From performing as The Gems or Geelong’s “desperate housewives” to their weekly show on community radio, Sam Durney and Trish Redman-Collister are nigh-inseparable. They speak to Luke Voogt about 15 years of friendship and adventure.
Tell us about you…
Sam is a tradie working for Fix ’N’ Chips, has a partner Aaron and together they have five kids.
Trish is a co-owner of Rockin’ Donuts and Coffee, has been married for 30 years to Jeff and has three kids and four grandkids.
We host and run events at the Potato Shed, both paid and voluntary, and have hosted Drysdale’s free Family Fun Day for many years. We also teach hundreds of preppies to sing, dance and act at the Potato Shed for Children’s Week in October .
How did your friendship begin?
We met 15 years ago. With all our children at school, it was time to do something exciting and be us. We bought guitars, learnt a few chords and did our first gig two weeks later, which was a bit scary. This was the beginning of our adventures together!
Life is busy but we never say never… we’ve done The Winter Solstice nude swim in Tasmania and a five-kilometre obstacle course together. We were even on TV show Game of Games, hosted by Grant Denyer.
What gigs do you perform onstage?
As The Gems we sing songs we and our audience love. Our Desperate Housewives nights have been running for 11 years and often sell out. These nights are unrehearsed and full of spontaneous product reviews, improvisation, music, laughter and audience participation, with a group dance at the end of the night. We have themes like Bollywood, bogan and Rocky Horror, to name a few.
Between us we play the guitar, mandolin, drums, bass, harmonica and even the kazoo – basically anything we can get our hands on – and we love singing and harmonising.
We’re also involved in children’s band Funky Mummies and Theatre 3222 kids’ plays. We love children feeling free to have a go. You don’t have to do things perfectly, you just need to have fun.
What’s it like being on radio?
People kept telling us that we should be on radio… and now have our own show, Breaky With The Gems, 7am to 9am Fridays on 94.7 The Pulse. We want to have fun and make our listeners feel like they know us. We love to make people feel good and put a positive spin on everything. It’s crazy because we have very different personalities, but know each other so well, so we bounce off each other with ease no matter what we’re talking about. The great thing about community radio we can choose what we talk about. We tell our listeners about our weekends, visiting local wineries, seeing live music and eating at our region’s many beautiful cafes and restaurants. We feel so lucky!
What else do you like to do locally?
We love being involved in fundraisers and have raised thousands of dollars for Geelong charities. We ran Bellarine’s Got Talent for three years to raise money for children at Cottage By The Sea in Queenscliff. We have also hosted fundraisers for children on the autism spectrum and people with Parkinson’s disease.
How have you coped with COVID-19?
COVID hit entertainers hard, and we lost a lot of gigs for 2020. Thank goodness the Potato Shed put on the live-streamed Bird Bath Sessions, which we hosted and performed in. Eventually COVID became so volatile that these had to stop as well. Now we’re back on the radio and performing live as The Gems. We love singing, acting and living the best life we can.
