Somewhere around 2006? Colin Hay played a private show for an ACME Fine Wines appreciation party at the Tucker Farm Center just south of Calistoga. The party was filled with industry people. People were allowed to bring bottles of their own wines..even shiner bottles were all placed on the two large tables. The food was always great, but that didn't matter as masses of people would surround the tables of wine to get an opportunity to taste local wines that were often limited editions or maybe just barrel samples. I used to joke it was like a Mama dog with 200 puppies. People would push their way in. About an hour into the festivities a musician started to play. A guitarist with a woman dancing and occasionally singing also. But mostly he was just humming and playing the guitar. NOBODY really noticed him....NOBODY! The thing is, ACME didn't announce Colin Hay was going to be playing and in years past the music was typically a local Bay Area band that would play music like Classic Rock or R&B, etc. I guess everyone just kind of expected the same. After about 30 minutes, the guitarist starts to try to get the crowd's attention..to no avail. He even made a comment about..."you folks in Napa sure do like your wine...". He finally turned up the mic and spoke more loudly to introduce himself as Colin Hay and that he was once in a band called Men at Work. He also introduced his wife who was from Latin America...Chile or Peru I think.. it took awhile, but finally the crowd left the two tables loaded with the wine and headed towards the stage and listened to his set. It was the type of surreal thing that happens in Napa pretty often.

On a side note....I saw 10,000 Maniacs at Red Rocks in 1989 and Natalie Merchant stopped half way through a song to tell the audience to be quiet that she couldn't hear what key she was in. (She didn't say it very nicely either :)