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Brett Lee parties with 'Slim Jim and the Fats'
© Andrew Miller
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Remember 2005? Remember England's Ashes rampage through every bar in the West End? "Freddied!" read the headlines in the morning papers, as Andrew Flintoff presented the acceptable side of binge-drinking during an all-night bender that finished with that open-top bus parade through Trafalgar Square.
Fifteen months on from that epic day's night, and it was Australia's turn for a bit of post-triumph release. It's fair to say that things were just a little bit more restrained. Perth, I suppose, is a good leveller. No matter how exciting an occasion turns out to be, there's only so much capital any victorious team can make out of the most isolated city on earth.
And so, while England's finest had bundled into the most exclusive nightclubs in existence, Australia chose instead to patronise one of the lowliest backpackers' hang-outs in the entire state. On Mondays, Perth rocks to the beat of the Deen on Aberdeen Street. It's Aus$10 for all that you can drink, and on the night that the Ashes were won and lost, that equates to a lot of beer.
And so, who should rock up? None other than Mr Brett Lee himself, legendary bass guitarist of the Sydney-based popular-beat combo, Six and Out, part-time Australian pace bowler and bone-fide good egg. He arrived in a blaze of head-turning, amid rumours that the rest of his victorious squad were also headed for a night on the tiles, but in the end the Deen's celebrity head-count was a measly two.
Lee and his axe-wielding cricket-loving pace-bowling blond colleague, Alan Mullally, were the only two notables in the venue. But that soon changed once Lee was on the stage and ready for action. Churlishly, as he launched into a fine bass rendition of "Brown-Eyed Girl", Lee was greeted with a chorus of "keep your arm straight when you bowl", but five well chosen syllables soon ensured that the taunts snagged in the tauntees' throats. "Err, 3-0 is it?" he announced
It wasn't quite the show-stopping performance that Flintoff's boys had managed, but it was a fine set nonetheless. As Lee joined the band members of "Slim Jim and the Fats" onstage, he stared with one eye at the neck of his borrowed guitar, determined not to muff a single note in spite of the delicate state of his co-ordination. He achieved his aim too, reeling off four songs and a bass solo before staggering off-stage and back into the melee of well-wishers. The Ashes retained, the gig complete - for Lee, it was all a pretty average day at the office.
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