Andy Bull Talks About Being Thrust Into Lisa Mitchell’s Band

Andy Bull updated fans on his blog at MySpace (@andybull) on Sunday (May 10), having wrapped up a tour with Lisa Mitchell that saw him transition from opening act to opening act and member of Lisa’s band after she had an accident slicing bread. The Australian singer songwriter tells readers:

Yesterday I arrived home from touring. To fill you in, I went around the country as the support for Lisa Mitchell (“Neopolitan Dreams”, “Coin Laundry” etc). We played 20-something shows at venues in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. At the beginning of the tour I came along with the purpose simply of performing as the support act.

Before the third show, however, Lisa cut her finger pretty badly with a sharp knife while attempting to cut some bread. Sounds like a silly way to go cutting yourself up, but poor Lisa managed to take off a fair chunk of her pointer finger on the left hand; a digit you might call essential in the act of playing guitar. So before the show, Jan (that’s pronounced Yarn), her bassist, wrote out the chord charts for me and asked me to join the band, because Lisa wasn’t able to play the guitar, and piano would have to substitute. So that’s what I did. With chord charts resting on the keyboard, I played the set without too much fuss, just the odd look over my shoulder to Jan, and Rob (the drummer) for some queues. By the next night, I was well into the swing of it. There is a nice economy in the way Lisa’s songs work; simple chords, simple structures, simple time signatures; its what makes the songs work the way they do; and it also makes them a breeze to perform, even on first reading.