When Invoice Bailey determined to movie his first journey collection in Australia, the place he has toured for one of the best a part of 30 years, he determined to show away from the overexposed seashores and landmarks of the east coast, and go west. In Invoice Bailey’s Wild West Australia, the British comic’s adventures embrace doing burnouts in a tugboat, making an attempt to start out a secessionist motion, caving beneath a convict jail, and visiting a commune of gnomes.
Invoice Bailey wished to discover paths much less travelled in his new collection, Wild West Australia.
“Docos and travelogues about Australia that I’ve seen up to now observe a sure construction,” Bailey explains from Christchurch, the place he’s touring his dwell present Thoughtifer. “They largely take an enormous shot of the east coast. It’s largely quite a lot of related sorts of issues that we’ve seen earlier than. We deal with, ‘Ooh! The harmful wildlife!’ ‘Ooh! The sharks and the snakes!’ and ‘Ooh! The spiders!’ Or it’s the seashore life – the Bondi scene in Sydney, the sunny aspect of Australia – and I wished it to be not that.
“The entire intention of the collection was to indicate a 360 visible of Western Australia – the historical past of the place, the panorama, the individuals, the sort of work that individuals do, the industries –a broader really feel of the entire state.”
Within the four-part collection, Bailey meets fascinating individuals, from Broome astronomer Greg Quicke, aka “House Gandalf”, to the keeper of a reproduction Stonehenge, to passionate meals producers and bush meals specialists. He jams with the Albany Shantymen and the Perth progressive steel band and Australia’s 2023 Eurovision consultant Voyager.
“Lots of people got here as much as me and mentioned hiya and have been very pleasant, which is beautiful,” he says. “That’s what occurs to me anyway once I journey round Australia … I’ve to say, I liked singing within the pub with these bearded blokes. That was nice. Going again to my prog roots, jamming with Voyager, what a pleasure that was! I really like enjoying the keytar [a keyboard-guitar combination] at one of the best of occasions. It’s usually one thing that you simply solely play in non-public, however they’re a beautiful band, and with the ability to jam with them was an exquisite day of enjoyable for me.”
Invoice Bailey, with keytar in hand, joined up with Australia’s Eurovision finalists Voyager.
From the primary episode, when Bailey is welcomed to Nation by Noongar information Doc Reynolds on the glowing white sands of Fortunate Bay, First Nations individuals, historical past and place names are a cornerstone of the collection.
“That was one thing which I wished to make a characteristic of as a result of I feel it appeared like the suitable factor to do,” says Bailey. “And one thing which maybe has not been talked about an excessive amount of, definitely by abroad presenters.”
Bailey can add the didgeridoo to the intensive record of devices he performs, however he selected to not choose one up within the collection.