The real spirit of the Tamworth Country Music Festival can be felt when you hear the story of Loris and Lefty Fahey. For 12 years the Queensland couple from Eagleby, have travelled to Tamworth to run a walk-up stage in the Cricket Grounds in Riverside Park Camping area on Carter Street.
Loris and Lefty Fahey in their element. Photo by Scott Murray
Every January they lug their sound gear and portable stage from home and camp beside the Cricket House venue, beside the Peel River in Tamworth. The couple have become well known for giving all comers a fair go if they want to walk-up and play. Anyone who wants to perform is encouraged, anyone who wants to bring their chairs and cool drinks along to watch, is also very welcome.
Loris and Lefty are a country music duo known as 'Country Flavour' and had their last Australian tour in 2001. All of the work they do in running the Tamworth stage, supplying the sound gear and encouraging the acts is done purely out of their love of Country Music - they receive no financial support for their services and are grateful for the help that Tamworth Regional Council can give them each year.
"The music at the Cricket Grounds started about 12 years ago - back then it was called Cadillac Ranch - I started as the compere and Loris and I did a bit of singing. When Jim and Lorraine decided to sell their stage, we took it over and called it Country Flavour." said Lefty, on the line from Eagleby.
The Country Flavour Stage - Riverside Park Campgrounds
"We have a great relationship with members from the Cricket Club and they look after us really well. The council really has been good with us, helped to set up our area because we camp right beside the stage and supply us with power to run the sound gear and our camp."
"I guess that our main aim is to please the people. They can walk up and give us their name and when they want to appear and it's sort of first in first served."
"We have had artists over the years on that stage such as Reg Poole, Owen Blundell and Ron Odgers to mention a few. Anyone can call in to see us to sing or just to sit and chat, all they have to do is call in to the Cricket House in Carter St."
Lefty is an accomplished songwriter and has been a member of the Tamworth Songwriters Association (TSA) for many years. In 1997 he won the TSA South East Queensland Champion Writer award - as well as several others. Along with his cousin Johnny Kaye, Lefty achieved a second placing in the TSA bush ballad section in 2007 as well as reaching the finals in the New Songwriters Awards in January.
Loris is also a successful songwriter and the couple are respected judges on the festival circuit.
"We are always willing to help out anyone who asks, in any way we can and we have enjoyed many years as performers, judges, guest artists and just being friends to the many performers in Queensland and Interstate."
Their greatest wish is to continue this association with everyone. Keep your eyes open for Country Flavour performing and if you're coming to the Festival be sure to drop in to the Cricket House Venue, Riverside Campgrounds on Carter St, Tamworth and say g'day.
To get to the stage, cross the bridge on Bridge Street with Tamworth CBD at your back and turn right into Carter Street at the Mobil Service Station.
The letter below appeared in Country Capital News and is reproduced with the kind permission of the author.
Dear Sir
After reading my mates copy of Cap News again, I feel disappointed that nobody has seen fit to mention what myself and countless others consider to be the best venue in Tamworth.
For the past eight years we have been camping in Riverside Park Camping area and from approximately the tenth of January right through till the end of the festival, we have been treated to some of the best Artists that Australia has to offer at the best possible price, FREE.
At the Cricket House Venue in Carter Street Loris and Lefty Fahey put on a terrific show from 6pm 'til midnight every day. It's a venue that many have started at and gone on to bigger and better things. The stage and sound is great, not deafening like over the bridge.
Myself and others go as far as the stage and sit to enjoy the music and the great environment created by Loris and Lefty and the staff from the Cricket Club.
They have even written and recorded a song about the venue called, 'DOWN HERE AT THE CRICKET GROUNDS' recorded by Johnny Kaye.
Keep up the good work guys, we will see you in January 2008.
M.J.ROHLF.
Queensland
by Anna Rose
IF YOU have ever enjoyed a concert at the Riverside Stage during the Tamworth Country Music Festival, chances are you have met Lefty and Loris Fahey.
For several years now, the Faheys have brought their portable Cadillac Ranch Stage to the Country Music Capital, setting it up in Carter St for the onsite enjoyment of campers and other visitors in the riverside area.
Lefty received a fairly devastating piece of news when he was recently diagnosed with leukaemia, but it didn’t stop him coming to Tamworth this year – and now he has a new mission – to raise funds for leukaemia research.
Lefty and Loris are on a fundraising tour starting at Toowoomba, in Queensland, and heading north to Cairns, then across to the Gulf and down to Georgetown.
From there they head across through Camooweal to the Northern Territory, visiting Darwin, then back down to Katherine and across to Western Australia from Derby to Broome.
They will follow the coast road down to Perth, Albany and Esperance, then across the Nullarbor to South Australia, into Victoria and NSW and out through Lightning Ridge into Queensland and home to Toowoomba.
All up the trip is some 25,000km and they plan to achieve this in just over five months.
“Every cent raised on the trip will be for the Leukaemia Foundation and we will be asking artists from all over the country to donate their time and talents to the cause,” Lefty said.
They also hope to take a little country music to lots of places that rarely see entertainment, so if you’re travelling the countryside, you just might bump into them.
If you do, make sure you say g’day and drop a few coins in the can for this worthy cause. And you could wish Lefty the best of luck with his own battle.
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You can contact Lefty and Loris via email at leftyf@bigpond.com
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