Submitted by Dr Geoff Walden
Images from Amanda Teague
Before writing about the history of “Elyjah and the Mines” it is reasonable to discuss how they came about that name. The Elyjah part is fairly straight forward, Elyjah had been nominated as lead singer for the band, so he received front billing. The “Mines” bit is a little more interesting in that the letters of the word represent the initial letter from the christian name of each of the members. But wait, I hear you say, there are four members of the band but five letters in the word “Mines”. It works out that initially, there were five band members but one was unable to continue. However, they agreed that they should keep the name as it was. For the rest of this history, we will refer to them as “The Mines”.
The Mines first gig was at the Orange Hotel on the 18th of April, 2021. This was a time when the Orange Hotel management was very supportive of Gayndah’s young people learning to play music and present it to venues arount the community. Our bands were performing on the third Sunday of the month from 2pm to 5pm and the Orange management paid the two young bands $200 for their afternoon’s work. Not big dollars when it was divided between the two bands, but it was recognition for the work. The Mines consisted of Noah Teague on lead guitar, Imogen Coulson on bass guitar, Elyjah Terry on guitar and vocals and Shyloh Terry on drums.
In order to be able to play their first gig, the whole band had to be able to play five songs off by heart, that is no words, no music. They had no worries doing that and once they had the first gig completed, it was off to the races, figuratively speaking.
The band’s next gig was on stage for the 2021 Gayndah Orange Festival. That was an interesting year, having just gotten over the lock downs associated with Covid, the Orange Festival was held in the Showgrounds and things became a little more complicated as far as the running of the festival was concerned because there was a fair chance of rain. The contracted to provide the sound refused to set his gear up on the stage provided (a semi trailer provided by one of the local transport companies) so he set up in one of the covered areas of the show grounds. So at 9am (again) Elyjah and the mines was scheduled to play “on stage” for the Orange Festival. Noah Teague was unavailable for that gig so Noah Coulson filled in for him.
The next gig for the Mines revolved around their August 15th 2021 gig at the Orange. A photographer was organised to take some photos suitable for promotion purposes while they were on stage and afterwards down on the banks of the Burnett River.
The next important gig for the Mines reuired a two hour drive to the town of Kingaroy to take part in the Pig Jam whe was organised with association with the town’s annual Bacon Fest. It happened in August 2022 and the band played a set that was really enjoyed by the audience. The judging of the event was done via phone in. Each contestant was allocated a phone number which was displayed after the competition was finished. Althouth the Gayndah bands played very well, they had no hope of success because the locals out numbered them in every which way. However, it was a good experience and one they would do again in 2023.
The Shania Twain song Man I feel like a woman seemed like an eminantly suitable song for a band with one female member and with some encouragement, Imogen agreed to sing it and the boys were happy to learn the song along with her and perform it live with a wig on. They got to do this first at their Sunday afternoon gig at the Orange on the 18th of June, 2023. It proved to be good entertainment for the parents and friends present.
