New Australian raises funds for CQ drought affected families

Thai born classic trained pianist joins Stomp the Crack musos for drought fundraiser

HAPPY TO HELP: Thammasivaphat Sudchai joined local musicians at Stomp the Crack November 11 to help local and interstate musicians raise more than $13,500 for drought-stricken Queensland farmers. Picture: Jann Houley

THE name Thammasivaphat Sudchai is a musical mouthful so his friends just call him A.

Mr Sudchai fronted the Stomp the Crack stage twice on November 11 to help local and interstate musicians raise more than $13,500 for drought- stricken Queensland farmers.

He played piano with Jag and the Rollers and Rhonda and Friends and joined dozens of artists signing a guitar that made over $600 at auction.

He also played a charity gig for the Cyclone Marcia recovery and BobFest at Byfield, the Blackwater Bikies do, Agnes Water Blues, and Tuesdays he can often be found tickling the ivories for senior citizens at Yeppoon's Morning Melodies.

"He goes wherever there's music to play and people to connect with," his wife Sheryl Adsett said.

But Mr Sudchai, who undergoes his citizenship test next year, knew nobody except his new wife and her family when he moved to their Bondoola farm in 2014.

Ms Adsett, who was a widow, was on holidays with friends on the Thai island of Pattaya in 2009 when she first laid eyes on Mr Sudchai playing the resort piano.

"I didn't even look at his face at first, I was so mesmerised with his hands on the keyboard," she said.

Mr Sudchai, the youngest of five boys, left his birthplace Pattaya for the capital when his widowed mother had to find work in the city.

He spent 15 years working for a production company, composing commercial music, while he studied classical piano at Bangkok University and played in different bands by night.

After moving back to Pattaya and beginning an email friendship with Ms Adsett, Mr Sudchai first visited Australia in 2010, travelling from Brisbane around The Gemfields and onto Central Queensland.

Ms Adsett's three adult children travelled to Pattaya in April 2014 to witness the lavish wedding at her mother-in-law's house which, in typical Thai style, "started at dawn and was still going days later".

It's a happy life for the couple on the Bondoola property with plenty of space to share with Ms Adsett's son and five grandchildren, aged between 10 and 20 years old but her new husband missed the busy camaraderie with fellow musicians.

"I was reading The Morning Bulletin's gig guide just a few weeks after A arrived and I saw there was Musos' night in Rockhampton," Ms Adsett said.

"We went along and someone kindly lent him a keyboard to play with some other musicians and singers; it really lifted his spirits."

Four years on, Mr Sudchai is fully immersed in the region's music scene, playing at the Blackboard Musos meetings, Club 28 and the sailing club's Bilge Bar, and travelling as far as Barcaldine out west where he developed a taste for kangaroo steaks and country music.

"Every month I ring my mum in Thailand and I tell her how happy I am making music in Australia," Mr Sudchai said.

He reads the newspaper, watches television and has enrolled in English classes at CQUni to improve his English but says meeting people at gigs and concerts is the best lesson in becoming an Aussie.

"I want to learn more English and make better music," he said.

"I am very happy to meet friendly people."

The Country Women's Association has begun distributing vouchers from money raised by Stomp the Crack volunteers to drought-affected families.

Originally published as New Australian raises funds for CQ drought affected families