This year, Halloween marks the 10th anniversary of something pretty much no one thought would ever happen.
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That would be a gig from the much-loved Wollongong band Tumbleweed.
On October 31, 2009, the reunited band played its first gig in a decade at Waves.
It was a reunion that was quite unexpected given the bad blood that circulated between the band members.
Singer Richie Lewis and guitarist Lenny Curley kicked out the other guitarist Paul Hausmeister in the mid 1990s, with drummer and Paul's friend Steve O'Brien choosing to walk soon afterwards.
A few years later Richie and Lenny also sacked brother and bassplayer Jay Curley.
It resulted in a pretty acrimonious relationship all round, Richie saying in the decade after the band broke, he barely said a word to any of the ousted members.
"In that period we were not talking at all and it was to the point where you crossed the street if you saw the other one," Richie said.
"We didn't want to walk into each other, partly because we [Richie and Lenny] felt terrible about what we've done. Our decision had major effects on everybody's lives."
That changed one night in early 2009, when Richie went out for dinner at Ha Long Bay Vietnamese restaurant and ended up taking a seat just inches away from Paul, who was at another table.
They had spoken in recent years, just not very often.
"We had seen each other at the Oxford and said 'Hi', Richie says.
"He had seen [Richie's band] The Creeps, Steve had seen The Creeps too so there had been a couple of little conversations. It wasn't as bad as it had been. Things weren't as tense but they weren't great."
So the options were simple - they could ignore each other all night or talk.
They chose to talk.
READ MORE: Tumbleweed's Galactaphonic album turns 20
"That was when we really started to bury the hatchet," Richie says.
"I'm sure they carried around a lot of things as did we. After a while that becomes a burden and you just gotta let it go.
"In order to let it go Lenny and I had to own up to what we did. Without doing that we couldn't have redeemed our friendship."
The five original band members decided to get together for a jam, which would change everything.
"As soon as we started that first song we knew it was right," Richie says.
"It was really interesting to just plug in and the sounds dispelled a lot of the doubt."
The first gig announced was at the 2009 Homebake, but the plan was always to debut the reformed Tumbleweed in Wollongong.
They just had to wait for the Homebake tickets to sell out before telling people about the Waves show on October 31.
Richie had a nervous few days leading up to the sellout show, wondering if he'd have the stamina to get through what was a two-hour set.
There was also some nerves because they didn't want to screw up in front of a home town crowd.
From there they had a good few years, including releasing the album Sounds from the Other Side.
Then in 2014 Jay passed away and the rest of the band really didn't know if they wanted to continue.
They fulfilled some touring obligations with Luke Armstrong filling in on bass but then "laid down tools".
And they might have been done and dusted had Spiderbait not cajoled them into joining the bill for that band's anniversary shows.
The other members decided to have a jam with Jamie Cleaves, who played bass in Lenny's band The Pink Fits, and see how it went.
"Jamie just clicked - if it had been anyone else it probably wouldn't have worked but he just locked into this position so well personality-wise and playing wise.
"It just seemed like a natural thing to go on."
They're about to go on and do some very big things, starting with a seven-inch single in January with a view to releasing another single every month for 2020.
At the end of the year, the aim is to put the 10 singles out as an album and, in 2021 - the 30th anniversary of the band's beginnings - a documentary and coffee table book.
And that will also mean more gigs, because the band don't really want to tour if they don't have anything new.
"We feel very lucky and very grateful that there are people who have stuck around and want to see us," Richie said.
"We're pretty chuffed that we can still sell out shows after all this time."
Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
