Stranded was conceptualized back in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdowns early in 2021.
Yes, the event art was indeed inspired by Gilligan’s Island.
At the time, no one in Australia could leave the country or even their state without some sort of special permission from the federal or state governments……literally.
We were obviously forced to postpone several scheduled Surf Music In Paradise shows at our usual primary location at Kandooma Resort, Maldives…..due to the fact that Australians couldn’t yet travel, so we made the pivotal decision to create some fun events at the highely accessible Daydream Island Resort in the Whitsunday Islands just off the tropical coast of Qld, Australia.
We even changed our business name from Surf Music In Paradise to Music In Paradise for obvious reasons right, ……..there’s no waves in tropical northern Qld!
So many music fans and even the musicians themselves had been locked down and unable to attend gigs for lengthy periods of time, but like so many music fans, we were super keen to travel again, socialize, and sing, dance and be entertained by legendary Australian musicians with like minded people……..but just not too many right.
So we curated Stranded with you in mind!
Pure joy and elation. Talk about up close and personal with The Black Sorrows.
A strictly limited edition style event, with capped numbers to ensure a once-in-a- lifetime, intimate style experience…whereby you can meet the musicians, mingle and socialize with fun fans of a similar age, with similar interests…it just doesn’t get any better!
Oh, but there was just one more very major late twist! Jimmy Barnes got Covid.
I was informed by Jimmy Barnes’ management team late on Day 1 of the Stranded event…..just after pretty much all 400 guests had checked in and settled into their first drinks late on Monday May 16…. that Jimmy had been diagnosed with Covid. By law Jimmy required to quarantine for 7 days, effectively ruling him out of his scheduled Thursday May 19 show to close out Stranded, and his scheduled Saturday evening show in Townsville too.
Argh Shiz!
Life goes on, we’ve all learned to roll with whatever is thrown at us the last few years. Most importantly, Jimmy recovered nicely the following week, after a bunch of rough days, and we luckily found 2 epic replacement acts within hours.
After several hours of frantic phone calls and fluid negotiations…..with the help of Jimmy’s team and several other contacts and friends, we managed to bring in Diesel and The Black Sorrows to replace Jimmy on finale night.
The rest is history, my friends.
I’ll leave the reviews to you the fans and take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of you for coming along, understanding the last min changes and enjoying the milder climate, some sunshine, many stories and one hell of an epic time.
Richard Clapton rocked, Daryl Braithwaite charmed, Diesel absolutely blitzed and The Black Sorrows had everyone up for one final dance… uno perfecto.
We hope to see you at our next Music In Paradise event smiling, chilling and socializing. Stay tuned to Music In Paradise on FB and Instagram in the coming weeks for impending announcements regarding Stranded 2 featuring a fit and healthy Jimmy Barnes and friends.
Daydream is the perfect amphitheater and setting for late Autumn gigs
Richard and Daryl share the stage to belt out a Neil Young classic
The Black Sorrows rocking the late, late show
Packed to the rafters on final night
