Rest In Peace: Wayne Thunder 1977-2007

The first time I met Wayne was in Melbourne, I was on tour with Theatreworks for the Melbourne Arts Festival in 2004. A friend of mine, Tim a fellow cast member told me about this band called The Suns. So he brought me to this small little bar in the suburbs and I saw The Suns setting up for their set, there were about a good 50 people in the crowd, most of them were their close friends. They ripped through their set and I requested from Sanjeev to play Zoe Tay, and they played the song last. And there was even a small brawl in between the set, such a typical ozzy bar brawl I would say.

After the show, I had a small chat with Wayne outside the bar, he didn't speak that much except that he told me its nice to see a Singaporean in the crowd...later this year, Wayne got my contact and he wanted Tiramisu to play in a gig he was organising at the Gas Haus. As we were quite busy, we didn't get a chance to play that gig. But looking back through that email, this was what he wrote:

"I don't have mega corporate or free govt money backing me, so I'm building from the ground up, and that means everything starts with the MUSIC and the bands that churn it out, the way it should be. If the bands do their part to play good music and bring their fans and friends, and get people genuinely excited about supporting local music, then the industry can be more sustainable for local bands like us and attractive to sponsors and investors. And then we won't have to eat bloody peanuts all the time."
- Wayne

Rest In Peace bro,,,, may this be love...