Song list gets lot of air time

Aussie pride: Some of the Australian members of the MFO join the entertainers in a rousing rendition of I Am Australian during the concert at the Anzac Cove club.

Anzac spirit: Cpl Jeff O’Connor enjoys the distinctly Australian outdoor concert that was open to all members of the MFO.

Hangar performance: James Blundell entertains support troops at a Middle East air base en route to Egypt.

Volume 11, No. 39, March 23, 2006

FORGET in-flight movies and recorded music – when you have James Blundell and Rebecca Lavelle together on an aircraft you get live music, even on stopovers.

Even before they played an official concert on the Entertainment Tour in the Sinai, Blundell and Lavelle won fans among the troops with impromptu performances during the flight from Australia to Egypt. The pair twice held jam sessions in aircraft hangars during the trip – including one at 2.30am when the Defence-chartered aircraft they were on landed for refuelling.

On the stopover, they took the opportunity to rehearse their material for the concert, much to the delight of the passengers – a rotation of ADF personnel deploying to the Middle East.

Later, when the troops disembarked at their destination, the two entertainers held another practice session in front of a handful of support personnel before flying out to Egypt.

Lavelle said the aircraft hangars were the most unusual venues in which she had rehearsed, particularly because she and Blundell a few times had to compete with the noise of aircraft taking off and landing in the background.

Interestingly, the tour began and ended on a similar note with the two musicians putting on cameo performances for cabin crew members.

On the flight leaving Australia, when it was announced that flight attendant Danielle Cragen was celebrating her birthday, Blundell promptly produced his guitar and he and Lavelle led passengers in a spirited rendition of Happy Birthday.

And at the end of the first part of the homeward journey, a flight attendant asked them to provide a farewell song for the aircraft’s captain, Joe Hunter, who was retiring after 30 years with the airline. They sang, appropriately enough, Leaving on a Jet Plane.

Despite not having performed together before the tour, Blundell and Lavelle displayed a lot of artistic chemistry. They will perform together again at a benefit concert for Vietnam veterans in Elder Park, Adelaide on April 25.”