'Tides of Welcome' choir is all about musical expression, local community spirit and the sheer joy of singing together.
Tides of Welcome has been operating for well over a decade through which time members, directors and enthusiast have come and gone. However we have always had the wider community as our heart and the Queenscliff Community House as our heart beat. 

"Tides of Welcome" Choir Directors over the years

Sarah Carroll  2003 - 2010
Rose Bygrave 2010
Tiffany Eckhardt 2010 - 2015
Andrea Robertson 2015 - 2020
Wayne Jury 2020 - current

Shedding the Blues 'Tuneup Day #4' Sept 29th 2024

Tides of Welcome once again were wrapped to be invited to Shedding the Blues Tuneup event this year. For some within our choir, it was the first real time that they performed in public and also in such a grand venue such as the Queenscliff Town Hall. We performed a thirty minute song setlist involving around 6 songs. 
It's always great to support other community groups and it was such a special day as Wayne stepped back on stage as one of the band members in Dave Steel's band.
Photos courteous of Robyn Curtis, Kevin Robley and Lynn Pearce.
See all photos from the day here https://sheddingtheblues.weebly.com/tune-up-4-gallery.html

QMF 2023 - CELEBRATION of 20 YEARS

QMF celebrated their 25th year as a festival while we celebrated 20 years as a community choir. Our intention was to have all four previous choir directors, Sarah Carroll, Rose Bygrave, Tiffany Eckhardt and Andrea Robertson, along with current choir director, Wayne Jury, all on the one stage with us for our performance on Sunday 26th Nov on the Glanuse Stage. We nearly pulled it off with the exception of Tiff who couldn't make it due to illness. However, we did sing two of her songs which we had performed in readiness for the occasion.
The sound on the day was great as was the attendance of the rather large crowd for a Sunday morning.How good was it to see so many previous choir members in the audience!
Wayne started us off with a few of our songs we had performed earlier in the year and then we launched into Tiff's songs, "Beautiful World" and "Sea around the Shore". We then followed up with two of Andrea's songs, "A Time for all these Things" and "Lighthouse" followed by Rose with "You Send Me" and "Eraerama". Sarah then took to the stage and we sang "Water Bearer" and "Sea of Love".
All were crowd pleasers and Wayne added to this special event by directing "Love Me like a Rock" to complete the set. Yes, we even had people dancing!!
​What a morning it was and a special thanks to all choir directors and the love we felt from the community and QMF!
Photos and videos courtesy of: Rod Nicholson, Linda McCallum & David Weston

SHEDDING THE BLUES "TUNEUP #3"

Shedding the Blues, the men's health and music initiative also through the QNH, kindly invited us to participate once again in their Tuneup day - 'Tuneup #3' - on October 15th. We played a slick half-hour set which enabled many of our new comers to once again experience performing on the 'big stage'.

September 10th 2023 : 2oth anniversary performance at Uniting Church

We played to a full capacity audience at the Queenscliff Uniting Church - always our favourite place to play! It was made even more special because it was Charles' last year at the church and we felt honoured that he could introduce us. The Borough of Queenscliffe provided some Community Grant funding so we are able to invite a Kristi and Naomi from the Wadawurrung Co-op in Geelong to provide an indigenous "Welcome to Country" amongst other things. A slide show created by Jacinta and Carolyn played for people upon entry displaying the many highlights over the 2o years. Wayne and Sarah, our 'book-end' choir directors, performed for the first half of the event and after intermission, Susan Russell who was an original Rider, spoke of her experiences when the choir first was established.
Our performance was sensational as we had both choir directors leading us through 10 songs before Andrea Robertson reflected upon her time with the choir and then an encore and a supper in the big hall along side some videos from previous years. 
​A big thank you to all involved and our photographers on the day who captured the essence of our celebrations: Jesse Lehman, Don Kenyon and Tim Chuma.

2023 Tranquility @ Twilight

We were stoked to be able to perform at the Ocean Grove Tranquility@Twilight on January 7th. It's such a worthy cause with all gate takings on the day going towards keeping the Ocean Grove Park maintained and in safe hands for the community.
What a joy to perform these numbers under the Choir Direction of Wayne Jury:
1.     Let love rule – Archie Roach
2.     When I go away – Levon Helm
3.     Little by Little – Archie Roach
4.     Try a little Kindness – Glen Campbell
5.     Joshua fit the battle of Jerhico – Paul Robeson
6.     Yill Lall – Joe Geia
7.     Joy to the world – Three Dog Night
Thanks Don Kenyon for the pics

"TUNE-UP #2"

We were involved in a second TUNE-UP Day hosted by Shedding the Blues and was conducted at Shell Rd Reserve Ocean Grove. A special thank you to the City of Greater Geelong for their funding with the aim of combining health, wellbeing and music. 
​Music was provided by:
Shedding the Blues bands: 'The Tragic Nostalgics' and 'Unfinished Business', The Tides of Welcome choir, Sea of Ukes, The Shedmen Blues Band, Sam Hanson & Ten High Fly and The Bash Big Band . ​
​A special thank you to Robyn Curtis, Lynne Pearce, Kevin Robley and Carol Milton for the following photos from the day.​

"TUNE-UP #1" WITH SHEDDING THE BLUES

The "Tiders" came together with the "Shedders" through Borough of Queenscliffe funding to provide a collaboration of local talent including the "Sea of Ukes", The "Shedmen" and Australian icon of Blues, Jimi Hocking. Held at the Town Hall, Tune-Up saw near capacity crowds turn out for a day of health, community and music from 10-5pm in largely 'post-Covid times'. This was our first real performance under the direction of Wayne Jury after nearly two and a half years. What a successful day it was and we are so proud to have been involved.

NGUBITJ, SAMGOOAN, WATERSONGS, STORIES & CONNECTION.


8TH - 17TH OF APRIL 2022, GEELONG CITY HALL, DJILANG (GEELONG),
WADAWURRUNG COUNTRY 
​A conversation between communities, Ngubitj, Samgooan, Water - Songs, Stories and Connection is a multidisciplinary exploration of grief and universal connections to water, song, and language.
Weaving together languages from three continents; Wadawurrung, Mi’gmag and English, Ngubitj, Samgooan, Water - Songs, Stories and Connection will take the form of a visual projection and soundscape which will activate the centre of Djilang (Geelong).
Projected on the Geelong City Hall, this project will facilitate a space where the public can learn from the Traditional Owners of the region; the Wadawurrung people, travel across oceans to engage with the Elsipogtog, Mi’gmag community (Indigenous Canadian people) and engage with questions of our collective pasts and futures.
This project is defined by intersections, and how they provide us with the opportunity to learn from one another and grow together.
"Water Bearer" written and composed by sarah Carroll. Performed by Tides of Welcome in conjunction with Sarah Carroll. Maverick Arts produced this fine work.

a big welcome to wayne jury, our new choir director.

​“Wayne Jury is one of the best blues singers in this country.”
Michael Smith, Drum Media Sydney.
Wayne Jury is more than just the blues. Recognised as a multitalented tunesmith (he’s been signed to the legendary J Albert and Son Publishing, home of AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, Easybeats et al since 1994), his versatility sees him at ease with an ensemble or solo, delving deep into funk, soul, jazz and rock to combine all these genres with his distinctive vocals and performance. This adaptability hasn’t gone unrecognised by his peers – fronting rock bands across Australia since he was 16, he’s been called on by some of Australia’s most iconic bands to front their gigs when they’ve been missing a lead singer. In demand to perform several nights a week, his interest is also in putting this extensive experience back into the music community by supporting young artists who face the same challenges he confronted when starting out, reflected by his facilitation of acclaimed mentoring programs Blues Boot Camp, Youth In Blues, Emerging Artist Grants, as well as teaching and advising festivals and councils as an advocate for the advancement of local and live music. 
Covid restrictions have been tough on us all, but we persevered and made this little collaborative video. Thanks to everyone who assisted, especially Wayne Jury our Choir Director and Russell Kingsbury for his excellent video editing skills; oh, and of course to Joni Mitchel for this great song!
"QMF 2019"
After five years as choir director, Andrea Robertson bids farewell to pursue her own career as a singer/songwriter. We farewelled her in style during the QMF with a well received hour long set of our songs in the Uniting Church Queenscliff and then a very special 'one off ' performance with comedy singers Paul McDermott and Steven Gates. During her time with us, Andrea has written many songs specifically for the 'Tides of Welcome" and it was befitting that over one third of our final set with her were her originals.
We wish Andrea the absolute best with her career and look forward to her returning perhaps as a special guest one day with our new director Wayne Jury who will take up the role in 2020. Check out our 'Tribute to Andrea' above and see our last song with Andrea plus our special performance with Paul McDermott and Steven Gates on our video page 
"QMF 2018"
What a privilege to once again play at the Queenscliff Music Festival, our home town festival, which has become synonymous with musical greats and upcoming stars over its two decades or more. We performed at one of the best venues in town, Queenscliff Uniting Church, to perform our favourite songs from our recently released 'album' "Tides of Welcome Live" under the direction of Andrea Robertson. The following day we performed for the first time on the "Lighthouse Stage" Gurrumul"s Djarimirri Live album [Child of the Rainbow].
"M2M"
​It was a privilege to once again be involved in Geelong's "Mountain to Mouth" cultural event in 2018. This year we performed at the marine Centre in Queenscliff as the walkers made their way through and later at Pt Lonsdale where we once again sang the theme song penned by Jonathan Welch. A very special event celebrating the indigenous people of our area.
We were also provided with the opportunity to play some of our new songs.
"Don't Walk Before Me" one of Andrea Robertson's originals.
"QMF 2017"
​During the Queenscliff Music Festival 2017, Tides of Welcome were highly involved in a special project with
"Mamma Kin and Spender"
along with the "First Chorus Choir" from Brunswick.
​We performed our own set on the Sunday and joined choirs to perform on the Saturday and Sunday.
QMF Director, Andrew Orvis, joins in the fun.
Photos have kindly been provided by: Jenny Cooper, Carol Milton, Bernard Napthine, Charles Gallagher, Anna Goss and Paul Jones.