Thanks to all of the team for their very hard work to make the Taste performances so so excellent. It has been a fabulous week, as well as being lots of fun. Our next performance will be at the Cygnet Folk Festival on Saturday afternoon - see you there!

Goodbye Nabe!

On Sunday 4th we had our farewell for Nabe (Yosuke Watanabe), with much sadness and joy all around. He was thrilled with his new didgeridoo and photo album with pictures of the group. We also farewelled Dylan and James, and said Happy Birthday to Rasa and Dane. All the group thanked Simon for his wonderful teaching throughout the past year, and Simon also said how happy he was with the way the group is coming along. It was an excellent evening. I can't quite believe we will never see Nabe again, or hear his voice saying "Wicked!"

Nabe will be leaving soon. We are having our farewell late on Sunday afternoon (4 Jan). Please try and make it, because we will be missing Nabe and it's our last chance to say goodbye and wish him well. Dylan and James are also leaving for an extended period, so we will say goodbye to them also.

Thanks heaps to all who have helped and worked so hard to get our new drums and uniforms ready. We are currently performing for the Taste of Tasmania with a brand new look, and we are looking fabulous and sounding even better. It has been a huge effort but really worth it. So far the audience feedback has been just great.

The schools program is going strong - we had a busy first week, and the schools all were thrilled with our program Three more weeks to go. There is still room for you, even if you are a beginner, or even if you can only come for a few days. Let Simon know if you can help. This will give you a good grounding in helping to run a performance, as well as teaching you more about Taiko.

We had a fabulous day at the Christmas Pageant. We had our Odaiko, 4 Nagados on a trailer, 2 shimedaikos, and a whole stack of rope drums carried by our marchers. We won runner up prize for Best Band. Thanks team! You were fabulous.

In spite of the problem with our new venue (see page 2, Mercury, Thursday 2 Oct 2003), we are continuing on, but we are looking to move to another venue as soon as something can be arranged. If you can help us with ideas for a suitable venue, please let one of the committee know!

Our ideal venue would be:

Close to the city, for students without cars to be able to get to easily
Preferably no stairs
Easy to back a car up close to the door
Soundproof, or in a non-residential area
Lockable and secure (for drum storage when not in use)
Free or quite cheap to hire.

Message forwarded from Simon:

Weekend report

Thanks so much to all those who helped with Drum Making Sunday. We
- stretched a second skin onto a drum - first stage
- repaired the off-round shape, and splits and cracks in the short drum
- Prepared Aluminium rings and stretched Roo skins over them.
as well as
Make sticks, Improve stands, cut wedges, and generally prepared for the
construction of a lot more roped okedo-daiko which we will use in the
Christmas pageant.

With out the superb assistance and intuition of our enthusiastic helpers we
couldnt have achieved so much.

However, there were a couple of things we weren't able to do, so we have
dropped behind schedule with our double skin drum, and need to make a last
ditch effort to get it done by Saturday. If you would like to help one
weeknight this week, please talk to Keryn.

On Saturday Jen, James and Simon went to Sunny Bicheno to deliver Taiko
workshops to the Japanese language Teachers from around the state. There
were a few familiar faces there, and some who had never seen a taiko drum
before.
We conducted very brief intros to taiko and all seemed to have a great time
beating away outside in the sunshine.
We also took the opportunity to take a few photos in the scenic
surroundings, which might make it on to the website some time soon.
A great big Thankyou to James and Jen for rising so early on a Saturday to
help Simon make the day a great success.

We have a new practice venue - the Hobart Football Club rooms at the TCA ground on the Domain. There will be a new pricing structure: Students - $3.00 for 1 class or $20 for 8 classes payable in advance (2 per week for 4 weeks.
Workers - $5.00 for 1 class or $35 for 8 classes payable in advance (2 per week for 4 weeks.

We are working towards having a venue for our own exclusive use, which will enable more flexible classes in the future. We need the continuing support of as many members as possible so that we are able to fund this idea.

So please come and support Taiko in Tasmania!

FANTASTIC NEWS!! Today, Sunday the 21st September, our group (through the languages department of the University of Tasmania) has been given four brand new Shimedaikos to use, straight from Japan, and custom made by experts especially for our group. Professor Miyamoto from Mie University was instrumental in raising the money for the Shimedaiko. This morning, the new taiko were given to the group in a special ceremony at Stanley Burbury Theatre. The contingent of fifteen Japanese people who travelled to Australia for the ceremony were treated to some wonderful Japanese dancing as well as a performance by the Taiko group.

Come to practice soon and check out these beautiful new drums.