Rocking for Channel 9

Twenty-five BUMS made the ‘pretend’ jam for Channel 9 a great success.  Led by John Low (bass), Frank Buckley (lead), Lyndle Halliday (harmonica) and Peter Grace (vocals), we played two songs. We blew the roof off with ‘Rollover Beethoven’ – three times – as the camera and lighting man fine-tuned the recording.  It’s a bit unnerving having a camera stuck in your face – quite a few people experienced that.

We also played ‘When I’m 64’ twice and Bruce Paige crept into the back row of the group with a borrowed ukulele and joined in. We amended the chorus to ‘When I’m 94’ as most of the players (including Bruce) were over 64.

The Channel 9 team of Bruce Page (presenter), John (cameraman) and Kathryn and Bianca (producers) were wonderful, guiding us through the recording process.  Bruce was very affable and posed for selfies like this one with Len Farina..

Bruce took a shine to Rose Grasmeder in her blue BUMS shirt and interviewed her after the recording. We gave him a BUMS Planetarium T-shirt and a cap, so he looked more like BUM.

Peter Grace had a ‘fireside chat’ with Bruce where he asked about BUMS, how seniors can benefit from playing the ukulele and what he gets from playing.  Fun, friendship and new experiences (including this event) were the answers.

Thanks to Wheller in the Park for allowing us to take over their cinema and NUMB BUMS members Joan, John, Jenny (scroller), Frank Buckley and Frank Fee for helping organise the whole event. Thanks to all the other BUMS who rocked up to rock the room.

Kathryn of Channel 9 expects the recording to go live on Friday 5 July in the 6 O’clock News. Bruce's bit is on near the end, but they run little promos during the ad breaks, so we may get featured more than once.  We’ll get confirmation early next week – watch this space.