So, it's been an interesting last couple of weeks! My duo partner, Leigh and I, have been on the journey to try and find another name. The Bucket List - which has been our moniker for the last year or two -  seems to be quite a popular name for bands worldwide. (When I did a google search and checked the name with www.bandnamevault.com I discovered at least four different versions of the name.) Damn shame! Sad-face emoji!

So Leigh and I embarked on the journey to rename our act! And we tried on about a hundred or two and, try as we might, we could not come up with a name that we both felt comfortable with.
We tried on solid names like Thundershed, Complex, Serendipitous, Hope Mountain ...
We tried clever word game names like InTentCity, The Complects, The Flight Sabres ...
We tried clever amalgams of our two names like Lemon Crate (weird!), Chate's Crossing, Crossing Chate, Cross and Chate etc.
... and nothing seemed to say "Yes" to both of us at the same time! We even tried The Bucket Listers - so close to our original name ... only two extra letters ... but still nothing grabbed us! Nothing, that is, apart from our original name - The Bucket List!

And so, while there's a couple of other The Bucket Lists out there - we think we're the only one in Oz and that's probably a big enough region for us to get started with.

And so, this is who we are - We are The Bucket List. Based in Australia, a duo playing complex acoustic material, catchy songs that you'd not usually see in an acoustic duo. We're sounding great, increasing our repertoire and loving it!

Long Live The Bucket List!!

Here's a quick pic of us performing at the inaugural Broady Unplugged on Saturday, November 17, 2018. A photo snapped by the local mayor - Robert Mustow! Cudos, Rob, for the photo!

G'day folks, time for another quick blog post. This time, I'd like to focus on my awesome new duo act that I'm developing with a young friend, Leigh Cross. We're called The Bucket List! Leigh plays acoustic guitar and sings and I play acoustic bass and sing.

The Bucket List began a couple of years ago and we compiled a small set list, played a few unplugged nights and even played a wedding. Our original goal was to pick tricky songs and acoustify them for performance at some of the local talent nights like Rous Unplugged, Tintenbar Upfront or Stokers Siding 15 Minutes of Fame. We didn't last long, however, as Leigh was not in a position to focus on the project in any depth at the time. Move forward two years and time has opened up for Leigh and I and we are now developing The Bucket List in earnest.

We're performing at open mic nights as often as we can and are growing a great repertoire list with the aim of taking to the pubs and clubs in the very near future. Our repertoire tends to be drawn from the mid to late 70
's and into the 80's with artists like The Police, Simple Minds, Peter Gabriel, Kiss, Simon and Garfunkel, Daryl Braithwaite, Hunters and Collectors, Spit Enz, The Angels, etc. It's a great song list and is developing all the time!

Leigh has a great high register voice - similar in range to that of Sting - while I have a lower register voice - more of a baritone range (sadly the years of high school teaching has tired my voice and deepened my everyday register) and the combination of our vocal ranges really works well. We're both taking the lead vocal role on different songs and we try to harmonise those choruses and specific mid-verse lines as often and as well as we can!

Leigh's guitar work is improving all the time and I'm loving getting back into the bass again. And now, having compiled a good solid repertoire list, you should start seeing us - The Bucket List - playing in some of the local venues in the Northern Rivers and up onto the Gold Coast. 

Here'a a few links to some Youtube clips of songs we played at a recent Tintenbar Upfront event. Please check them out, subscribe to my Youtube Channel and leave a comment or two on the videos! Let us know what you think!
Cheers! Simon

So, we all hear it ... life is BUSY! There's no getting around it! We all seem to live at a crazy pace nowadays!
My life is chockablock! I have my beautiful Shirley and our two kids, Jessica and Ewan and our dog, Buddy, and we've got all those extra-curricular activities to taxi kids to like tennis, yoga, water polo, etc. I teach high school music five days a fortnight (7 next year), I teach singing and guitar after school, I run two fantastic weekly choirs - Men Wot Sing and Awesome Voices -  plus I'm working on the final stages of a comedy adult novel with a mate of mine as well as working on developing an awesome musical duo called The Bucket List with a young mate, Leigh Cross.

Life is busy - but it's very fulfilling!

On Tuesday this week at Alstonville High School, we ran our junior CAPA night (Creative And Performing Arts) and we had a fantastic time with it. The show ran smoothly, the acts - both musical and dramatic - were polished and well presented. It was a wonderful event that ran over two showings - we had a shorter matinee program for many of the local primary school kids and then ran the full show for the evening event. The school hall was beautifully decked out in works of art and textiles by many of our students. It was a great event all round.

One magical part of our CAPA presentations was watching my gorgeous daughter, Jessica, performing with two of her friends, Samina and Charlotte. They performed an original song as well as a couple of covers. They have a sweet and tight vocal harmony blend which sits perfectly on Jessica's finger-picked guitar and it is truly a pleasure to listen to. Here's a quick snap of the girls performing.

That'll do for now. Looking forward to catching up again very soon with another glimpse into the busy life of me!

Cheers, Simon

PS: Please feel free to comment!