Waifs that stray

For nomadic Australian trio The Waifs, playing music was initially simply a way to make enough money to travel. From their inception as a covers duo, sisters Donna and Vikki poached guitarist Josh from a gigging rock band they came across on the road, and proceeded to live out of a camper van for three years playing every backwater venue Australia has to offer.
Studio work was a logical move. Moving into the domain of original material - mainly, as they tell it, at the request of their fans, The Waifs have recorded four albums since 1996, the most recent being 2002’s Up All Night.
However, touring remains the band’s staple and has seen them travel extensively through Australia and America, and now Europe. But the jewel in their crowns is undoubtedly slots supporting none other than Bob Dylan.
"We did six dates in Oz with him last February," says Donna, "then we were invited to tour the States. We’ve done two separate tours with him now. We’ve met with him and chatted and stuff, he seemed very nice, very affable. It crossed our minds that his audiences were often not so patient with opening acts, but the crowds were very receptive. Obviously a lot of people were there waiting for Bob to start, but I think we got a really good response.
"It was amazing. We sold a lot of CDs at every show and we got a lot of talk on the chat pages of his fansites and stuff. I got to sing with him too, we did ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s door."
Aside from more gigs and the impending fifth album, The Waifs’ plans for the future are fairly clear-cut:
"Well," smiles Donna, wearily, " we’ve been touring since 1992, so we’ll probably be taking a little break!"

The Waif’s Up All Night album is out now