Back in Brisbane, Damian cast his eye around the River City Clippers rehearsal hall. His eye landed on Colin: “He’s sung in quartets before – must know what he’s doing.” Then on Rowe: “Bass section leader, very experienced, seems to know a lot about the voice – I could learn a lot from this one.” And finally: “That guy teaching the tags. Wasn’t he a director of another chorus? Got to have him, surely.” Damian approached the three with a proposal, and that evening a new quartet was formed.
It took a while for the name to come. We had a spreadsheet with dozens of candidate names in there, but nothing compelling. Then, one evening Rowe was out on the back deck surveying the garden. Musing about the Ice Age movie she had enjoyed watching the night before, she looked at the trees ... and the Scrat character popped into her head: “That crazy squirrel with its nut”. It was a short intuitive leap to the final candidate, and Three Squirrels and a Nut was born.
From the outset we decided to work at becoming the best performers we could be. We committed to a weekly rehearsal at a central location, which meant Damian’s place. However, we quickly realised that with a growing family, Damian’s home was not going to be suitable. Undeterred, Damian found a perfect solution in the form of his neighbours, Mirus and Takumi, who allowed us the run of their downstairs rumpus room, use of their piano, and licence to make as much noise as we liked. We continue to benefit from this excellent rehearsal space and we are very grateful to our kind hosts.
After a few short months we felt we were ready to unleash our harmonies on the world. Damian is extremely well connected through his floor-painting business, so it wasn’t long before we had our first gig at the All Inn Brewing Company in Banyo. Standing in front of massive vats of ale with three microphones between the four of us (clearly the Nut didn’t warrant one) we learnt a lot that day.
Nick reached out to his graphic designer friend, Simone Clarke, who came back with the perfect embodiment of the quartet brand in the form of her quirky but simple logo. With logo complete, Damian used his eye for fashion to track down some gear that matched our arboreal theme. And that meant – brown: brown jacket, brown vest, brown shoes, brown pants, and even brown socks. Damian’s wife Kel, with her eye for bling, came up with the squirrel brooches (mostly brown).
We have had many heart-warming experiences performing in public, but one in particular was very special. John (not his real name) engaged us to wander along the Brisbane River in the vicinity of Kangaroo Point, singing as we went, like some impromptu outdoor rehearsal. John was there with his girlfriend, admiring the view of the river. “Oh look,” he remarked, “a barbershop quartet!” At a prearranged signal we launched into The Longest Time, that Billy Joel classic that also happened to be her favourite song. Then John dropped to one knee and proposed. A few moments later he called to us: “She said yes!” On the way back home we couldn’t stop grinning.
As members of Barbershop Harmony Australia we have been lucky to be able to hone our skills by putting our performances in front of judges in annual regional and national competitions. Our first regional contest outing was on the Gold Coast in 2017. Although we came 12th out of 12, we nevertheless had a respectable score that placed us in good company at the bottom of the B level, where most quartets reside. We planted a flag in the sand that day and determined to improve thereafter. So we engaged some coaches to help us with our craft. A few months later we reaped the benefits at our first National convention in Sydney, improving our score by 4 points and rising in the rankings too. So we engaged some more coaches to improve our craft. A year later at the Adelaide convention we leapt over more than half the field to become that year’s ‘mic warmers’, the prestigious placing just outside the final top 10. The 10 finalists battle it out in a second round, but as mic warmers we got to kick off the final with our second contest set, without the worry of being judged on it; an enviable position indeed! After that we engaged yet more coaches to improve our craft. And one year later at the Hobart convention we improved our scores still further, in some categories even making it half-way to the A level. Then COVID struck.
Not a lot happened over the next two years.
With COVID, all entertainers had gone through a very dry patch, so it was great finally in 2022 to be able to perform in front of people again. We received a call from Sam, who was organising a special celebration for Vicky, her mum’s, 70th birthday. It was to be a surprise, and all the family, grandkids too, would be there. So, after finding out a few details about Vicky’s life, we wove a narrative around our programme to highlight the special moments in her story. We knew we had struck a chord when, during Damian’s performance of the song If, he saw a tear in her eye. How did we know that was their special song? An inspired guess perhaps. It was a real privilege and delight to provide some happiness to this lovely lady and her loving family.
An attentive reader, while browsing our web pages, may have noticed a certain transition that occurred in the quartet some time in 2023. No, we’re not talking about Nick losing his beard – but rather, Rowe getting in touch with her feminine side. Which meant a bit of a costume change, including updated jewelry. A few other changes were necessary too, which Rowe endured with good grace and some degree of humour, making for fascinating topics of conversation at rehearsal. Despite all this turmoil, Rowe managed to retain her fabulous bass voice. And the quartet gained entry to a whole new competition category – as a mixed quartet!
