May ‘15
free
HANLON BROTHERS YOU GOTTA GET TIGHT TO GET LOOSE issue #021
MUSIC
Casey Barnes Winter in the ‘Vale Paul Dempsey Neem Funkoars
FOOD + DRINK The Outcider Lakeview Cafe Blendlove Push
MUSIC
Phil Barlow Darkc3ll Jimmy the Saint & the Sinners Andrew Strong
ART + CULTURE Miss Saigon Dion Parker Ivan Aristeguieta RED Expressionism
LITERATURE Anna Bllgh Michael Vietch Tara Moss Emily Bitto Emma Healey
FRIDAY 8 MAY
SUNDAY 10 MAY 2
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Surfersparadise.com
We’re turning up the volume on the city’s musical majesty for night 1 of Surfers Paradise LIVE with feature performances by Grinspoon’s Phil Jamieson, Mason Rack Band, and soul sensation Lisa Hunt.
SATURDAY 9 MAY
ARIA award winning, smash hit duo and Surfers Paradise LIVE headliners Sneaky Sound System take the stage on day 2, along with indie Perth duo Sun City, pop infused funk band Cheap Fakes and more.
Get set for the ultimate Sunday sesh on day 3 as we celebrate the collective power of live music with feature performances from New Zealand’s Bonjah, Casey Barnes and Electrik Lemonade.
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The Vultures @ Rockin’ the Goldie
#021 MAY 2015 Editor: Samantha Morris Design: Chloe Popa, Blunt Pencil Studio Advertising: Amanda Gorman Music Coordinator: Mella Bunker Cultural Editor: Natalie O’Driscoll Money Coordinator: Phillippa Wright Environment Editor: Mic Smith Gig Guide: Emily Norman Cover story: Iain Wright Cover image: Hanlon Brothers, shot at the Dust Temple by Lamp Photography Contributors: Anthony Gebhardt, Jake Wilton, Marj Osborne, Nev Pearce, Mic Smith, Pip Andreas, Catherine Coburn, Terry “Tappa” Teece, Emily Russell, Elizabeth Ansley, Nathan James, David Simmons, Sarah McEwan, Yanina Benavidez, Tiffany Mitchell, James Wills, Matt Greer, Iain Wright, Emily Norman, Chloe Pickard, Eden Tokatly, Iain Wright
Acknowledgement of Country We show our respect and sincerely acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this Land and their Elders past and present.
Rockin’ the Goldie showcases local talent A massive live music experience takes place Saturday 2 May featuring no less than 20 Gold Coast artists. Running from 3.00pm to just shy of 1.00am at the Currumbin Creek Tavern, Rockin’ the Goldie Music Festival is being presented by Cross Fire Music. Tickets are just $10 from either your favourite artist or on the door on the night. And the lineup – you might want to make a cup of tea before you read it – includes Smoking Martha, Stav and the Dark, The Vultures, Benny D Williams, Maryen Cairns, The Polaroids, Former Angels, Cadence, Andy Cartwright, New Age Motion, Kel Itong, Danielle Rancie, Rocket Train, Alex Evans, Payments in Gold, Casey Duque, United States of Oz, Jennifer Sjaan and Xens Arrival. Blank writers have raved about the awesome sound for live music at Currumbin Creek Tavern so if you haven’t been in to check it out yet, I’d say this Saturday is a safe bet for finding your new favourite GC band. Get all the details at Facebook via Cross Fire Music. New beer launched for good cause To launch their 2015 Stone Beer, Stone & Wood is opening its brewery doors on Saturday 9 May. With live music by The Babe Rainbow and Pat Tierney, food by JR Smokehouse and 100 Mile Table there will also be screen printing workshops, all the Stone & Wood beers and good vibes! All profits from this Festival of the Stone will go to their Ingrained Community Program. Things kick off from 4.00pm at the Stone & Wood Brewery, 4 Boronia Place, Byron. Klubknight
Editorial: news@blankgc.com.au Advertising: advertising@blankgc.com.au Blank GC is an independently owned and published magazine, with most of our writers contributing their time pro-bono to boosting the cultural scene on the Gold Coast. Founded in 2013 we are the Gold Coast’s independent cultural voice, relying on advertising to keep us in the fray. Opinions expressed herein, are not necessarily those of the Editor, Publishers or of the writing team.
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Klubknight show brute force After being on Blank’s cover just before the new year and receiving airplay for their debut EP, both here and abroad, GC electro outfit
Klubknight are back. They’ve described their new track Brutis as “techno homage to the eyeball-bending decadence of 3.00am.” Just shy of six minutes of synth-driven sinister techno, Brutis helps Klubknight take one step closer to their goal of being one of the most original synthesis outfits in Australia. It includes a hypnotic sample of a girl being interviewed in the 60s while on acid. You can download Brutis for free at klubknight. bandcamp.com. Cosmic Psychos x Dune Rats In what could be the most lethal double-header in Australian tours of recent years, Cosmic Psychos and Dune Rats are combining forces and heading out on tour together this June. The tour coincides with a new Cosmic Psychos LP out 5 June – it’s already been two years since the Cosmic Psychos documentary Blokes You Can Trust was unleashed and the film’s warm response drew the band to Europe and the USA. They reunited with old friends L7 in LA and toured with Pearl Jam on the 2014 BDO circuit. It’s a wonder they had time to record anything, but record they did. Their new EP Cum the Raw Prawn was recorded on Ross Knight’s farm in January and the first single Better, not Bitter is already out. You can catch the Psychos when they lob into the Cooly Hotel on Friday 5 June. Neil Murray
Neil Murray visits GC for free concert A community concert event not to be missed! Following the official opening event for the exhibition East Coast Encounter at the Arts Centre Gold Coast, legendary Australian singer-songwriter Neil Murray will perform alongside some of the Gold Coast’s local emerging musicians in a showcase concert. The show runs 6.00 – 8.00pm with doors from 5.30pm. And while tickets are free, RSVP is essential as there are limited seats available. Book via theartscentregc.com.au or by phoning 07 5588 4000.
Von Villians @ elsewhere
elsewhere’s love for local music Three stellar local music options are on the brew at elsewhere this month. Salvardarlings take to the stage on 8 May, alongside Blue Bones and Full Flower Moon Band, Karl S William’s side project TSUN will appear on Friday 15 May with The Jensens and Von Villains will make magic on Friday 22 May along with Ada Swain and Rikki Newton. Three Fridays of local music gold. Get on it. Month of Tuesdays at The Avenue for Hanlon Bros The Hanlon Brothers have scored themselves a whole month of Tuesdays at The Avenue for May. They’ll have their full band on stage. There’s also a mix of covers and other artists hitting The Avenue throughout the month with a $5 tapas menu available every single day between 3.00 and 5.00pm. The lineup includes Vertigo, Cory Hargreaves, Hodads and Triple Js. More at theavenuesurfers.com. Parkwood gets rowdy in May and June Parkwood Tavern has always offered solid live music options, but they’ve gone above and beyond for May and June with two stand-out acts on offer. 29 May will see Dallas Frasca hit the stage and Saturday 6 June will see Shihad make a return to the Gold Coast. We are terribly excited about both shows, particularly given that the Tavern is within a stone’s throw of the light rail. Tickets for both are available from the venue or Moshtix. Rock and roll.
Ash Grunwald
Ash Grunwald unleashes River to fill bellies with fire Immediately after announcing a headlining set at Blues on Broadbeach, Ash Grunwald unleashed a new single as a taste of what’s to come on his album NOW. The single River saw Grunwald work with the likes of Ian Perez (Wolfmother), Pete Wilkins (formerly Blue King Brown) and Nick Didia (Producer for the likes of Park Jam, RATM). He says it’ a call to those who are fed up with being played the fool. The presser says that the track acknowledges ‘how the average human with mere hopes of clean drinking water is considered now an extremist.’ Grunwald has been vocal in his opposition to the expansion of CSG exploration and he says the song is ‘a reminder that division amongst a country’s citizens creates a smokescreen for Governments to sneak behind unnoticed to make their corruptions law. There’s no hiding the fact that we love a good protest song, here at Blank, so we can’t help but recommend this one. See it performed live when Ash Grunwald hits Blues on Broadbeach on Saturday 23 May. For FREE! More at bluesonbroadbeach.com. Black Rabbit George
Black Rabbit incarnation for Tijuana Cartel frontman Black Rabbit George is the new project of Tijuana Cartel frontman, Paul George. One he believes will help him explore his long-held passion for folk and roots music. Paul has spent the past decade writing, recording and touring Australia with Tijuana Cartel – fondly remembered for his flamenco-inspired guitar work. But his lifelong interest in some of the greatest musical storytellers now define his new Black Rabbit persona. He believes the result is a haunting and introspective musical experience with words like subtle, darkness,
seductive and rousing peppering his press release. His new track Dusty Fingers is the catalyst for a tour which will see Paul unleash his trademark guitar motifs with new layers fans may not be familiar with. Paul stops in at Miami Marketta on Saturday 9 May and The Treehouse at Byron Bay on Thursday 23 July. Sneaky Sound System live on Surfers Beach Surfers Paradise Live is bringing the goods with its biggest lineup yet. Over the weekend of 8 – 10 May the beach and mall of Surfers Paradise will come alive with the likes of Sneaky Sound System, Phil Jamieson (Grinspoon), Bonjah, Timberwolf, Dallas James, Ngaiire, Sun City, Kite Machine, Mason Rack Band, Cheap Fakes and more. It’s an incredibly diverse lineup and it’s all free. It wraps up with the ultimate Sunday session with Casey Barnes and Electrik Lemonade joining the lineup. Get all the details at surfersparadise. com. Neem
NOMINATIONS UNDERWAY FOR GOLD COAST MUSIC AWARDS
At the time of going to print, some 47 nominations have been received for the 2015 Gold Coast Music Awards. It’s the first time the city has celebrated its music champions for more than 20 years with six categories open for nominations until 31 May. Organisers say it’s been a busy time pulling everything together ready for judging and the awards presentation itself. “After announcing our six categories, we literally had a dozen nominations overnight,” said Chloe Popa, one of the three organisers of the awards. “So we’ve been busy finalising our sponsor partnerships, the prize packages we’re offering as well as what the judging process will be.” Griffith University’s Queensland Conservatorium Seed project was the first sponsor confirmed with City of Gold Coast and Southport Sharks Cabana Bar coming on board in the past month. They join Burleigh Brewing Co who has been on board as presenting partner from day one. Chloe said all of those organisations had committed cash as well as inkind resources to get the inaugural event off to a running start. “We’re also thrilled with the level of support shown by the Gold Coast’s music industry,” Chloe said. “And that industry is deep and diverse. It’s more than just musicians and venues – it’s recording studios and music marketers, video makers, visual artists, music teachers, festivals and major tourism events, sound engineers, venues and more.” “And it’s those people who have come on board to donate prizes to make this a very attractive award for Gold Coasters contributing to the music scene,” Chloe said. She added, that while prize packages were still being polished, they include things like recording studio time, headlining slots at major events, mentoring, production of a single, videos, on-air radio play, marketing packages for print and more. “After nominations close on 31 May, we’ll be working with our independent judging panel to start assessing entries and pulling together a list of finalists,” Chloe said.
Live at Bond The second in Bond University’s Live at Bond series will see Neem join Zoe O’Sullivan for a chilled afternoon of live music. Neem are a straight-up family affair (see interview in this edition) and the event is fast becoming known as a family-friendly afternoon with bar and snacks, plenty of space for free-ranging children (keep an eye out for the Blank tribes), lots of free parking and all set in the vast grounds of Bond University. Neem and Zoe O’Sullivan hit the uni on Sunday 17 May from 2.00pm.
The judging panel, which is chaired by Trevor Jackson from ABC Gold Coast includes Julz Parker and Leesa Gentz (Hussy Hicks), Robyn Archer (the city’s Cultural Advisor), Sean Flanagan (Hot Tomato), Louise Bezzina (Bleach* Festival) and Neil Beattie (Swingin’ Safari). Finalists will be notified two weeks before the awards ceremony which will be held at Burleigh Brewing Co on Wednesday 22 July. Chloe said the event was expected to sell out. “We only have 250 tickets available given the unique venue,” she said. Tickets are available at gcmusicawards.eventbrite.com. Nominations for the Gold Coast Music Awards close 31 May. Nominees are encouraged to self-nominate or find someone close to their work to do so as this is an industry award. More at gcmusicawards.com.au. Pictured: Karl S Williams Image courtesy of Jake Wilton Photography
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YOU GOTTA GET TIGHT TO GET LOOSE Improvisation isn’t really the norm in today’s somewhat over-produced music world but the Hanlon Brothers really aren’t the norm when it comes to being song writers either. Since forming their first band in their early teens, a dedication to honing their musical chops and a genetically inherited work ethic has seen this “family” develop a solid musical foundation that allows them to use improvisation as their creative muse. From Australian Idol winners to Dixieland covers bands these guys have done it all and managed to create their own pieces of musical magic along the way. Blank’s funnyhairyman caught up with main men Saia and Omar Hanlon for a chat about all things Hanlon and their new album Featured. Image courtesy of Lamp Photography If you’ve ever seen the Hanlon Brothers perform you’ll know there’s a lot of them. Are they all brothers? What’s the family dinner table like? I pose the question. Saia tells me there are seven or eight members of the band depending on the gig. “Myself and Omar are the actual brothers and the main writing and producing members of the band,” he tells me. “We have amazing support and collaboration from the other members of the band, they are all really talented.” Like many musicians, the brothers grew up in a musical family, telling me their dad was a drummer and that there was even a rehearsal room at home. “We grew up listening to him playing and that’s rubbed off on most of the members of the family including our sister who is a singer,” Omar said.
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But she’s not in the band. Is she some kind of Janet Jackson, I ask. “Yeah kind of. We would have to change the name of the band for starters,” Omar responds. Saia adds that their love of music comes from the style of music their dad was playing at the time: a lot of tower of power type stuff, earth wind and fire and also heaps of drummers, jazz guys. “So we grew up listening to that,” Saia said. “A lot of that old funk stuff we come back to but it mixes with the music we were listening to growing up, we were 80s kids so that’s probably the main influence on us. Culture is the other thing that influences their music. “We are Maori with a bit of Tongan in the there too,” Saia said. “They are very musical people and love having a good time and that “good time” vibe definitely has an influence on
our music. We were brought up listening to predominantly brown music.” Like many with that awesome mix of island heritage, they grew up on the Gold Coast, with that musical father working in music here in the 70s, 80s and 90s. “In those days a lot more places had live music compared to now, so he got the opportunity to play a lot and make a living from music,” Saia said. “He would play every day and two shows a day on the weekend, this was before pokies, smoking rules, noise restrictions and all those “party poopers” came in.” “We started really young and formed our first band when I was ‘round 14 and like all young bands we needed a bass player,” Saia tells me. “Omar was 11 and we got him to play bass. He quickly became a weapon of a player and eventually
went off to the Conservatorium of Music. It was around then that our father died and our mother really didn’t want us to be musicians so she got us to do a trade. I became a carpenter and Omar was a scaffolder / rigger.”
strip off down to the socks, Red Hot Chilli Peppers style and get into it. What we really do is bring ideas together, chord progressions and different grooves and then we improvise on those ideas at gigs and the songs come from there.”
I laugh at this. It means Omar can set up the stage and then get up and play on it.
I can’t imagine what it’s like to improvise songs in front of a live crowd. It’s the exact opposite to how many bands create their music. I’m curious as to how they made the decision to do it that way.
“Yeah, I can play and also advise that they need a handrail over there,” Omar said. “By the time we were in our early twenties we decided that we really wanted to be musicians and took it really seriously, big practice hours and totally focused on improving the musicianship,” Saia continued. “Our dad had a really high standard, he was an eight hour a day practice kind of guy and a real mother of a player. We took that on board, that real work ethic and taking the musicianship really seriously. So while everyone else slept we just practiced hard for a few years.” Making music your day job often means having to start out playing covers and some people struggle with that compromise. Not so much these Hanlon Brothers. Omar says they just struggled through trying to avoid getting a day job. And Saia says there was definitely a transition between playing covers and introducing their own songs, “but covers are still a part of our set,” he said. “I mean good music is good music! It’s strange when people get labelled covers muso or original muso, music is music and everyone takes ideas from everything. We hear people all the time that will only play their own stuff and can barely hold a note. I think maybe you should learn to play some stuff from these great artists, they are great for a reason! Then you can learn your way around your instrument and develop your musicality in general.” Omar agreed. “You have to do that, to learn your chops, chord progressions and then you can really write better music. We all need something to aim at.” The brothers also did their time in backing bands. “When Stan walker won Australian Idol we were already working with him and his brother so he asked us to join his band and that exposed us to other opportunities,” Saia said. “We got to play with lots of great artists like Ricky Lee Coulter and Jessica Mauboy. We also played with Paul Gray from Wa Wa Nee which was just crazy, hundreds of screaming cougars.” “We have also played with Galapagos Duck an amazing Australian jazz band and even played in a Dixieland kind of band but ultimately we decided we should really be doing our own thing, we know we can do it and wanted to build our own name rather than as a band for someone else,” Omar said. Their new album Featured was released in March. It’s a great, fun listen – a real Friday night groove kind of thing. The style is hard to define with RnB, funk style stuff, reggae and a jazzy feel. It’s a bit of a melting pot but each one of the tracks definitely has its own identity. Omar says there’s a bunch of different things going on which comes from the writing process. “We have a different approach to writing,” Saia said. “We just
“It is scary!” Saia said. “We were watching YouTube one night and saw Brian McKnight, Justin Timberlake and Wayne Brady doing an improvised song and thought we could do that. People would not believe it at first and would say that the songs must be pre-recorded. But the players we have in the band make it do-able. We would get the crowd to choose a word and our amazing vocalist Roman would just build on it.” Omar said it was common by the end of the night to have nine or ten good grooves that had already had a test drive in front of an audience so they’d know it would work and it would be a keeper. ‘We would record the gigs and review them, cut them up and decide what to keep and develop more. Using that process over three years or so we have over 2000 songs,” Saia said. I can’t help but suggest the next album should be a 100 CD set with 2000 songs included. “Well that could be the next 100 albums,” Saia said. “For the latest album Featured we went through them, picked the best ones and reworked them. It can be a problem having so much to choose from, like optional paralysis.” “The lyrics are tougher,” according to Omar. “It can be a ‘had to be there’ type thing. So we rewrite or reinvent the lyrics, change things so they make sense and have a good flow.” The new album is a more organic thing. Saia said they went into the studio with the bare essentials instrument wise and just looped verses and choruses and then listened to what sounded good, what felt good with a fun groove. “We knew that if the foundation was good the song would be good,” Saia said. “But if you heard the song from the improv night to the album there is a big change and development, it’s almost a different song,” Omar added. “You couldn’t just start out doing that,” Saia is quick to add. “It’s the talent and years of playing that the musicians in the band have that makes it work.” As a great man once told me “you gotta get tight to get loose”. Hanlon Brothers new album Featured is out now and well worth a listen. They are literally always gigging so for all their info check out their web site - hanlonbrothers.com.au
Interview by Iain Wright, story by Samantha Morris
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Images courtesy of Lamp Photography
A HEALTHY DOSE OF NEEM Yanina Benavidez sat down for a coffee with Gold Coast locals Neem and got the low-down on what’s coming up for this unique family band. They explored how they combine wisdom, experience with youth and vitality, their kind of normal and how they write music. Neem are Nimah Williams (Neem) on vocals and guitar, his mother Sally Williams-Schloegl on guitar and vocals also, her husband Rick Schloegl on bass and vocals and Nimah’s high school friend Nathan Wrench on drums. It’s a family band, and then some.
asked what’s your band name? And Neem just seemed to fit. We like it, it’s a common story being put on the spot for a band name and it sticks. When I Googled it I realised Neem oil is a soothing balm, I thought that was a nice name for our band. We are all about putting good vibes out to the world.’
After meeting Nimah, the band name is quite obvious. But how did you actually end up using Neem? We had been working on ideas and nothing seemed to fit, then we suddenly had a gig booked at the Loft and were
You recently played a show at Byron Bay Brewery, do you play in Byron often? We have played there twice and have a few shows coming up too.
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Obviously you have all known each other a very long time, how long have you been together as a band? Just over a year as a band, but we have been jamming and playing music together all our lives. Playing as mother and son is quite unique and it’s our kind of normal. We love it this way. How do you write your music? We co-write, one person will come up with a base idea and then we’ll all add our own parts and work on it together. Some songs mum (Sally) wrote herself and some we write together and you can hear the difference in the outcome. We are currently competing to win a support slot for Baby Animals and The Superjesus. We are in fifth place and its still running so hopefully we get that. That would be cool. Details are on our Facebook page. What have you got coming up? Neem will be appearing as part of the free Live at Bond concert series in the ADCO Amphitheatre at Bond University on Sunday May 17 (2-4:15pm) with Zoe O’Sullivan. Neem + Zoe O’Sullivan perform Live At Bond on Sunday 17 May from 2.00pm
FREET EVEN
ASH GRUNWALD ANDREW
STRONG
'THE COMMITMENTS TOUR' (IRELAND)
JAMES MORRISON THE BLACK SORROWS TIJUANA CARTEL JEFF LANG . BACKSLIDERS AND MANY MORE
bluesonbroadbeach.com
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HANGIN’ FIVE WITH SIXTIES SARAH When she’s not moonlighting as an Assistant Professor focused on forensics, Sarah Gardner can be found behind the decks spinning her unique collection of 45s across the Gold Coast and Brisbane. We hung five with Sixties Sarah ahead of her special Nowhere to Run mod night, hitting Brisbane this month.
WHAT’S ON MAY
May
Fri 1 May / 8.00pm / $15 ALEX BOWEN "The Book of Life Tour" + Scott Dalton + Kyle Lionhart Sat 2 May / 2.30pm / $10 "ROCKIN' THE GOLDIE" Music Festival 20 Acts Across 2 Stages Fri 8 May / 8.00pm / $10 UNITED STATES OF OZ + Twin Picks + Katie Who + Just Monday Sat 9 May / 8.00pm / $10 HAMMERS + Snake Mountain + D.R.O.I.D. + Wurmzer Fri 15 May / 8.00pm / $10 BEING JANE LANE + The Volleys + The Meaniacs + Monster Fodder Sat 16 May / 8.00pm / $10 COLLINS CLASS + Reskale + Dark Decorum + The Meerdogs + The Stouts Fri 22 May / 8.00pm / $10 MISGUIDED + Eat City + I Met The Maker + Second Hand Toothbrush + Odyssey + Why the Face Sat 23 May / 8.00pm / $10 LURE + Simulation + Holly Terrens + Phil Hancock Restaurant + Bar + Gaming Serving tapas until 10pm
Courtesy bus available – 5534 2322
www.currumbincreektavern.com.au
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FRI 1 MAY
British India
with special guests Grenadiers SOLD OUT
FRI 15 MAY
Josh Wade FRI 22 MAY
Paul Dempsey FRI 29 MAY
Matt Gresham June FRI 19 JUN
Dean Ray July FRI 31 JUL
Lloyd Spiegel Tickets at soundlounge.com.au
Describe your DJing modus operandi: Try not to create a murder on the dance floor! Current top three tracks from your collection: That is always a tough question! I have phases with favourites. I guess currently it would be: Jackie Wilson and Linda Hopkins - Say I do, Yvonne Fair – Say Yeah Yeah Yeah and The African Beavers – You Got Something. Although ask me again in five minutes and I’d list a different three! Day job: Forensic Science Lecturer at Bond University. Other DJ’ing gigs on the horizon: My other ventures are with ‘Nowhere to Run’ a Sunday morning 4zzz radio show and Mod night that is hitting Brisbane on 8 May at the Bearded Lady. I am also a resident DJ at The Cambus Wallace at Nobby Beach, where I spin my 45s every other Sunday. What was your nickname growing up?: It was ‘Twiggy Twin’. My twin sister and I were so stick thin our socks wouldn’t stay up, I hated it! Now I adore Twiggy, she’s amazing. Perhaps unwittingly, it was the start of my sixties obsession?!
AWAKENING THE WOLF Having recently returned from a trip to the US to immerse himself in music, Phil Barlow is back on our golden shores with a brand new album The Awakening which features some of the Gold Coast’s most accomplished musicians: local legend Scotty French on guitar, Karl Evans on bass, Cvitan Barac on drums. Tell me about how you got into music? I started by breaking from my 9-5 work life and started song writing and working on music. I then crashed myself into the music industry with my solo EP Shades of Grey and had the songs of my next album Phoenix Rising already written. I wrote most of them while travelling in Europe and decided some of the songs needed a band. What have you been doing lately and how has this influenced your music? Last year I went to Chicago and New Orleans to study music, spent five nights a week at whiskey dive bars and didn’t drink whiskey, ‘cause I was out five nights a week listening to the music and during the day I would just go through licks and get inspiration. I feel like I came home with a new fibre and outlook on how I conceptualise music and how I play it. Everything came from blues and to have that foundation deeply embedded in there has just locked in something pretty special. I am not interested in writing old school traditional blues but there is something pretty satisfying about understanding it. There is a huge development from your first EP Shades of Grey and this second album ‘Phoenix Rising’ to ‘The Awakening’ which is so much more gutsy. Aside form working closely with the band what else changed to inspire this new sound? I moved from an acoustic guitar to a Gibson Les Paul electric and that changed the way I write and just opened up a whole different world of tones and what comes out of the song as the end result. Also what I was listening to in the earlier years like The Doors and Led Zeppelin, which really influenced those first two albums. Working with the band changed a lot of the sound also. Do you play any blues covers in your sets? We are just developing our cover song repertoire, we really have a few favourites we all love to play just to mix them into our longer sets. We usually have to throw some in when we play three set gigs, we love doing those ‘cause usually the first we are warming, the second one everyone gets into the vibe and the third one you just blow everyone’s heads off and fall to the ground out of exhaustion at the end of it all. What is it that you are awakening out of? It is an awakening out of the human mind, out of the illusions we often live in. For me it was one particular track; Bold Sea Eagle is a song about breaking out of fear and fear can stagnate you and breaking free from that feeling, liberated and following what you want to do. What are you listening to backstage to prepare for a gig? What are you a music fan of? It depends who’s got control of the music and if it’s me I am still processing that 70’s era, there is so much great stuff there. Canned Heat has some amazing stuff, and Led Zeppelin I cant get out of my head. I like well-written songs with good riffs. Aaaaooooooooohh Yanina Benavidez You can expect some wild wolf pack action at The Awakening album launch on 15 May at Miami Marketta, which will have Nicole Brophy formerly of Killing Heidi supporting on the night. Phil Barlow and The Wolf will be playing two epic sets as a five piece.
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Hanlon Brothers Full band playing first Sunday & every Tuesday in May
LIVE MUSIC every night of the week
also playing in
MAY
AGENT 77 VERTIGO STEVENSON STREET
Cory Hargreaves
DJ JR
JACOB LEE
Hodads Triple J’s SLIQUE $5 tapas menu
available between 3pm-5pm every day
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STRONG, NOT SO SILENT
“Absolutely. I’ve been using the same Aussie musicians since 1996, they’re just a bunch of awesome guys. I wish I could bring them to Europe. I’m blessed when it comes to this, I just hop over on a plane by myself … we just do a day’s rehearsal and then we just go on the tour together. Over the years about 60% of the musicians I’ve toured with have been a major pain in the arse but the Aussies and I always just have great fun. I’m not someone who minces their words so I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.”
GOLD COAST
MUSIC AWARDS
Blues on Broadbeach hosts a range of music from rock, funk, soul and of course, blues. I ask Andrew where he fits into the mix.
2015
“The show I play in Australia is very Commitments based and I would put the rock before the soul. My take on these songs are just a lot heavier and the guitars are heavier and it just makes it a bit more interesting for me... In order for me to do it and make it interesting I play guitar and turn it up to 11 and we just kind of put some steroids in those songs. The live version is a lot more hardcore.” Andrew has collaborated and toured with some legendary talent over the last 25 years. But he says the Rolling Stones were one of the biggest highlights.
While the other sixteen-year-old Irish lads of Omagh, Ireland were busy trying to get dates and driver’s licences, Andrew Strong was being catapulted to fame by a cult film by the name of The Commitments and a little song called Mustang Sally. Now 41 and with about fifteen Australian visits under his belt, Andrew Strong returns to our shores, this time to play Blues on Broadbeach. From his home in a quiet little town about 20km outside of Dublin, he braved the time difference and chatted with Natalie O’Driscoll about his incredible career to date. A low, gravelly speaking voice combined with an Irish accent is a potent combination. I want to listen to Andrew speak all day, which is fortunate for both of us, as he seems to enjoy giving fifteen minute responses to even the simplest of questions. Given that he’s practically a local now, I ask him about any Australian musicians that he likes. “Oh there’s tons of artists I like from Australia,” he said. Then rattled off a list that includes the Baby Animals, AC/DC, Midnight Oil, INXS, Jimmy Barnes, Cold Chisel, Angels. “I got to hang out with Ian Moss last year and he’s a pretty interesting bloke,” Andrew added. Given his appreciation for our home grown musicians, I am curious as to whether or not he uses Australian bands for his tours here.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to be around really great artists, you meet The Stones and Elton John they’ve been in the business so long... they’re not pretentious. Maybe they went through that cycle in their careers, I did myself. I’m at the point - people say ‘god your first album was the big inspiration for me and the movie and without that I wouldn’t be in the music business.’ I just try to give people encouragement in the business. The tendency of most artists I meet is to be like that.” Blunt and genuine, Andrew seems an unlikely contender for a judging position on The X Factor. Yet he was indeed approached by the Irish producers, not once but twice. “I was asked to be one of the judges on it and as things worked out I was actually touring and it’s quite a long series and I couldn’t commit to it. Then I watched that show and it’s just horrendous. I look at kids who’ve been on it, and the ones who win it, they do nothing with their career. I know the sort of budget they get and it really is an absolute joke. Then they came back and asked me to be involved again and I point blank said no. I didn’t want to be a part of something that destroys some kid’s dreams. And they make a shitty album for ten grand, they do a little tour and that’s it. They’re about the shows, not about the artists. They only care about the ratings and that people are tuning in every Sunday evening to watch.”
NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN Song of the Year Artist / Band of the Year Emerging Artist of the Year Live Music Event of the Year Live Music Venue of the Year Local Music Champion of the Year People’s Choice Award runs 1 - 15 July
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The Boneyard Boys, Andrew’s current musical project, is set to have an album for release in 2016, and he plans to tour once it is out, with his home away from home Australia of course being a stop along the way. It’s taken several years and quite a few songs in the bin for him to be happy with the amount of product he has to choose from for the new album, but he is philosophical about the process. “These things take time. Three years ago when we started we wouldn’t have had the body of work that we do now. I think that applies to anything in life, if you stand back in anything and give yourself a bit of space, a relationship or a song or whatever, a clearer picture appears.” You can catch Andrew and band rocking the stage on Sunday 24 May at Blues on Broadbeach.
Gold Coast abc.net.au/goldcoast
Gold Coast
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I’m excited to hear about the new album, Big Bad Machine. I’m one of 89 people who have chipped in more than $10,000 to get it off the ground. Mason used crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to raise the funds. He says he’d seen other artists like Shaun Kirk and Dallas Frasca do the same thing. “It worked really quickly,” Mason said. “In 25 days we had the full amount. $10,000. I was really surprised. I’ve always been fully self-funded on all fronts – I’ve never taken grants. We signed to a small label on our first studio album – but apart from that everything else has been released straight out of my own pocket.”
NOTHING BUT A BIG BAD MACHINE: MASON RACK Father of two, Mason Rack, has been playing music on the Gold Coast for as long as I can remember. He’s toured Canada six times and Europe three and has played more than 2500 shows. Born in Southport Hospital – he’s seen the city change, the music scene change and himself change dramatically in that time. Our editor Samantha Morris had a long overdue chat to the bluesman, ahead of two major appearances this coming month: one at Surfers Paradise Live and Blues on Broadbeach. I’m a little biased when it comes to Mason Rack. Way back when we were launching Blank and needed a crowdfunding video, Mason, with no idea who we were, gave us permission to use one of his tracks. We’ve been following his journey closely ever since. That’s why I know he’s just returned from his honeymoon. I start by congratulating him on the recent nuptials. “Thanks,” he said simply. We go on to talk about Bali where he honeymooned… “I hadn’t been there for a while,” Mason said, “it was a bit sad to see all the people that weren’t very well off – that huge gap between rich and poor. It’s the kind of place where poor people can go and feel rich.” I’m surprised to hear he didn’t travel with his guitar. I guess that’s real love, eh? I ask Mason his thoughts on how the city has changed during the time he’s been living here – forty years, give or take. “It’s just… grown,” he said. “I guess it feels out of control at times. It changes so quickly, sometimes it feels like I don’t know it.” Mason says the music scene too, changes constantly. In his words: it exists, and then it doesn’t. “It’s up and down,” he said. “It’s such a fickle industry anyway. The Gold Coast is weird for that – it’s such a champion area and there’s a lot of money firing around but I don’t know that it cares too much about live music.” “But the underbelly of the Gold Coast does have a music scene and it’s pretty solid support with those people who do get around,” he said. 14
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Mason Rack Band are one of those local outfits with a solid following and Mason says he regularly sees the same people at gigs all the time. There’s no question they’re loyal. And it’s no wonder, Mason and his band must be one of the hardest working artists on the Gold Coast. A quick glance at their touring schedule will put you in a tailspin Mason is quick to acknowledge his fans for keeping his passion firing “It comes straight form the people that come to the gigs. They keep energising me… us.” He tells me that usually the other thing that keeps fire in his belly is the fear of returning to his previous job of bricklaying. But I already knew he’d done just that when he got back from his honeymoon. I’m curious as to whether that’s just the reality of being a musician on the Gold Coast but Mason says it’s not. “No, that’s just me not being good with my money,” he said. “That’s just me wanting to get out of debt. Annnndd, an element of that would also be the camaraderie of the job site. I like that. I’ve been out of bricklaying for a while. I get all week off and just play music on the weekend – you get soft.” After a moment’s reflection he says, “I can’t wait to get soft again though.” He tells me he has sore hands, shoulders and forearms but that he has really good sleeps now… “until 5.00am, anyway,” he laughs. “Then a super-busy schedule trying to record and rehearse an album, finishing work, running home, running out to rehearsal….”
They haven’t started recording yet but are rehearsing new songs and waiting for the money to be available at the end of April – then they have big plans of wrapping the whole thing up by the end of May. Of course, the band is more than just Mason and he tells me about the other members. The drummer who just left to pursue love to the Netherlands, Jamie Roberts on bass. He speaks about Julz Keshan and Kristian Rousell who have been filling in on drums recently. And then we go on to talk about how life has changed over his decades in the music business. One of the biggest changes is without a doubt Mason’s life of sobriety. He proudly tells me it will be 16 years in September, since he last had a drink. It’s a big achievement given the constant exposure to alcohol in the music industry. Mason tells me about his strategies. “I attend 12-step groups, that’s the key to my sobriety and in the early days I didn’t go anywhere near places that sold a lot of alcohol,” he explained. “If I did I went with someone that was safe.” “I had to change a lot of things – the people I was hanging around with, places I was going, things I was doing. My life has never been so good. I would need another hour and a half minimum for me to tell you how good it is now.” Mason tells me about the two big events he’s about to play here – not that he’s any stranger to big stages and big crowds. “These events bring new people to the area and get people who live here out to experience the area in a way they haven’t experienced before,” Mason said. “Some people say they need to have a holiday after festivals to come down from all the energy. Events that are free like that are amazing – these family-orientated events – families and kids get to see live music and see what it’s like and sometimes it encourages them to learn an instrument,” he said. Mason Rack Band hit Surfers Paradise Live right on the beach on Friday 8 May, 6.50pm and Blues on Broadbeach over the weekend of 21 – 24 May. He has a truckload of other gigs every single weekend, so check our gig guide for more information.
“He [Rick Price] is someone I used to love back in the 90s and it was such a chance meeting. I was over in Nashville and we bumped into one another in a cafe and he heard my accent and asked what I was doing there and I turned around and recognised him straight away. I’m not a really religious person but sometimes you just stop and go ‘what’s going on?’ I was playing in town at The Listening Room and he came along and watched the show and gave me a hug and said ‘that was great let’s get together tomorrow and have a chat’, and we started writing songs the next day. We’ll be lifelong friends now and he’s super supportive.” It’s not just Aussie pop superstars who have Casey on their radar. A combination of another chance meeting and his own genuine talent landed him support spots for both Bryan Adams and Mariah Carey at festival A Day On The Green.
NEW EP A BARNES-STORMER Prolific singer-songwriter Casey Barnes has been carving out a name for himself in Australia’s music scene for many years, but became known to wider audience when he reached the finals of Australian Idol in 2009. Since then his career has gone from strength to strength, and with his latest single being well received by audiences and critics alike, it won’t be long before Casey’s already shining star begins a very rapid ascent. Blank’s cultural editor, Natalie O’Driscoll spoke with Casey about his musical background and some of the more fascinating characters he has encountered in his musical journey. Casey started his singing career in his home state of Tasmania, before relocating to the Gold Coast, which he now calls home. As a child he recalls being surrounded by music. “When I was five or six we’d be around at our auntie’s or nan’s place, we used to stand up on a chair or box and sing nursery rhymes for 20c tips. I remember thinking even then ‘I could get used to doing this’. My mum is largely to thank for me getting involved with music. There was always music playing at my house. Mum plays guitar and some keyboards and she sings and has always been involved. My dad loves singing and my dad’s great-grandfather won awards as a singer back in the day, he was a great vocalist.”
Although he loved performing in front of his family, Casey was nervous about taking his voice public, until he met a teacher by the name of Mr Edwards – a music teacher in high school who pushed him out of his comfort zone. “He got me up performing in front of the whole school once and I desperately didn’t want to do it and he said ‘no, do it, you’re good enough.’ Once I got a good reaction I was hooked.” Casey’s songs are honest and heartfelt. The emotions are genuine. This was evident on his album Jet Trails, released in September 2012. This album was Casey’s first association with Aussie hit-maker Rick Price (Not a Day Goes By, Heaven Knows) after a chance meeting in Nashville led the pair to become great friends and songwriting partners.
“If someone had told me at the start of my career that I would get to open for the highest selling female artist of all time I would have most likely laughed in their face….. Supporting Mariah Carey I would say is by far one of my greatest achievements to date and an experience I’ll never forget. Such an amazing day and so thankful for the opportunity” Hard Times is Casey’s latest single and his first for 2015. It has already been well received on radio across the country and was recently backed up with a performance on Channel Seven’s The Morning Show. I am curious about what inspired the lyrics. “Rick and I just had the idea for Hard Times while we were writing the EP. He wanted to do a hard luck story, kind of: she’s done him wrong and this poor guy has been completely screwed over and he can’t escape her now, everywhere he turns, she’s there.” “The majority of the songs I write are literal life experiences so you always get in that head space and draw upon the emotion. I’ve never struggled with that or never had to pretend. I don’t believe in ever pretending anything to do with your career or image, the best advice I’ve been given is just be yourself.” Well it seems to be working so far. Casey continues to dominate the Australian music festival circuit and with more major festivals in the pipeline for 2015 it sees him as one of Australia’s premier performers with a career truly on the rise. You can catch Casey Barnes live on Friday 1 May at Urban Country Music Festival (Caboolture), at Surfers Paradise LIVE on 9-10 May, at Metricon Stadium when the GC Suns take on Collingwood on Saturday 23 May (3.00pm), at Currumbin Wildlife Hospital’s gala fundraising ball on Friday 29 May and at Broadbeach Country Music Festival, 20-21 June.
WAXY’S SET FOR ORIGINAL MUSIC EXPLOSION Waxy’s Irish Pub in Surfers Paradise is the new home to Soul Sessions Entertainment’s series of mobile music events. Recently packing out the Sunhouse in Coolangatta (pictured), organisers are now showcasing upbeat original music in the centre of Surfers. The first event, to be held Friday 8 May will be focused on latin and reggae grooves with The High Grade, Magdalena
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Groove, DJ Doring and Skylark providing the tunes. The event will also raise funds for the Free West Papua movement. Organiser Benji Guerrero says “I was tired of seeing establishments once known for their thriving original live music scene fall prey to reliance on poker machines, solo artists or become saturated with the same style cover bands or DJ’s.” And hence his approach to showcasing talented local artists.
“I personally really enjoy discovering new music and watching talented artists who’ve put their hearts and souls into creating their music perform live. It’s authentic. The other aspects we strongly focus on are keeping a positive community, lively energy and making sure that our acts bring a solid entertainment factor that make our ticket prices worth the money,” Benji said.
THEY LET LOVE IN Swirling and breaking the sounds of blues and horror, Gold Coast clan Jimmy the Saint and the Sinners are now hurdling barriers for the impending release of their sophomore EP. Jake Wilton sat down with the band’s frontman, James Turner, to dissect the group’s future plans including Blues on Broadbeach, feature guests on the upcoming EP and the marvels of Turner’s home. A breezy mid-week afternoon invitation into the house of James Turner, of Jimmy the Saint and the Sinners, turned into a state of culture shock and a manifestation of an interior designer’s reverie. Nothing says welcome more than aged books lining a shelf, imported absinthe bottles catching the light and a more than ecstatic two-year-old poodle (who almost came up to my hips). James moves quick to calm the dog who just yesterday got struck by a motorcyclist. He has slick, combed hair (James, not the dog), suit and waist coast and a hand crafted silver pin stylising “JS” (for Jimmy the Saint) attached to his collar. I remember the first time I heard Re-animator. It was like nothing that existed in blues music at the time. With their Boozehounds & Bad Men EP, the lines between (voodoo) blues, rockabilly and psych were well and truly smeared. The mashing of previously sacred genres is common but in 2014 this gang of sinners, led by the uncompromising, blockade force of Turner, paired with vintage organs, all the guitar pedals and enough charisma to put Jack White’s live performance to shame, were coming from a very new place. Boozehounds, released in August of last year, gave the Sinners a working punchline to tour on-and-off around the east coast. Launching on the Gold Coast and then spreading the bluesy wisps further entertaining Melbourne and Sydney audiences respectively. Coming off the back of irregular tour patterns and a dashing trip to Paris, to propose to his girlfriend, mind you, James came prepared with a greater sense of self and growing experiences in song writing to dive into recording the next batch of tunes for the yet-to-be-released EP, Love Notes & Obituaries. “[Love Notes] is the follow up to Boozehounds but essentially it’s a companion piece. It’s about basically, the fine line between the two things. Something can start as a love note, before you know it, it’s an obituary,” James said. One of the biggest inspirations for James on this latest set of
songs was his engagement to girlfriend of five years, Lola. Not to say James didn’t have anything positive to say about love before but this blooming adoration for his one-and-only allowed him and his Sinners, to tap into their softer side. “There are two [songs] on this EP that are simply about her.” Being a succinct four-track listen, Love Notes & Obituaries is an astounding climax of sound, song writing and emotion from the group. Having only just received the masters for the Love Notes & Obituaries EP 20 minutes before I arrived, James was already eager for others to start soaking it in. She Gives Me Love – no doubt one of the tracks James dedicated to Lola – stirs an infectious, yet danceable, guitar riff. The riding organ line, a preamble to the group’s songs, makes a familiar return; crawling and hissing underneath James’ cut-throat vocals. She Gives Me Love plods along nicely, an early indicator to where the group’s chancier, more precious moments can lie but still ramshackle and dissect the listener into a heated frenzy. This rare moment arrives toward the end of the track, a crescendo of classic blues techniques and instruments rising together with James’ rumbling hurls. In all the dizzying fray of building blues rock happening, a familiar voice enters the domain. The soulful major vocal chords only this particular bearded Gold Coast gent could pull off. Yes, Karl S. Williams, the man himself, features on She Gives Me Love – a fitting collaboration that one would assume could happen in a live setting. For the second year in a row, the band will appear at the popular, free and very much all-ages Blues on Broadbeach – just ahead of their EP launch. Admittedly they are one of the “heavier” options on the lineup, but there’s no doubt they also tick the box that says “blues”. “It does occur to me when we perform at something family oriented. We played the Summertime Sessions just recently which was, probably, 80 percent kids. Personally, I think about it, sure, but I don’t approach it any differently.
Image courtesy of Daniel Marshall
Thematically there are some darker elements in our songs but I was exposed to that stuff when I was a kid so I guess I don’t really think about it,” tells James. Jimmy the Saint and the Sinners play Blues on Broadbeach on Saturday May 23 at Broadbeach Tavern from 9.00pm.
Friday 8 May | The High Grade + Magdalena Groove + DJ Doring + Skylark @ Waxy’s Irish Pub Surfers Paradise Friday 15th May | Ivey + The Maslows + The Goldhearts + DJ Doring @ Waxy’s Irish Pub Surfers Paradise
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album reviews
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS
WHITE LODGE
TSUN
The Mountain Goats are somewhat of an anomaly. They’ve been around for a little under 25 years and have released more songs whose titles follow the format of ‘Going To [Insert place here]’ than, I think I can safely assume, any other band (there are more than 40). Their 15 studios albums have touched on themes from biblical verses to making death metal to the more classic ideas of love, loss, depression and downfalls. Their following of fans is cult-like, fiercely dedicated and passionate, to the point where a petition was started a few years back to name man-behind-the-music John Darnielle a US Poet Laureate (full disclosure - I signed it). Those who are in the club await Darnielle’s next move with bated breath, and he always delivers. Beat The Champ is no exception.
Ever-impressive Gold Coast reverb peddlers White Lodge have just dished up a yin and yang double shot of killer, wide screen garage-psych.
Local dream psych astral-planers TSUN have set their controls for the heart of the sun and tapped into a mystical 60’s aural potpourri on their latest single, the aptly titled Indro Chaudhuri.
Beat the Champ
The album sees The Mountain Goats (tMG, as they’re affectionately dubbed) diving into their archives for the sounds that have worked for them so well in the past, which are then fused with jazz, western and mariachi influences. There is much bucking of the tried and true traditional song format - instrumentation sets the mood here, providing a painstakingly curated backdrop for John Darnielle’s soliloquy. He paints a vivid, colourful, lively, sometimes horrifying, sometimes beautiful but always enthralling picture of the world of pro wrestling, which is a sentence I never ever thought I would write. Beat The Champ is every bit as varied and theatrical as a Broadway musical - and I mean that in the nicest way possible. Southwestern Territory is a slow, oboe-tinged, somewhat bizarre opener, an appropriate mood-setter, bleak and unapologetically human, thrusting flaws and errors into the spotlight without remorse. It calls to mind older tracks like Ezekeiel 7 and the Permananent Efficacy of Grace. There’s no shortage of that trademark Darnielle lyrical mix of nostalgia and fatalism, paired with gentle swirling instrumentation. Lead single, The Legend of Chavo Guerrero, is much more in the vein of seminal tMG album The Sunset Tree - it, along with Foreign Object, certainly seems more radio-friendly than many of the other songs Beat The Champ houses. There’s a return to tMG’s classic lo-fi, fuzzy, recorded using piece of sh*t equipment stylescape in the aggressive Choked Out. It burns brightly and fiercely and quickly, charging forward with punkish drums, the shortest song on the album at 1:43. Elizabeth Ansley 18
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Backwater Rumble/Ancient Tides
Backwater Rumble is a sub two minute echo-fest that starts with a smashing crescendo of raw power normally reserved for epic endings, before morphing a third of the way through into a rollicking thrill-ride of woozy garage punk with a darkly melodic heart. At around the one minute mark an unhinged guitar solo and what sounds like a bottle smashing muscle their way to the fore, before the track reignites and races for the outer recesses, going out in a feast of blaze. Possibly their most succinctly righteous moment to date... On the flip side, Ancient Tides serves up an insistently blurry slab of head-noddingly catchy, effects laden new-psych, the track effortlessly unfolding and lifting off into a stratosphere of smeared, shoe-gazey goodness by the conclusion of its majestic four minute journey. The contrast in length and vibe of each track makes for a pleasingly diverse two sided listen. Backwater Rumble and Ancient Tides are available now via the White Lodge bandcamp page. Furthermore the tracks will shortly be available in the form of a limited edition, split 7 inch vinyl release, together with Kansas City USA kindred spirits The Gorlons. Anthony Gebhardt
LANE HARRY X IKE CAMPBELL
Indo Chaudhuri
With a mantra-like vocal line relying less on the upfront voice prowess of front man Karl S Williams and its swirling, eastern channeling vibes, including a sitar drenched middle section, together with spoken word interlude beaming in like an alien radio broadcast, the track is a pleasing progression in the ongoing ascension of this quality act residing on our very own doorstep. Clocking in at a touch over three minutes, Indro Chaudhuri is also their most succinct (and possibly most radio compatible) musical statement to date. To steal a line from that hatted musical jester of yesteryear, Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum, ‘ do yourself a favour...’ Indo Chaudhuri is currently available as a digital download via TSUN’s bandcamp page. Anthony Gebhardt
Renaissance
With American accents, rhymes about hoes, blunts and Grey Goose rapped over trunk rattling 808s, dramatic bells and trap style hi-hats you’d be sure Renaissance was cooked up in an Atlanta basement. While the album is Australian made, with influences including Kanye, Drake and Kendrick, it’s no surprise Lane Harry x Ike Campbell ‘s sound is straight out of the USA; the question is, do they pull it off? Renaissance opens with banger Sauvignon, which is a classic car song - you know the type - turn it up, nod your head and drive around with nowhere to go while your mates in the back seat scream lyrics out the window. The politically-charged, riot-enticing single Anarchy features the vocals of Gold Coast’s Scott Dalton on the chorus. Lane x Ike have tapped into a variety of Gold Coast talent throughout the album, with guest spots from Ella Fence on No More, a song of lost love, and the haunting voice of Aquila Young on the bass heavy Hentai. The vocal guests on Renaissance give a dynamic to the album that perfectly balances the raw with the pretty. Mushroom Cloud is so Kanye you’re waiting for Yeezy himself to come in on the track. Following is the boastful Do you love it featuring a voicemail skit from an angry girl with an undeniable Aussie accent breaking the American façade for the first time. We get a taste of rock when a friend from the band Baskervillian gives a wailing guitar sample to take the track Tomorrow to another level. The songs are riddled with lyrical wit, with lines like “these boys are f*ckin’ faker than Chet” you’ll have to pay close attention if you want to catch Harry’s clever references. So, getting back to the question, do Lane x Ike pull it off? With well crafted dark beats lit up by Harry’s unique vocal sound and clever word play the answer is YES Renaissance is one for the ages! James Wills
ROBBY X
LEE KERNAGHAN
The opening song on this album, Never wanna let you go is a slickly produced and catchy pop tune that has deservedly found itself on the top 30 iTune downloads early this year- a drive time commercial radio playlist’s dream.
Lee Kernaghan’s new album defers from the country lyrics that fans are used to. Spirit of the Anzacs was inspired by the war diaries of Weary Dunlop and letters sent by loved ones from the battle fields of the Western Front, to the desert terrains of Afghanistan. With his long-time producer Garth Porter, Kernaghan has delved into the precious archives of the Australian War Memorial to produce a 16 song recording with guests such as Lisa McCune, John Schumann and Sara Storer.
Spirit of the Anzacs
Obsession
Robby X, a fellow Gold Coaster, has been in the music game as muse and songwriter for Australian country star Lee Kernaghan. Robby X’s musical career and talent goes way back to the days as the school girl in Lismore High’s legendary musical masterpieces playing the lead of Charity in Sweet Charity - when this cultural area was bountifully blessed with talented drama teachers. A graduate of the Conservatorium of Music, Robbie X has had a career recording voice overs for Australian product jingles and backing vocalist for many Australian touring artists. 12-track Obsession reads like a cocktail menu, titles such as; Sexy, Dirty Mind, Like Chocolate and Perfume. In fact this was created and ‘mixed’ with exotic drinks in mind. From her website Robbie X says that; “One of my favourite places in the world outside of Australia is the South of France. I remember laying on the beach, glass of pink Rosè in my hand, soaking up the sun and ambience of the cool DJ mix playing in the background… and it got me thinking what if I created some cocktails to match the style of the songs on my album.” A unique idea - a musical version of 50 Shades of Grey. The seductively written songs by Robbie X are professionally produced, but I can’t help hoping, with all of the country music influence of her peers, including Kernaghan, that ‘Robyn McKelvie’ may find a country/blues road to travel to on her next album. With her vocal and songwriting talent, coupled with some entertainment industry worldly experience, an eager market is out there for an Australian version of Lucinda Williams. Robby X who is an ambassador for The McGrath Foundation will be donating royalties from the sale of the single, Never Wanna Let You Go to assist the Foundation’s fundraising effort. You can check it out by visiting iTunes. Tiffany Mitchell
What is honourable about the Spirit of the Anzacs album is that it doesn’t feel manufactured or conveniently commissioned. Instead it is a collaboration and idea between two friends who met years ago at a Slim Dusty fundraiser concert. Brendan Nelson (who Kernaghan reckons is a bigger fan of Slim Dusty than him), is the Director of the 1941-built Australian War Memorial – our national memorial for the armed forces. Kernaghan was given the opportunity to create songs such as Song for Grace, Being Your Sons and Teddy Sheean - Forever Eighteen – poetic ideas read from the delicate paper and prose by loved ones from these national archives. The final song on the album, the anthemic Spirit of the Anzacs – is sprinkled with music stars; Jessica Mauboy, Guy Sebastian, Megan Washington, Shannon Noll, Jon Stevens and Sheppard. The Artists, Songwriters and ABC Music will donate their proceeds from the song Spirit of the Anzacs to Soldier On and Legacy in Australia. Tiffany Mitchell
KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD The River (single)
The headline, “King Gizzard announce their 57th album” is running a little dry now, no matter how true it may soon be. Quarters is the latest, and the sixth studio record in a measly three years to come from the Melbourne rompers. Prolific in their nonstop cycle of albums, worldwide touring and inventive vinyl and artwork, King Gizzard are not ones to be messed with. A concept album of sorts, Quarters is divided into, well, quarters – four tracks equalling the ten-minute mark, respectively. The River is the first full-length ten-minute colossal beast to be shared from the Lizard Wizards – following from the radio edited, three-minute friendly God is in the Rhythm. King Gizzard haven’t returned to the ten-plus-minute epic tunes since their third record, Float Along, Fill Your Lungs. Locking in an early groove, The River rides along with a mega cute guitar riff to keep along with Stu Mackenize’s vocal melody. This acts as a preamble to the first pitch shift of the song about a quarter the way through. The glossy veneer and lo-fi sound effect of King Gizzard’s has always been somewhat of a trademark –although not so much as to copy what Unknown Mortal Orchestra did so well on their debut – but the surprisingly washed out fidelity to this track presents a calming and lucid experience. Much to this effect is the added percussion: bongo taps and some kind of triangle clangs presenting like a gushing, peaceful stream. The mid-track coda of claptrap guitar plucking and swirling psychic drum rhythms comes to break and regroups with the classic early groove established from the beginning of the song. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard no longer need to prove themselves to you. You just need to find ten minutes of your day to listen to this frantically picturesque song – and its equally charming, animated film clip. Quarters is what is going to set King Gizzard apart. Look lively, Australia. Jake Wilton
DUBMARINE
None the Wiser (single) Eight-piece Brisbane band Dubmarine have returned with their latest release None the wiser and have already snapped up a Queensland Music Award for it. The minimalistic, drum-dominated track is layered with catchy phrases repeated to get you carving up the D-floor! Even the shyest of a public boogie will not be able to deny ‘the movement’ when the heavy hitting horns drop, creating a dynamic that reels you in hook, line and sinker! When a band can consistently release songs of this calibre it’s no wonder Dubmarine hold such a strong reputation for their crowd hyping live shows – None the wiser is a hypnotic cyber electronic dance floor filler, with a subtle underlying 90s feel. But most of all, it’s Dubmarine ‘getting hectic’! James Wills
YOUTHFIRE Leave (single)
When you listen to Youthfire, you should do it in the dark. You should do it at midnight with your headphones in. Youthfire’s latest single, Leave, is a painfully touching song that reaches all the right, soft, raw, spots. Though the guitars and synths slide over your heart with a delicate touch, it is Stephen Carmichael’s delicate voice that takes Leave to that next level. Leave is reminiscent of The xx, but with a certain physicality and directness that The xx lack. The production on Stephen’s voice makes it feel like he’s with you, or you are the one being asked, “please leave me”. When you listen to Youthfire, you should do it alone. David Simmons www.blankgc.com.au
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THE FUNKOARS: BELOW AVERAGE They say they’re bringing hard 80’s street justice back into fashion with their fifth full length album In Case of Emergency soon to released. First track off the album Below Average is the catalyst for a national tour for the Funkoars. With live shows known to be sweaty and deafening, they’ll be testing out their new material (as well as older classics) on audiences across the country, including the Gold Coast. James Wills stepped from behind the camera straight into a conservation with one of the ‘oars in question, Sesta. Congrats on the new single Below Average – it’s a tune! Yeah, I’m pretty happy with the response it’s getting. We performed it for the first time at The Gov the other night ‘cos we did a few tracks with Seth Sentry, so we pulled it out to see how it would go and we were surprised, people were yelling back at us, which is good ‘cos its always a bit scary when you put a new song out! Well the song sends a message I’m sure a lot of us can relate to. Was there a particular Below Average moment that spawned it? No it’s just who we are. I feel if I’m going to sit down and write something, what would be honest? It’s a subject I have the most experience with; I have a wealth of inspiration to choose from. I think I could write a whole album on being below average. Out of all the Funkoars’ personalities is there a member who holds the title for biggest “fuck up” as you guys put it? Or is it a team effort? (Laughs) I think we go through waves, one of us is always doing something stupid so it’s kinda been the running theme of our existence from the beginning. This is the lead single off the forthcoming album In Case of Emergency, has the creating/recording process changed much over the years? It’s pretty much how we’ve always done it. Me and Trials
make the beats, send them round between us and write to it. We show each other our ideas and if we all like it, it’s a track that we’ll pursue. The difference this time around is we recorded the album in at a studio in Brisbane called Alchemix. Normally we would have done it all in house but we thought for a change it might be nice to take all the monotonous work of being a studio engineer away from the group so we can just focus on production and writing. We took all of our beats and ideas out there and got the bulk of the album done in a week. We had some live instruments like a brass section and worked with our friend Ash Grunwald on some tracks to boost up the bluesy guitar presence. Once that was all done we took the recordings back to our studio in Adelaide and pieced it all together. I’ve really like how we’ve done it this time around, it lets us focus more on the fun stuff! In the past you have collaborated with fellow label mates Vents, Briggs and of course Hilltop Hoods, can we expect some familiar features on this album? Definitely some familiar ones, definitely some new ones as well. We’ve collabed with some Aussie hip hop artists that we’ve never done tracks with before and we’ve got a couple of guest producers on there as well. We’ve also got some rappers from overseas, but nothing I can divulge just yet.
The Funkoars hit The Cooly Hotel on Saturday 9 May.
NOTHING TOUCHES THEM: BRITISH INDIA British India need no introduction to consumers of Australian music. They’ve stood the test of time, maintaining national recognition and admiration consistently ever since their 2007 single Tie Up My Hands was picked up by triple j, blasting them into the stratosphere of country-wide fame. Their fifth studio album, Nothing Touches Me, was released in March and has already garnered praise from the likes of Tone Deaf and The Sydney Morning Herald, as well as debuting at an impressive #5 on the ARIA charts. Ahead of their gargantuan nation-wide album tour, Liz Ansley spoke on the phone with guitarist Nic Wilson, catching him on a rare day off to reflect on the longevity of his band’s success, responses to their new album, and why he refuses to go onstage with change in his pockets. How are you feeling about the responses you’ve had so far? It’s a weight off the shoulders for sure. Just the fact that it equals what our second album came out at, on our fifth (album), it just sort of shows that there’s some life in this old dog! Were you expecting it to do as well as it’s done? It’s exceeded the expectations, we were just sort of nervously waiting to hear if we got in the top ten. But to crack the top five was… yeah, well, that’s great. Absolutely! You guys have said that you’re really proud of this album in particular – what about this one makes it so special to you? I think because bands do have a shelf life, it seems, or can do… and to be putting out something that seems as creatively interesting and strong on our fifth album just shows that we’re growing as songwriters, as opposed to running out of ideas. That’s the main thing that we’re chuffed about – just the fact that it’s a strong album. Read the full interview at blankgc.com.au ahead of British India’s sold-out show at the Soundlounge on 1 May.
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TEARS OF A CLOWN Comedy isn’t the first word you tend to associate with the name Paul Dempsey. But he assures Camilla Jones that after 20 years in the music game he still cracks himself up. The Something For Kate frontman is in town to air some new material before heading into the studio to record his second solo album. In high spirits, he takes time out to chat with our crack reporter, letting us know that we can expect just as much side splitting hilarity in his sophomore offering as his debut. Seriously. It seems one of the biggest mistakes would be to confuse Paul Dempsey’s seriousness for solemnity,“A lot of what I write seems to make me laugh more than anyone else,” he says. “I think a lot of my songs are funny but apparently my sense of humour is way too dry. Steph and Clint are constantly telling me no-one’s going to get the joke and they’re possibly right. But it doesn’t make it any less enjoyable for me,” he laughs. Whether he’s singing about economic crashes or existential crises, it seems we’re forever on the outside of Paul’s jokes, but since he’s so charmingly self deprecating when examining the heavy subject matter that inspires his musical humour, you certainly don’t mind. “I guess I’m a bit of a nerd. I’m still fascinated by many of the same things that have fascinated me since I was a teenager. The nature of reality. Human reality – the reality of anything. Just existence. I dunno, I seem to sort of live in a perpetual existential joke.” Thankfully for fans, Paul’s perpetual navel-gazing penchant continues to plague his consciousness. “It’s something that occupies my mind a lot. What is this? Human beings and the nature of identity interests me and how we identify ourselves and our consciousness. How do we go through the day thinking what we think - and how we think - and the way we interact. I guess I’m just really interested in how we explain this all to ourselves. It all sounds very serious but I guess I try to do it with a sense of humour,” he says. Since comedy seems to be the running theme of our conversation, I offer that perhaps now as a father, Paul is well within rights to work the Dad jokes, “I’m so good at them!,” he enthuses. “I’m a shocker with Dad jokes. It’s a natural ability that I seem to have.”
When I ask whether themes of domestic life or fatherhood will make an appearance on his new album, Paul’s answer is refreshingly frank, “I get asked that a lot - whether becoming a parent has affected my writing - but it doesn’t really. Obviously it affects everything. It affects your whole outlook on life. I don’t necessarily think it’s particularly exciting subject matter though. My songs are still about cerebral things, if that’s the right word.” Who wants hear that solemn baritone wasted on songs about dirty nappies anyway?! “Music and songwriting is a dialogue that I’m having with myself I guess. I guess that’s where I derive a lot of satisfaction – just having that ongoing dialogue with myself and the things that inhabit my songs. And just the fun of getting up and performing. I enjoy that more than anything else,” he says. Which brings us to the subject of his upcoming three date tour – Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Perth. I ask what he’s hoping to get out of the sneak public preview of his new material. “Something about having to perform songs live forces you to make decisions about them, sort of forces you to basically finish writing them and figure out how you’re going to sing them and perform them. It’s more about me putting pressure on myself so that I’m ready to play them.” “Going out and playing these new songs live before committing them to tape is part of the process of discovery for me, of working out whether the songs feel like they’re really solid and in robust enough shape to be committed to tape, or whether it feels like there’s still weak points. That’s something, that for whatever reason, I can only identify that when I get on a stage and actually try and play them to people. It’s not the same doing it in your bedroom singing them to yourself. That pressure – that urgency isn’t there.”
He tells me that he’s not seeking so much of a rapturous reception, as feedback from himself about what’s working and what’s not. “It’s about needing to feel a sense of urgency about what I’m doing and that energy of being on the spot, having to do something new and fresh. You get that when you’re playing new songs for the first time. It forces you to make decisions and it forces you to rise to the occasion. If you play it really well, you feel great and like you’re on the right track with that song. Otherwise you might come off stage feeling like there’s something about the song that needs more work.” Fortunately for us, we get a preview of Paul’s next work ahead of time - a musical stand up routine, where we may miss the punchline, but we’re going to love it just the same.
Paul Dempsey will play the Soundlounge on 22 May.
MURWILLUMBAH’S INCREDIBLE LINEUP FOR FIRST COUNTRY ROOTS FESTIVAL An incredible lineup, which includes the likes of Archie Roach, Kasey Chambers, Sara Storer, Shane Howard, Busby Marou, Richard Clapton, Pierce Brothers, A Woman’s Voice: The Ruby Hunter Project and Karl S Williams has been announced for the inaugural Murwillumbah Country Roots Festival which takes place 2 – 5 October. There’s no question it’s an ambitious lineup for a brand new event in the beautiful Murwillumbah Showgrounds but one of the organisers, Garry Dahan said it’s exactly what the town needs. “It’s a bit weird really, in my wildest dreams I never thought I’d be running a festival. I’ve been in the music industry for 40 years; I was just at the showgrounds one
day and thought this would be a great place to have a festival. It’s got that vibe and the town needed it.” Garry also says their goal as organiers is to do something a little bit different. “We’re creating a different type of festival; back to the country roots. You know the banjo and the double bass, people sitting around the verandah, that family vibe and encompassing the country around us,” Garry said. “And it’s like the mayor said, everyone drives down the highway… we want them to turn right and come into Murwillumbah.”
Murwillumbah Country Roots Festival 2 – 5 October, Murwillumbah Showgrounds Kasey Chambers + The Audreys + Sara Storer + Shane Howard + Archie Roach + Richard Clapton + Busby Marou + Renee Geyer + Bill Chambers + Henry Wagons + The Flood + Pierce Brothers + Good Oak + The Davidson Brothers + James Blundell + Normie Rowe and the Original Playboys + Lou Bradley + Paul Greene + A Woman’s Voice: The Ruby Hunter Project + Karl S Williams + Round Mountain Girls + more
There are just 5000 tickets available to the three-day event and you can get more info at mbahcountryrootsfest.com.
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DARKC3LL: UNSTOPPABLE
Having kicked every goal they set for themselves, conquered the Australian music scene and gained a legion of fans along the way, Darkc3ll now have their sights set on the USA. Nev Pearce spoke to front man Jesse Dracman about their new EP Devolve Destroy, their upcoming tour and returning to a familiar stomping ground. To say Dark3ll have made waves in the Australian music industry is an understatement. Having toured the country several times independently and in support of major artists such as Wednesday 13, the band then scored a dream spot on the Soundwave 2014 line-up. Fast forward to 2015 and they’re now set to take the USA by storm after being added to the upcoming Civil Unrest tour alongside Ill Nino, Kittie and 36 Crazyfists. “It’s beyond our wildest expectations, and it’s sort of next level stuff for us so we’re very excited about this opportunity. After touring with Soundwave last year, we built on a friendship that we already had with the guys from Ill Nino,” said Dracman. “I’ve known Dave and the guys for a while now and then the opportunity presented itself to us. It’s one of those once in a life-time opportunities that you have to just go full steam ahead and go for it.” Before the band head to America they will be touring across Australia in support of their latest release Devolve Destroy.
Lead single All My Heroes Are Dead saw the band experiment a little more with their signature industrial metal sound. “It was a Matt and Jesse crazy thought production. We do that sort of thing from time to time. We like to challenge ourselves, and not stick to any one particular formula. Matt had actually written the riff about just over a year ago, or longer, one of many riffs that he’s got dancing around’ And while the new EP has seen the band push the envelope of their sound, Devolve Destroy is still very much a Darkc3ll release with a sound that their fans know and love while keeping things interesting for the band themselves with the writing process. “It’s got the big hooks. It’s got all the sing-along choruses and lines that we love putting in our music, but All My Heroes Are Dead is just a great stand-up balls-to-the-wall rock song,” Dracman said. “The other tracks have a bit more of a heavier industrial feel to it. It might surprise a few people. It’s definitely got a bit more attitude for us, but it’s still got a bit of a swing and a
groove to it that people can dance to. It should be interesting to see what people think.” Darkc3ll will be hitting the road in support of the EP, including one special show at Dracman’s old stomping ground, the Hard Rock Café in Surfers, which is a free gig for their local fans. “We’ve been very fortunate and we are very grateful to the people that have stood by us and supported us for a while,” he said. “With this run of dates we just wanted to try something different. We pursued the idea of doing free entry events. For us, we’re overwhelmed with the support we receive and we love giving something back to the people. Fortunately for us the Hard Rock Café have given me a lot of love, letting us put on a free show for everybody.” The band has worked extremely hard over the last couple of years and the future looks very bright for these Queensland industrial maniacs. And with their first trip over to the USA, this is just the first step for bigger things on the horizon for the band. “We’re just really proud, man. I’ve just heard so many stories about Australian bands that have gone over and tried their luck in the American market, and it’s all good. I don’t know, just something about what we’re doing, I just really believe that the Americans will get a kick out of it, so fingers crossed.” Devolve Destroy is available through iTunes and darkc3ll. bigcartel.com. Darkc3ll have a free show at the Hard Rock Cafe Surfers Paradise on 1 May. announced yet, organisers are taking submissions for performing artists and bands. More at deadofwinterfestival.com. Two of the world’s most brutal and loved death metal bands Suffocation and Decapitated are teaming up for one Australian tour not to be missed in May. The Despise the World tour will hit Brisbane on 7 May 7th at the HiFi and will be supported by Eternal Rest and Disentomb.
Wallapalooza returns for its fifth year and will be touring nationally across the East Coast with a different theme at each show. This year’s lineup for the Gold Coast pirate theme date on 7 June at the Wallaby hotel boasts the likes of Massive, Redhook, The Wrath, Azreal, The Black Swamp, These Four Walls, Hailmary, Smoking Martha, Mass Sky Raid, Redstarborn, Hammers, Snake Mountain, The Molotov and heaps more! Entry is free so there is no excuse not to go! Head over to the Wallapalooza Facebook page for all dates and lineup details.
After a crushing set at this years Soundwave Festival, Aussie metal favorites King Parrot will play the Coolangatta Hotel on 29 May. The band are set to release their sophomore album Dead Set on 19 May and the album was recorded by Phil Anselmo at his Nodferatu’s Lair studio in New Orleans. Parrot will be supported by Gold Coast death metallers Eternal Torment, High Tension and Colossvs. In other festival news Dead Of Winter returns to the Jubilee Hotel in Brisbane on 25 July.While the lineup hasn’t been
American stoner rock masters Red Fang are heading to Australia next month for a much anticipated headline tour. The band will play the Crowbar in Brisbane with King Of The North and Hobo Magic. To celebrate the 20th anniversary and reissue of their much-loved album Killjoy, Shihad have announced three special shows for Queensland including one at the Parkwood Tavern on 6 June. Anyone who has ever seen Shihad live knows that they are not to be missed especially if they are playing tracks off Killjoy! Get your tickets now through Moshtix before they sell out, you have been warned! Two of Melbourne’s most notorious and brutal bands, Envenomed and Decimatus have teamed up for the 15-date Catalyst for Evil tour and will hit the Gold Coast on 22 May at the Coolangatta Hotel. Joining them for the show are Brisbane’s In Death and Gold Coast’s DROID. This gig is going to face melting so mark it on your calendars get your arses there! Got some metal news we should know about? Email rabidnoiseradio@hotmail.com. And get the latest metal tracks and interviews with Rabid Noise every Wednesday night from 9.00 pm live on rabbitradio.com.au.
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Suffocation
Nev Pearce
Appearing at Urban Country Music Festival
Win tickets to Brisbane show Appearing at Blues on Broadbeach
ASH GRUNWALD TO HEADLINE BLUES ON BROADBEACH
NO FIXED ADDRESS FOR NICKELBACK IN AUSTRALIA
CLOUD CONTROL: THE YEAR IN BETWEEN
On the back of a killer Bluesfest Byron Bay set, Ash Grunwald has been announced as headliner for Blues on Broadbeach.
Mike Kroeger was one of the founding members of Nickelback with his lead vocalist/ brother, Chad Kroeger in the mid-late 90’s. Now, over 20 years later, the band gears up to tour their eighth album No Fixed Address to Australia with a string of arena dates in May. Kyle Butcher, got to chat with Mike ahead of their huge Australian tour.
For a while there, it seemed like Blue Mountainsborn band Cloud Control just never stopped touring. But following their stint on the road with Angus and Julia Stone, the band has fallen silent save for their upcoming Urban Country Music Festival gig in May, and for good reason: there’s a third album in the works. Liz Ansley spoke to keyboardist and vocalist, Heidi Lenffer about changes to the band’s lineup, writing music surrounded by hundreds of wombats, and what we can expect from LP three.
The free event, which takes over the malls and venues of Broadbeach runs 21 – 24 May. We were lucky enough to chat quickly with Ash while onsite at Bluesfest. He’s had a massive year since the release of Gargantua, and he’s been on the road plenty as well. He says he’s done a lot of overseas touring, including America with Xavier Rudd and Canada too. Plus of course, the relentless gigging of Australian towns Ash is well known for. But it’s his new project which has him the most animated. “The main thing I’ve been up to is my main new album. It’s now finished,” he said. But it won’t be released for six months. Ash said he just wants to wait until the “right time” to release it. “I finished it at the end of the yeah” Ash said. “It could have been out now if I’d really pushed it.” He’ll do a single tour in May and then release the album – which is his eighth studio recording in about September. The May tour sounds suspiciously like it will include the justannounced Blues on Broadbeach dates. Ash laughs, “Yes, you could say it was part of the single tour, but really I just thought “oh cool, I’m going to do Broadbeach.” But surely you’ll treat us to the new single, I ask? “I will. For sure.” “It’s the first time I’m doing a lot of new stuff and I’m going to do more too,” he says of his upcoming shows. “I could also do a whole set of the new stuff – normally you have to play those new songs a bit more – sometimes they go better than the old stuff.”
Read the full story ahead of Ash’s headlining set at Blues on Broadbeach at blankgc.com.au.
Nickelback’s latest album, No Fixed Address, was titled so because they recorded it in multiple locations. A few bands have taken to this method of creating an album, most notably Dave Grohl’s group Foo Fighters created a TV series on recording their album Sonic Highways at all of the iconic studios in America. Nickelback took a more relaxed approach, and it seems to have worked for the experienced group. “This recording process was different because we travelled a lot and recorded in a lot of different locations. What that allowed us to do is to keep it fresh. We’ve recorded albums sitting in the same room, but there’s a lot of times when you’re making an album and the creativity just isn’t coming. You just kinda sit there and it sucks. So bad. We all know what we need to do but we’re just sitting there looking at each other. The little breaks and change of scenery really kept that creativity up and it all felt new, so it never felt like a grind.” “We recorded in two of my houses, one in Vancouver and one in Hawaii, just in the basement. You don’t have to use a studio anymore. We did use a few studios for fun more than anything else, it wasn’t out of necessity,” Michael said. Read the full story and win tickets to Nickelback’s 20 May show at Brisbane Entertainment Centre on our website | blankgc.com.au.
“I’m currently in Newcastle visiting my sister in law who’s got a new baby!” Heidi enthuses to me over the phone. “So we’re doing family duties. It’s really nice, we’re just at my relative’s house watching the surfers doing some serious shredding today – cos it’s mammoth waves at the moment. I’ve never actually watched surfers before in my life, but I think it’s pretty mesmerising. I’d probably go as far as to say it’s worth going to see a surfing comp or something, cos it’s beautiful. And terrifying. I’m gonna get into it, maybe get some binoculars and get all creepy about it.” So, it’s clear that she’s not shy – is she game to brave the waves herself? “Oh, no way,” she laughs, “I tried, I had one lesson and just couldn’t stand at all. That was a big barrier.” Although we’re only a few months into 2015, the year has already wrought upon Cloud Control what is probably the most significant changes any band can go through – the loss of a member. After a decade of music making, bassist Jeremy Kelshaw departed in the name of familial responsibilities, playing one last show with his bandmates at Southbound in WA. “[It’s] really sad. I mean, we had warning from Jez that it was just getting too hard to be away now that his family is growing, so we were prepared. But even then, even though we had like six months lead up, it’s another thing to actually turn up to a show and Jez doesn’t arrive.” Read the full story ahead of Cloud Control’s show at Urban Country Music Festival at blankgc.com.au
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WINTER IN THE ‘VALE
The Mudgeeraba events were supported by local businesses, but funding for the series came from the Division 9 Local Area Works budget – managed by Cr Glenn Tozer. Now, the Helensvale series is being supported financially by Cr William Owen-Jones. “Having seen the success of the Summertime project in Mudgeeraba, it seemed natural to not bother re-inventing the wheel from what Glenn Tozer had created, but to simply ‘borrow’ the idea and rebadge the concept around Winter here,” Cr Owen-Jones said.
Polly Snowden has something poignant to say about local politicians and Gold Coast’s music scene. “They’re councilors, and they work for the community,” she said. “And all we need as a community is a sense of unification: a sense of belonging and a sense of being.” Polly is acknowledging the support – both moral and financial – that has come from two local councillors’ divisional funding for a series of live music events that have generated that “sense of community” as well as economic development for the villages involved. Polly was one of the team behind the incredibly successful Summertime Sessions in the Village which brought Mudgeeraba to life every Friday night through summer. And she’s now one of the team bringing live music to Helensvale, modeled on the Summertime Sessions, as part of a series which will run through winter.
The Helensvale series, known as Winter in the ‘Vale, will run over eight Fridays through winter, commencing 12 June. Polly is passionate about the “vibe” as she puts it and gushes as she describes the space being used for the series, which will use the Helensvale Cultural Centre. “It’ll be in that outside courtyard area, – weather depending. We’ll have the bar going – with beers, wood-fired pizzas, we’re bringing out some turf and beanbags – we’re really going to lush it out with décor. It’s hard to make a cozy space with a concrete floor, but we have it covered,” she said. Cr Owen-Jones says the series of live music isn’t the only groovy thing going on in Helensvale. “We have a new Nightquarter market starting up at the end of the year that will have an outdoor venue with a capacity for around 2000 people. It will be fantastic for bringing the Gold Coast back on the touring schedule for Australian and International acts,” he said. The Councillor also said the response to acoustic music at the Saturday morning markets down at the Helensvale High School grounds had been enthusiastic. He echoed Polly’s excitement about the facilities available at the Cultural Centre.
“We have this amazing library and Cultural Centre been built on the grounds of the old library. It has about 1000 residents a day come through and we are really keen to show off the recording studio, band rehearsal room, and 200 seat auditorium to locals so they can see what an amazing asset we have built for the north of the city,” he said. One of the points of difference between this series of events and the ones held in Mudgeeraba, is the venue’s proximity to the railway line. “It’s walking distance from Helensvale Railway Station,” Polly said. “So people from those other communities like Robina and Varsity and Nerang, can actually jump on the train.” The Councillor said it was just a five minute walk. “It’s incredibly easy to get to and has heaps of parking available at the Helensvale Plaza as well.” “Hopefully it will give locals, and in particular the younger families in our area, a great opportunity to meet and relax on a Friday afternoon and enjoy some great free local music,” Cr Owen-Jones said. “We have such an amazing depth of young talent on the Gold Coast,” he said. “We can talk about supporting contemporary music on the Gold Coast or we can just go out of our way to give them a go.” Organisers are looking for ways to engage musicians and bands from the Helensvale area in the series of events which will run through June and July. Winter in the ‘Vale will commence on Friday 12 June. Check our gig guide for all the details as they become available.
AMELA MAKING HER MARK ON LOCAL MUSIC SCENE Singer songwriter and all round lovely person, Amela had a chat with Sarah McEwan about recent gigs, new music, plans for 2015 and a musicial project that is making waves up and down the coast. So the last time we spoke to you, you had only recently released your Aeroplane clip, how was the response? Aeroplane has been received really well! It’s been getting heaps of love on Triple J Unearthed and local radio stations Rabbit Radio and 4ZZZ. It has also thrown me a bunch of opportunities such as feature artist on a new upcoming television series on SBS2, and the film clip got retweeted by Adobe Australia! You’ve been doing loads of gigs and mini festivals such as Concrete Jungle with some other really cool artists such as Bullhorn and Rhythm Hunters, how have these gigs been? Considering I have only been playing with my new band for about a month, we’ve been receiving a lot of great feedback. It feels so good to play with them and people have been saying we’re really ‘tight’! Concrete Jungle was so much fun. I danced so hard to Michelle Xen, it felt great to be part of that lineup. We also recently played at Black Bear Lodge 24
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with Outliers and Allie Falls. Next month I’m playing a set at Brisbane’s RAW fest which I’m looking forward to. With all this gigging around have you found time to record any new music ? I have been writing a lot of new music actually! What’s more is that I have been writing some more contemporary, pianoballad type songs for my solo material and am approaching producers in Sydney and overseas in LA to hopefully work on them. I’ve seen that you’re working with your other band, The Forty Thieves, who have a really cool folky sound, what have you guys been up to ? The Forty Thieves have been playing together again recently after taking a hiatus. We are currently working on finishing our album. The Forty Thieves is a family, and we write beautiful music so I can’t wait to share it. Any other exciting plans for either Amela or The Forty Thieves this year? This year is about releasing all the music for me and getting out there. I write and play with The Forty Thieves and Malo Zima, and also have my own solo project, Amela. So this year all three bands are dedicated to releasing new and best material and hopefully doing some touring - I am so passionate about it!
Get Amela and The Forty Thieves music on band camp or connect with Amela on social media to be kept up to date with gigs and music news.
GOLD COAST GIG GUIDE APRIL THURSDAY 30 APRIL Mescalito Blues | The Rails Byron Bay, 7.00pm BigFellaLinc | Kitty O’Shea’s Surfers Paradise, 8.00 – 11.00pm Benny D Williams + Jon Whitten + Kirra Huddy | The Loft Chevron Island, 8.00pm Agent 77 | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm Alex Bowen Single Launch Tour + Scott Dalton + Tijuana Cartel + Kyle Lionheart | Black Bear Lodge Brisbane Arno Allstars + Gruel Street + Droll + Willy2silly + Six Shooter | elsewhere Surfers Paradise Open Mic Night | Hard Rock Cafe Surfers Paradise
Ella Fence | Pizza Paradiso Byron Bay The Lyrical | Bike & Street Festival Varsity Lakes Sessionkatz + Stretch | elsewhere Surfers Paradise
MONDAY 4 MAY Agent 77 | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm
TUESDAY 5 MAY Hanlon Brothers | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 8.00am – 5.00pm Open Mic Night | Beach Hotel Byron Bay, 7.30pm
FRIDAY 1 MAY Casey Barnes Band | Urban Country Music Festival Caboolture, 4.30pm Luke and Sebatian | Beach Hotel Byron Bay, 5.00pm Kelly Jones | Town & Country Motel Nerang, 6.30 – 9.30pm Alex Bowen Single Launch Tour + Scott Dalton + Tijuana Cartel + Kyle Lionheart | Currumbin Creek Tavern, 8.00pm Jennifer Sjaan + Catherine Gunther + Athena Joy | The Loft Chevron Island, 8.00pm Mescalito Blues | Billinudgel Hotel, 8.00pm British India | Soundlounge Currumbin, 8.30pm Bullhorn | Beach Hotel Byron Bay, 9.00pm DJ JR | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 10.00pm Darkc3ll + Mofo is Dead | Hard Rock Cafe Surfers Paradise, 10.00pm The Angels | Hamilton Hotel Brisbane BREWHOUSE BASH with Street 66 | Burleigh Brewery Jensen Interceptor (Boysnoize Rec/Motorik) + Audun & Guests | elsewhere Surfers Paradise MKO + Rhea Robertson + Ella Fence | Miami Marketta Jordan Pineda | The Point, Paradise Point
SATURDAY 2 MAY Smoking Martha + United States of Oz + Stav and The Dark + Xens Arrival + RocketTrain + Payments in Gold + The Vultures + Former Angels + The Polaroids + New Age Notion | Currumbin Creek Tavern Cross Fire Music Stage, 2.30pm Jennifer Sjaan EP Launch + Steve Dorrington + Casey Duque + Cadence + Andy Cartwirght + Alex Evans + Maryen Cairns + Danielle Rancie + Benny D Williams + Kel Itong | Currumbin Creek Tavern Acoustic Stage, 2.30pm David Tomasiello + Brad Kennedy + Ayla Briscoe + Lucy Taylor | The Loft Chevron Island, 8.00pm DJ Lauren Mac | Beach Hotel Byron Bay, 9.00pm DJ JR | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm The Angels | Twin Towns Tweed Ella Fence | Blue Owl Café Tweed The Lyrical | Miami Marketta Varcity + Resident Giv | elsewhere Surfers Paradise Baskervillain | The Triffid, Brisbane Jared Porter | Urban Country Music Festival, Caboolture
SUNDAY 3 MAY Open Mic & Jam | Scuttlebutt Cafe Springbrook, 3.00 - 6.00pm Lisa Hunt | Beach Hotel Byron Bay, 4.30pm DJ Longtime | Beach Hotel Byron Bay, 8.00pm Hanlon Brothers | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm
WEDNESDAY 6 MAY Katie Who | Emma Miller Place Brisbane, 11.00am Open Mic Night | The Loft Chevron Island, 8.00pm Stevenson Street | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm
THURSDAY 7 MAY Jam and Open Mic + Cover Shot | Town & Country Motel Nerang, 7.00pm – late Dallas James and Anthony George Duo | Beach Hotel Byron Bay, 8.30pm Vertigo | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm Arno Allstars + Mighty Psylis + Gabrielle Lambe | elsewhere Surfers Paradise
FRIDAY 8 MAY Milan Martin + Lisa Hunt + Aquila Young + Bree Bullock + Mason Rack Band + Simon Wright + Phil Jamieson Trio | Surfers Paradise LIVE Festival, 5.00 -9.10pm Jon J Bradley | Beach Hotel Byron Bay, 5.00pm Cory Hargreaves | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 5.30pm – 8.30pm Mudslide Duo | Club Helensvale, 7.00 – 11.00pm The High Grade + Magdalena Groove + DJ Doring + Skylark | Waxy’s Irish Pub Surfers Paradise, 7.30pm United States of Oz + Just Monday + TwinPicks + Katie Who | Currumbin Creek Tavern, 7.30pm Julie Hayes + Davina + Peter Sivright | The Loft Chevron Island, 8.00pm Karnivool | Coolangatta Hotel, 8.00pm Boom Faya | Beach Hotel Byron Bay, 9.00pm DJ JR | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 10.00pm Little Georgia | Miami Marketta Salvadarlings + Blue Bones + Full Moon Flower Band | elsewhere Surfers Paradise Shaka Han | Burleigh Brewery Sarah Frank | Jimez Cafe and Bar, Pacific Pines
SATURDAY 9 MAY Leah + Susan McCarter + Hawk Kestral + Mickey McIlwain + Maryen Cairns + Arwen & Asha + Felicity Lawless Trio + The Kernals + Sista Moon + Cath not so Young +Sunday Afternoon People Band | MFest Springbrook State School, 10.00am – 4.00pm Simon Wright + The Kite Machine + The Altais + Shooty & Tom Dodd + Pepper Jane + Casey Barnes Band + Dallas James + Timberwolf + Kwerkshoppe + Ngaiire + Cheap Fakes + Sun City + Sneaky Sound System | Surfers Paradise LIVE Festival Beach Stage, 11.00am – 9.10pm Jacob Lee | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 3.00 – 7.00pm Hodads + DJ JR | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm Katie Who | Mandala Organic Arts Cafe Mermaid Beach, 7.30pm The Funkoars Below Average Tour + DJ Total Eclipse + MC Mathas + Eloji | Coolangatta Hotel. 8.00pm Kobra Fuzz + Nina Ward + Whitney Veitch + Rachel Rutkowski | The Loft Chevron Island, 8.00pm
DESIGNED & COLLATED BY EMILY NORMAN
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MAY
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Mason Rack Band | Kirra Sports Club, 8.00pm Black Rabbit George + The Altairs | Miami Marketta Six Shooter + Resident Giv | Elsewhere Surfers Paradise
SAUNDAY 10 MAY Yes Sir Noceur + Dallas James + Casey Barnes Band + Tommy Sheehan + Mitch King + Tom Francis + Electrik Lemonade + Julia Rose + Alex Crook + Cheap Fakes + Bonjah | Surfers Paradise LIVE Festival Beach Stage, 12.30pm Benny D Williams | Genki Café Palm Beach, 11.30 – 1.30pm Mudslide | Eagle Heights Tavern Mount Tambourine, 12.00 – 4.00pm Cory Hargreaves | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 3.00 – 6.00pm Open Mic & Jam | Scuttlebutt Cafe Springbrook, 3.00 - 6.00pm Agent 77 | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm Katie Who | Finders Keepers Burleigh Sessionkatz + Stretch | Elsewhere Surfers Paradise
Cassette | Elsewhere Surfers Paradise Dezzie D and The Stingrayz | Miami Marketta
SUNDAY 17 MAY Neem + Zoe O’Sullivan | ADCO Amphitheatre Bond University, 2.00pm Open Mic & Jam | Scuttlebutt Cafe Springbrook, 3.00 - 6.00pm Benny D Williams | Bambu Bar Palm Beach, 4.00 – 7.00pm Slique | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm Sessionkatz + Stretch | Elsewhere Surfers Paradise
MONDAY 18 MAY Agent 77 | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm
TUESDAY 19 MAY Hanlon Brothers | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm MONDAY 11 MAY Triple J’s | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm
TUESDAY 12 MAY Hnlon Brothers | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 8.00am – 5.00pm
WEDNESDAY 13 MAY Open Mic Night | The Loft Chevron Island, 8.00pm Agent 77 | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm
THURSDAY 14 MAY Katie Who | The Menagerie Brisbane, 5.00pm Jam and Open Mic + Cover Shot | Town & Country Motel Nerang, 7.00pm – late Local Musos Showcase | The Loft Chevron Island, 8.00pm Hodads | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm Arnold Allstars | Elsewhere Surfers Paradise
FRIDAY 15 MAY Kelly Jones | Town & Country Motel Nerang, 6.30 – 9.30pm Benny D Williams | Kingscliff Hotel, 7.30 – 10.30pm Ivey + The Maslows + The Goldhearts + DJ Doring | Waxy’s Irish Pub Surfers Paradise, 7.30pm – late Alla Spina + Rogue Scholars + The Meaniacs + Laura Mardon | Currumbin Creek Tavern, 7.30pm Lecia Louise Album Launch + Kate Leopold + Ella Fence | The Loft Chevron Island, 8.00pm San Cisco + Crooked Colours + Methyl Ethel | Coolangatta Hotel, 8.00pm Josh Wade | Soundlounge Currumbin, 8.30pm DJ JR | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 10.00pm Black Rabbit George + Alex Bowen | Sol Bar Maroochydore Fletch | Burleigh Brewery Katie Who | Jimez Cafe Pacific Pines Phil Barlow and The Wolf | Miami Marketta Tsun + The Jensens | elsewhere Surfers Paradise
SATURDAY 16 MAY Benny D Williams | Coolangatta Hotel, 5.30 – 9.30pm Collins Class + Rogyapas + Dark Decorum + The Stouts + The Meerdogs + Steve Wyatt | Currumbin Creek Tavern, 7.30pm Finkler + Luke Houselander + BigFellaLinc | The Loft Chevron Island, 8.00pm DJ JR | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm
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WEDNESDAY 20 MAY Open Mic Night | The Loft Chevron Island, 8.00pm Hodads | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm
THURSDAY 21 MAY Ray Beadle + Blue Eyes Cry + Lazy Eye + Warren Earl Band + Ali Penney and The Money Makers + The Bella Reunion + Blue Shaddy | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Broadbeach Mall Stage, 10.30am – 10.00pm Dave Diprose | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Alto Cucina, 4.00 – 6.00pm Doc Span and Nick Charles + Mike Frost and The Iceman + Dezzie D and The Stingrayz | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Jupiters Casino Atrium Bar, 5.00pm - 12.30am Gramophone Man | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Roving Entertainment, 6.00 – 9.00pm The Jacky Howellers + Phil Manning + Col Finley | BLUES ON BROADBEACH |The Envy Hotel, 6.00pm – 1.00am Jam and Open Mic + Cover Shot | Town & Country Motel Nerang, 7.00pm – late The Audreys | Coolangatta Hotel, 8.00pm Local Musos Showcase | The Loft Chevron Island, 8.00pm Asa Broomhall + Mason Rack Band | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Broadbeach Tavern, 8.30pm – 12.00am Agent 77 | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm
FRIDAY 22 MAY Josh Needs | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Grumpy’s Barefoot Bar & Grill, 8.00 – 10.00am Griffith University Schoolyard Blues High School Students + The Shaney Pacey Trio + Mason Rack Band + Ray Beadle | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Victoria Park Stage, 10.00am – 8.45pm The Jacky Howellers + Blues Corp + Peter McFarlane & The Sidewinders + The KNiKi + Mike Beale Project + Asa Broomhall + Llyod Spiegel + Fiona Boyes | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Broadbeach Mall Stage, 10.30am – 10.00pm Phil Emmanuel | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Room81 Sofitel, 12.00 – 2.30pm Old Gray Mule + Jeff Lang + Backsliders + The Black Sorrows | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Surf Parade Stage, 12.30 – 10.00pm Moondog + Ali Penney and The Money Makers | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | The 102.9 Hot Tomato Stage, 1.45 – 3.45pm Mitch King + Sweet Lil Rider + Doggin It + Lazy Eye | BLUES ON BROADBEACH |Oracle Precinct, 3.00 – 9.30pm Ross Williams | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Alto Cucina, 4.00 – 6.00pm Gramophone Man | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Roving Entertainment, 4.30 – 7.30pm Doc Span and Nick Charles + Warren Earl Band + Blue Shaddy | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Jupiters Casino Atrium Bar, 5.00pm - 1.00am
DESIGNED & COLLATED
FRIDAY 22 MAY CONTINUED The Blues Preachers + Phil Manning + Col Finley | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | The Envy Hotel, 5.00pm – 12.00am Dave Diprose | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Niecon Plaza, 6.00 – 8.00pm Kelly Jones | Town & Country Motel Nerang, 6.30 – 9.30pm Devil’s Kiosk | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | TC’s Bar Sofitel, 7.30 – 10.00pm Frazer Goodman | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Howl at the Moon, 7.30 – 9.30pm The Art | Coolangatta Hotel, 8.00pm Free The Genie + Blake Allen + Daneel | The Loft Chevron, 8.00pm Paul Dempsey | Soundlounge Currumbin, 8.30pm Andrew Baxter | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Jupiters Casino Cucina Vivo, 9.00pm – 12.00am The Walters + Dezzie D and The Stingrayz | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Broadbeach Tavern, 9.00pm – 2.00am DJ JR | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 10.00pm Felicity Lawless | Miami Marketta Raw Deep | Burleigh Brewery Von Villains + Adam Swain + Rikki Newton (Subtrakt / Bris) | elsewhere Surfers Paradise
SATURDAY 23 MAY Doggin It | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Grumpy’s Barefoot Bar & Grill, 8.00 – 10.00am Juzzie Smith + Matty Rogers + Pat Tierney | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Art & Craft Markets Stage, 9.00am – 3.30pm Andrew Baxter + Fiona Boyes + Hat Fitz and Cara + Kevin Borich + Ash Grunwald | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Surf Parade Stage, 10.00am – 10.00pm Lloyd Spiegel + The Shane Pacey Trio + Backsliders + Tijuana Cartel | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Victoria Park Stage, 10.30am – 8.45pm The Full Stops + Clayton Doley + Juzzie Smith + The Walters + Cass Eager & The Velvet Rope + Old Gray Mule + Jeff Lang | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Broadbeach Mall Stage, 10.30am – 10.00pm Nick Charles + Grizzlee Train + Ross Williams + Warren Earl Band + Dave Diprose + Full House Band | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Oracle Precinct, 11.00am – 9.00pm Josh Needs + Blue Shaddy + The Jack Howellers | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | The 102.9 Hot Tomato Stage, 11.45am – 3.45pm Phil Emmanuel | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Room81 Sofitel, 12.00 – 2.30pm Mitch King + Doggin It + Mojo Web Band + Blue Eyes Cry + Asa Broomhall + Big Kitty + Col Finley | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | The Envy Hotel, 12.00pm – 12.00am Moondog | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Compadres Mexican Restaurant & Bar, 1.00 – 3.00pm Casey Barnes | Metricon Stadium, 3.00pm Sweet Lil Rider | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Alto Cucina, 4.00 – 6.00pm Gramophone Man | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Roving Entertainment, 4.30 – 7.30pm The Blues Preachers | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Niecon Plaza, 5.00 – 7.00pm Phil Manning + Lazy Eye + The Bella Reunion | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Jupiters Casino Atrium Bar, 5.00pm – 1.30am The KNiKi + Mike Beal Project | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Howl at the Moon, 7.30 – 9.30pm Ali Penney and The Money Makers | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | TC’s Bar Sofitel, 7.30 – 10.00pm Brook Chivell + Hayley Marsten + Brooke Lambert | The Loft Chevron Island, 8.00pm Frazer Goodman | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Jupiters Casino Cucina Vivo, 9.00pm - 12.00am Jimmy The Saint And The Sinners + Devil’s Kiosk | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Broadbeach Tavern, 9.00pm – 2.00am DJ JR | The Avenue, Surfers Paradise, 10.00pm AKOVA | Miami Marketta Paul Dempsey | Sol Bar Maroochydore Cassian | elsewhere Surfers Paradise
SUNDAY 24 MAY James St Preachers + Pat Tierney + Juzzie Smith | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Art & Craft Markets Stage, 9.00am – 3.00pm Mitch King + Sweet Lil Rider + Fiona Boyes + Doc Span and Nick Charles | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | The 102.9 Hot Tomato Stage, 10.00am – 3.45pm Grizzlee Train + Devil’s Kiosk + Hat Fitz and Cara + The Shane Pacey Trio | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Broadbeach Mall Stage, 10.30am - 4.45pm Juzzie Smith + Old Gray Mule + Blue Shaddy | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Victoria Park Stage, 10.30am – 6.15pm Big Kitty + Mojo Webb Band + James Morrison + Andrew Strong The Commitments Tour | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Surf Parade Stage, 10.30 – 7.30pm SUNDAY 24 MAY CONTINUED Cass Eager & The Velvet Rope + Josh Needs + Lloyd Spiegel | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Oracle Precinct, 11.00am – 3.45pm
D BY EMILY NORMAN
Ian Collard + The Blues Preachers + Blues Corp + The Jacky Howellers + Asa Broomhall + Fiona Boyes + Col Finley + Mason Rock Band | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | The Envy Hotel, 11.00am – 11.45pm Ross Williams | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Niecon Plaza, 12.00 – 3.00pm James St Preachers | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Compadres Mexican Restaurant & Bar, 1.00 – 3.00pm Gramophone Man | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Roving Entertainment, 1.30 – 4.30pm Frazer Goodman | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Jupiters Casino Cucina Vivo, 2.00 – 5.00pm Peter McFarlane & The Sidewinders + Grizzlee Train + Phil Emmanuel | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Broadbeach Tavern, 2.30pm – 12.00am Open Mic & Jam | Scuttlebutt Cafe Springbrook, 3.00 - 6.00pm Andrew Baxter | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Alto Cucina, 4.00 – 6.00pm Phil Manning + Clayton Doley | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | Jupiters Casino Atrium Bar, 5.00 – 11.00pm Lazy Eye | BLUES ON BROADBEACH | TC’s Bar Sofitel, 7.30 – 11.00pm Triple J’s | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm Benny D Williams | One50 Public House Bundall
MONDAY 25 MAY Hodads | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm
TUESDAY 26 MAY Hanlon Brothers | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 8.00am – 5.00pm
WEDNESDAY 27 MAY Open Mic Night | The Loft Chevron Island, 8.00pm Agent 77 | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm
THURSDAY 28 MAY Jam and Open Mic + Cover Shot | Town & Country Motel Nerang, 7.00pm – late Local Musos Showcase | The Loft Chevron Island, 8.00pm Stevenson Street | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm
FRIDAY 29 MAY Kelly Jones | Town & Country Motel Nerang, 6.30 – 9.30pm Casey Barnes | Jupiters Casino Broadbeach, 7.00pm King Parrot Album Launch Tour + High Tensions + Colossvs | Coolangatta Hotel, 8.00pm The Maslows EP Launch + Kip Casper + Goodbye Joker + Jacob Lee | Currumbin Creek Tavern, 8.00pm The Meerdogs + Dan Irwin + Jadey Peterson | The Loft Chevron Island, 8.00pm Matt Gresham Album Launch | Soundlounge Currumbin, 8.30pm DJ JR | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 10.00pm King Louie & Guitar Mick | Burleigh Brewery
SATURDAY 30 MAY Baltimore Gun Club + Desmantra + Raw Deep + Led Angels + Eternal Thought | Currumbin Creek Tavern, 7.30pm Cadence + Kirra Huddy + Maddy Thompson | The Loft Chevron Island, 8.00pm DJ JR | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 10.00pm Benny D Williams | Coolangatta Hotel The Lyrical + Akova | Green Week Helensvale Tommy + Jake Carmody & Jesse Boyle + Kurt Joseph + Hertz + Yurie + Taglo + Sangers & Katie Karma + Xactlythis | RAVE RADIO POP-UP FESTIVAL | One 50 Public House
SUNDAY 31 MAY Mudslide | Eagle Heights Tavern Mount Tambourine, 12.00 – 4.00pm Open Mic & Jam | Scuttlebutt Cafe Springbrook, 3.00 - 6.00pm Benny D Williams | Bambu Bar Palm Beach, 4.00 – 7.00pm Vertigo | Avenue Surfers Paradise, 9.30pm Necro | Coolangatta Hotel, 8.00pm
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May 2 - 28, Cafe Dbar
Paintings and drawings by Neil Matterson
SOME DAYS ARE TOUGHER THAN OTHERS: THE FEMALE BODY
Film
AGE OF ADALINE
CLUSTER
Blake Lively (The Town), Michiel Huisman (Game of Thrones), Harrison Ford
Craig Anderson, Noa Dean, Dane Reynolds, Jack Freestone and many, many more…
What if you never aged another day in your life…
Kai Neville, you’ve done it again!
Sounds like the beginning of a thrilling super-hero movie - Infinite days with infinite time, free to live and do almost anything you want!
Following up from instant surf classics like Modern Collective, Dear Suburbia and the Jordy Smith biopic, Bending Colours, Kai Neville has proven he’s still got the goods with his latest film, Cluster.
Yet Age of Adaline is far from a super-hero movie. In fact, the very premise of infinite time quickly raises the less than positive issues which accompany such an unkind disability. See, while you go about living each and every day as if it’s your first, those you love and care about slowly succumb to the ravages of time, eventually leaving you alone in a sea of memories, and a saddened pool of bottomless grief. Adaline Bowman (Lively) has learned to survive such a disability by keeping everyone around her at arms length, never getting too attached, and skipping town the moment suspicions of her timeless beauty arise. But how long can the human heart sustain such solitude? How long can a woman turn her back on missed connections and love yearnings tugging on the very heartstrings designed to be strummed… Enter Eliss Jones (Huisman), whose insatiable charm and incorrigible persistence proves more than enough for an age weary Adaline. Little does she know how deep the rabbit hole goes when love opens unexpected doors to dusty rooms long forgotten. It’s refreshing to see a different take on an overdone premise. Yet Age of Adaline does at times get a little sloppy in its delivery. The spasmodic narration is a little cheesy and clichéd, yet can be overlooked when remembering that the core theme of the film revolves around love and the connections we form through a multiple series of life moments. Guys, if you’re looking for a date night flick with your sweetheart, I promise this one won’t have you barfing into your popcorn. I’m giving you a no honk guarantee. Nathan James
Banging home that sharp staccato beat of raw energy, combined with an all-star cast of professional free-surfers, this film has all the earmarks of what’s to be expected from Kai’s camera wizardry. Neville’s strength lies in his ability to capture both the imagery, and the sound of each cast member. Whether it’s Jack Freestone flawlessly tucking into perfect barrels to the iconic tune of Australian Crawl’s - Reckless, or Gold Coast local, Noa Dean high flying to a little David Bowie, there is one thing for certain, you couldn’t possibly fall asleep to the raw grit of this adrenaline fueled thriller of a surf flick. With tunes as varied as the surfers themselves, and a board-bag full tricks and triumphs, I look forward to seeing what’s next for this super talented young director. Dare I repeat myself? Kai Neville, you’ve done it again! Nathan James Image below: Kai Neville making Cluster
FLICKERFEST, 2015 NATIONAL TOUR If you missed it recently, Flickerfest rolled into town to deliver nine spectacular short films, handpicked from the annual film festival at Bondi Beach earlier this year. Entitled Short Films: Licensed to Thrill, I was indeed quite thrilled at the caliber of shorts on offer. In fact I was tickled pink! What made the night a huge success was the lighthearted Aussie spirit of taking any theme and putting a comedic spin on it. We’re known for not taking ourselves too seriously, and it reflected in almost all of the films showcased on the night. Whether the film was animated, dramatically acted, or completely comedic in nature, Flickerfest Short Films: Licensed to Thrill was one rollercoaster ride of emotion. From local filmmaker Beth Armstrong, came a fun little slice of childhood as she painted an autobiographic picture of her relationship with her younger brother and the shenanigans they got up to as latch-key kids after school each day. The stop-animated claymation short Bush Mechanics was a story of four Walpiri men traversing our great red country in an old beaten up Ford Valiant. With bits and pieces falling off, or breaking down along the way, MacGyver-like ingenuity was employed with hilarious results! My absolute favourite gem of the night was entitled Love Song Devotions, which shed a very humorous light on the topic of love and loss through late-night radio DJ Raymond L’amour, whose voice could melt icing off a cupcake. Again that Aussie quirk had the audience falling for this film right from the very first frame, and the happy ending made our hearts and throats swell with a collective “aahh.” Unlike other artsy events I’ve been to, I found the overall theme and tone of the night very easy to immerse myself in. That feeling of love and connection, community and moving forward through life seemed to roll around the theatre like an infectious cloud of warmth and pride. I went home knowing my evening had been well spent, and am very much looking forward to Flickerfest rolling back into town next year on another annual tour. For those interested in finding out where the next stops of the tour are, be sure to head to the Flickerfest website at: www.http/flickerfest.com.au Nathan James
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SET PHASERS TO FABULOUS When you mention George Takei, most people would either bring to mind his character of Hikari Sulu on Star Trek, or his ferociously witty social media presence, which has gained him legions of fans who have never even seen an episode of Star Trek. But behind the self-deprecating memes, endless “Live Long and Prosper” repetitions and Comic Con signings, lies a man with a story to tell, and one that is at times uncomfortable to hear. In Australia promoting his new documentary To Be Takei, George took the time to answer some fan questions in a post-screening Q&A, and briefly catch up with Blank’s Natalie O’Driscoll on the red carpet of the Gold Coast Film Festival. What country do you think of when you hear the term “internment camps”? My guess is that the USA would not have been in the top three in your mind. Yet in World War II following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the American government declared all legally residing JapaneseAmerican citizens to be “enemy non-aliens”, a term which both described their legal right to live in the country while identifying them all as potential threats to national security. Rounded up en masse and without charge, the bulk of America’s Japanese-American residents, despite in some cases having lived in the US for generations, lost their homes and businesses while being placed in a variety of desolate and hostile internment camps across the continent. Sound familiar? There are two main points of difference between this story and that of Hitler’s Europe. The first is that such imprisonment, whilst barbaric and utterly unfair, did not eventually lead to widespread slaughter of an entire race, and the second is that – comparatively – few people talk about it. George Takei, whose entire family was captured and placed into one of these prisons when he was a young boy, is determined to change the latter by sharing his personal story with the world. “I particularly wanted to make sure that the incarceration of innocent American citizens of Japanese ancestry were included in the film because even today it’s a little known part of American history”, explains George. “I’m always shocked when I talk to people who I consider to be well-informed, well-read people... and they are just aghast that something like that happened in the United States. It’s a humbling experience for Americans because we’ve always had this idealised image of who we are as a people and I think it’s important that people know our history, to learn from it. But you can’t learn from it if you don’t know about it.” George has also co-created and stars in a musical called Allegiance which is a fictional tale loosely based on the story of his childhood and parents, the legacy of growing up in a world after their experience in the internment camps. “Our country was swept up in war hysteria. And our people happened to look like the people that bombed Pearl Harbor.” “I’m rapidly approaching my geyserhood. And we want this story to continue when I’m gone. To really get people to understand and feel that story we had to humanise it, to uh, add flesh to it. About six years ago I met an extraordinarily
Image courtesy of Adam Christie
gifted composer / lyricist...he really understood that chapter of American history as another Asian-American so we collaborated on creating Allegiance as a musical and we opened in 2012 at a distribguished regional theatre in the United States. We called it the World Premiere but New Yorkers still refer to it as the “out-of-town tryout”. The arrogance of New Yorkers!” He grins. “But we wound up having a sold out run... we broke the 77-year record of that theatre and we wound up winning the Best New Musical from the San Diego Critics Circle, and this fall, at age 78, I will be making my Broadway debut in the internment camp musical Allegiance. So I’d like to make a suggestion to you. Visiting New York in the autumn is a wonderful time,” he jokes, and the audience chuckles and applauds. A tireless advocate for human rights, George uses his celebrity status to raise awareness of issues which are close to his heart. Another personal cause on his radar is the cause of marriage equality and gay rights. In October 2005, Takei revealed in an issue of Frontiers magazine that he is homosexual and had been in a committed relationship with his partner, Brad Altman, for 18 years; the move was prompted by then California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s veto of same-sex marriage legislation. At the time he said, “It’s not really coming out, which suggests opening a door and stepping through. It’s more like a long, long walk through what began as a narrow corridor that starts to widen.” On May 16, 2008, Takei announced that he and Brad would be getting married. They were the first same-sex couple to apply for a marriage license in West Hollywood. They were married on September 14, 2008, at the Democracy Forum of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, of which Takei is one of the founders and serves as a member of its board of trustees. George and his husband Brad have generously allowed cameras into virtually every aspect of their lives in To Be Takei. The lifelong struggle to have their love legally recognised is heartwarming, brutally funny and at times cringeworthy, like any intimate insight into the various spats and awkward encounters that most long-term couples experience. In my brief meeting with the warm and charming Mr Takei,
I was permitted one question. Given his seeming endless supply of energy and optimism, I am curious to know what he perceives to be the biggest drawback of having such a prominent social media presence. His answer holds few surprises. “Well you know, everybody on social media has the same problem: It’s the trolls. People who are negative about everything. They can be fierce, and they can be hurtful, and totally anonymous. It’s the anonymity that gives them the licence to carry on like that. But you have to go into social media knowing that they’re there. Brad gets all upset when he reads some of the hate mails, and he even went to Google in New York to try to get them to erase certain things! I had to tell Brad, you know, being in social media is like marriage. You’re in in for better or for worse, you are married.” If you are not one of George’s 8 million facebook followers or 2 million Twitter followers, it is well worth the couple of clicks to make it happen. Funny, irrevent, passionate and energetic, Mr Sulu will (we hope) be entertaining his fans and making waves for his causes for many years to come.
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BLANK PAGE
THE STRAYS
ELIZABETH IS MISSING
Emily Bitto
Emma Healey
“When was it that I became a voyeur in their midst? I was the perfect witness, an unsuspected anthropologist disguised within the body of a young girl...” When Lily meets Eva, daughter of infamous and eccentric painter, Evan Trentham, she is exposed to the extraordinary life the Trenthams have created for themselves. Letting their three daughters run wild, Evan and Helena live a chaotic and bohemian life at the centre of an artists’commune for likeminded painters. Through Eva, Lily glimpses an alternative future for herself, vastly different from her own ordinary upbringing. “I had broken out of some brittle carapace and was unfurling in the sunlight.” Shortlisted for the 2015 Stella prize, The Strays was written by Melbourne writer Emily Bitto. The Stella prize began in 2013 and aims to recognise and celebrate Australian women writers’ contribution to literature. This year it will be drawn on 21 April 2015. Mostly set in Melbourne in the 1930s and 1940s, The Strays is a fictional story, influenced by the changes in the Australian art world of the time. Labelled a degenerate by conservatives, Evan Trentham plays up to his mad artist stereotype, thus ensuring his fame until old age. The author plays with themes of madness throughout the story, a relevant theme as we often like to think of creative people tainted with at least a hint of madness. Bitto is something of an artist herself, skilled at turning everyday scenes into original and beautiful metaphors: “Laughter, the smells of cooking, were already in the kitchen, waking up the pots and pans from their bat-like sleep, dangling by their handles above the bench.” Though she is a regular in the Trentham household for many years, Lily never manages to truly become part of the circle. She is “a cuckoo in the nest, an imposter who listened and observed, hoarding and collecting information.” She is forever altered by her time spent with the Trenthams. She is haunted by her silence in the face of events she could have prevented. It is through remembering the past and her best friend Eva that she learns to heal. Beautifully written with luscious detail and plenty of intrigue, The Strays is a more than worthy contender for the upcoming Stella award. Emily Russell
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“Then I remember that I am old and nobody is looking at me.” Most of us prefer not to think about it. But the fact remains, one day we will be old. London writer Emma Healey bravely addresses the topics of ageing and madness in her debut novel, Elizabeth is Missing. In her 80s, Maud has dementia. But that won’t stop her striving to solve the mystery of her missing friend Elizabeth. Much to the chagrin of her exasperated daughter Helen, Maud insists that Elizabeth is missing, her half remembered clues fluttering about her on bits of paper. As Maud’s mind declines even further she comes closer to finding her dear friend Elizabeth, but how can she solve the mystery when everyone around her thinks she’s gone mad? Healey is skilful in her storytelling. From one chapter to the next, Maud forgets where she is or what she is doing and Healey effectively describes the acute fear of forgetting. At times the story is humorous, however there are many sad moments as Maud begins to forget her loved ones. Though she is unable to remember the present, Maud has a clear memory of her childhood and her sister Sukey’s unsettling disappearance in the 1940s. Maud’s mission to look for Elizabeth is spurred on by memories of Sukey. In Maud’s search she is brushed off, dismissed, told off, sworn at, and laughed at, representing society’s distinct lack of patience for poor Maud and her plight. Helen for one, Maud’s middle-aged daughter, is frustrated to breaking point by her mother’s repeated phrases and questions. Confused and muddled though she is, Maud can always pick up on emotions from those around her. “Helen sighs. This means I’ve asked before.” Elizabeth is Missing is compulsive reading and not to be dismissed. It’s a skilfully told psychological mystery which will have readers guessing until the end. If you enjoy reading this, seek out The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane. Emily Russell
FROM FULL FRONTAL TO THE FRONT LINE While actor Michael Veitch is wellknown for his comedy roles on The D-Generation, Fast Forward and Full Frontal, he is also an author of two books on Second World War aviation – Flak and Fly. Combining his love of writing, passion about WWII and performance ability, Michael has put together a vivid performance of unforgettable stories from RAAF veterans about their experiences of combat in World War II. With FLAK currently touring Australia, Natalie O’Driscoll caught up with Michael on the Gold Coast leg to ask him about his unique creation. The FLAK promo material describes your passion for Second World War aircraft as being held since childhood. Can you recollect for us how and why this passion came about? I still don’t really have an idea as to where the interest came from. I have no family member who served in the armed forces, so it really was just an interest in the times, and the events and the people which grew into a desire to write about them in later in life. I think I was something of an eccentric child! Actually the trigger for it all was a friend
who was writing the biography of Bud Tingwell who was a fighter pilot. He’d call me when he didn’t understand something technical Bud was telling him about his flying days and it gave me the idea to do my own book. What is involved in contacting and interviewing so many veterans for your research, and how long did the process take altogether? A couple of years was spent researching the now three books I have written on the subject. Finding the former airmen was something of an organic process. Originally it was an appearance on Bert Newton that did it, when I put a call out. From then on it was surprisingly easy.
Two and a half years after Fetish, she published her second novel Split. Around that time she says she agreed to take a lie detector test “to prove I wrote my own books because there was such a stereotype about being a dumb model”. A journalist from The Australian newspaper, who was in fact on her side, contacted Moss to ask if she would take a polygraph test to put to bed the unsubstantiated claims levelled at the author on a regular basis. Of course, the polygraph test confirmed that Tara Moss does write her own novels. “I became the first scientifically proven author in the world!” Nonetheless, she has since had a Spanish book reviewer claim in 2012 that her looks helped her get published. She also frequently has the ‘Model turned Author’ description attached to articles written about her, and countless descriptions about her looks in reviews about her books. Even compliments can be back handed.
Did you interview more airmen for the purposes of putting together FLAK as a stage show or are all stories in the show featured in the books you have written on the subject? The five stories I tell on stage all appear in the books, in which there are close to sixty altogether. Was it easy or difficult for you to find the humour in the stories you were hearing, being from such a serious period of the world’s history? The humour was easy to find sometimes, as it comes from the men themselves. Almost to a man I found them to be charming, modest and often funny, even about the grimmer memories of their war service. They all have a wonderful sense of irony that they even survived, and all seem to not take themselves, or anything else for that matter, too seriously. Why do you think it is important that these stories are collected and shared with the public? Because they will simply be lost, and their drama, not to mention a firsthand account of the true nature of war will be lost with them. Many times I was told that I was the first person these men had spoken to about their wartime experiences, which was incredibly humbling. Is there any one particular story or person who touched you or stayed with you more so than any other, and if so, can you share it with us? My final story in the show is that of Dudley Marrows, a flying boat pilot who sunk a German U-boat in the Atlantic, then in an extraordinary twist, decades later befriended the captain of that U-boat, and the two men became friends for life. But all their stories are amazing. You’ve had such a long and diverse career with television, comedy, theatre, broadcasting, directing and writing thrown into the mix. Do any of these stand out from the others as being more of a heartfelt passion, or more fulfilling? I come from a family of writers, so the writing aspect (I’ve written five books and am about to start on my sixth) feels like the thing I was born to do. Certainly my parents (both journalists, god rest their souls!) would agree. What are your plans for the rest of 2015? I have another book to get started on – concerning the air war in New Guinea, and will be involved in a new sketch comedy show for Foxtel, due to start in the middle of the year. There is also the tour of Flak, which has only just started. FLAK TRUE STORIES FROM THE MEN WHO FLEW IN WORLD WAR TWO by Michael Veitch was published in 2008 and is available in book stores and online.
TARA MOSS IS NOT A FICTIONAL WOMAN Models can’t write because they are beautiful and stupid. If they claim to have written books, the reality is that their boyfriends probably wrote the books for them, or they hired a ghost writer, or they were heavily plagiarised. None of these statements are my opinions, but the opinions of book reviewers, critics, journalists and other sexist commentators who threw this sort of cruel, nonsensical criticism at Tara Moss after she published her first crime novel, Fetish, at the age of 25. Moss was on the Gold Coast recently to participate in the Somerset Festival of Literature and to talk about her most recent book, The Fictional Woman. It’s the first non-fiction book that Moss has written, and blends her own life story with commentary about sexism and fictions about women. She is now the mother of a young daughter, and as she states in her book, “I want her to have opportunities and a voice”. Because of this, because of a life lived as a woman in the public eye and all the vitriol that comes with it, and because she was raped many years ago while still living in Vancouver, Moss has written a book that keeps the feminist conversation alive. Tara Moss was born and raised in British Columbia, Canada, and had been a model in North America, Europe and Australia before writing her first book. People had often told her “you should be a model”. Moss says no-one ever says to young beautiful women “Hey, you should be a writer!” She went to Europe at the age of 17 to model. Her Canadian modelling agency sent her to a ‘model apartment’ in Germany because they couldn’t afford to put up models in hotels. A much older man owned the one bedroom apartment. “It became very clear by the end of the night that I was expected to sleep in his bed with him”, she recalls. She managed to lock herself in another room all night and escape in the morning.
“I am often told I write strong female characters. No-one ever uses the adjective strong to describe male characters”. About media portrayal of women in general, she says “Women are too often portrayed with a mixture of allure and contempt. There is no winning position”. Many women recoil at the idea of being called a feminist, and it is often said that we are equal now so we don’t need feminism anymore. Statistics tell a very different story. Moss is a meticulous researcher and is well versed in gender statistics. Some disturbing examples include; Australian women working full-time earn 18.8% less than men (this has been worsening since 2006); 50.2 of citizens in Australia are women yet less than 30% are parliamentarians; 90% of the current Federal Cabinet are men; 91% of film directors of top grossing films are men; there were 2300 artworks in the National Gallery in the UK and only 10 of them were by women; 70% of front page by-lines in Australian newspapers are by men despite equal numbers of men and women being employed as journalists. Moss says “We need leadership if anything is going to change”. Tara Moss is a survivor of sexual assault and domestic violence, and recently became the patron for the Full Stop Foundation which aims to end domestic and sexual violence. In Australia, this year alone, two women every week have been killed by partners and former partners. “Services are chronically underfunded” she says “and there is a toxic silence around the issue that shames the victims and protects the predators”. That is why she has chosen to speak out about her own experiences. “I wanted to show solidarity with other survivors of crime and also to push the conversation.” She also says “The victims are disproportionately women and we need to listen to their experiences”. According to Moss we need a collective approach to help end the violence. To help the victims she says “Just do what you can.” Pip Andreas www.blankgc.com.au
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Lifestyle BOND APPOINTS NEW INDIGENOUS HEALTH LEAD Bond University has appointed prominent Aboriginal doctor, Associate Professor Shannon Springer, as its Academic Lead for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, as part of its commitment to providing students with the skills to work effectively in the cross cultural context for the benefit of future patients. Dr Springer, who has worked across Queensland over the past 10 years, will be responsible for overseeing Bond’s Indigenous health curriculum, developing clinical placement opportunities in Indigenous communities and engaging with the Gold Coasts’ Indigenous community. Bond is committed to actively recruiting and graduating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medical students, with only about 200 Indigenous doctors - and a similar number of medical students - currently in Australia. Bond Health Sciences and Medicine Executive Dean, Professor Helen Chenery, said Dr Springer was wellrespected for his on-going commitment to improving the health of Indigenous Australians. “Having a practitioner of the calibre of Dr Springer on board will ensure our medical students have a solid understanding and appreciation of Indigenous health issues,” she said. “Dr Springer has worked extensively in this area on the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Mackay, Palm Island and Mount Isa as both a general practitioner and in health consultancy.” “He has also sat on various boards including the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association, the peak body representing Indigenous Doctors, and is an active member of various grass roots organisations dedicated to closing the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. “While there are emerging signs of improvement, there remains a 10 year shorter life expectancy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders compared to non-Indigenous people, so a conscious and collective effort across many sectors, including education, is extremely important.” Dr Springer, of Aboriginal and Australian South Sea Island
descent, was born and raised in Mackay in North Queensland and was originally lured to Brisbane on a football scholarship with the Broncos in 1997. At the same time, he enrolled in a Bachelor of Applied Health Science in Indigenous Primary Health Care. “While playing football, I was studying and started to learn a lot of history of my own people. It explained a lot of things to me in terms of my own identity and really instilled in me an interest in righting social injustices affecting health outcomes for my people and other marginalised cultures around the world,” said Dr Springer. “I became really passionate about it, so much so that it overtook my aspirations to continue with football and, given my level of passion for football, that’s a big deal! “At the same time, I had a lot of injuries and realised early that I wasn’t going to make it as a professional athlete, so I decided to concentrate on my studies.” After graduating from his first degree, Dr Springer moved to Townsville to continue his studies in medicine and became one of the first two Indigenous doctors to graduate in 2005 from James Cook University. He completed his internship at the Gold Coast Hospital and worked at the Royal Brisbane Women’s and Children’s Hospital, before moving into general practice when he was lured back home to Mackay to work at the Aboriginal and Torres Strat Islander Health Centre, where he has spent the past six years serving his community. “There has been a shift in the medical problems affecting Indigenous families over time, from infectious diseases to more chronic health care issues, such as cardiovascular, renal disease and cancers,” he said. “The lingering effects of past policies, which resulted in losses of land, language, culture and an erosion of identity and autonomy, continue to affect many of my patients’ social and emotional health and wellbeing, along with having a bearing on their choices in life.
The GC Airport Marathon revealed a new theme for 2015: Good Times. Organisers say it reflects the event’s status as Australia’s fastest marathon, providing participants the opportunity to produce personal best times. More than 60% of runners last year achieved personal best times, highlighting the Gold Coast as a premier holiday running destination and building on the city’s international appeal for world-class tourism offerings. “With our event producing an extremely high percentage of personal best times for runners, good times can be achieved on and off the marathon course,” Mr Watson said.
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“The theme cohesively Gold Coast’s famous golden sandy beaches and iconic Surfers Paradise skyline while triggering a fun, passionate and celebratory emotional connection with bright colours and a diverse range of runners. “The Gold Coast’s tagline is ‘famous for fun’ and now it is
“My work at Bond will enable me to develop and contribute to a culturally competent workforce and bring about enhanced skills to students wanting to deliver better health outcomes for their future Indigenous patients. “Providing skills to work effectively in the cross cultural space ultimately produces better doctors and enriches the profession of medicine and health care. “Since coming to Bond, I’ve felt really supported by the leadership and believe we will be able to make a real difference through my work with the university.”
famous for our run which is an internationally acclaimed marathon.” The 37th annual Gold Coast Airport Marathon will be held on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 July and is expected to attract more than 27,000 participants of all ages and abilities across a number of events including the marathon, wheelchair marathon, half marathon, wheelchair 15km, 10km run, 5.7km challenge and a junior dash of 4km and 2km. For more, visit goldcoastmarathon.com.au. Samantha Morris
Mfest Held before Mother’s Day, Mfest is celebrated by many as an alternative day out with mum. It’s free and open to all the family with wildlife exhibitions and a bouncy castle as well as special workshops and market stalls targeted at women. Oh, and did we mention the Big Red Tent full of live music? Held 9 May and running for eight years now, this year’s event in Springbrook State School is focused on the music. And the lineup already includes Felicity Lawless and her trio, all-girl Brisbane band Sista Moon, Maryen Cairns, Susan McCarther and Mickey McIllwain as well as Springbrook locals Sunday Afternoon People. It might just be me, but organisers seem to have the food just about perfect. They are promising both coffee and ice cream vans. Plus a steak and sausage sizzle. Plus a raw food stall. Maryen Cairns is the founder of the event and spoke to us about how it has grown over the years – from 2007 when it was attended by about 50 people – mostly women with babies from the Home Midwifery Association. “We had a small stage under a tree in a paddock right up at the top of Springbrook Road, a sausage sizzle, puppet
SPIRITUAL CRYSTAL TANTRIC SOUL STUFF
The streets of Mullumbimby are full of women walking around in yoga pants and bearded men who look like they just stepped off the set of The Vikings at the best of times. At the Byron Spirit Festival last month, Mullum was positively teeming with them. BSF was a weekend long yoga festival with a lot more thrown in. Tons of workshops spread throughout venues around town to help the spiritual seeker find......whatever! Music stage, vegetarian food, healers, massage, yoga clothes stalls and yummy chai. All bases covered as far self-nurturing went. Most workshops filled up quickly. Choosing only a few was difficult and the handful I could make it to were packed to the rafters. This is a popular festival. There are always plenty of gurus, shamans, healers, and other practitioners coming to our shores, claiming to have the ultimate wisdom, travelling the world to impart their ‘unique’ teachings. A festival such a BSF is a good place to get a taster of a number of teachings and modalities and decide for yourself what is wisdom and what is guru with over-inflated ego.
show, children’s stories, local craft and plant stalls, and live women-led music,” Maryen said. Since 2012 Mfest has been held in the grounds of Springbrook State School and Maryen says they have 300 - 400 people attending with live music being performed in a Big Red Tent. Maryen says it’s a bit of a community ritual now.
friends, exploring stalls, sharing delicious munchies from the raw food stall and listening to some of the great music,” she said. Some of the workshops which will take place this year include Meditation and Mandalas and Women’s Sacred Essence Circle.
“Mfest really starts on the Friday afternoon once school is out, when lots of volunteers congregate to put the Big Red Tent up. It’s quite a ceremonial community occasion”, she said.
“This type of workshop is instrumental in helping women connect,” Maryen said.
And as usual with events like this, there’s a large group of people who make it happen. Maryen says the Springbrook Mountain Community Association has taken Mfest under its wing and that other key sponsors include Councillor Glenn Tozer and Queensland MP Ros Bates.
But Maryen is quick to say that men are welcome too.
“Mfest is free because we believe everyone in the community should have the opportunity to attend and share in an event like this,” she said. And it’s not just the local community that benefits – the event this year will raise funds for The Mothers Milk Bank and Birthing Kits Foundation Australia. Maryen says it’s important for women to connect and feel celebrated for being who they are.
“And all of our live music is women-led. Mfest is a platform to highlight Women’s Art.”
“Half of our volunteers are men, and I’d say a third of all visitors to Mfest are male,” she said. “Mfest is really about loving women and valuing what they have to give the world.” Samantha Morris
Mfest | Saturday 9 May | Springbrook State School
“Lots of women attend Mfest to hang out with their women I chose to see Sonam Rigzin, the translator for the Gyoto Monks of Tibet first. As a spiritual tradition that is 2500 years old, Buddhism has a long lineage, and has developed different forms such as Vajrayana which is practiced in Tibetan culture. The Gyoto Monks are known for their guttural chanting and Mohawk-like headpieces. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the monks to travel from Dharamsala in India due to visa complications, so they were not able to be present. As translator, Sonam sees himself as a messenger and conduit for the monks. He was even able to give an oral transmission of the famous chant ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’ as he had received this blessing from the Dalai Lama himself.
The music reaches crescendo, dies down, reaches crescendo again and so forth. A young woman on the floor bursts into tears, and it reminds me of myself doing the same thing in a group meditation many years ago. I have to wonder if it was a spiritual awakening or simply the power of suggestion.
However, Sonam’s translations themselves are interesting. ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’ is a mantra that embodies all the teachings of the Buddha. Sonam adds that it means ‘you are unique/special’ not in an egotistical sense, but that we are all different. He says the goal of Buddhism is to get back to our authentic self; a self beyond mind, speech and body. Tibetan practices such as daily prostrations and the Five Tibetan Rites help reach that primordial self.
Harjiwan, aka Jacinta Csutoros, opened the first Kundalini yoga studio in Melbourne 20 years ago and is now based in Byron Bay. She studied in the US under Yogi Bhajan and her accent still has a discernable American twang. The session starts with chanting almost as guttural as the monk’s, then moves onto ‘Kriya’. Anyone who has read Autobiography of a Yogi would be familiar with the term Kriya, however this is not Yogananda’s Kriya yoga. These Kriyas are specific techniques to work on specific parts of the body, and today Harjiwan is focussing on the kidneys and adrenals. We sit cross legged and have to hold our breath while flexing the spine back and forth until we can’t hold our breath anymore. Then do it again. The whole room is a mass of writhing bodies rubbing their genitals on the floor! At the end, we have to press our tongues up to the roof of our mouths. This may well have been to prevent any over enthusiastic yoginis from crying out in ecstasy. All a bit much for me so I head to the chai stall for a cuppa and a sit down.
Sonam sees the great, ancient yoga teacher Patanjali as a scientist, the Buddha as a psychologist, and Jesus as a mystic. He says that Patanjali, and later, Buddha, rejected the idea of a God that controls everything. Tibetans, who 2500 years ago were wealthy warlords with aggression issues, found some peace in Buddhism. He sees Australia as being like that now, and why so many people here are on a spiritual quest. It explains a lot about why a festival like BSF is so popular. My next stop was Soul Vibing, a sound healing workshop with Matt Omo. Matt says he’s not aligned with any one particular tradition, and says soul vibing “brings us in alignment with our soul so we can perceive reality from a more expanded space”. I have no idea what that means but there was more talk of “letting go of negative energy, creating space and breathing into that space”. We all lie on the floor and call in the ancient one as Matt gongs, chants, gongs louder, whistles, plays a recording of a violin, some Buddha Bar-type beats, rattle, didgeridoo, and crystal singing bowls.
The next workshop was the packed Kundalini yoga session with Harjiwan. Kundalini refers to the coil at the base of the spine, or chakra, and yoga means union or ‘yoke’ of the individual with the Universal Self or consciousness. Awakening the serpent-like Kundalini at the base chakra so it travels to the top of your head, the highest chakra, helps create this union.
Before I head off, I remember Sonam’s definition of Karma. Rather than a doctrine to “keep poor people poor” by telling them if they doing anything remotely wrong then bad things will happen to them (read: fear mongering), he sees it as a science. It means “I will not accept the status quo.” The spiritual seekers keep seeking because something’s wrong with the status quo. I leave them to it. I’m happy with my authentic self. Pip Andreas
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Lifestyle NOT ANOTHER TOP TEN HEALTH TIPS Part 1 of 2 nel. Put it this way, if my toilet was on the fritz I wouldn’t call in someone who’s done a six week porcelain pottery course, I’d want the plumber who has waded knee deep through four years of technical training and practical experience, someone who literally knows their sh*t.
I know what you’re thinking, and I completely agree. With a world full of health professionals, health advocates, science writers, food forums, fad diets, non-fad diets, Facebook pages, Instagram followers, celebrity chefs and more information that you can point a blog at, who in their right mind would want to write another cliché top ten health tips article? Someone who doesn’t like top ten lists, that’s who. Here are the first five important tips to a healthier new you. 1.
Don’t Trust Top Ten Health List Tips. I hold a tertiary science degree, have worked within the scientific field my entire professional career and am confident that I possess enough scientific literacy to adequately navigate the virtual seas of misinformation and pseudoscience that flood our bandwidth daily. However when it comes to in-depth nutritional, medical, physiological, biomechanical, psychological or biochemical issues (to name just a few), like everybody else I should take my cues from the people in the know.
2.
Make Sure They Know. The main purpose of this article would be the hope that the average Joe (or Jolene) makes the decision to become just that little bit more active, not have dessert every night, or to critically question that new diet, supplement or new piece of workout gear on the home shopping channel. However if you want to lose 30kg, run that bucket list marathon or complete a triathlon – best talk to the professionals. I mean doctors, physiotherapists, exercise physiologists, nutritionists and I don’t mean googling either! Go out and talk to people, visit reputable health clinics, universities and training facilities run by qualified person-
3.
Get In The Habit. Marathons aside, most of us lack the time, dedication or inclination to become the next de Castella, however subtle changes to our daily schedule are well within our reach. Basically our health and fitness goals are the result of small changes, that given time and consistency become engrained in our mentality and become a natural part of our lifestyle. Whether it be an apple a day, a walk after dinner or riding your bike to the shops, after a few weeks you’ll forget why you started. Just like brushing your teeth or checking the back seat for an axe wielding maniac, you’ll feel weird if you don’t do it.
4.
Do What You Like. To some the idea of hitting the treadmill brings on a cold sweat uninitiated in any way by physical activity, while to others the thought of a quick 18 holes would lead only to a deep slumber as opposed to an elevated heart rate, however I’m willing to bet however that most everyone has a favourite way of getting their sweat on. Be it walking the dog after work, a few laps at the local pool, or bouncing around at the
community hall Zumba class, it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you have fun doing it! The old adage “Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” also applies to exercise. 5. Three’s a Crowd. Aside from clipping your toenails, belting out some Brittany into a hairbrush or learning the violin, most activities are more fun with company. Studies have shown that “Social exercise improved the stressreducing benefits of exercise, specifically by increasing calmness after exercising with someone compared with exercising alone”. In addition, “Results being consistent with previous research examining the positive effects of social support on weight loss, smoking cessation, and encouraging positive health behaviours”(1). So sign up for a Pilates class, join a soccer team or share the love by giving a friend a five am wakeup call for a powerwalk. Matt Greer International Journal of Stress Management. Vol. 8, No. 3, 2001 “Does Exercising with Another Enhance the Stress-Reducing Benefits of Exercise?” Thomas G. Plante, Laura Coscarelli, Maire Ford. https://www.psychologytoday.com/files/attachments/34033/exercise-another.pdf
(1)
SKUNKED TWO OUT OF THREE… IS IT TIME TO LOSE THE LOSERS ROUND? As I write this, the last event of the WSL Australian leg is about to wrap up and the WSL has been left without decent waves in two of three events.. The surfing has been of a great standard, but the waves on the Gold Coast and at Bells Beach were considerably less than desired. Bells did score some great waves for one day of the waiting period, other than that, if it were not for the contest you would have failed to see one local surfer out there. It is a great shame that the world’s best surfers have - for two events now - competed in the world’s worst waves. Not a great way to showcase the sport. As much as Joey Turpell, Martin Potter, and the ever-so annoying WSL commentary team talk it up, the conditions for the first two events were rank. What is the solution? Sack Joey Turpell? Well that might help our ears as we watch the webcast, but will not solve the problem which has plagued the last two events. Even though Margaret River has had some awesome waves, the events seem to run forever. Can you tell me another sport where you can lose three times and still place second? This is the case with the way that the WSL have set up their events. In my opinion, the WSL really have to cut back on the time they need to run these events. With half hour heats on the current system the men’s event is twenty-five and a half hours of surfing, the women’s thirteen and a half. That makes for thirty-nine hours of surfing, and with eight hours of
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surfing per day, that adds up to five full days. Even a good swell on the Gold Coast is four to five days in duration, (the exceptional ones go longer), so it is close to impossible to finish both men’s and women’s events on one swell. What they really need to do is take out the “Loser’s Round” heats and make it direct progression. For instance the men’s field cut back to 32 surfers, with direct progression with no second chances, this means 31 heats, or two full days of surfing. For the women’s it would mean a field of 16 surfers, or 15 heats, meaning that their event could be finished in one day! So this means 3 days of surfing to run the event for both men and women. A better package for television, a much better chance of getting great waves, and savings in the costs of running the event as well! The waves for Margaret River Drug Aware Masters have been awesome, with really solid conditions. Both Jordy Smith and our own Stephanie Gilmore knocked out free surfing in between competing. But still event this event has so many nothing heats, adding two more days to running the event. For surfing to compete with other major sports for television audiences, a dedicated time slot is needed and the event has to run in these hours - just like football, golf, and all other major sports. Dedicated start and finish time are needed
to satisfy the masses. The only way this will be achieved in surfing will be the use of wave pools and wave stadiums. Mr Webber’s wave pool is slated to be constructed soon in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, and others are popping up around the world. As Peter Drouyn (Now Westerly Windena) foresaw many years ago, surfers competing in a wave pool stadium may happen. Maybe there will be two tours, the wave pool and the ocean? For now, to get a better chance of getting good waves for all the event, it is time to lose the loser’s round! Please! Terry “Tappa” Teece
ANNA BLIGH COMES FULL CIRCLE When I posted on social media that I was interviewing Anna Bligh but didn’t have a copy of her just-released book, someone commented that it’d just be a blank ream of paper anyway. I was kind of surprised. I mean, I know that any political leader comes with friends and foes, but as far as Anna Bligh is concerned, the credentials are unquestionable.
his battle with alcoholism despite the challenges she and her mother faced at the time.
It begins with Catholic girls’ school and student politics, onto activism during the Joh era and finding her feet in the not-for-profit sector. It then leads to travelling through remote Queensland as a public servant, learning the political ropes in the Labor Party, campaigning, falling in love, having babies, looking to mentors, parenting growing boys, endless travels to the ends of Queensland and back, leading the state, winning and losing elections, cancer and chemo and everything that comes with a life that is simultaneously ordinary, and absolutely not.
“I do think the more people speak openly about these things, the easier it is for the person battling that addiction to put their hands up and ask for help or for those being impacted to know they can overcome those difficulties and still live a full life.”
I had tears in my eyes many times reading Anna Bligh’s biography Through the Wall. It’s not so much the content of Anna’s story as the matter-of-fact way she tells it. It seems to me, that in Anna’s eyes, she is still just a girl from the Gold Coast who lived a life like many others do. The only difference being that she was prepared to stand apart from the crowd and step proudly into the public eye through politics. When I spoke to her just days after her book launch she was in Melbourne and had just 15 minutes. She tells me straight up that her goal in writing the book was about encouraging others to take on public office. “I was very motivated in writing the book to encourage other people to think about putting their hand up for public life and a political career,” Anna said from her hotel room. “Especially young Australians and especially young women.” She said she is disturbed by some of the questions she’s had since leaving politics from young women who have seen women like herself and Julia Gillard getting a hard time. “They’ve asked me, why would you put your hand up?” “This book is about saying of course public life is difficult, of course there will be criticism, that’s the nature of democracy, but the benefits outweigh that.” When you see photos of Anna and her family, the body language speaks volumes. They all seem to really like each other. She laughs quickly when I ask how she did it all – managing a political career, the challenges of family, and all the public attention that came with politics. “Like any working mother or parent,” she said. “I’ve certainly had my share of worry on the way and about the choices I was making and how that might impact the lives of young sons.” “And there were certainly times when I had to be away from them, when I would miss them terribly. But ultimately, I think children know when they are loved. And my boys are loved not only by myself, but by their father, grandmother and other close relatives. I made it my business to let them know even if I’m not in the same town, that they were very loved and central to my life.” Anna says like any family they’ve had their ups and downs. “I feel very blessed to have two young men in my life who are wonderful young people who I respect, admire and love,” she says. We speak briefly about Anna’s experiences growing up with an alcoholic father. She writes about this in her book and I feel that she finds a way to be respectful of her father and
“I wrote about the difficult issues I faced in childhood because there are many Australians who have had or are still battling with issues around alcoholism or drugs,” she said.
When she does write about those challenges, it’s obvious her mother was a strong woman. Strong women are a bit of a theme, both through Anna’s book and her work. “Much of what I’ve been able to achieve is the result of a very, very loving mother who worked double-time to overcome and make sure she was giving us the love of two parents,” she said. “And I regard myself as very fortunate to be taught by catholic primary schools on the Gold Coast.” Anna credits the nuns for being strong, independent women who taught the girls under their care to do their best and strive for great things. “They were great role models.” Anna said. “Growing up on the Gold Coast in the 1960s, there was not a lot expected of girls. Large numbers of girls just didn’t finish school. For the nuns to be encouraging us to strive to be the best we could be….” She trails off on that thought and I ask her if any strong religious beliefs have endured. “There’s no doubt that my early upbringing in the Catholic church has deeply impacted my values and beliefs,” she said and mentions that her passion for social justice has its roots there too. “The teachings of Christ I think are a very good set of rules for living a good life.” “But I am not a religious person in a theological sense. I don’t attend church and don’t practice any religion.” “I had so much respect for the nuns and I was very certain that I wanted to become a nun. I think that was because here were these strong independent women who really loved teaching and doing something they enjoyed and that was satisfying. Nuns were the only women I saw doing that,” she said. And she again acknowledges the role her mother played. “She’s still with us and is still a very important person in my life. There’s no doubt it would have been much harder for me to succeed in politics when children were young if it weren’t for her. She was a very hands-on grandma. That was a very important gift she gave our family. My two boys were her only grandchildren in Brisbane. She had a lot of time and her help meant we had a ratio of three adults to two young boys. That was a good ratio,” she laughed. So what happens after you retire from politics? Well in Anna’s case there was the unexpected diagnosis of nonHodgkin’s lymphoma and the associated treatment. She said she finished her treatment in late 2013 and with regards to her work, feels she has come full circle. “I’m now working as the CEO at YWCA in New South Wales,” she said. The organisation supports more than 20,000 women, children and families throughout the state.
“It actually came about serendipitously,” she said when I asked her whether she had to complete a job application and sit through interviews. “A recruitment agency was helping them find a new CEO. Having just finished the last treatment I wasn’t feeling like I was ready for much. But the more I talked to the recruitment agency and met the Chair of the organisation – it just felt like a great fit at that time.” “It feels like a full circle journey,” she said. “Leaving uni, working in not-for-profit organisations looking after the needs of women and children, then politics, coming full circle.” “When you get a chance at political leadership in this country you gain a lot of skills and experience on the job. I felt determined to use that where it can make a difference.” “It is important to know how to move on from a big political life,” Anna said. “I feel very comfortable with the choices that I have made. And I loved every minute.” Anna Bligh’s biography Through the Wall has been released through Harper Collins. About YWCA (NSW) The organisation is more than 130 years old and operates out of four main communities of NSW including the Northern Rivers. Last year they helped more than 30,000 people across NSW – many of them women and children. Some of the services provided include employment and accredited training, parenting programs and workshops, mentoring for young people, brokering services for homeless people, re-engaging young people in high school, finding safe refuge for young women, supporting for women affected by domestic and family violence and advocating for them when attending court an running financial literacy and safe relationship workshops for high school students. Read more at ywcansw.com.au. Samantha Morris www.blankgc.com.au
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Environment GOT WOOD? FROM CHAINSAW, TO FINE FURNITURE, MALENY HAS IT ALL Maleny Wood Expo celebrates the wonderful world of wood, taking over the Maleny Showgrounds on 2 – 3 May. It’s one of those rare events with something for everyone, but mostly for those passionate about all things woodwork. It’s two days of clean country fun for the whole family. The unique event celebrates Australia’s rich timber heritage and everything wood by showcasing the work of regional wood artisans working in sustainably harvested native timbers, weeds or recycled timbers. Hosted by Barung Landcare, the event was born from the vision to promote sustainable use of our beautiful native timbers while protecting this natural resource for future generations. The Wood Expo tells the whole timber story – from seed collection and planting forests, harvesting and milling through to the end product. Find an inspirational piece to transform your home or take home the perfect piece of timber for that DIY project. The 2015 Wootha Prize theme is Planting the Seed. The exhibition is the end product of a prestigious competition that attracts entries from woodworkers and sculptors Australia wide. As with other Expo woodwork, all Wootha entries must be made from sustainably harvested native timbers, weed or recycled timbers
Visitors can enjoy demonstrations of heritage crafts such as cross-cut saw racing as well as mobile milling, woodworking for women, chainsaw carving, wood turning, tool displays from our heritage days to the latest wood carving innovation and technology. Sharpen your skills at one of the popular WoodShed Workshops. This year’s program includes Hand Held Carving with Master Carver Don Powell, Diddley Bow Making with blues duo Eb’n’Flo, Long and Short board Skateboard Deck Making with wooden surfboard shaper Steve-o, and Construct a Milk Stool using the technique of mortise and tenon with Richard Knight. Want to take home your own bespoke woven basket? Join local sculptor and installation artist Kris Martin, for a workshop ‘Weaving with Cat’s Claw – a Weed of National Significance’. Learn how to transform an environmental problem into a beneficial solution. And when you’re ready for a break, simply soak up the country atmosphere. Pull up a hay bale and enjoy a Landcare burger or a Montville Coffee Fair Trade latte. And the sustainability theme flows throughout the event. Barung’s Nursery offers visitors the opportunity to purchase local native plants to create habitat for local fauna. Visit Natural Resource Management displays to learn more about the region’s environmental initiatives.
Take home some local boutique produce including woodfired breads, bush tucker and cheeses from the Taste Maleny Produce exhibits. Plus there’s live music, free entertainment for the kids including Kids Woodworking Sessions and a monster raffle with prizes that everyone will love. Admission is $15 for adults and $12 concession with youth under 16 free. All tickets include parking. Get all the details at malenywoodexpo.com.
PULSE UP, WASTE DOWN AT TUGUN INTERNATIONAL SURFING DAY Surfrider Foundation is inviting Gold Coasters to celebrate all things surf and sustainability at a fundraising event that coincides with International Surfing Day. The event will be held on Saturday 20 June at Dune Café, Palm Beach from midday and will feature a wooden surfboard teams challenge, dune care activities and beach clean up and a screening of Sand Wars. The teams challenge will see groups of four compete on wooden alaias for the Roots of Surfing Wooden Surfboard Teams Challenge. There will only be six teams who will surf two waves in groups of six in a tag-team format. Alaias will be provided and while the judging format follows standard surf competition criteria, the emphasis is very much on having fun and promoting sustainable surfing. An expression session for experienced wooden surfboard enthusiasts will follow the Teams Challenge and there are a bunch of cool prizes up for grabs. Following the surfing events, a planting and beach clean up will take place with a screening of Sand Wars from 3.00pm. Surfrider Foundation’s celebration of International Surfing Day takes place on Sunday 20 June from midday. For more information contact Greg on 0414 939 942 or greg@climatewave.com. 38
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More than four tonnes of beach litter has been collected by responsible runners from across the Gold Coast in the two years the program has been running here. And that figure is about to get a boost, with Tugun Beach added as a site this month.
“If everyone did the right thing we wouldn’t have beach litter and marine debris issues that are impacting the world’s beaches and oceans,” Naomi said. “We need more ambassadors like Sharron to lead the cause and take action on every beach.”
Responsible Runners will hit Tugun Beach every Saturday at 6.30am from Saturday 2 May. People are urged to join the Pulse Up, Waste Down initiative that encourages beach-goers to pick up litter for 30 minutes while running or walking.
Weekly beach clean ups take place at: • The Spit, at the VMR tower every Wednesday from 5.00pm • Burleigh Heads, at the beach patrol tower from 5.00pm • Tugun Beach, in front of Tugun SLSC from 6.30am
Tugun Ambassador for Responsible Runners, Sharron Sheining said she was keen to connect the community as well as clean up the beach and sorroundings. “Tugun is my local beach and once I heard about Responsible Runners I connected with them to discover that I could be an Ambassador for Tugun,” Sharron said. Local clean beaches advocate Naomi Edwards said that Responsible Runners had been operating on the Gold Coast for 130 weeks. “Adding another beach to our cause means we will be able to collect more beach litter and marine debris,” Naomi said. “Unfortunately over 80% of what we collect comes from irresponsible beach goers leaving litter and belongings on the beach.” Naomi said the ultimate goal is for people to see how their consumer behaviour impacts the environment. Single-use plastic was also in their sights.
Responsible Runners Gold Coast is part of a national network to help raise awareness about the impacts of plastic in our waterways and the ocean, and contributes data to the Australian Marine Debris Database initiative. More at responsiblerunners.org.
products, Smith said that without the work of organisations like Bottle for Botol, the environment would be on a much more drastic path. “In saying this, a significant amount of action is still needed,” Lewis said. Teenagers nowadays are so unaware of the world around them, we can no longer use the cliché excuse “Ignorance is bliss”, we need to take responsibility and also instigate the change. Smith says that their visions include, “creating long term school to school environmental discussion”.
GC YOUTH CREATING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE: OVER THE FALLS Over the Falls is a photography exhibition which is run by budding artists and activists from the Gold Coast. All proceeds from the event, which opened last Saturday in Coolangatta, will go towards the charity Bottle for Botol, an organisation that aims to empower students across the world. The program aims to move beyond single-use plastics towards an environmentally sustainable future, with the idea to combat this issue through a simple water bottle exchange program. This will work to generate partnerships between Australian and Indonesian schools. Blank’s youth writer Eden Tokatly recently caught up with one of the activists, Lewis Smith to speak about the program. One of the team involved in the exhibition, Henry Collins, discovered Bottle for Botol on social media, showing us just
how powerful new technology can be in an evolving world. Lewis said once he told the rest of the crew about it “we all jumped on board.” The team in question is brothers Will and Lewis Smith, Henry Collins and Taj Morgan. I was curious as to what inspired the team to take global action and posed the question to Lewis. He said all of them have been to Indonesia. “We experienced first hand the unsustainable conditions. For us to have this opportunity to support the organisation Bottle for Botol, it gave us the ambition to go through with the exhibition”. When asked his opinion on the over consumption of plastic
To be able to have an enlightened and cultured conversation about commercial impacts on the environment teen to teen, is a world within our potential. Talking about an issue is great but these driven youths have taken it to the next step, “Through exhibitions such as Over the Falls, a community can develop an awareness of the issue and take action into their own hands.” Local action and empowerment can help drive transformations in environmental sustainability. Smith says, “As aspiring photographers, all of us feel committed to creating pictures that stand out from the crowd.” Not all is lost for iPhone addicted teens, with more initiatives like this there is still hope for future generations. Who said youth involvement was dead? Over the Falls exhibition is at Maverick Hair & Art Space, McLean Street, Coolangatta. For more information about Bottle for Botol go to bottleforbotol.org and follow @overthefallsaus on Instagram.
CLEAN UP THE PIN
For more than ten years, members of the Jacobs Well Fishing and Social Club have rallied troops to clean up Jumpinpin. And this year is no different. They’re calling on boaties, fishers, surfers, kiters and other waterway users to support Clean Up The Pin which will happen on Sunday 3 May. Kaye Mullen, President of the Jacobs Well Fishing and Social Club said the event was expected to be bigger than usual, but not for pleasant reasons. Hundreds of tonnes of marine debris have been collected over the past decade and results show that the marine debris epidemic is far from over. “We could think of better things to do on a Sunday than picking up other people’s rubbish,” Kaye said. “For many of us it is hard, dirty work, yet we are committed to the cause.” The club expects to collect more marine debris than in previous years. “You’ll be surprised what we find. One year we found a very old bottle and coins. Sometimes we find toilets, broken boats… Though most often we collect old tyres, batteries, fishing debris and everyday house hold waste and camping litter,” Kaye said. Interested people are asked to meet at the Jacobs Well boat ramp at 6.30am – and if you don’t have your own boat you can join someone else’s. A breakfast BBQ will be provided before people set out. Land-based volunteers are also required from 11.30am to record what has been collected. For more information contact Debbie Mills, 0407 063 804. www.blankgc.com.au
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Environment SHARK ENCOUNTERS SUGGESTED IN GOLD COAST TOURISM MIX Will people one day come to the Gold Coast to see sharks? Marine scientist Dr Jan Olaf Meynecke has suggested the Gold Coast as a likely place for controlled shark encounters with after seeing a successful bull shark feeding program in Fiji. Shark tourism is based around people coming to see sharks in their natural environment, with locations as diverse as South Africa, Scotland and Florida. Some forms of shark tourism such as swimming with whale sharks are already highly popular in places like Western Australia’s Ningaloo Marine Park. Dr Meynecke said he had gotten a positive response from a local dive operator and Sea Shepard, but nothing would happen quickly if the idea was taken up. “I think in general no one wants to make the first step as it is too political in Australia but this could also be the drawing point for many people to come and do a shark dive on the Gold Coast.” “It would require permission to create an artificial reef offshore from the government, then we would need at least three years of feeding trials and research and I think a first commercial dive operation could start after five years.”
A spokesperson for the Gold Coast City Council said no one had approached them for support for a shark tourism related venture. “The council is committed to supporting the tourism industry which presently supports 27,000 jobs on the Gold Coast.” “The (council’s) Destination Tourism Plan aims to deliver a world class dive attraction to secure more of this important market. Investigations are presently underway to build a purpose-made structure or secure a vessel to sink offshore.” Craig Maddison, a surfer and surfboard maker who has lived on the Gold Coast since 1979, felt that shark tourism shouldn’t be encouraged on the Gold Coast. He said though offshore Gold Coast shark tourism wouldn’t affect surfers, he’d be opposed to chumming the waters to attract sharks for tourism as it might attract more sharks to the area. “I don’t think they’d be enough out there on the coast to naturally to run a business,” he said. “It might work in Victoria or South Australia where there’s breeding grounds and they’re already there.
There’d be benefits for the Gold Coast tourism industry as well as shark conservation, he said.
“I like surfing around here [the Gold Coast beaches] because it’s safe.”
“It would open up a new attraction to the Gold Coast that is built on our natural wonders. Just like people come to spend time on Gold Coast beaches a new tourism for shark diving could evolve.”
“I’m for shark awareness and learning about sharks but against changing their behaviour.”
“Sharks are here naturally and we may as well redirect them from beaches and manage them properly rather than paying millions of dollars for an ancient lethal shark program.” He was also interested in the potential research into that shark tourism on the Gold Coast could provide. “There is a lot we can learn from sharks. For example the migration pattern of some of the large sharks is still not fully understood. But also the use of their sensory system, genetic diversity and behaviour are all fields that need further research. We might learn that some of the sharks are not as solitary as we believe and that there are ways of diverting sharks from busy beaches.” He doesn’t believe shark tourism would cause shark numbers to increase. “The idea behind the project is to redirect the animals from inshore waters and away from the beaches. Juvenile bull sharks would be the main target species and to provide an area for them outside the seaway.” “We have a number of visiting sharks every year such as Tiger Sharks, Hammerheads and Great Whites. These sharks would be more likely to stay around a feeding station than swimming along the beach,” he said. Currently South Australia is the only state to allow cage diving and encounters with species such as great whites. Western Australia has specifically banned it in 2012 due to shark attacks. 40
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He’s only had experiences with small sharks such as hammerheads and bronze whalers, and said they’d never been a big problem for him as a surfer. “It’s never been a big issue if you’re careful,” he said. Even if the Gold Coast doesn’t become a shark tourism destination, Australia still may see an increase of shark tourism in the future. Shark tour operators Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions are among the oldest established shark tour operators in the world. Founded by Rodney Fox after a shark attack in 1963, it aims to research species such as the Great White Shark. The expeditions take people such as tourists and scientists out to the Neptune Islands, which are a breeding ground for great whites. The range of activities offered includes surface and ocean floor cage diving and topside viewing. Andrew Fox said he had seen a rise in shark tourism worldwide. “Dive magazines used to not want to talk about sharks, but over the last couple of years more and more sharks are appearing on the covers,” he said. “People go around the world to look at the sharks.” “We want everyday people in the public to realise they’re not monsters.” Rodney Fox Expeditions works closely with the CSIRO and provides data that’s aided in scientific shark research, as well
as running their own research program. Mr Fox said any eventual shark tourism on the Gold Coast and world-wide needed to have a code of conduct and be regulated. “The shark diving industry does have a big responsibility to be transparent,” he said. “It needs to be handled carefully and delicately, it’s a very hot political topic.” “We’re very sensitive about other recreational users such as surfers and fishermen.” Sharks have been a high profile topic over the last year, with events such as Western Australia’s controversial three month shark cull putting sharks on the public agenda. Shark populations worldwide are decreasing due to threats like finning and commercial and trophy fishing. Dr Meynecke thinks awareness of the risks sharks are facing might be the key to their survival. “I think we are at a breaking point where fascination overcomes fear. With the possible extinction of some shark species caused by overfishing, more and more people want to see sharks before they no longer exist,” he said. Chloe Pickard Image above: Dr Olaf Meynecke Says suitable shark tourism sites would be 8km off shore. Photo by Dr Olaf Meynecke.
30th May to 7th June 2015 • Nine Days of exciting environmental awareness activites • Showcasing individuals, businesses and groups who act & think GREEN • Celebrating UN World Environment Day (5th June) Get the festival guide from your local
!
library, or download it from our website
and... Saturday 6th June, 10am - 2pm Tugun Community Centre 414 Coolangatta Road, Tugun
> Live Animals > Speakers > Displays > Activities > Stalls > & Lots more www.GoldCoastGreenWeek.com greenweek@gecko.org.au (07) 5534 1412
Independent food reviews of the Gold Coast Bringing you news and behind the scenes information about Gold Coast restaurants and providores www.foodgoldcoast.com.au www.facebook.com/GoodFoodGoldCoast twitter.com/FoodGoldCoast instagram.com/foodgoldcoast pinterest.com/marjoz/restaurants-food-gold-coast/
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Food & Drink BLENDLOVE 1/253 Ferry Road, Southport When I realise the queue for Blendlove is already out the door when I line up to purchase my treats, my anxiety begins to rise. The people before and after me crane their necks; stand on the tip of their toes and lean out to check that their preferred dessert is still available. That’s when I spot it. There is only one White Chocolate and Caramel slice left. A cold sweat develops as I count the people in front of me hoping that they will choose any of the other slices on offer and leave me my precious. Then the unthinkable happens. Just when I feel it is safe the person in front of me orders the last one. “NO! I wanted that one!” the cry comes, not from my own disappointed self, but from the lady behind me. As the anxiety fades to despair and anger, suddenly a glimmer of hope appears in the form of newly cut squares of deliciousness. Hope springs fresh as I, and my fellow comrades see that we shall indeed be dining on our favourite treats today! Riki Gilbert and Sharlene Fletcher are passionate about sharing their vision with others and are clearly onto a winner with their gluten, dairy and refined sugar free, raw vegan treats. Starting out in October 2013, healthy lifestyle advocates Riki and Shar quit their jobs and started making the aforementioned treats, which they sold at the Marina Mirage and Gold Coast Turf Club markets on the weekend. As their popularity grew through social media and word of mouth they decided to open the Blendlove café in January this year and haven’t looked back. Situated on Ferry Road, Blendlove boasts an open and warm environment with plenty of different seating indoors and out. With a large cold cabinet, diners are able to gaze at the slices and salads available before placing their order, which can become quite dangerous as it is difficult to stop at just one of the scrumptious looking treats. With over a dozen different slice flavours on offer each day I gather a group of friends together in order to sample as many as possible and quickly discover that we all have a favourite. Mine is clearly the White Chocolate Caramel with its flavour packed base, smooth filling and crunchy raw cacao nib garnish. The Chocolate Raspberry is a crowd pleaser with its silky smooth chocolate filling and decadent tang of raspberry. The Banoffe slice is decreed an “explosion of flavours”, whilst the Peppermint is refreshing with a nice crunch. In speaking of their favourite treats Riki loves the texture of the Bounty slice, whilst Shar is obsessed with the chocolatey, crunchy and nutty Snickers. The generously portioned slices are $7 each and are also available in the popular box specials of 3 for $20, 6 for $36 and 10 for $60. If you are not a sweet tooth, don’t despair! Blendlove has some
Blendlove @ Southport 42
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savoury options that are equally as popular including the delicious smashed avo or balsamic tomato and hummus on toasted rye sourdough ($14), the mountainous veggie burger ($15) or your choice of salads with four offered on a daily basis changing with the availability of produce (up to two choices for $12). The Thai peanut salad of rocket, carrot and cabbage is finished with a tasty, sweet and savoury peanut sauce and is an obvious crowd favourite, but the one I will definitely be returning for is the zoodle salad. Green and sweet with rocket, zoodles (zucchini noodles) and a gorgeous basil, avocado, lemon and kale dressing, it is the perfect balance of flavours. Shar and Riki have proudly created all the Blendlove treat recipes themselves and everything that they sell is made fresh that day in house, or is sourced from local producers with ingredients depending on seasonal availability. Moving into winter they will be offering more hot meals and will maintain their strictly preservative-free menu. Beverage wise, Blendlove offers a range of teas, cold pressed juices from The Cleanse Kitchen, generously sized freshly made smoothies, and coffee made on a Supreme Coffee Roasters blend that was specifically made to match the desserts and bring out their flavours. In pairing my slice of choice with a piccolo and a long black the flavours are indeed enhanced, bringing out the various sweet elements without becoming overwhelming. In fact, it’s quite possibly perfection. With Shar and Riki looking to expand I can only hope they open up another store closer to my end of the coast. Blendlove is open Monday to Saturday, 7am to 3pm. If you are looking for a guilt-free sweet treat, or deliciously fresh vegan savouries, then Blendlove just became your new local. Catherine Coburn
LAKEVIEW CAFÉ AND GENERAL STORE Shop 1, 100 Burleigh Street, Burleigh Waters Professional athletes often know a fair bit about food. With lives ruled by the need to consume heaps of calories (around 14,000 per day during training) of the right sort, loaded at the right times, it’s hardly surprising that food becomes an interest, if not an obsession. No surprise either, that many sports stars invest in their own restaurants!
Dylan Rackley has taken a slightly different path. After a career in professional swimming as member of the Australian team for 8 years, and 10 years working in the Hospitality industry in a wide range of positions, he took over the Lakeview Store in Burleigh. With a reno and name tweak, the Lakeview Café and General Store is fresher and brighter with a far more vibrant attitude! The setting was always great, in a quiet residential area with a verandah overlooking a park and the lake, but Dylan and his wife Kira have rebranded Lakeview as a local gourmet and organic food store. They’ve started small with a range of well-chosen staple organic, local and boutique grocery items from local and quality suppliers: whole-grain and handmade pasta, flours, sauces, organic cheeses (such as Divine Dairy blue), quinoa, coconut milk and water, crackers and crisps, oils and honey, all priced with minimal mark up, together with some luxuries thrown in, such as vegan, sugar free chocolate, fudge, truffles and biscuits. Food is made to order from a concise but well-selected, regularly changing menu – fresh, seasonal and local. There are also raw vegan cakes as well as other treats, cold pressed juices and smoothies on offer. Like lunch for breakfast, or breakfast for lunch? Then this is your place, with a Cauli and lentil pattie and a Roast pumpkin salad on the menu. Fancy a Big Brekkie? Then why not try the Baked Omelette, containing all your big brekkie ingredients (chorizo, mushrooms, tomato, cheese and eggs) baked in a pannikin. It’s accompanied by a slice of bread, not a sourdough as I’d picked, but a whole wheat bread baked in house. It’s delicious! “Which are your most popular items?” I ask. I’ve already figured out that with well-priced meals, a view across the park and lake with Mt Warning as the backdrop and a dog-friendly policy, it’s an enticing place for young families as well as retirees. “That changes,” Dylan answers, “because when an item is overly popular I take it off the menu to actively encourage people to step beyond their comfort zone into new territory.” I’m amazed. No room for complacency here! (The usual cafe strategy is to scrap the three least-selling menu items, replacing them with popular specials.) Love it! “But what we sell most is coffee,” he says. “It’s Double or Nothing from Tyalgum, an organic, ethically sourced and
Lakeview Cafe & General Store @ Burleigh Waters
locally roasted single origin Ethiopian coffee that’s strong and smooth. You’ll notice the toffee and chocolate offerings on first taste, a hint of blueberry in the middle and a sweet fudge finish.” (Concentrating on photos and vibes, I missed the blueberry completely, but toffee and chocolate? Yes!) Dylan’s talking coffee like I talk wine, before our conversation drifts off to the ethics of buying white versus tricolour quinoa, or which liquid is the healthiest to use in my chia pudding. He’s got a solid food knowledge which he’s keen to pass on, trading tips on different combinations, and how to turn grocery items into healthy meals. Kira is a barista as well as an artist, her intriguing mural a main feature of the spacious shop. There’s also space for other local artists to hang their work, giving the place an organic down-to-earth feel. Dylan admits that Lakeview is still ‘work in progress’, bringing in new stock to meet demand, brunch now extended to Wednesdays to Sundays with a chef on board, with other light meals such as toasted sandwiches and acai bowls to go. What we hope will remain is the laid back local area feel to this store, where locals stop in to pick up a coffee and paper while walking their dogs, greet each other by name, sit and have breakfast overlooking the lake… Across in the park a swan and ducks wander into the playground waiting to be fed. There’s a tranquillity here that makes the place hard to leave and easy to come back to. Yes, Lakeview is a modest little establishment, but in my head I’m already planning a weekend brekkie here with the GF/DF family members. The thought of avoiding queues, catering for food preferences and enjoying the friendliness of a transformed local corner store is too great a temptation to pass up! There should be a place like this in every community, we think. Marj Osborne Read more of Marj’s reviews at foodgoldcoast.com.au
Coming from a fast-paced publicist background, Colby Wells had never worked in the hospitality industry before opening the café. Being a lover of people and coffee, she decided to pursue her passion by opening Push Espresso, a modern and warm café that boasts the honour of being the only place on the coast to serve Melbourne based Proud Mary coffee lovingly made on a sleek Synesso machine. Angel Wings is the current house blend on offer, comprised of beans from Guatemala, Columbia and Costa Rica, but it is changing back to the Ghost Rider, which is Proud Mary’s popular award winning blend. An espresso of the Angel Wings has a sweet almost flowery aroma, a fruity, buttery taste with a nice sharpness. The butterscotch flavour of the blend was more pronounced when sampling the piccolo, which was smooth and easily drinkable, whilst a latte revealed more of the orange flavour. Push also offers a single origin choice, which has been gaining popularity and is changed every couple of weeks. Colby’s favourite is the El Salvador Orange Bourbon, which, lucky for us, was the single origin of the week on our visit. The richly scented espresso was sweet, sharp and jammy with a rich, spicy and zesty flavour. The milk of the piccolo cut through the sharpness, revealing a sweeter honey and orange flavour, whilst a long black retained the sharpness of the espresso, with a pleasant mild fruit and honey sweetness. Being intrigued by the red espresso on the menu, Colby informs me that it is a nod to her South African heritage as it is an antioxidant rich red bush extracted decaf coffee that has a huge following over there. With a delightful red hue the red espresso has an enchanting potpourri-like aroma and tastes like a milky herbal tea with my fellow sampler describing it as being “a little dessert in a cup”, definitely one for those with a sweet tooth that wish to avoid caffeine. Push Espresso is open 6.30am to 2.30pm Monday to Friday and for breakfast on Sunday from 7am to 11am. Be sure to jump on your pushy and ride on down for some great coffee in this sunny corner of Mermaid Beach. Catherine Coburn
PUSH ESPRESSO 2460 Gold Coast Highway, Mermaid Beach
THE OUTCIDER
If you are driving north along the Gold Coast highway through Mermaid Beach, a white bicycle parked on the side of the road, letting all who pass know that Push Espresso is open, may have drawn your attention. If so I’m here to tell you it is time to indulge your curiosity and pay a visit to the café from which the bike beckons.
4/1 Douglas Street, Kirra It’s Sunday lunchtime and I’m sitting in a pew. A Catholic church pew to be exact. You’d expect it to be hard and uncomfortable but I’m very much at home. With a cushion behind my back I’m chilled out, paying homage to the sangria in my hand – the best I’ve ever tasted!
I gaze out across the beach across the road, famous for its iconic surf breaks: Kirra, part of Gold Coast’s surfing soul. We’re at The Outcider, figuring that it has the makings of becoming a close insider! The OutCider is a funky joint full of vintage furniture, and eye-catching artwork. The chef Todd Arnell has done time in some of our best cafés, and the wall is full of exciting drink choices. Only ten minutes ago we’d walked in past a table of girls busy with their Skipjack wine. “But why drink wine when you could get ciders here that are unprocurable elsewhere?” I muse. I check out the board of cider choices, so boutique that I haven’t heard of many of them. What to drink! On the side wall there’s a green smoothie special with chia and raw cider vinegar boasting a long list of benefits – aids digestion, skin, sinus, cholesterol, blood sugar and weight loss. It would be a tempting lifestyle choice to down a curing glass of goodness... If only it were that easy! Of course there’s beer and wine as well as some tempting cocktails, such as the Salted Caramel Margarita (a traditional margarita made on caramel tequila over a salted nut toffee rim); but I’d truly be slush if I drank that at lunchtime! “Focus!” I tell myself. This is a cider bar, our only one on the Gold Coast committed to the cause, so I must choose a cider... but which one? A hard decision, that is until I turn back to the bar and see the tasting paddle: four different glasses of boutique ciders for $10. Sold! We order lunch: a trio of Sliders (which are actually delicious little sandwiches on toasted sourdough), Coconut chicken skewers, and a Beef salad with raspberry vinegar and a kick of chilli to share. Herb-strewn, it’s one of the most interesting salads we’ve had in a while! We’ve only dabbled in a menu which is inspired by wholefood goodness without alienating the mainstream diner: mezze boards, small plates, stone oven pizza, salads and skewers. And there are homemade cakes and raw treats to accompany the great Marvell St coffee. Haloumi chips waft by and we suffer major food envy. How did we miss those crisp little parcels of goodness? Sure, everyone’s here for a session – that’s the point – but the food firmly holds its own! The tasting paddle of ciders proves to be a great sampler (for the two of us): Westons Stawford Press (a traditional aged ferment medium dry cider from Herefordshire – my grandmother’s home region), Cheeky Rascal Berry and Apple Cider (a sweet infusion of berries balances with a crisp apple bite – from Mornington), Kelly Brothers (tasted unfairly after the sweet Cheeky Rascal, but it’s easy drinking for a long
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sessions – the one I came back to) and Batlow Cloudy Apple (a full mouth feel with a smooth finish – from the Snowy Mountains). But my drink of the day? It’s the Cider Sangria. Made on freshly squeezed fruit, and citrus and orange liqueur mixed with cider, it’s topped off with freshly cut fruit and a lift of fresh passionfruit. It’s dangerously delicious territory calling for a long summer afternoon – by far the best sangria I’ve ever tasted.
GOLD COAST
MUSIC AWARDS
And the pews? According to Todd, who owns the Outcider with wife Amy, they were discards from the Tumbulgum Catholic Church. The church’s loss is the cider bar’s gain! A seasoned chef with a passion for restoring vintage furniture; Todd’s skills are well displayed in this venue!
2015
The Outcider is on our list for a definite return visit, maybe for live music on a Sunday afternoon. Only trouble will be working out the designated driver. I know my cider sangria will be waiting... Marj Osborne Read more of Marj’s reviews at foodgoldcoast.com.au
BAZAAR SUNDAY LUNCH EXPERIENCE THE FAMED BAZAAR MARKETPLACE RESTAURANT FOR A LONG, LAZY SUNDAY LUNCH. Your plate is your passport as the Bazaar kitchen serves up cuisines from all around the globe.
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Fresh seafood, wood fired pizzas, Asian dumplings steamed to order, exotic salads, an array of hot dishes, decadent desserts and the popular ice cream station! Adults $59, Kids under 12 years $29, Kids under 4 years eat free. Sunday Lunch includes a glass of complimentary Champagne per adult. Bookings essential. Call 07 5584 1200 or book online at qtgoldcoast.com.au QT Gold Coast 7 Staghorn Avenue Surfers Paradise Queensland
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Lifestyle & Culture
YOU CAN GET IT IF YOU REALLY WANT Within the heady pantheon of 60’s rock and roll it’s fair to say that Sam Cutler has seen, heard and experienced it all. From tour managing the Rolling Stones during their turbulent late 60’s period (including the infamous Altamont episode – google it if you need to) through to his involvement in turning around the financial fortunes of the Grateful Dead and hobnobbing with a veritable plethora of 60’s and 70’s musical taste shapers (hello Hendrix, Joplin, Clapton and Pink Floyd!) Having stepped out of the musical spotlight and now residing in the idyllic surrounds of Byron Bay, Sam delivers a special reading from his 2008 memoir You Can’t Always Get What You Want at the Dust Temple on Saturday 2 May at 3.00pm. In the lead up to this unique and reverent event, Anthony Gebhardt fired off a few questions to the man himself… Your occupations have been listed as; tour manager, stage manager, master of ceremonies, teacher, author and even executive nanny! Is there anything else you’d like to add? Father of two sons, sculptor.. You’ve been credited with turning around the financial fortunes of The Grateful Dead s...was it difficult to juggle the hard-nosed, business requirements, dealing with personalities and egos and maintaining friendships and respect for the artist? Sometimes it was very difficult, BUT the job was made easier by the fact that the Grateful Dead were sick of being broke and wanted to learn how to be a financially successful band. What are your memories of the 1973 rock festival The Summer Jam at Watkins Glen - in the history books as having the largest amount of paid attendees at 700 000? Stressful LOL!!!! BUT it is all a matter of ‘degree’. A concert/ gig is the same (in a sense) whether one has a thousand
people at it or 700 thousand. The sound systems have to work, catering has tofunction, security has to be dealt with… You’re credited with coining the phrase “ladies and gentlemen, the greatest rock and roll band in the world” when introducing The Rolling Stones during their 1969 tour. Are there any other bands that come to mind as possibly being worthy of such a mantle? To my mind no band comes even close to The Rolling Stones. Did you manage to catch up with any of The Stones when they were here on their most recent tour? When the Stones were here last year I took my two sons to visit with them and we had an amazing time. The Stones were very welcoming and we are all old friends. Your background with The Rolling Stones and The Grateful Dead has been quite well documented. Can
you tell us about a few of the other artists who you were involved with during those heady times? I worked with many of the artists of the British 60’s, particular highlights were doing the Pink Floyd shows at The Roundhouse and Blind Faith’s free concert in Hyde Park. Does your relationship with Pink Floyd go back far enough to include knowing Syd Barrett, what were your interactions with ‘The Madcap’ himself? Yes I knew Syd quite well - it was like being friends with a ‘concrete perfume’ - easier to experience than describe!! Syd was very ‘ethereal’ and always had the most gorgeous girl on his arm, somewispy hippie, and it was difficult to pay attention to him when a trippy goddess was so close nearby. LOL What are your thoughts on the evolution of the music festival experience over the decades? I think I’m over standing in muddy fields listening to music BUT if the music’s right and the bands are hot, who can resist going ‘one more time’? What is your opinion on the state of the music industry in general in this day and age of DIY and digital downloads? I think it’s harder to be a GOOD musician, so much mediocrity about!!! Are you still directly involved in the music side of the industry in any capacity? I play guitar for my own pleasure and mentor several people. So how did a worldly chap at the epicentre of rock and roll end up residing in a sleepy little neck of the woods such as the Byron Bay area!? BECAUSE I LOVE IT!!!! Do you have any other rock and roll memoirs in the pipeline outside of your 2008 book? Yes, it’s busy being born. Sam Cutler reads from his memoir You Can’t Always Get What you Want at the Dust Temple, Currumbin on Saturday 2 May from 3.00pm. The event will also feature a performance from that talented English Miss, DJ Sixties Sarah, who will be exclusively spinning 45 RPM vinyl from her collection of classic 60’s sounds.
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ACCELERATING START-UPS AT BOND
TWEED TOURS TO WIDEN HORIZON FOR HEARING IMPAIRED Tweed Regional Gallery and Tweed Regional Museum will offer Auslan (Australian Sign Language) guided tours this year for deaf and hearing impaired visitors. Four interpreted tours will explore and provide insight on the Museum’s historical collection, the 1915 ‘Shire Hall’ and selected highlights from the Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre. Gallery Director Susi Muddiman said that the Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre had offered interpreted tours in the past that were very popular. “We hope that by offering a number of tours throughout the year that take in both the Museum and Gallery, people will be able to plan a visit to the Tweed and to these two wonderful facilities,” Ms Muddiman said.
A new entrepreneurial program will open to small businesses and new ventures, including students, at Bond University in May. The program will accelerate the university’s support of startups and will focus on innovation, providing practical skills for the next generation of leaders, helping them to think creatively in a fast-changing global business environment. The unique 13 week course was piloted last year, with a limited intake of six start-ups run by current and past Bond students. The pilot produced a number of success stories, including Milaana.org – an online platform connecting students with community organisations – which went on to be selected as one of just 64 start-ups globally to compete in the 1776 Challenge Cup in Washington D.C. this year. The Bond Business Accelerator subject will be overseen by a board of top advisors and mentors and headed by Bond University Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Program Director, Dr Baden U’Ren, and Program Manager Tres West – who have each run their own successful start-ups. Dr U’Ren said the program aimed to help businesses reach the next level and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. He said there is real opportunity for Australia and the Gold Coast to become start-up capitals and that there is support from all levels of government to make it happen. “The time is ripe, with the barriers to starting a business so much lower than they used to be. It is now a very viable option.”
Museum Director Judy Kean said this will be the first occasion the Museum has offered an interpreted tour for deaf and hearing impaired visitors.
Dr U’Ren said an entrepreneurial approach was increasingly becoming a necessity, whether working for a company or starting one up.
“Highlights will include a background on the heritage Museum building, which celebrates its 100th birthday this year,” she said.
“Employers want people who can think creatively, adapt and make fast-decisions and who are ‘work ready’ – these are skills entrepreneurs possess,” he said.
“We are delighted to be able to collaborate with the Gallery to offer this program.”
“Now, more than ever, you need to be in-tune with what is going on outside your geographic sphere. You need to be more innovative and to keep improving your offering to the market, whether it is a product or service.
The first of the tours took place on Saturday 4 April with the remaining three scheduled for 6 June, 5 September and 7 November 2015. The Museum tour will run from 10am to 11am and the Gallery tour from 12pm to 1pm on all dates. Auslan interpreted tours are free but bookings are essential. To book contact Museum Collection and Program Support Officer Kirsty Andrew on (02) 6670 2493 (this phone number also receives text messages) or kandrew@tweed.nsw. gov.au For more information, visit museum.tweed.nsw.gov.au or artgallery.tweed.nsw.gov.au
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Dr U’Ren said the course was tailored to business owners as well as students. “We would love for successful business owners, who don’t necessarily have a degree and want to engage with a university to take the course,” he said. A dedicated, creative space has been fitted-out, with an open door policy aimed at encouraging collaboration and ideasharing among the university community. A demonstration day and networking event will be held at the end of the course, where students will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas to a group of investors and business identities, with a cash prize of $5,000 and a two week placement with a Blue Sky portfolio company awarded to the winner.
FIESTA DE LA MUSICA COMES TO THE GOLD COAST ARTS CENTRE Featuring the works of local professional musicians and companies alongside interstate guest artists and presenters, The Arts Centre Gold Coast are inviting lovers of the classical arts to take part in Fiesta de la Musica from Tuesday 19 May to Sunday 31 May, 2015. With many free and low-price ticketed events on offer, there will be a range of performances and lunchtime concerts to enjoy during the festival. There will also be opportunities to take part in lectures and presentations with accomplished special guests. Fiesta de la Musica is set to launch with a performance of Around the World with Benjamin Schmid and ACO2 on Tuesday 19 May at 7:30PM. The string ensemble seeks to take listeners around the world with works by Bach, Tchaikovsky and Barber, then concluding with Herbert Berger’s Metropoles Suite for violin and strings. Ticket holders will also be treated to a complimentary pre-concert performance from 6:30PM in the Paradise Showroom foyer, featuring music from The Blenders, Australia’s premier entertainment chorus with heart and harmony. In partnership with the Music Teachers Association of Queensland, a Composers Competition is now open to Gold Coast residents 17 years or older. The winner will be invited to perform their original composition live in the Gold Coast City Gallery AFTER DARK event: Composing Art (Thursday 28 May, 6.00–8:00PM). More information on this opportunity can be found at: www.mtaq.org.au. Local community and senior secondary school choirs are also invited to join an Opera Queensland community chorus, followed by an on-stage performance alongside Opera Queensland soloists as part of the Sing Out Loud program. Participants will learn and practice vocal techniques, learn a variety of opera choruses and work with soloists from Opera Queensland alongside director Jason Barry-Smith. For more information about Fiesta de la Musica and all the exciting events on offer, please visit: www.theartscentregc.com.au/whats-on/fiesta-de-la-musica.
COMEDY AS A SECOND LANGUAGE Ivan Aristeguieta is a Venezuelan-born stand up comedian and key note speaker. After cutting his comedic teeth as a member of the new Venezuelan comedy movement and selling out shows around Venezuela and Miami, Ivan migrated to Adelaide in 2012 and took up the great challenge of performing comedy in a second language. Now touring with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Showcase, he took the time to speak with Natalie O’Driscoll about his unique take on our cultural differences. First things first, how do I pronounce your name? Haha. Everyone has problems with that! It is ah-rist-ehGEE-tah. Is that where the title of your show Lost In Pronunciation comes from? That is one of the things, the other thing is me learning English before coming to Australia and doing comedy for the first time in English and I was afraid people wouldn’t understand me. And how long did you do stand up comedy in Venezuela before coming to Australia? About five or six years in Venezuela. I was very lucky to be part of the new movement of stand up comedy as a business, because we had our old time comedians in Venezuela but no open mic Mondays or other comedy nights during the week. I was part of the first group of twenty to twenty-five comedians who just wanted to do some jokes and just wanted to make people laugh in a bar in Monday night. There was a need for that in the country, so we went up pretty quickly. The political situation wasn’t as bad as it is now but the government closed a couple of tv and radio stations that had a couple of comedy shows so there was a big need for comedy in Venezuela and people just flooded the places to hear new ideas. Why did the government close the stations down? Censoring, no freedom of speech, the tv stations were against the government so they just closed it. So is there pressure on comedians in Venezuela not to do political comedy?
Yes big time. But not directly from the government but the club owners, they asked us please don’t say anything about the government because if someone is in the audience they might shut our place down. They were very careful at corporate gigs and stuff like that, in every company they ask please don’t say any political comedy, stay away from it, cause we don’t want to get into trouble. So how do you find doing comedy in Australia by comparison? It’s the complete opposite. Here the main safe area will be to make jokes about the PM and the “be nice” instruction would be for any other group in society. How would you describe your comedy style? I am observational comedy but I love to compare cultures. Comedy’s about having a different point of view and I already have that and I tell my point of view of Australia and also explain what it’s like to be an immigrant and so a lot of cultural and behaviour observations. Other comedians consider my comedy clean, I do a bit of swearing but I’m not rude or filthy but if I need a specific word to make the idea sink in a better way. But I’m not blue. I don’t talk about body fluids. So what are some of your favourite observations about Australians? I like to talk about food and pub culture and sport and the way you speak, eg last year my main subject of the show was about how tomato sauce is so important in Australia and my motto was no food can taste so bad that it can’t be fixed by tomato sauce. My first sausage roll was the worst thing I’ve ever tasted in my life, and then someone said “why don’t
SOME DAYS ARE TOUGHER THAN OTHERS
you put the tomato sauce on” so I did, and oh my god it was amazing, it’s true! Do you engage with hecklers? I try not to. I think the best way is to ignore them and once they understand you won’t pay attention they just shut up. If I’m not in a strong mood to ignore them, I just respond to them in Spanish. What’s funnier: Kids falling over or adults falling over? Kids Cat videos or dog videos? Cats Jim Carrey or Mike Meyers? Jim Carrey Australians or Venezuelans? (Big pause)…Australians. Haha. You had to say that! Well, what can I say? Haha. You can catch Ivan at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Showcase being held at the Arts Centre Gold Coast on 15th May 2015.
Need to sharpen your look?
Café dBar will explore the female body with a new exhibition by Neil Matterson. Neil knows that life wasn’t meant to be easy, but in his artist statement he says that that gender non specific quote fails to acknowledge that some people have it easier than others. “Some aspects of the woman’s body and psyche have for a long time been under pressure to look, feel, act and evolve into a state of feminine that the female often doesn’t empathise with nor recognise,” his statement says. “Since the early twentieth century, medicine has evolved to shift the state of original and organic feminine into the state of constructed ideal. Near enough is no longer good enough.” His exhibition looks at the female body in a metaphorical state of the exhausting, the laborious and the challenging. Neil believes that “the day to day, throughout life, provides many tougher days than others for the female body.” Samantha Morris
Some Days are Tougher than Others: the female body will run at CaféDbar from 2 – 28 May with the opening on Saturday 2 May from 3.00pm.
graphic design and creative comunication chloe@bluntpencilstudio.com.au | 0447 306 331
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PORTIA FOR MISS UNIVERSE AUSTRALIA 2015 On April 29 the Gold Coast Grand Chancellor Hotel hosted the Miss Universe Australia Queensland Finals and there’s one contestant that stands out to us, our very own Portia Large. The past recipient of the Order of Australia award entered the competition with hopes to represent our country and to continue to empower others. Not only is she intelligent and down to earth, this proud Aussie is also a successful business woman, conservationist, and surfer. Need I say more? Emily Norman got an insight into Portia’s journey to date and her future aspirations as an Australian ambassador. To future Miss Universe entrants, what is one piece of advice you would offer? Be yourself, don’t lose sight of your own unique character. If you lack a skill necessary to your success, apply yourself until this performance gap is one of your greatest qualities. You say the most important result from winning the competition would be to have the increased ability to empower people, what is the second most important thing? Aside from empowering others, I think it’s critical to be a positive role model to young women leading by example. I believe a great role model not only leads but also observes and listens. Often I learn simply by observing others. When you present yourself positively every day you are shaping those who observe and admire you. How do you manage to stay well-rounded in terms of business, culture, ambitions, and hobbies? Any advice? We all have the same number of hours in our day, but what we choose to do with that time is up to us. Life is precious, maximise your time and cease every opportunity. For me, yoga helps me keep balance in the juggling act that is life. What do you think makes you the best representative of Queensland? There’s no place like Queensland. With attractions like the Great Barrier Reef, stunning native wildlife, lush rainforests, our spectacular out back and the Gold Coast’s world class surf breaks; there really is something for everyone. Growing up sailing the Whitsunday islands with my family, it was inevitable I’d have a lifelong love for our great state! Living in a town which relies so heavily on tourism, I quickly learnt 48
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how important strong marketing and promotional tactics were esstial are to engage a global audience and increase visitor traffic. It is my dream that as people are immersed in the beauty of Australia they too will grow passionate about protecting paradise for future generations. As a spokesperson for various community organisations I’m ready to speak with confidence and knowledge to best represent not only Queensland but also Australia. As a Gold Coaster, are there any issues that you believe need to be addressed to make our city the best it can be? I feel so fortunate and proud to live on the coast. It’s been brilliant to witness this haven develop over the years. Natural beauty, practical new infrastructure and quality facilities make our home a tourism hub and in my opinion one of the most desirable living locations on the planet. I’d encourage the community and local business to embrace technology, growth and change. We are blessed to live this constantly evolving, safe community so let’s maximise our resources and champion our city. Proudest accomplishment to date? Aside from winning the Order of Australia Award, I was absolutely delighted to learn my employer Rohan Parnell, nominated me for the ‘Aspiring Young Business Women’s Award’. Here is a quote from his nomination: “Whilst producing an online election campaign for Steven Ciobo, Federal Member for Moncrieff on the Gold Coast, I called upon Portia’s assistance to scout youth for the footage. Recognising her efficiency, dedication and flair for the industry I suggested she establish her own talent scouting agency at age 19. Portia’s business, I C TV, now serves an impressive client base, including Southern Cross Austereo
and continues to expand its services. Diving into the deep end Portia has proven herself as a successful young woman in business, welcoming new experiences, challenges and business lessons with grace and poise.” – Rohan Parnell Senior Producer at Southern Cross Austereo. If you could describe yourself in 5 words or less, what would it be? I’ve been told that I project a natural aura which enables comfort and calm; also that my determination to succeed and venture outside my comfort zone motivates others. My favourite three word description is: Portia Energy Phenomenon (PEP). Do you have a mantra that keeps you going through any hardships or stress? Your overnight success story is always a result of everything you’ve done in your life until that moment. You’ll face setbacks, negativity and performance gaps. My advice would be enjoy the journey and be patient. What has been the most challenging aspect of your career? I’m not afraid to chat with anyone and from a young age I’ve known networking, uniting and recognising passionate people would be driving forces in determining which career path I choose. Unfortunately, there is no one specific title for such an occupation. So finding my place in the world of work was a challange. My desires to present and produce became apparent when working at Southern Cross Austereo. Exposed to such an industry of power-house personalities, I was overwhelmed and inspired to continue to better myself and push my own limits in media.
A new exhibition at the Margaret Olley Art Centre showcases works by Australian artist and Olley’s close friend, Moya Dyring. Curated by Dr Melissa Boyde, Senior Research Fellow, School of the Arts, English and Media at the University of Wollongong, Travels with my Art opened to the public on Wednesday 18 March. Born in Melbourne in 1909, Moya Dyring went on to spend much of her life in Europe. From 1949 she lived in a studio apartment on the Ile Saint-Louis which became known as Chez Moya - an Australian Salon in the heart of Paris.
MARGARET’S EUROPEAN ADVENTURES REMEMBERED
Olley was just 26 years old when she met Dyring. They became close friends and would go on painting and drawing excursions across Europe with others such as David Strachan and Fed Jessup. The exhibition includes artworks done ‘en plain air’, produced
over half a century ago when Olley and Dyring would set off on adventure through France, Italy or Spain to paint outdoors. Curator and Collections Manager Ingrid Hedgcock said some of the artworks have been reunited after 50 long years. “This exhibition showcases a selection of Dyring’s works, rarely exhibited since her death, alongside works by Olley,” she said. “It is a rare chance to view artworks by Olley and Dyring which were completed on the same excursions in Europe.” The re-creation of Margaret Olley’s home studio is on permanent display. Travels with my Art: Moya Dyring and Margaret Olley is presented by the Tweed Regional Gallery with support from the University of Wollongong and will be on display until 21 June 2015.
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SWELL BEGINNINGS FOR ARTIST DION PARKER He’s been commissioned to create a sculpture for the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney and he’s won both People’s Choice and Emerging Artist of the Year awards at past Swell Sculpture Festivals, but it’s only been recently that he even thought about pursuing his art.
Image courtesy of Dean Cogle
When I met Dion Parker, it was in a gallery where he had a piece being installed as part of a portraiture exhibition. The sculpture looked like a stout lego man, eating a chicken drumstick which I had mistaken for a microphone. It was housed in what looked like a mini-coffin. He had another painting of a lego man smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer. Dion was getting ready to add some empty VB tinnies at the base of the painting’s easel. Dion tells me he’s been on the Gold Coast for 20 years, having grown up in south Gippsland, Victoria and moving here at just 13. “I’ve always loved drawing. I’ve still got drawings from when I was five or six years old,” he said. “I used to modify toys. Some of them were a bit macabre – I worried my mum a few times. I’ve always liked creating and making stuff and throughout school I was always getting in trouble for drawing in my maths book. I’d fill up all the margins with cartoons and faces.” Despite that life-long love of art, Dion only got serious about it when his son was born – eight years ago. Being a boatbuilder by trade, Dion says he was passionate about showing his son that there’s more to life than building other people’s dream boats. “I decided to focus on my dreams,” he said. “Which is just creating, making art, painting, drawing, sculpture. Once my son came along I thought I don’t want him growing up seeing his dad trudging off to work every day being unhappy… there’s much more to life.” Dion went to school at Currumbin Primary and Palm Beach Currumbin High, and though about going to university and studying art, but he says he got talked into working and making money and then “fell into the trap of the lifestyle of working and having money and going out and blowing it.” It was only in 2011 that Dion decided to enter a piece in the Swell Sculpture Festival. “I’ve always lived around Currumbin and I’d drive past Swell every year and go down and look at the sculptures,” Dion told me. “I’d be like ‘I know I can do that. I really want to do that’ and it took me a long time – six or seven years and then I was like ‘no, I can’t do that, I’m not an artist, I’m not a professional’.” When he finally got the confidence up to put in an entry, it was accepted, he won the People’s Choice Award (for Swell Smalls piece Beach Bum) and he’s done the event every year since. It’s only been four years, but I ask Dion what other art-related things he’s been up to.
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“I did live painting at the Surfers Paradise Festival, was in a couple of groups exhibitions – one at Surfers Paradise and one at Southport. And then I did a comic for SUPworld– a local magazine,” he told me. “Then in 2012 I did a big wooden hand for Swell and that was popular and it sold. And then I got commissioned to do another one for the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. I was stoked about that.” “Plus I won the Emerging Artist Award at Swell that year, when I did the hand,” he said. He adds that Swell is an important platform for artists irrespective of whether they’re recognised and professional or an up-and-coming, emerging artist. “It’s a great platform because they get 200,000 through there over the two weeks,” Dion said. “So it’s just a great way to get a truckload of people to see your work. And you can exhibit alongside recognised professional artists, so it’s really good. They’re all lovely ladies and happy to help you and easy to deal with..”
Dion is waiting to hear whether his entry into the 2015 Swell Sculpture Festival will be accepted – with an announcement due any day. Samantha Morris The 13th annual Swell Sculpture Festival will run 11 – 20 September. More at swellsculpture.com.au.
RED | EXPRESSIONISM GROUP SHOW Red – the colour of extremes. It’s not only the colour of love and seduction but also of violence, danger, anger and adventure. Expressionism - the artistic style where an artist seeks to develop pictorial forms to express their innermost feelings rather than to simply represent the external world as it is. Welcome to RED – a group show where we have handpicked a selection of artists from around the globe to delve into their emotions and create works to depict this style, but never losing touch with their own signature artistic form. The result is an absolutely stunning collection of works that simply quiver with vitality and will set the Sofitel Gold Coast alight with an explosion of colour and emotion. Opening night will be a feast for the eyes and the ears, with music, food, drinks and 2 of our artists painting live on the night – Helen Holmes and Richard Blundell. We are encouraging our guests to wear a splash of red in celebration of the event. The show is co-curated by artist Richard Denny and 19 Karen Gallery Director Terri Lew. Early last year, Richard presented Terri with the idea of curating a group show based on the style of expressionism. A list of artists was decided upon and the invitation to become part of this show was extended to the participating artists. The result has been a beautiful and complex collection of works to delight your imagination featuring a collection of local, Australian and International artists. Opening Night: Friday 1st May 2015 6-8pm at Sofitel Gold Coast Broadbeach
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This initiative is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland. A co-production with West Australian Ballet. Image: Dancer Clare Morehen Creative Direction Designfront Photographer Harold David
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OWEN LEONG
ROBYN ARCHER MAKES HER GOLD
winner of the 2015 Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award
Robyn Archer is a lot of things. Her bio lists her as a singer, writer, artistic director and public advocate for the arts. For five years she was Creative Director of the Centenary of Canberra 2013. She won the prestigious Helpmann Award as Australia’s Best Cabaret Performer of 2013. She is Deputy Chair of the Australia Council, a member of the Council for Australian and Latin American Relations and of the European House of Culture.
Gold Coast City Gallery announced the winner of this year’s Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award last weekend. The $20,000 prize for 2015 was won by Sydney-based artist Owen Leong with his self-portrait Mudra, 2014. Natalie King, Melbourne-based curator, writer and Senior Research Fellow at the Victorian College of the Arts described the award and this year’s submissions. “Since 2002, the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award has become a signature art prize on the art calendar roster and I am delighted to have the honour to shortlist and select the winner for acquisition for the Gold Coast City Gallery Collection. It’s a testament to the prize that previous winners including Polixeni Papapetrou, Darren Sylvester and David Stephenson have re-entered, demonstrating an ongoing engagement with the award and the high caliber of artists’ submission.” The award attracted more than 330 entries this year and the winning piece was selected from a total of 58 finalists. Owen Leong is a contemporary Australian artist working with the notion and transmission of culture and the body through human subject matter. A ‘mudra’ is a spiritual gesture made with the hands and fingers in both Hinduism and Buddhism. In his winning piece, the artist himself, dressed in a black cape with mineral formations emerging from where his face should be, holds casts of his own hands in the forms of mudras; karana mudra, a gesture warding off negative energy, and gyan mudra, a gesture for opening oneself to knowledge. “The doubling of hands, both real and cast, suggest grasping at a symbolic and spiritual language as a form of healing.” Leong explained in his interview in blouinartinfo.com. “Cloaked in black, out of my hooded jacket erupts black prismatic mineral that forms a mirror-mask protecting the wearer and reflecting the world back into itself,” he added.
“I like to elicit a duality of attraction and aversion. I like to create a sense of alien beauty that is at once familiar and foreign. In doing so, I hope to destabilise the viewer’s perception of the body depicted in the work, cause slippages in meaning, and create space for new identities to into being.” Leong often engages with his Chinese heritage and uses elements of cultural knowledge to explore the poetics of healing. He uses the human body to question social, cultural and political forces. His use of liquids; blood, milk and honey, in his images explores the passage between perceptual and physical thresholds of the body. This image engages the viewer. There is no question about that. It might grasp you in an obsessive, almost disturbing way or smoothly lure you into the spiritual, healing realm of it. Either way, you will be thinking of this image long after you leave the gallery and you have a year to do so. Following the gallery’s tradition to bring back the winner of previous year’s award, we can expect Owen Leong to come and talk about this piece, his art and life sometime next year. Anna Itkonen All the finalists’ work is exhibited at Gold Coast City Gallery until 31 May 2015.
But the single thing she spends half her working life doing, is accelerating arts and culture on the Gold Coast. Her brief sees her working on that in the lead-up to the Commonwealth Games. Before she started working with Council, she’d never been here. She’d never been to a theme park. She tells me she didn’t know we were the sixth largest city in Australia or even that we had a hinterland. I don’t know what it would have been like talking to Robyn then, when she first arrived, but it’s obvious now that she’s quite excited about the cultural offerings of the city. We spoke for more than an hour about her life travelling the world for the arts and her perception of the Gold Coast – both before and after her arrival. We spoke for so long that this story will be one of a three or four part series. I started our conversation by talking about Robyn’s biography. It’s pretty big and squarely focused on arts and culture. But I asked Robyn, when she meets someone for the first time, how she describes what she does. “Well taxi drivers often ask,” she said. “When I’m in the back of the cab anywhere in the world, eventually they say, what do you do – what I normally say is that I’m a singer. And I do performances, and I direct arts festivals and I talk about the arts.” “There’s not one thing, but if there’s a first thing, it’s a singer,” Robyn said. “And that’s because I think of singing and have often spoken about singing in a kind of arcane sense – that a singer is a story-teller. You know, in the ancient village, it’s the singer that brought the news – there was no newspaper or any media, you had to get the travelling minstrel to say …, Old John Rally he just up and killed somebody la la la la la.” “I kind of feel like in any job I’m doing, that’s what I’m doing, whether I’m actually singing a song or writing a song or in a show, or faciliting others to tell stories.” “In a sense, it’s all about, communicating the views of the world and probably alternative views of the world, the ones that aren’t so mainstream and obvious, or the ones we’re persuaded to say is the mainstream, because if you dig into the mainstream there isn’t one.”
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COAST DEBUT
“People are so quick to throw a blanket over us and say we’re all the same – and that makes it difficult for things that are obviously not, whether that be mental health or disabilities or genius, any end of any spectrum.” “So I love that people have the opportunity in any art medium - and art is the best medium - for telling the story. But the point about the art as opposed to a limited life news story is that when you tell a story through the arts in whatever way, you’re actually doing it in a quite often gentle way, even if it’s tough stuff – you’re not actually injuring the person.” “There’s this phrase I use that art is the best place for a dangerous conversation – you know, that you can pitch yourself, you can tell your story, tell someone else’s story, put your audiences into a situation that they’d never get into, hopefully – a dangerous situation where they’re really challenged to think about what their ethical position is or what they think about something but they can do it in complete safety. And at the same time if the art is good it will also be uplifting even if it’s dealing with a difficult story.” Robyn has travelled the world performing and working behind the scenes in festival and arts direction but she’s only just about to make her stage debut on the Gold Coast. This month she will join the cast of The New Black where she plays Judge Hawkshire, a white judge in Adelaide who presides over the deaths in custody case. Robyn says the judge is tough but fair. Given Robyn’s previous comments on singing and the arts being able to convey these challenging topics I ask her whether she needed to research the issue of black deaths in custody prior to taking on the role. “I know a great deal about deaths in custody,” Robyn told me. “One: through the work of Richard franklin. But also through people working in the law in Adelaide.” She said
she didn’t actually need to know a lot about the issues for the role itself though. “I just need to know for this little role, how to be like a proper judge,” she said. The production is being hailed as the next Bran Nue Dae. Appearing alongside Robyn, who only has a small part, is Ernie Dingo, Elaine Crombie, Scott Irwin, Leonard Donohue and Peter Cool. Leeroy Bilney plays Jim – a young, bright, educated Aboriginal man on the way up at a prestigious Brisbane law firm. But his Aunty expects him to represent her at an inquest and Jim is caught between his aspirations and responsibilities. It’s a musical, so expect comedy, drama, song, dance and spectacle. Robyn says her’s is a small role as she didn’t have a lot of time to commit to rehearsal. Robyn was starting rehearsals a few days after we spoke – following the others who’d already been working together for a couple of weeks. “That’s in Sydney,” she said. “We’re there for a couple of weeks and then we’ll come up here.” “This is the off-Broadway try-out,” she said. “Which is a very good thing for the Gold Coast to do. There’s such enthusiasm for musicals here, that I think it’s a great idea to bring it here and try it out for a couple of nights.”
“I think Marcus Corowa is a terrific songwriter and I think the music sounds fantastic – it’s really up and bright, it’s got lots of humour and great songs as all musicals should have, but underneath it, it’s a quite serious issue.” Samantha Morris This story is the first of a three or four part series where Robyn Archer talks about her perceptions of the Gold Coast before and after working here, as well as what she thinks is the secret to building our arts and cultural strength ahead of the Commonwealth Games. The New Black will show at The Arts Centre Gold Coast for just two nights: Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 May at 7.30pm. To get tickets or for more information visit theartscentregc.com.au.
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MISS SAIGON Since its sensational record-breaking run at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane 25 years ago, Miss Saigon has played in 300 cities in 15 different languages, winning awards around the world. It’s an epic love story that tells the tragic tale of young bargirl Kim, who falls in love with American GI Chris. Their lives are torn apart by the fall of Saigon. And while the musical is truly an international sensation, when it comes to the Gold Coast it will stay true to its dramatic storyline, but will also feature local performers with The Arts Centre Gold Coast transformed in line with the theme. It’s one of the few performances that is produced by The Arts Centre Gold Coast itself – with most others bought or ‘presented’. Brad Rush is Miss Saigon’s director. He said the local response to the call for auditions was impressive. “I think we auditioned about 105 people,” Brad said. “But we shortlisted before too, so we had more than that interested.” He estimates 70% of the 31-strong cast is from the Gold Coast or nearby. “We’ve got a local talent and a couple of great stories,” he said. “One girl in particular is ex Gold Coast – she went away and went to WAAPA (WA Academy of Performing Arts) – in the musical world that’s even better than NIDA. She’s back and we’ve cast her as Ellen. Her name is Tanele Storm Graham.” Brad lists a couple of the other leads played by Gold Coast talent – Chris White (playing Chris) and Matt Ward (playing John). Brad took on the role as Director for Miss Saigon on top of his usual role as the Performing Arts Manager for the centre. He calls it ‘getting his hands dirty’. “My organisation has embraced and allowed me to get my hands dirty,” he said. “I find it incredibly exciting. I love bringing all the elements together – a bit lilke a puppeteer – it’s the set, it’s the costumes, it’s the music. I feel like a facilitator that has this amazing opportunity to pull that together.” “I think it has all the ingredients: it’s a love story. It’s decadent, it’s colourful, but it’s a little bit tragic at the same time.” There will be seven performances of Miss Saigon at The Arts Centre and rehearsals started 17 April. “We’ve pretty much smashed through most of the music – as in the vocals / the singing. So yesterday we started The Heat is On in Saigon which is the opening to the show. Brad said ticket sales have been strong. “I think people really love the show – it’s a really good opportunity to see the show that doesn’t get done very often.
Miss Saigon | The Arts Centre Gold Coast 12 – 20 June | more at theartscentregc.com.au
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*taking a closer look at life on the GC
free Issue #21 MAY 2015
ROBYN ARCHER
Makes her Gold Coast debut
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