Local band, Ballz n All, have been booked to play at this year’s Christmas Street Pa-rade & Gala Shopping Night.
Sponsorship from Glencore CSA Mine and Sandvik for this year’s event has enabled the Cobar Business Association to amp up the night’s entertainment and bring in the live band to play after the parade.
While the annual community event has al-ways provided plenty of family fun, the addi-tion of Ballz n All with their “in your face, pub rock” style of music should make the night more appealing to a wider age demographic.
Made up of Mark Kotynia, (bass player/manager/sound and lighting guy/roadie), Kahl-ia Martin (guitar and vocals) and Degen Brown (lead vocals and the triangle), the Ballz n All band formed about three years ago after a few drinks.
“We’ve all known each other for a long time,” Mark said.
“We came up with the idea (after about 15 Johnny Walkers) that we should get together and do a gig.
“We debuted at a ‘Four on the Floor’ [at the Cobar Bowling & Golf Club] and people loved it.”
The trio hadn’t been playing together long when they got booked for the ‘Gig on the Grass’ concert at Ward Oval as part of the Grey Mardi Gras Festival in April 2019.
Their performance was very well received with many locals saying their set was the standout performance of the night.
“On the ‘big stage’ is where we really come to life,” Mark said.
“It was a buzz for us all to be able to enter-tain our community and we gave it everything we had. That was our chance to show the com-munity ‘here we are – get ready!’.
“It probably was the event that launched us, as we hadn’t been together long at that point,” Mark said.
Ballz n All then started getting noticed around the central west and on average were doing three gigs each month.
They were also still all working in their other jobs: Mark as a Light Vehicle Fitter at the Peak Mine; Kahlia in finance department, also at Peak; and Degen who’s had a few different starts and Mark says he’s currently a profes-sional house renovator.
They played at the Beerfest in Condobolin, the David Bowie Festival at Carinda, Duck Creek Races at Nyngan, as well as other race meets in the area.
“We also played regularly in Parkes and Bourke and have done many private events in the region and travelled about 1,200km per month,” Mark said.
However the COVID pandemic hit in March 2020 and had a big effect on the entertainment industry. For the past 18 months the band has had a limited number of opportunities to per-form together.
“It was a real struggle having everything locked down and cancelled, especially when our calendar was becoming so full.”
Mark said they were however lucky they still had day jobs, as all of their music work was cancelled.
He said their gig calendar is now starting to fill up again and, along with the Christmas Street Parade night, they’ve also got a number of other Christmas parties lined up and more gigs in Bourke and Parkes.
They’re also booked to play at the Golfie on New Year’s Eve and have bookings into next year for the Tottenham Races, the Coonaba-rabran Show and Condo Beerfest.
“We’re about to release our merchandise, so look out for that on Parade night,” Mark said.
