AN IMPROMPTU social media campaign led by the owners of the Armatree Hotel, Ashleigh and Libby Walker convinced the Busby Barou duo to add the tiny village to their Postcards from the Shellhouse Tour.
“They announced they wanted to do more “tiny towns” after they’d been to places like Roma and Biloela in Central Queensland,” Libby Walker told the Coonamble Times.
“We thought why not,” she said. “So we started a facebook offensive.”
Overnight 100 communities were nominated – and 45 of them were Armatree.
“We’d never heard of Armatree,” said lead singer Tom Busby from the stage on Sunday night 26 November.
“But this is the best gig we’ve done all year – and we’re coming back!”
Busby Marou are “two mates from Rockhampton”, Tom Busby and Jeremy Marou.
“A lot of people said they’d never heard of them,” Mrs Walker said.
“But they knew their songs when they heard them.”
Busby Marou’s first self-titled album was certified ARIA Gold in 2014 and their latest album ‘Postcards from the Shell House’ topped the Aria charts in February this year.
They just completed a tour with Elton John and are on their way to New Zealand – via Armatree and the Aria music awards.
“We’ve been following those guys for about seven years,” Mrs Walker said.
“We saw them at the Crooked Mountain concert and just lately we ducked over to Newcastle to see them.”
“They played at an old Chapel in Watt Street licensed for 300 people,” she said.
“We looked around and thought there’s no reason why we can’t do this.”
The Walker’s were proven correct over the weekend as concert-goers arrived from all around the north west and set up their chairs in the pub’s backyard.
With the original 400 tickets sold out weeks ago, the organisers added more and closed bookings at 500.
The band was astounded that little Armatree could out-sell the Dubbo RSL Club, where they’d played on Saturday night to 150 people.
Support acts were versatile Gulargambone local Brad Haling with emerging Indigenous rapper Josh Trindall (Trindoe).
They were followed by country-style singer/songwriter Brad Butcher who currently has three Golden Guitar nominations.
The audience enjoyed the outdoor ambience with a light pre-rain breeze and across recently cropped paddocks.
Food was provided by the Gulargambone Lions Club and Balladoran’s Megan O’Connor, and the venue handled the crowd easily.
With the night a walk-over success and the band relishing the country hospitality, the organisers are already talking about next year.
“The boys are super-pumped to come back,” said Mrs Walker.
