| A game of diminishing returns... so they say. [BEASTWARS guest-blog] |
| Written by Clayton Anderson [BEASTWARS guitarist] |
| Thursday, 25 August 2011 16:17 |
 BEASTWARS tweet April the 15th 1306: "Financial Terrorist. Ellerslie, tomorrow race 2 paying 15 to win." If you are one of a handful of our Twitter followers and you acted on our tip on Friday the 15th of April, I suspect you’ll read this with a knowing smile. You see, even if you put a dollar on this unknown, this rank-outsider, you would’ve walked away with $31.50 in your hand. Beastwars don’t do things by half, no, we bet the house, or in our case, the remaining band funds and our own spare cash too. Why? Because we liked the name, well, Matt (Hyde, Vocals) liked the name, and after this win I do believe he is some kind of bush-witch shaman, or has some kind of psychic ability. Saturday morning April the 16th: My phone rings and someone screams down the phone: “It was 31 to 1!!!” It took me a while to recognise the voice because it was Saturday morning. Friday night is before Saturday morning and I like to have a drink. I listened hard through my booze fog – it was Mum. “31 to 1!”, she yelled down the phone again. I held my cellphone from my throbbing head. It was my fault for giving her the tip. But at the moment I couldn’t recall that. It was only when she said, “how much did you put on it?” that I clicked. “Did it win?” I said, “yes, and the odds were 31 to 1!” (They were 15 the day before). I broke down. Laughed, laughed so hard people were looking at me. My mate and Beastwars' drummer, Nathan, sitting across from me, knew straight away what had happened and laughed too. I had to hang up and ring Matt. I tried to hold it together and said, “You’ll never guess what”. Matt laughed too. We've never laughed so much as a band. We started the day off hungover, dragging our arses to a morning band practice, and now we were literally laughing our way to the TAB. I’ll never forget the look on the face of the guy behind the counter. WE were the financial terrorists and he had a look on his face as if he was one of our hostages and was about to get a cap in his arse unless he handed over the money. Yessir, horses do win with those odds, buddy! It is Beastwars lore - the one-off win that paid for the pressing and freight of our vinyl from the States. A few weeks later in May, I got a text from mum saying Financial Terrorist was with the same jockey. Race 1, Ellerslie, odds 28-to-one. I let the band know and put a tweet out to our followers. We placed our bets. By race time the odds were down 11 to one, but he was still the horse paying the most. That’s usually not a good sign. That Saturday morning in May, I was sober, fresh, and a bit apprehensive. Surely we’re pushing it. I turned on Trackside. I watched Financial Terrorist terrorise the field. Our horse (it’s SUCH a Beastwars horse now) led from start to finish on a wet, heavy field (Beastwars is getting used to the lingo) at Ellerslie. From the beginning to end!!! Horses don’t do that: ours did. It lead all the way and it was the most heart-stopping moment of my life. There’s an old story from the Flying Nun heyday about the Jefferies brothers funding a This Kind of Punishment album from proceeds won on the horses. I always thought it was part of the lore - because it’s a great story. Now I’m a believer - it happened to us. Lady luck’s been on Beastwars' side so far, but we’re constantly told... “It’s a game of diminishing returns”. We can see it won’t last, but we’ll put money on “our” horse while she’s on the run. She's more reliable than bankers and the stockbrokers. She’s made to run in our times, her name couldn’t be more apt: FINANCIAL TERRORIST. Click HERE to follow Beastwars on Twitter for Financial Terrorist tips and updates!  |
