This week I was able to sit down for a chat with one of Tassie’s movers and shakers, landscaper and promoter Alistair Roberts. Alistair is the man responsible for securing X factor winner Altiyan Childs recent concert performance in Hobart. The story of how this eventuated is fairytale stuff indeed that might just convince us that dreams can, and do, really come true.

Alistair Roberts originates from Plymouth New Zealand via Sydney to Tassie and with him he brings a little of that pioneering spirit of those first New Plymouths.

The saga of securing the X- Factor’s winners performance in Hobart began when 3 weeks before Christmas last year Mrs Roberts, Alistair’s wife, put on her Facebook site a plea to Altiyan to perform a concert in Tassie.

Mrs Roberts had been a keen follower of X factor and had been willing Altiyan to win the whole way through. Less enthusiastic at that time was Alistair; he had seen bits and pieces of the program but was not a fan of Altiyan as yet.

Reading his wife’s request and knowing this was her birthday wish, he, together with the aid of Facebook and the support of other fans began to investigate the possibility of bringing Altiyan to Tasmania and decided to finance the visit.

The Derwent Entertainment Centre was the venue of choice and Alistair was impressed with their generosity in helping his plan come to fruition.

Alistair himself, with his landscaping background and his other job of designing computer games had the necessary artistic and creative talent to oversee much of the publicity process, including creating the posters that would advertise the event.
Alistair’s gamble was a success. Reports back were all given the thumbs up and the concert considered one of the smoothest one ever hosted at the venue, the crowd were praised for their enthusiasm and in fact the consensus was it was Altiyan’s best concert so far! The concert in a beautiful Tasmanian centre with an excellent venue and attentive fans pulled in fans from Melbourne to Darwin who made the exodus to Hobart for the show.
The fans were not disappointed with Altiyan putting great physicality, emotion and soul into a giving all performance. After the show Altiyan was not one to disappoint, happily signing and staying until 2 am to make sure everyone who had stayed back to meet and greet got to do just that, not to mention the special extras such as hugs and kisses and many memorable photos.

What a contradiction Mr Child’s is, from putting his all into a powerful rock song to shy words of thanks and praise to his audience between songs.

Alistair is clearly relishing is role as promoter and has plans afoot to bring girl band ‘Stone Field’ to Tassie in the future.

Not only as Alistair impressed the Altiyan crew with his promotional abilities has he also impressed them with his skills in computers. Using the text of another fan as the basis of a tribute he was able to match their text to a row of images that displayed the strength and affection between Altiyan and his father. Such was its emotional impact on the family, the Roberts have become firm friends with Altiyan’s family.

It’s a wonderful story of how Altiyan’s dad convinced him to enter the X Factor competition and so realise his long forsaken dream and trading fork lift driving for a career as a music artist. The story has almost biblical overtones with Dad asking his son 5 times to enter the competition but Altiyan refused until his Dad suggested doing it for ‘him‘.  Altiyan’s clear devotion to his dad finally made him acquiesce and of course the rest is history, although not without some shaky and soul searching moments along the way, as many times Altiyan’s sensitivity struggled to cope with the sometimes brutal nature of a competition such as X- Factor. Altiyan’s seeking solace in a cave created quite a stir and had critics questioning it as gimmick or stunt.

Rest assured that Alistair talks about Altiyan as every bit the sensitive and caring soul that politely excused himself from the signing line on Saturday night to make allowances for someone that needed to leave early and couldn’t’t wait in the queue.

Altiyan’s generous spirit does not go unnoticed by fans, who taken advantage of the many images and collages made available by the computer to compile, between velvet bound covers, a collection of images and memories.

With all the technology abounding yet, Altiyan himself is working on a different level, testimony of which is his sojourn in the cave. He is also known to mislay mobile phones and so disestablish that contact with the world of competition and chaos.

He is also a man that believes in loyalty an example being that his band mate Daniel from his former band Masonia (meaning builders of music) is now his guitarist.

Thanks to Alistair who made Tasmania’s landscape a little bit brighter last Saturday, in pulling off a successful, albeit belated, birthday wish. As Alistair said he did it for ‘her’ his wife) and for Tasmania