The October Long Weekend at Semaphore – 2014

The October long weekend went well.  Perfect weather on Saturday and Sunday and it was great down on the foreshore relaxing and listening to the bands performing at the Semaphore Music Festival.  Patrons spilled over the foreshore lawns, imbibed, shared sandwiches and ice creams, talked and listened to the talent on offer.  Best on Sunday was the feisty Nancy Bates with a number of her own compositions, and the amazing Frank Yamma.  And then it was home early to finish preparation and packing of stock for the record fair on the following day.

Weather forecasts promised rain and storms for Monday the day of the Record Fair, and in the morning the skies were overcast with a slight warm breeze.  Later in the day gusty winds developed and made life a little difficult for sellers outside St Bede’s Hall and dark clouds threatened more weather to come.  But aside from a few large drops of rain everyone survived.

Inside the Hall it was crowded from 9am and very crowded by “opening” time at 10am.  And the crowds pressed on until about lunch time.  Selling was brisk and probably better than the fair held in April this year.  In the afternoon it was more relaxed and we were able to hunt for any gems and bargains from fellow stall holders.  Most of the stallholders I talked to all confirmed that the fair had been well received and the local punters were enthusiastic buyers.  We are already looking forward to next year.  Thanks again Mr V.

I picked up a few ancient Lionel Hampton albums, Lena Horne in her heyday, latter day Allman Brothers, early 1970s Ramsey Lewis and also Mongo Santamaria, and most recent 2013 Kings of Leon Mechanical Bull all at good prices.  But the pick of the day was Peggy Lee’s Dream Street which I purchased from the smiling Tim.  And Harry Butler had a good haul of music books.  I picked up an autobiography of the life of George Gershwin, and from a new stallholder – person unknown – a copy of a biography titled Billy Thorpe’s Time on Earth by Jason Walker.