I’ve been doing if you’re interested…
Monday - Flew to Sydney and had dinner with some friends/business colleagues.
Tuesday - Performed on The Morning Show on Channel 7 with Noah Stewart, had meetings about my merchandise for the Delta tour and the next album, and recorded a song (more information later in the year). Also had dinner with Viktoria Bolonina’s family, they’re awesome and so was their food!
Wednesday - Rehearsed with the band for the Delta tour (amazing!), performed with Noah Stewart for the first ever Australian Yellow Lounge (he’s incredible, you should all get his album “Noah” if you like classical music and if you don’t, you should get it anyway because he will blow your mind).
Thursday - Did some work in the studio, tried to write a song from scratch… we didn’t finish but came up with some great ideas! I flew back to Adelaide that evening.
Friday - Flew in to Melbourne, got a hire car and drove with dad to Geelong. Appeared at Westfield Geelong (the staff, security and crowd were so welcoming so if you’re reading this, thanks so much). I sang a few songs and then signed a lot of stuff for everyone. It was great to meet you all. Special mention to Courtney and the guy who is going to get my name tattooed on his arm. Wow. I flew back home that night.
So there’s my week, still wondering why I wasn’t on Twitter very much? Haha!!
