RUFUS Red Bull Roadie: Tour Diary of the Gold Coast BDO

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RUFUS Red Bull Roadie: Tour Diary of the Gold Coast BDO

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Rufus

It’s not even 10 o’clock in the morning but that sure doesn’t stop Patrick Stevenson, 2014 Red Bull Roadie Winner, caring about looking slick.

‘I was meant to wear this gross brown flanno but I wore this one instead’, he says, of the deep blue shirt he’s donning. ‘It matches my eyes’.

Looking good is naturally an imperative when you’re main roadie for a band that’s dominating as much as RUFUS. Coming off the back of a blur of a European tour, the boys were about to play Australian music festival institution Big Day Out, with Pat as their fearless but fabulous protector.

With first stop being the Gold Coast (GC baby), Pat had his work cut out for him when the boys emerged from the airport with a serious amount of junk (or vital musical equipment, whatevs) that needed to go in the trunk.

Taking a break to wipe one hell of a moist-y forehead, the boys congregate around the van to decide Pat’s fate.

‘Are we allowed to go hard on him?’, questions Jon.

‘I feel like we need to crack the whip a bit’, replies James.

In a moment of surprise at the lack of evil-dictator type behaviour coming from them, I took the opportunity to remind the guys just what having a roadie was all about.

‘Guys’, I said. ‘Don’t you realize, Pat’s your little bitch. Use and abuse my friends!’

Little did I know however, the boys were far too lovely for that. Instead of (doing what I would have done and) making Pat work for the title, they cranked the tunes and talked shit all the way down the sizzling Gold Coast highway.

After varied musings from the group which mainly consisted of Pat speculating that ‘girls are way more likely to get their titties out on the Gold Coast’ and James trying to convince the gang – ‘there’s this Facebook group about things that fit in things’ – to which Tyrone replied – ‘I like to fit things in things’, we arrived at the Carrara Parklands.

Backstage thoughts were very much out of the gutter and into the zone as the boys and manager Danny ran around as the crowd filtered into the steaming Boiler room. With forehead sweat becoming the growing theme of the day, the boys jetted through their sound check with their faithful roadie not far behind.

5 minutes till stage time, the guys were feeling the crunch. Backstage was sweltering, with the crew and boys breaking a serious sweat. In true bro fashion Jon helped James attach his earpieces and the two nervously sipped at cold water. At the other side of the stage Tyrone paced back and forth, shrugging his shoulders and twisting his neck, vaguely mouthing lyrics he’d soon be singing to a crowd of thousands who had begun to chant ‘RUFUS…RUFUS…RUFUS…’

‘How’s it going Big Day Out Gold Coast?’, an awesomely casual greeting for the cascade of music that was soon flowing out of the stacked speakers. Sweat drenched band and crowd alike as a steady stream of music was unleashed into the sticky Gold Coast ether and the giant RUFUS logo glowed omnisciently behind.

Diving into ‘Take Me’, the audience sung out hard. Tyrone barely had to articulate a note, the crowd screamed it right back amongst some seriously heavy flailing that only serious fan-children could execute. In a marvellous call and response, RUFUS answered the crowd as James dominated with a ridiculous drums solo and Jon made us feel like weird and creepy worshipers of synth. Pat looked on proudly from the side of the stage, flanno and cap askew but stoked all the same.

As the guys came off the stage, heaving and flustered but excitable I was reminded of something that Tyrone had said to me earlier in the van and laughed at how all the boys had proved him right.

‘The crowd gives me the biggest high’, he’d said. ‘It’s amazing, you feed off their energy and you have to give it all right back.’

With Gold Coast being the first stop of many big days out, the boys may have to smash a few Red Bulls to stay on par with the crazy love from their fans Australia-wide.

Stay tuned to see how they and Pat take on next stop Melbourne at Flemington Racecourse on Friday 24th.

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