ISSUE 0021 / March 5th - March 11th 2015
IT’S FREE - www.bsidemagazine.com.au
Neneh Cherry ALSO INSIDE: Sunnyboys, Steph Acraman Dallas Royal, Tara Carragher, Buffalo Boyfriend Plus BOB’s BITS, TOUR GUIDE & LOCAL MUSIC NEWS
AROUND THE TRAPS Surrender, located on the Riverbank behind the InterContinental Hotel with entry near the southern end of the footbridge, is the brainchild of the team that created the massively successful Adelaide Festival venue Barrio which saw queues stretching down King William St as patrons clamoured to experience its nightly ‘surprises’ and incredibly creative activations. That talented group, including the Ruby Award winning Geoff Cobham, have now unleashed Surrender which runs on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening until Sunday 15 March. Expect the unexpected and inexplicable. Adelaide psych rockers Grandma’s Favourite have suddenly announced that they have rather suddenly changed their name to The Clangers and will launch their Matt Hills-produced EP at the Grace Emily Hotel, 232 Waymouth St, on Friday 20 March with Slingshot Dragster, Invisible Mantra and Sasha March as special guests. It’s free entry from 9pm with a free EP for all those in attendance. The Mod Cons are set to take their ’60s-inspired British pop and rock to The Gaslight Tavern, 36 Chief St, Brompton, from 8pm on Saturday 7 March with Pumpin’ Piano Cats also playin’ some ‘50s-inspired rock’n’roll. Adelaide metal band Raven Black Night are excited to announce that, alongside Puritan, they have been chosen as opening act for the upcoming Adelaide concert by legendary UK progressive rock band Uriah Heep at the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, 59 Port Rd, Hindmarsh, on Wednesday 25 March with tickets now on sale via OzTix or at the venue. Adelaide rapper Tkay Maidza is embarking on a national tour that will include a show in her hometown at Jive, 181 Hindley St, on Friday 17 April. Book quickly at Moshtix. Speaking of Jive, the live music venue will also be opening three days per week as a record bar stocking vinyl and many other goodies in early April. Watch this space for more details. Adelaide’s pop rockers Avenue will be pumpin’ out tunes from their Colourblind EP when they hit the Grace Emily, 232 Waymouth St, on Saturday 14 March at 8pm with special guests Lost Woods and Southie. The Franklin Hotel, 110 Franklin St, has live acoustic music and great vibes from 3pm every Sunday. Check out Steve Gower on Sunday 8 March, Georgy K on Sunday 15 March and Blue Lagoon on Sunday 22 March. And did you know you can now purchase a jar of Frank’s rather delicious jalapeño relish at the bar? Following their recent sold out CD launch, local country rock band The Sloe Ruin will make a return to The Wheatsheaf Hotel, 39 George St, Thebarton, to play a free entry show from 4pm on Sunday 19 March with special guests Adie Haines and Emily A Smith. Little Miss will be dropping some tunes at a free entry affair at the Exeter Hotel, 246 Rundle St, from 9pm on Thursday March 5 and will be joined by Tara Carragher and Kelly Menhennett. Free entry too. Jesse Davidson, with a band that includes Ben and Michael Zubreckyj from Brokers, Gus Gardiner from Papa Vs Pretty and Chris Panousakis (AKA Timberwolf), will be launching his new single, Laika, from 5.30pm in the beer garden of The Exeter Hotel, 246 Rundle St, on Saturday 7 March with Brokers as special guests. It’s to be the first of a series of late afternoon Exeter Hotel beer garden shows in the mad month of March. Old school R&B combo Lady Voodoo & The Rituals have announced a free entry residency on Thursday evenings from 8pm commencing at The Publishers Hotel, 110 Franklin St. Fresh from touring overseas and interstate, roots reggae band Babylon Burning have announced that their first show for 2015 will take place from 11pm on Saturday 14 March at Casablabla, 12 Leigh St, Adelaide.
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Lazy Eye, who are to be congratulated for recently picking up a Chain Award for Australia’s Best Group Or Duo, and Mick Kidd will play a Blues Cruise on Saturday 7 March which will sail off from 7pm at Fisherman’s Wharf, Commercial Rd, Port Adelaide, and return at 11pm. Tickets are now available via <trybooking.com/fzis>. Local songstress Tara Carragher is set to play a free entry gig at The Wheatsheaf Hotel, 39 George St, Thebarton, with her full band from 9pm on Friday 6 March with Zkye & Damo as special guests, while on Sunday 8 March, Don Morrison’s Raging Thirst will be presenting tunes from a yet to be released new album from 4pm at a free entry show. Port Adelaide’s Railway Hotel, 247 St Vincent St, has opened its doors to live music on Friday evenings from 5pm and also Sunday afternoons from 4pm. All gigs are free entry too. Did you know that Crown & Sceptre Hotel, 308 King William St, is open each and every evening until 31m in the morning during Adelaide Fringe? Not only that, the recently reopened venue has some great live music coming up. Catch Puritan, The Serra, Teofabi from 9pm on Thursday 5 March, see Charlie, Abbey & The Golden Realm and Seraphim from 9pm on Friday 6 March and Howl N Bones, Flying Doormat and Ivory Peacocks from 9pm on Saturday 7 March. All are free entry affairs and there are drink specials each night. With it being a public holiday the following day, Sedulous Rouse, Devonara and Awaken Cicada have elected to march into the band room of Hotel Metro, 46 Grote St from 9pm on Sunday 8 March. Award winning rootsy multi-instrumentalist Craig Atkins is set to launch his Fall Or Fly CD at The Jade Monkey, 160 Flinders St, on Saturday 4 April. Tickets will be $10 at the door with Tara Carragher, Jupiter and Benny C & The Associates as the three very special guest acts. Fresh from presenting the Neil Young show Helpless at Adelaide Fringe, Tom West and Todd Sibbins will now play Hotel Metro, 46 Grote St, from 9pm on Friday 6 March and will be joined by Louis Donnarumma and Found Drug DJs. The first PromSong, a free entry showcase of local singer songwriters, will take place on Wednesday 25 March at The Promethean, 116 Grote St, from 7pm. Tom Farnan, Mat Drogemuller, David Bowering (of The Cities Alight), Twig and Dan Drummond will be presenting their songs, with a chance to win recording time at Fat Trax Studio. There is also a door prize so get along. The Dunes and Glass Skies will undertake a split single launch at Crown & Anchor, 196 Grenfell St, on Saturday 21 March. Fondle will serve as special guests and there will also be Going Steady DJs as well as Wolf & Cub DJs with tickets available via Moshtix. Wireheads, joined by Summer Flake, Vintage Violence and Emu, will play Hotel Metro, 46 Grote St, from 9.30pm on Saturday 21 March with an entry fee of just $5.
Check out their Facebook page for details about the line-up for the mad month of March.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
The Blues Lounge, hosted by stalwarts Ronny Davidson and Peter Harris, happens as a well-attended, free entry blues jam at The Gaslight Tavern, 36 Chief St, Brompton, every Tuesday evening from 8.30pm until late. Expect surprise special guests each week.
Created by veteran Adelaide music guru Rob Dunstan, BSide Magazine is a weekly magazine totally focussed on what’s going on in the Adelaide Music Community.
The always immaculately dressed Peter Tilbrook, once of Adelaide band Masters Apprentices and who recently collaborated with Delta and now plays with popular band The Party Cats, has just put out a CD, Living In The Sixties, which boasts 10 original songs performed in a style reminiscent of the ’60s. It’s available at pretty much every record shop in and around Adelaide (see advert in this issue) but can also be easily obtained from Peter’s website at <petertilbrook. com.au>.
Our goal with BSide Magazine is to help rebuild the Adelaide Music Community, to refocus the emphasis on local music and uniting the different tribes encouraging and further enhancing a prosperous live music industry for all.
One for your musical diaries. Adelaide’s Squeaker, who have recently inked an American deal, will launch a new album, In Love/In Madness, on Saturday 21 March at Crown & Sceptre, 308 King William St, with guests acts Leo, Melbourne’s Alithia and The Serra. Fancy some high voltage rock’n’roll? High Voltage, with their original line-up, have announced a return to the Governor Hindmarsh, 59 Port Rd, Hindmarsh, on Saturday 27 June with Forbidden Envy as special guests. Get set to see the longrunning band pay tribute to AC/DC. Book at OzTix or via the venue. The Good Questions, comprised of Marta Bayly and Simon Frank, are all set to release their 10-song debut, Light Place, and will do so at The Jade Monkey, 160 Flinders St, from 2pm on Sunday 12 April. Helping them out will be Courtney Robb, while Marta’s harmony-driven duo with Andy Armstrong, Andy & Marta, will also be playing.
Every week we will be bringing you the latest news and up-to-date information.
We want BSide Magazine to be like Gaffa Tape. The thing that will hold everything together.
IN THIS ISSUE Page 2 Around The Traps Our Philosophy Page 4 Heading To Town Page 5 BSide Tour Guide Page 6 Feature Article: Neneh Cherry Page 7 Sunnyboys Dallas Royal Page 8 The Clothesline Page 9 Adelaide Fringe Update Buffalo Boyfriend Page 10 Music SA CD Reviews Page 11 Bob’s Bits Tara Carragher Page 13 ThreeD 20+1 Chart Page 14 BSide Gig Guide Page 15 The Bizzo Meeta Pandit Advertising Enquiries Ph: (08) 8346 9899 sales@bsidemagazine.com.au
The Joiners Arms, Manton St, Hindmarsh, is currently running a Battle Of The Bands from 4pm on Sundays. It has already kicked off with the Grand Final set to take place on Sunday 28 March. Check it out as they have four bands per session and it’s free entry. The Monikers, a quartet of locally-based indie rockers, are set to launch an EP at Jive, 181 Hindley St, on Friday 21 March with guests to be announced soon. Book tickets at Moshtix. After two months of touring Europe, Adelaide glam rockers Laced In Lust have announced a free entry homecoming show from 9.30pm at the Grace Emily, 232 Waymouth St, on Friday 13 March at which they will be joined by Green Circles. The Gaslight Tavern, 36 Chief St, Brompton, which is about to be renovated, are putting together a data base of performers – solo acts, duos, bands, etc – so if you are at all keen, send the pub a personal message via Facebook with your details. Acoustic Club Tuesday is a free entry acoustic showcase plus open mic that takes place in the front bar of Hotel Metro, 46 Grote St, from 8pm on Tuesday evenings.
ISSUE #0021 March 5th March 11th, 2015
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HEADING TO TOWN This year’s Blenheim Music & Camping Festival will feature the huge international line-up of USA music legend Tony Joe White (US) the UK’s Z Star and Kiwi Marlon Williams as well as Timberwolf, Jay Hoad, The Shaolin Afronauts and so many, many more. It takes place at Blenheim (Clare Valley) on Good Friday (Friday 3 April) with tickets now available via <events. ticketbooth.com.au/event/3911458/ listing>.
To celebrate the release of her debut EP, Darwin-based Elli Belle is embarking on a national tour with the first stop being Adelaide! Catch her at the Grace Emily Hotel, 232 Waymouth St, on Tuesday 17 March with Grace Goodfellow as special guest. Highly theatrical, Brisbane-based musical combo Emma & The Hungry Truth are heading to town and will drop some hungry truths at The Wheatsheaf Hotel, 39 George St, Theabrton, from 9pm on Friday 20 March.
Trinity Sessions, Church Of The Trinity, 318 Goodwood Rd, Clarence Pk, has Irish songstress Edwina Hayes performing on Sunday 22 March. Trinity Sessions also has a brand new website! Check it out at <trinitysessions.org> and then book via <dramatix>.
Serbian rock band Riblja Čorba are touring Australia for the first time so make them feel welcome when they play the Governor Hindmarsh, 59 Port Rd, Hindmarsh, on Sunday 17 May. Tickets via OzTix or at the venue.
Indigenous singer songwriter Benny Walker is set to launch his new album, Through The Forest, at the Wheatsheaf Hotel, 39 George St, Thebarton, from 4pm on Sunday 19 April. Tickets will be at the door for $10 or can be bought online via OzTix.
Queensland’s Brad Butcher, a singer songwriter who has made guest appearances alongside such acts as Busby Marou, Bill Chambers, Mark Seymour and Pete Murray, is coming to town to play the Grace Emily Hotel, 232 Waymouth St, on Thursday 21 May to play songs from his Jamestown album including new single, Believer.
Highly entertaining US magician Krendl is touring our country for the first time and bringing the world premiere of his show, Arrested, Under-Developed & Under-Medicated, to Published Arthouse, 11 Cannon St, Adelaide, on Friday 6 March and Saturday 7 March. Show time is 8pm but you can also book for dinner via <publishedarthouse. com>. Melbourne’s Larissa Tandy & The Strine Singers (Larissa’s brother, her best friend and her best friend’s brother) will undertake a free entry gig from 9pm on Saturday 21 March at The Wheatsheaf Hotel, 39 George St, Thebarton, with Kelly Menhennett as special guest. Sydney blues legends Bondi Cigars will be serving up songs from their new studio album, Child In The Desert, when they play Victor Harbor’s Beach House Café on Friday 6 March and the Governor Hindmarsh, 59 Port Rd, Hindmarsh, on Saturday 7 March. Book via Oztix or at the venue. The quartet, which boasts two left-handed guitar players, will also play Clarendon’s Old Clarendon Inn on Sunday 8 March. WOMADelaide, which will take place in Botanic Pk from Friday 6 March until Monday 9 March, have added acclaimed reggae, hip hop and dancehall producer Mista Savona, Sydney-based nine-piece brass ensemble Hi Tops Brass Band (featuring Shazza T) and CW Stoneking to its already extensive bill that includes Balkan Beat Box, Youssou N’Dour, The Gloaming, Che Sudaka, Neneh Cherry, Lake Street Dive, Rufus Wainwright, Sinead O’Connor, Toumani Diabate & Sidiki Diabate, The Painted Ladies, Astronomy Class, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Emma Donovan, Robyn Hitchcock, Orquestra Buena Vista Social Club, Emma Swift, First Aid Kit, FourPlay String Quartet, Max Savage & The False Idols and Robert Forster. Book at BASS. British India have just announced a national tour which will have the Melbourne rockers playing the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, 59 Port Rd, Hindmarsh, SA, on Saturday 18 April with Grenadiers and Perth’s Tired Lion as special guests. Book via OzTix or at the venue.
Perennial pop rock band The Whitlams have announced a tour that will bring Tim Freedman’s Sydneysiders to the Governor Hindmarsh, 59 Port Rd, Hindmarsh, on Friday 19 September. Book at OzTix or via the venue. The Spoils’ front man, Sean Simmons, will return to Adelaide with Adrian Stoyles (also of The Gin Club fame, The Spoils and most recently Something For Kate) on piano and organ bringing their songs of love, pursuit and regret as The Spoils Duo to the Wheatsheaf Hotel, 39 George St, Thebarton, from 4pm on Sunday 10 May at which they will have The Rememberz as special guests. Melbourne’s fuzzy pop band Chores will be smiling politely when they play with Archers and Hello, Lover at Hotel Metro, 46 Grote St, from 9pm on Saturday 7 March. One of the hardest partying artists in the US, Lil Jon is making his way back to Australia in March for one of his notorious DJ tours and will hit Red Square on Saturday 7 March with tickets available via Moshtix. Best known as the singer with popular rock band Grinspoon, Phil Jamieson will embark on a string of solo shows in SA in March. Catch him in action at Golden Grove’s Village Tavern on Wednesday 18 March, Ramsgate Hotel, 128 Henley Beach Rd, Henley Beach on Thursday 19 March, Wallaroo’s Coopers Alehouse on Friday 20 March and Royal Oak Hotel, 123 O’Connell St, North Adelaide, on Sunday 22 March. Tickets via Moshtix or at the venues. Sydney’s Baby et Lulu (Abby Dobson of Leonardo’s Bride and Lara Goodridge of FourPlay along with their band) will be brining their jazzy, French chansons to The Trinity Sessions, Church Of The Trinity, 318 Goodwood Rd, Clarence Pk, on Friday 1 May. Book quickly via <dramatix.com>. Jeff Martin, of Canada’s The Tea Party, has announced a show at Jive, 181 Hindley St, on Sunday 19 April. Book very, very quickly via Moshtix.
Central Coast duo James and Jordan, collectively known as Winterbourne, have been making music for almost a decade. They have now announced a national tour that will bring them to our town to play The Wheatsheaf Hotel, 39 George St, Thebarton, on Thursday 2 April. Tickets can be bought online via OzTix for $12.
Legendary rock band Mötley Crüe have confirmed dates for their highly anticipated Australian leg of their final tour and are bringing along shock rocker Alice Cooper as a very special guest. In Adelaide, they play Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Thursday 21 May. Book via the Live Nation website from Wednesday 4 March.
Miss Quincy, famed her dirty blues and straight up rock’n’roll, began her music career in the wild mountains of northern British Columbia and released her debut Your Mama Don’t Like Me in 2010 and follow-up Like The Devil Does in 2012. In the past two years with The Showdown, Miss Quincy has chalked up over 250 shows and 15 festivals through seven countries in Europe and North America, winning fans from near and far. Find out what all the fuss is about when Miss Quincy plays the Governor Hindmarsh, 59 Port Rd, Hindmarsh, on Saturday 11 April. Book via OzTix or at the venue.
Microwave Jenny, the alter-ego of husband and wife musical force Tessa and Brendon Boney who now spend their time between London and Sydney, is set to release a brand new EP, the curiously titled Microwave Jenny & The Six Song EP on Friday March 13. They will then embark on a national tour that will be bringing the duo to the Wheasheaf Hotel, 39 George St, Thebarton, on Friday 8 May with tickets via OzTix or at the door.
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Much acclaimed American alternative country and folk singer Iris DeMent is coming to our town and is set to play the Governor Hindmarsh, 50 Port Rd,
Hindmarsh, on Friday 22 May with special guest Pieta Brown. Book via OzTix or at the venue. Melbourne’s Laura Jean is heading to town for Naomi Keyte’s new modern folk venture, Down On The Plains, which will take place at The Wheatsheaf Hotel, 39 George St, Thebarton, on Saturday 18 April from 8pm with a local act to be confirmed soon. Tickets will be $12 at the door. American metal band Machine Head are heading our way and will hit the Governor Hindmarsh, 59 Port Rd, Hindmarsh, on Sunday 28 June. Book via OzTix or at the venue. Sydney-based rock band Thrash Jacket are heading to town to take part in the 20th Northern Exposure event which will take place at The Bridgeway Hotel, Bridge Rd, Pooraka as an all-ages affair on Thursday 19 March. Playing alongside them will be Pink Noise Generator, The Nation, The Prophets Of Impending Doom and Hunky Punks. To promote her new album, Sometimes I Sit & Think & Sometimes I Just Sit, songstress Courtney Barnett has announced that she will kick off a national tour at the Governor Hindmarsh, 59 Port Rd, Hindmarsh, on Friday 1 May with Teeth & Tongue as special guests. Tickets available now at OzTix or via the venue. Former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick is set to play Bridgeway Hotel, Bridge Rd, Pooraka, on Saturday March 21 with Speedmachine and Sisters Doll and as special guests. Tickets via the venue. Michigan-based black metal outfit The Black Dahlia Murder have announced and Australian tour which will see them hitting Fowler’s Live, 68-70 North Tce, on Friday 19 June. Urban troubadour Darren Hanlon has announced a national tour to launch a new album which will having him heading to Adelaide to play Jive, 181 Hindley St, on Thursday 2 April. Book at Moshtix. Five Mile Sniper, a Melbourne rock band made up of members of The Icecream Hands and Motor Ace, have launched a new single, Amazing, from their debut album, The Sound Of Trees, and will play Hotel Metro, 46 Grote St, on Friday 20 March. Unfortunately, Charles Bradley and Adam Cohen have cancelled upcoming shows at the Governor Hindmarsh. Adam will announce a future date so hang onto your tickets. More sad news. Influential Virginian rock band Mae were scheduled to be touring the 10th anniversary of The Everglow album but will no longer be proceeding due to unforeseen circumstances. Members of the band and the promoters, Various Artists, are regretful of this decision and are endeavouring to reschedule the Australian tour in 2015, however, although nothing is confirmed as yet. Mae were set to play Adelaide Uni Bar on Friday 13 March with refunds now available a point of purchase. Swedish guitar legend Yngwie Malmsteem had to postpone his February tour but has now announced that he’ll be hitting HQ, cnr North and West Tces, on Friday 12 June. There are general admission tickets and also VIP packages available now from OzTix. Californian hip hop legends Jurassic 5, with Cut Chemist back in the fold, are heading to Byron Bay’s Bluesfest at Easter but will also play a sideshow at HQ, cnr North and West Tces, on Thursday 2 April. Damian Cowell, formerly of TISM, is bringing his Disco Machine, which features vocal cameos from such people as Shaun Micallef, John Safran, Tim Rogers, Kate Miller Heidke, Tony Martin, Justin Heazlewood (The Bedroom Philosopher), Liz Stringer and more to The Jade Monkey, 160 Flinders St, on Friday 20 March. Noted Canadian songstress Serena Ryder, who has collected multiple awards during her career, will play the Governor Hindmarsh, 59 Port Rd, Hindmarsh, on Sunday 12 April at which she’ll have sensational blues guitarist Matt Andersen with her as special guest. Tickets via OzTix or at the venue.
Three of Australia’s Americana, folk and country musicians have joined forces to hit the road. See Josh Rennie-Hynes, Caitlin Harnett and Liam Gerner play Jive, 181 Hindley St, on Friday 27 March with tickets on sale now via Moshtix. Melbourne band Greenthief have announced a tour that will cause them to be heading over the border to play Crown & Anchor, 196 Grenfell St, on Friday 20 March alongside Tork and Lost Cosmonaut. The next A Day On The Green will feature Billy Idol, Cheap Trick, The Angels and The Choirboys and will take place at Leconfield Wines (McLaren Vale) on Sunday 22 March. American metal band Bane have announced their final tour of Australia although the good news is that it will be with fellow US metal act Defeater. See them at Fowler’s Live, 68-70 North Tce, on Saturday 30 May.
Centre THURSDAY 2 APRIL Ed Sheeran (UK) at Adelaide Entertainment Centre Jurassic 5 (US) at HQ Complex Darren Hanlon (Sydney) at Jive Winterbourne (Central Coast) at Wheatsheaf FRIDAY 3 APRIL Blenheim Music & Camping Festival: Tony Joe White (US), Z Star (UK), Marlon Williams (NZ), Timberwolf, Jay Hoad, The Shaolin Afronauts and so many, many more at Blenheim (Clare Valley) THURSDAY 5 MARCH DZ Deathrays (Brisbane), Bass Drum Of Death (US) and Hockey Dad at Fowler’s Live Royal Chant (Sydney) at Royal Oak FRIDAY 6 MARCH – MONDAY 9 MARCH WOMADelaide: Youssou N’Dour (Senegal), Rufus Wainwright, Neneh Cherry & RocketNumberNine+, The Gloaming, Abdullah Ibrahim Quartet, Balkan Beat Box, Public Broadcasting Service and so many, many more at Botanic Park FRIDAY 6 MARCH River Of Snakes (Melbourne), Filthy Lucre and Gun It at Worldsend Aaron Thomas (Sydney), Menagerie, Ghyti, Cabin Cults, Luke Carlino and No Birds & Thee Dub Division at The Promethean Bondi Cigars (Bondi) at Beach House Café (Victor Harbor) Massive (Melbourne) and Speedmachine at Crown & Anchor SATURDAY 7 MARCH Crash & Burn (Melbourne), Speedmachine, The Menace, Hi Speed Life and Mark Bowley at Bridgeway Hotel Client Liason (Sydney) and Retiree (Sydney) at Pirie & Co Social Club Bondi Cigars (Bondi) at Governor Hindmarsh Lil Jon (US) at Red Square Sun Of Man (Sydney), Inwoods and Filthy Lucre at Worldsend Chores (Melbourne), Archers and Hello, Lover at Hotel Metro SUNDAY 8 MARCH Sunnyboys (Sydney) and Bad//Dreems at Governor Hindmarsh Bondi Cigars (Bondi) at Old Clarendon Inn Teenage Crime (UK) at Crown & Sceptre MONDAY 9 MARCH Future Music Festival: Adelaide Showgrounds WEDNESDAY 11 MARCH Macy Gray (US) at Adelaide Convention Centre THURSDAY 12 MARCH Tech N9ne (US) at Governor Hindmarsh Dallas Royal (Melbourne) at Surviving Sharks at Royal Oak FRIDAY 13 MARCH Dean Ray (Sydney) at Governor Hindmarsh Kustom Kulture Weekender: The Allniters (Sydney) Fistful Of Trojans and Young Offenders at Highway Inn Tequila Mockingbyrd (Melbourne) I Am Mine (Melbourne) and Jungle City at Worldsend Lewis Watson (UK) at Fowler’s Live SATURDAY 14 MARCH The New Dead Festival: Psycroptic (Tasmania) and more at Fowler’s Live Brooke Fraser (New Zealand) and Hayden Calinan (Melbourne) at Governor Hindmarsh Kustom Kulture Weekender: Big Sandy (US), Los Straitjackets (US), The Saucermen, The Satellites and Madeleine DeVille at Highway Inn Sumeru (Sydney) at Worldsend The Kahuna Daddies (Melbourne) at Gaslight Tavern SUNDAY 15 MARCH Bonobo (UK) at Royal Croquet Club TUESDAY 17 MARCH Kylie Minogue (Melbourne) at Adelaide Entertainment Centre Ellie Belle (Darwin) and Grace Goodfellow at Grace Emily WEDNESDAY 18 MARCH Phil Jamieson (Lismore) at Village Tavern (Golden Grove) Jessie J (Sydney) at Adelaide Entertainment
Centre Theatre THURSDAY 19 MARCH Phil Jamieson (Lismore) at Ramsgate Hotel Thrash Jacket (Sydney), Pink Noise Generator, The Nation, The Prohets Of Impending Doom and Hunky Punks at The Bridgeway Edwina Hayes (Ireland) at South Coast Folk Centre FRIDAY 20 MARCH Kingswood (Melbourne), Lurch & Chief, The Belligerents and My Echo (Melbourne) at Governor Hindmarsh Luca Brasi (Tasmania), Gnarwolves (UK) and Tired Lion (Perth) at Rocket Bar Hellions (Sydney) at Enigma Bar Phil Jamieson (Lismore) at Coopers Alehouse (Wallaroo) Andrew Swift (Melbourne), Greenthief (Melbourne), Tork and Lost Cosmonaut at Crown & Anchor Damian Cowell (Melbourne) at The Jade Monkey Five Mile Sniper (Melbourne) at Hotel Metro Jackson Firebird (Mildura) at Pirie & Co Social Club Emma & The Hungry Truth (Brisbane) at Wheatsheaf Hotel Hits (Brisbane) and Meatbeaters at Cumberland Hotel (Glanville) SATURDAY 21 MARCH Bruce Kulick (US), Sister Kills and Speedmachine at Bridgeway Hotel Vance Joy (Melbourne) at Thebarton Theatre Seth Sentry (Melbourne), Citizen Kay (ACT) and Colin Banks (Perth) at Governor Hindmarsh Kasey Chambers (NSW) at Her Majesty’s Theatre Larissa Tandy & The Strine Singers (Melbourne) and Kelly Menhennett at Wheatsheaf Hotel Squeaker (CD launch), Leo, Alithia (Melbourne) and The Serra at Crown & Sceptre Hits (Brisbane) and Meatbeaters at Producer’s Hotel SUNDAY 22 MARCH Phil Jamieson (Lismore) at Royal Oak Seth Sentry (Melbourne), Citizen Kay (ACT) and Colin Banks (Perth) at Governor Hindmarsh Edwina Hayes (Ireland) at The Trinity Sessions A Day On The Green: Billy Idol (UK), Cheap Trick (US), The Angels and The Choirboys (Sydney) at Leconfield Wines (McLaren Vale) David Ellefson (US) at Governor Hindmarsh WEDNESDAY 25 MARCH Uriah Heep (UK) at Governor Hindmarsh FRIDAY 27 MARCH Josh Rennie-Hynes, Caitlin Harnett and Liam Gerner at Jive Augie March (Melbourne) at Her Majesty’s Theatre Xavier Rudd & The United Nations (Melbourne) at HQ Complex SATURDAY 28 MARCH Jordie Lane (Melbourne) at Wheatsheaf Hotel Steve Poltz (Canada/US) at Peterborough Football Club The McClymonts (Sydney) and Kristy Cox at Old Mill Hotel (Hanhdorf) SUNDAY 29 MARCH Rod Stewart (UK) and James Reyne (Melbourne) at Adelaide Entertainment Centre TUESDAY 31 MARCH Mavis Staples (US) at Governor Hindmarsh
SATURDAY 4 APRIL Skyscraper Stan & The Commission Flats (Melbourne) at Grace Emily SUNDAY 5 APRIL Counting Crows (US) at Thebarton Theatre Horrorshow (Sydney) and MC Tuka (Blue Mountains) at Goverenor Hindmarsh MONDAY 6 APRIL Jimmy Cliff (Jamaica) at Governor Hindmarsh TUESDAY 7 APRIL Mariachi El Bronx (US) at Governor Hindmarsh WEDNESDAY 8 APRIL Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls (UK) at Adelaide Uni Bar THURSDAY 9 APRIL Justin Townes Earle (US) and Sam Outlaw at Grace Emily FRIDAY 10 APRIL Jake Shimabukuro (Hawaii) at Governor Hindmarsh Architects (US), Stick To Your Guns (US), Being As An Ocean (US) and Stories at HQ Complex SATURDAY 11 APRIL Miss Quincy (Canada) at Governor Hindmarsh John Farnham (Melbourne) and Olivia Newton-John (Sydney) at Adelaide Entertainment Centre Gypsy Kings (US) at Thebarton Theatre Norma Jean (US), Louis Blanc, A Ghost Orchestra, Life Pilot and Disaster Path at Fowler’s Live SUNDAY 12 APRIL Blues On The Parade: Donavon Frankenreiter (US), Dusty Lee’s Wasted Wanderers, Gab Hyde, Craig Atkins and China Doll at Norwood Live Serena Ryder (Canada) and Matt Andersen (Canada) at Governor Hindmarsh TUESDAY 14 APRIL Taylor Henderson (Sydney) at Governor Hindmarsh THURSDAY 16 APRIL Andy Bull (Sydney) at Governor Hindmarsh The Black Keys (US) at Adelaide Entertainment Centre Nana Mouskouri (Greece) and Alfredo Malabello (Sydney) at Festival Theatre (Adelaide Festival Centre) The Ocean (Germany) and Caligula’s Horse at Jive Marlon Williams & The Yarra Benders (Melbourne/NZ) at Grace Emily FRIDAY 17 APRIL Atilla (US) at Fowler’s Live Super Best Friends (Melbourne/ACT) at Crown & Anchor SATURDAY 18 APRIL The Rumjacks (Sydney) at Crown & Anchor Laura Jean (Melbourne) at Wheatsheaf Hotel British India (Melbourne) and Grenadiers and Tired Lion (Perth) at Governor Hindmarsh SUNDAY 19 APRIL Citizen (US) at Adelaide Uni Bar Short Stack (Sydney) at Governor Hindmarsh Jeff Martin (Canada) at Jive Benny Walker (Melbourne) at Wheatsheaf THRUSDAY 23 APRIL Funeral For A Friend (Wales) and Vices (Sydney) at Fowler’s Live
WEDNESDAY 1 APRIL Ed Sheeran (UK) at Adelaide Entertainment
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FEATURED: NENEH CHERRY
NENEH CHERRY By Robert Dunstan WOMADelaide returns to Botanic Pk from Friday 6 March until Monday 9 March and once again the world music festival boasts an impressive line-up. Set to play are acclaimed reggae, hip hop and dancehall producer Mista Savona, Sydney-based nine-piece brass ensemble Hi Tops Brass Band (featuring Shazza T), CW Stoneking, Balkan Beat Box, Youssou N’Dour, The Gloaming, Che Sudaka, Lake Street Dive, Rufus Wainwright, Sinead O’Connor, Toumani Diabate & Sidiki Diabate, The Painted Ladies, Astronomy Class, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Emma Donovan, Robyn Hitchcock, Orquestra Buena Vista Social Club, Emma Swift, First Aid Kit, FourPlay String Quartet, Max Savage & The False Idols and Robert Forster. Swedish-born rapper Neneh Cherry, who scored a huge hit with the song Buffalo Stance from her debut solo album, Raw Like Sushi, is looking forward to performing at WOMADelaide as it will mark the first time she has ever played in Australia.
Ford), Lolita Moon (Neneh and Cameron’s daughter Tyson) and Matt Kent (AKA Karmil). “It was really Cameron’s band because he started it with a friend of ours, Matt, and then our daughter Tyson and myself joined in,” Neneh says of the trip hop ensemble who went on to release two albums, Laylow and Medicine. “But CirKus was never planned as a family kind of band,” she says. “It just happened. It was just that one day Cameron and Matt were working on a song and asked if I would sing on it and then Tyson ended up singing on a few things. “And we somehow ended up touring a fair bit,” she adds. “There were six of us at one stage and it was a really fun thing to do. And I still think the two albums we did are pretty cool. They are interesting records. “And it was really nice to be involved in a band and not be directly in the spotlight,” Neneh adds with a laugh.
She did, however, venture down to this country many years ago for a promotional tour.
The sparse, percussive Blank Project is Neneh’s latest album and it was recorded in Woodstock, NY, produced by Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden and involved brothers Tom and Ben Todd of the UK’s Rocketnumbernine+ who are coming to WOMADelaide with Neneh.
“Gee, that was a long time ago and I was only there for about five or six days,” Neneh says. “I’d just had my youngest daughter, Mabel, and she came down with me. So it would have been about 19 years ago.
“I feel proud of that album in the sense that I felt that the record was hanging around in my head and was just waiting to come into the universe,” she says. “It felt like it was something waiting to happen.
“So it seems like I’ve been waiting to come down to Australia to play forever,” she laughs. “It’s always been, ‘Yes, it’s going to happen’, and then, ‘No, it’s not’, and then, ‘Maybe next year’, so it’s good that it’s finally happening. It’s time!”
“And then all of the elements, such as meeting the right people such as Kieran, Tom and Ben, came together and it happened,” Neneh explains further.
Neneh is also excited to be performing at WOMADelaide as she played the very first WOMAD in Shepton Mallett in the UK in 1982 which featured Peter Gabriel, The Beat, Simple Minds, Echo & The Bunnymen and The Chieftains. “I was with Rip Rig + Panic, the first band I was in, and I was heavily pregnant with my first daughter, Naima, and my step-dad, Don Cherry, also played that first WOMAD on the same stage as us,” Neneh reveals. “So it was quite a trip. “And, during the years I wasn’t making my own music and working with a group called cirKus, we played at another WOMAD,” she adds. “That would have been about six or seven years ago now.” cirKus was a group that had Neneh alongside partner Cameron McVey (AKA Burt
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“It was never an easy thing though because it was kind of like there was a certain theme to the album but I didn’t spend too much time thinking about that,” she muses. “It was more like Blank Project was a powerful vessel for what I wanted to say. And there wasn’t too much room for contemplation when we were writing the songs. “What am I trying to say here?” Neneh then laughs. “Let’s just say that it was all kind of spontaneous. We were just free-forming and trying to write at least one tune per day. We were almost demoing the songs because we were coming up with quite simple beats and stuff. “And when we had 10 songs we decided that we didn’t want to do it the same way we’ve done other things which is to just go into a studio and record. In the past we’ve gone into a London studio and brought in different producers and programmers.
“We thought, ‘We need to make this thing as a whole record and do it live as much as we could,” Neneh says. “So that’s when Ben and Tom of Rocketnumbernine+ became involved. They gave the songs their twist but there was never any doubt it wasn’t going to be minimalistic and slightly experimental. “And we met through Kieran of Four Tet because he knew them and had worked with them before,” she reveals. “And while what they do is pretty intense, it’s also really great. What Ben and Tom do is quite edgy and experimental but that really suited the songs. It was the way to go and also a really liberating way to work.
when they both play WOMADelaide on the same day, Neneh is initially relatively noncommittal. “Hmm,” she teases. “Maybe if the stars align that day we’ll do it. You’ll just have to cross your fingers and hope it happens. But, y’know, if we can make it happen we will.” Neneh is more forthcoming about what her WOMADelaide set will involve. “Well, there will be a few old ditties in there,” she says of the possibilities of Buffalo Stance making the cut, “but I do have to say that most of the set is about the new stuff.
“And we recorded the album in five days,” Neneh adds. “We went to Kieran’s studio in Woodstock and played them together. There’s a few overdubs but not much.
“But, yeah, there will certainly also be a couple of the old ditties presented for the new world,” Neneh happily concludes with a laugh.
“When I now listen back to Blank Project I just know it is what is is,” she laughs. “It captures exactly where we all were at that time.
WOMADelaide takes place from Friday 6 March until Monday 9 March in Botanic Park. Neneh Cherry and Rocketnumbernine+ play Speakers Corner 7 at 6pm on Sunday 8 March and also Stage 3 at 8pm on Monday 9 March.
“And they can play all the album live – none of it is pre-programmed or anything,” Neneh says. “And from playing the album live so much because we’ve done so much touring, we’ve taken the songs to different places. A lot of people who have heard the album come to the gig and experience something different from what they expected.” Swedish recording artist Robyn, best known for the worldwide smash Dancing On My Own, makes a guest vocal appearance on the song Out Of The Black. “Oh, she’s a dear, beautiful creature,” Neneh enthuses. “And I’ve known Robyn since she was in her teens. I’ve known her since she was 16 or 17 and first started putting out music. So we have a lot of mutual friends and while w’e often talked about doing something together it had never actually happened. “But when I was working on the album I mentioned to Kieran that I’d really, really like to do a duet with Robyn. And Out Of The Black was a song that seemed to be missing something. So Kieran said, ‘I think Robyn would be good for this one’. But we’ve done the song together on stage just once when we were playing a festival together. So that was a real trip. “And another dear, dear friend of mine, Christian Falk, who sadly passed away last year, produced one of Robyn’s albums,” she then says of the singer’s Grammy nominated 2005 self-titled release. It was Christian Falk who also produced 7 Seconds, the multi-million selling song recorded by Neneh and Senegal’s Youssou N’Dour in 1994. Broached about whether the pair may perform the song together
Book via <womadelaide.com.au>.
SUNNYBOYS
SUNNYBOYS By Robert Dunstan Sydney band Sunnyboys, who were prominent in the early ’80s and whose interesting story has been welldocumented in the 2014 documentary The Sunnyboy, are coming to town for Adelaide Fringe. The national tour coincides with the release of deluxe editions of the band’s Individuals and Get Some Fun albums, which were first issued in 1982 and 1984 respectively, and follow last year’s release of a deluxe edition of their self-titled debut and a ‘best of’ compilation as selected by the band. We spoke over the telephone to guitarist Richard Burgman (pictured with hat on left) who now lives in Canada. Richard was holed up in his original hometown of Wagga Wagga, NSW, after arriving from cold, cold Canada only the day before. “I’m actually very pleased with the re-issued albums,” he begins. “They’ve come up well and look good too. In fact, we are much happier with them than we were when they were first released over 30 years ago. “We were never happy with the way Individuals was mixed,” Richard then says of the album that boasted such songs as You Need A Friend and Love In A Box. “We’d released our first album and had been on the road for quite a while and then the record company [Mushroom] said we needed to quickly do another album. “So we went over to New Zealand where [producer] Lobby Lloyde said we should go to record it and that was all fine because at that time we would have been happy to go anywhere just to get out of the country,” Richard reveals. “So we went over to New Zealand and made this album and both the record company and the fans were looking for a continuation of the first album. And, at the time, the songs weren’t that at all. “But, with hindsight and with this 30-year distance from them, they kind of were,” he adds with a chuckle. “For singer Jeremy they were certainly the next step forward. The first album was just a bunch of quickly written pop songs really, but Jeremy wanted to experiment a bit more with the second album and write some songs that had some meaning for him. He was getting a bit more introspective.” While Individuals was recorded in New Zealand, it was mixed in Los Angeles but eight of the producer’s original mixes – discovered in a box after Lobby’s death – now feature on the new reissue. “Those mixes were found over in the studio in New Zealand,” Richard reveals. “And, to our ears, they are much betting sounding that how the songs on the album sounded when they were mixed over in the US. But it is only eight of them, so the last three songs are the Los Angeles mixes.” Get Some Fun was recorded in the UK with Nick Garvey of British new wave pub rockers The Motors at the helm. “One of the reasons we went to the UK was to invigorate ourselves,” Richard now claims. “It was a result of Individuals not doing as well as we would have liked and Sunnyboys losing our sense of direction and purpose.
DALLAS ROYAL
“And it worked and ended up being a great idea,” he continues. “And Nick Garvey, although we perhaps weren’t paying too much attention at the time, was very good to us and very good to work with. So we felt a lot more like it was a collaborative project. “And Nick was a great guitar player, singer and songwriter for The Motors,” Richard adds. “And he could play great piano and bass as well.” Sunnyboys first reunited in 2012 to perform at the Dig It Up! series of concerts where they were secretly billed as Kids In Dust. “Jeremy had been asked to do a little acoustic set but wouldn’t do it unless it was an electric set with the band,” Richard says. Since then Sunnyboys have headlined Meredith Music Festival, toured with Elvis Costello & The Imposters and toured again for the release of their Our Best Of album. Having seen the band twice over the last couple of years, Richard agrees with me that the band are now far better musicians than they were 30 years ago. “And that’s because none of us ever stopped playing after the original Sunnyboys finished up,” Richard, who played briefly with Wedding Parties Anything before moving to Canada, reasons. The guitarist doesn’t think any new Sunnyboys material or recordings are in the offing. “Oh, we’ve had our day doing all that,” Richard says. “It was our time to do that back in the ’80s so we need to give the younger bands a go. “We just need to play live to show ’em how it’s done,” he then adds with a laugh. Richard closes by revealing that Sunnyboys will be in Adelaide the night prior to their Sunday evening concert and asks what is on around town. “I know that WOMADelaide is on and that Tex Perkins & The Dark Horses are playing somewhere [7pm in Aurora Spiegeltent in The Garden Of Unearthly Delights],” he says. “I’ll definitely be looking around at what’s going on in town that night. “But maybe I’ll just go along and heckle Tex,” Richard then considers. “You can do that kind of thing if you are actually who you think you are. And you can more easily get away with it when you are my age. “But tell me,” he then quietly asks, “are Sunnyboys going to be the dinosaur act of Adelaide Fringe?” Richard seems only somewhat slightly relieved when I suggest to him, ‘No, that would probably be Tex’. Sunnyboys play the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, 59 Port Rd, Hindmarsh, on Sunday 8 March with local band Bad//Dreems as special guests. Book quickly via FringeTix.
DALLAS ROYAL By Libby Parker This mad March festival season is serving up a plethora of exciting things for our eyes and ears and one of those offerings is WA band Dallas Royal. The regional West Australians are coming here to play a week of dates and soak in some of our festival vibe. Among their gigs, Mitch Baker, (vocals), Tal Driscoll (drums), Brad Sims (guitar), Jarrad McGuire (guitar) and Billy Cherry (bass) will be joining Adelaide legends Surviving Sharks at the Royal Oak, North Adelaide. The band, who have supported the likes of Jebediah and Grinspoon have never been to Australia before and front man Mitch says they’re pretty keen to come and play for us. “We haven’t been there at all so it’s a new experience for us. We haven’t done a massive amount of touring but we’re looking at starting to do more of it this year. We’re going to kick it and see how we go and get a bit of experience around Australia and get the music out there,” he says. “We got the gig through Steve Noble [of Noble Events & Touring]. We caught up with him when we supported Phil Jamieson [of Grinspoon] in WA. We were talking to Steve and he said we should come over to Adelaide this year. Then he invited us over there and said we’d do really well so we thought why the hell not?” Why the hell not indeed! And although, the guys, who have recently recorded a new single, will be flat out and won’t get to see much FringeFest, they’re committed to rocking every venue they play. “We’re going to be so flat ’nana around the joint but we’ll try to follow what we can. We’ve got a heap of shows around Adelaide so we’re sort of jumping around the spot. We’re doing something at Glenelg, we’re doing the Royal Oak show at The Fringe and we’ve got the Crown & Sceptre so I don’t know how many acts we’ll be able to see at Fringe but hopefully we get to catch some,” Mitch says. “We’ve got four gigs over five days so we’re coming over short and sharp and going to bang out some dates. We’ve jumped in the studio to lay down a single that we’ll hopefully have by Adelaide so that’s pretty exciting. It’s called Skin Walker. We’re supporting an album launch for Trent Worley while we’re over there too.” At this stage, Dallas Royal will be playing Royal Oak (Thursday 12 March) and Jetty Bar (Saturday 14 March) with Surviving Sharks and also Crown & Sceptre with Trent Worley and Pink Noide Generator on Friday 13 March) with another gig to be confirmed.
we’re country based, which is sometimes hard for us to make waves around WA but we’ve been pretty lucky. We’ve picked up some good shows and played a few festivals. We’ve had a lot of help from Noah Shilkin who’s the vice president of WAM (West Australian Music). “He’s helped pave the way for us and we’ve had a whole heap of other crew who’ve been pretty handy in that regard,” he says. “Even just in my town [Dunsborough] there is so much talent it’s ridiculous, and they’re taking all these massive festivals like Soundwave and Big Day Out away from us. Clearly for financial reasons but I don’t know what we can do. It’s kind of good though because it’s drawing us out. It’s making us chase it because that’s what we want to do and we want people to get out there and we want people to see it and enjoy it.” Their new single Skin Walker is pending release, hopefully by the time the guys hit Adelaide, but Dallas Royal are unsure yet when an album may follow. “I reckon eventually we’ll record an album but I’m trying to keep up with what’s best. I mean, is it best to release ten singles or one album? In the world we’re in now where everything is digital, is it good to keep fresh with singles or is it good to give everyone an album to sit and listen to over and over again?” Mitch queries. “With iPods and stuff, people just slap everything on a playlist anyway and if they don’t like all your tracks, they won’t put them on. So if you write some good tracks and singles and if they want to listen to you, they can come to your shows and listen; but eventually we’ll record all our good tracks. “We did an EP back in 2012 called She Said and that was a five track EP, and prior to that, we’d done a single. We’ve got another EP recorded but we didn’t really want to release it because we weren’t entirely happy with the whole thing. Over time, those tracks will probably come out.” “We’re hoping to get a bit of traction from the shows [in Adelaide] so hopefully everyone enjoys it. We’re going to have a good time. There’ll be a lot of party antics probably. A bit of trouble, a lot of fun and some good tunes, I reckon,” Mitch laughs. Dallas Royal play Royal Oak, 123 O’Connell St, North Adelaide, on Thursday 12 March with Surviving Sharks, Crown & Sceptre, 308 King William St, on Friday 13 March with Trent Worley and Pink Noise Generator and Glenelg’s Jetty Bar on Saturday 14 March with Surviving Sharks.
Taking a leap to get out and tour around Australia is a new and exciting for the band who have already established themselves as a quality rock act at home in WA. Mitch says by coming down to SA, they are hoping to build a wider audience and get their music into more ears. “For us, the biggest thing is that we hope everyone likes our tunes and it’s getting exposure and getting our music into some new ears and getting some more fans around Australia. We’re regional WA, so
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Adrienne Truscott’s A OneTrick Pony! Hot on the heels of her last tour, the hugely successful Adrienne Truscott’s Asking For It, Truscott is in Adelaide once again with her new Fringe show, Adrienne Truscott’s A One-Trick Pony! The Clothesline emails Adrienne a few tricky questions. Favourite comedian? “I suppose it changes from season to season, but at the moment, I’m pretty mad for what Louis CK is doing, and Maria Bamford drives me to distraction and hysteria.” Comedian you would most like to be? “The queer-family love child of Carol Burnett, Richard Pryor, Maria Bamford and Gene Wilder. And nobody really knows whose egg or sperm, but Gilda Radner carried me to term as a surrogate mother.” Comedy duo or trio; who would be your partner/s in crime? “Sarah Silverman and Bob Newhart.” Most famous person’s number you have in your phone? “Adam Horowitz. Beastie.” Favourite imaginary friend as a kid? “Delta Dawn, from the Helen Reddy songbook. If by favourite you mean most depressing?” Your porn star name? “Twinkie Killingworth. Sounds a bit like someone trying to sound really fun, while also being taken seriously as a thespian, but in snuff films. Yuck.” What is your hidden talent? “Headjobs, obviously. And getting movie deals.” Tell us something that people don’t yet know about you. “I have a mole that could be a third nipple and I can write backwards. Take your pick.” Celebrity meet that left you star-struck? “In high school I was a PA on a movie shooting in Atlantic City, with Warren Beatty, Dennis Hopper and Harvey Keitel. Not realizing they were legends of the ’70s film Wave In The States, I only cared that Molly Ringwald and Robert Downey Jr were on set. I got to try on Robert Downey Jr’s slippers in his hotel room while he ‘went to the bathroom’. Again. It was during his drug years. Don’t ask me what I was doing in his hotel room.” A missed opportunity that you would give anything to go back and try? “Seeing what else happened in Robert Downey Jr’s hotel room.” What’s the best chat-up line you’ve ever heard/used? “It was about 5am and my friend, a lady, said to a fella she’d been flirting with, ‘We should have lunch some time’. He said, ‘Sure, when is lunch?’ ‘In five minutes’, she replied. Pretty tidy work.” Adrienne Truscott’s A One Trick Pony performs at The Garden Of Unearthly Delights’ The Spare Room from 8.15pm until Sunday 15 March. Book at FringeTIX
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Ronny Chieng’s You Don’t Know What You’re Talking About 2014 was a big year for Ronny Chieng – winning the MICF Directors’ Choice Award, and Best Show Award at the Sydney Comedy Festival, not to mention being nominated for Best Comedy Performer at The Helpmann Awards 2014 and even Cleo Bachelor Of The Year! Described by the Herald Sun as, ‘Sharp, he’s funny, he’s quick-witted’, Chieng will soon present his award winning show to Adelaide Fringe audiences. The Clothesline emailed Ronny a few questions and here is what he told us. First comedy gig; when and where and how did it go? “March 2009 at University of Melbourne Campus Comedy Competition. I won.” What drew you into performing comedy? “I watched Seinfeld when I was a kid and it was something I thought I could do.” Favourite comedian? “Tom Gleeson, Bill Burr, Andy Kindler, Louis CK, Jon Dore.” Favourite movie line? “I can do Jack Nicholson’s, ‘You can’t handle the truth’, monologue by heart.” Job you currently perform in your alternative life when not performing comedy? “None. This is all I do. This and television shows. And sometimes radio.” Your porn star name [first pet/first street]? “Bob Riverside.” What is your hidden talent? “I can flip the finger with my right foot (as in raise the middle toe of my right foot).” Tell us something that people don’t yet know about you. “I can flip the finger with my right foot.” Favourite childhood memory? “Playing in the snow.” Celebrity meet that left you star-struck? “Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, Eddie Izzard, Chelsea Handler, Dave Hughes, Wil Anderson, Tom Gleeson.” What’s something from your childhood that you still love and have today? “My sense of humour.” Has anyone literally wet themselves laughing at one of your shows? “I think so yes.” What’s the best chat-up line you’ve ever heard/used? “Do you go to the gym much?”
Bev Killick – Killick Bev Irreverent, overt and always funny! Bev Killick shows all of her 15 years experience as a stand up in her hilarious new show Killick Bev. We sent the bold and brassy comedian some questions. These are her answers. Your first comedy gig; when and where and how did it go? “It was at The Star & Garter Hotel. I was supposed to do five minutes. Dave Grant was the MC and was a stickler for time. I looked over at him at around the 10 minute mark and he just told me to keep going. I did 17 minutes. I have the gig on VHS but I’ve never had the courage to watch it. Maybe when I hit the 20-year mark?” Comedy duo or trio; who would be your partner/s in crime? “The penis in Puppetry Of The Penis.” Job you currently perform in your alternative life when not performing comedy? “Voice Over, Actor, Writer.” Your porn star name [first pet/first street]? “Yogi Wentworth.” Favourite childhood memory? “Carefree dressed like a Bollywood star with my dog Yogi pulling me along on his lead on roller skates with my Galah on my shoulder singing at the top of my lungs through the streets of Townsville.” Celebrity meet that left you star-struck? “Michael Jackson, out the front of The Hyatt. I cried so hard and shook so hard I nearly vomited.” Secret crush? “Englebert Humperdinck.” Time travel; where would you most love to go and why? “The Renaissance period in Italy and play the buxom lead operatic roles in theatres.” What’s something from your childhood that you still love and have today? “Little Bo Peep in a brick house night light.” A missed opportunity that you would give anything to go back and try? “To get in to NIDA.” Has anyone literally wet themselves laughing at one of your shows? “Yes many times and they always show and tell.” What’s the best chat-up line you’ve ever heard/used? “Mine - I don’t have a spare bed but you can sleep on my pelvic floor if you like.” Favourite or worse heckle you’ve ever had? “Show us your tats at a Tattoo Convention.”
Favourite or worse heckle you’ve ever had? “You suck.”
If you were a flavour of ice cream, what would you be and why? “Rainbow in homage to my LGBT friends.”
If you were a flavour of ice cream, what would you be and why? “Pistachio. Different but accessible.”
Bev Killick performs Killick Bev at Gluttony’s The Piglet from 10.10pm until Sunday 15 March.
Ronny Chieng’s You Don’t Know What You’re Talking About runs at Palace Nova Exi-Max from 9.45pm on Thursday 5 March until Sunday 8 March.
Book at FringeTIX.
Book at FringeTIX.
James Pender’s Let’s Get Started At the age of 23, James Pender wrote and performed on Channel Ten’s The Ronnie Johns Half Hour. Ten years later, he is presenting his debut solo stand up show Let’s Get Started. The Clothesline sent James Pender some interesting questions. Here’s what he had to say. Favourite comedian? ‘Love Simon Amstell, Dave Chappelle, Stewart Lee, Ricky Gervais (of course), Chris Morris.’ Favourite joke you knew as a kid? “I used to poke my finger through my fly and then join a conversation in a big group of people and see how long it would take them to notice. Define ‘kid’ though. I was technically 19 when I did that.” Your porn star name? “Samson O’Keefe. Porn star by day, struggling Irish novelist by night.” Favourite childhood memory? “My mum used to make me banana smoothies. They’d just be waiting on the bench when I got home from school. Thanks mum.” Celebrity meet that left you star-struck? “I met Kerry O’Brien once. He was articulate and hammered. Impressive guy.” Secret crush? “I love that girl from Crazy Stupid Love, although clearly not enough to learn her name, but I will fight anyone who says anything bad about her.” Best or worst advice you were every given? “When I was younger I was really worried about being so much taller than everyone else. I complained to my dad that no one would go out with me because I was so tall. He said, ‘It doesn’t matter when you’re lying down’. Thanks Dad.” Has anyone literally wet themselves laughing at one of your shows? “My Grandma, but that’s not really fair.” What’s the best chat-up line you’ve ever heard/used? “I saw a guy walk up to a booth of girls, look one of them in the eyes, gesture with one hand and say, ‘Up and out’. She laughed. He just stood there staring at her. After an awkward silence, she got up and went with him. The line between virile confidence and a vague domestic violence vibe is wafer thin.” Favourite or worse heckle you’ve ever had? “I once saw a guy absolutely destroy a comedian by saying, ‘You’re lying’, whenever the comedian told a joke. It was brutal, but just so honest.” James Pender performs Let’s Get Started at The Garden Of Unearthly Delights’ The Spare Room from 9.30pm until Sunday 11 March. Book at FringeTIX.
BUFFALO BOYFRIEND
UPDATE Evoletah will have guest singer Katie Underwood with them when they undertake an Adelaide Fringe show at Osmond Terrace Function Centre (part of Norwood Hotel), 97 Osmond Tce, Norwood, from 8.30pm on Saturday 14 March. Tickets via FringeTix. Adelaide-based The Germein Sisters, the internationally acclaimed pop, folk and rock sister band of Georgia (lead vocals, piano and guitar), Ella (electric cello and bass guitar) and Clara (drums and guitar), will perform songs from their latest album, Because You Breathe, which was recorded in Ireland with The Corrs’ and Hozier’s producer, as part of Adelaide Fringe. See them at The Aurora Spiegeltent in The Garden Of Unearthly Delights from 7pm on Friday 6 March with tickets via FringeTix. The Wheatsheaf Ukulele Collective have a run of no less than five shows at – guess where? – the Wheatsheaf Hotel, 39 George St, Thebarton, from 7.30pm on Tuesday 10 March until Saturday 14 March. The final two shows are now sold out but you can grab tickets for any of the other three shows via FringeTix. Much-loved Adelaide band Special Patrol are very excited to announce a one-off reunion on Sunday 8 March (with Monday being a public holiday!) at the Royal Croquet Club. Rob is making the trip back from Melbourne to bang on some drums with Myles, Kate, Damo, Russy, Sonny, Paul and Bri (and possibly other special guests) all making appearances. It’s a long weekend and Special Patrol will hit the stage at approximately 7.30pm. Entry is free before 7.30pm or $5 at the gate after that time. Sydney rock trio Royal Chant are heading to town to play Adelaide Fringe and will hit Royal Oak, 123 O’Connell St, North Adelaide, from 7pm on Thursday 5 March to play a free entry, quite royal musical shindig. Peach is a singer songwriter with a passion for the lyrical, poetry tradition of the medieval minstrels. Catch him as part of Adelaide Fringe when he presents Words On Strings at Earth’s Kitchen, 131 Pirie St, at 7.30pm on Thursday 5 March. Book via FringeTix. Written and performed by Emma Hall and directed by Prue Clark, We May Have To Choose is inspired by Tim Etchells’ Sight Is The Sense, and is study of what it is to speak one’s mind. It runs on Saturday 7 March as part of Adelaide Fringe at Tuxedo Cat, Rivers Studio, 54 Hyde St, Adelaide, from 7.15pm. Book at FringeTix. Briefs: The Second Coming, which encompasses circus, physical theatre, drag, boylesque, dance and cabaret, runs at Royal Croquet Club’s The Menagerie from 9.15pm until Sunday 15 March. Book at FringeTix. The irrepressible Le Gateau Chocolat has a new show, ICONS, which runs until Sunday 15 March at 8.30pm in The Deluxe in The Garden Of Unearthly Delights. Tickets are now on sale via FringeTix. Described as the new face of Scottish traditional music, Breabach’s third tour to Australia in 12 months comes hot off the heels of their worldwide 2014 tour in support of the album Ùrlar. See them when they play Aurora Spielgeltent in The Garden Of Unearthly Delights at 4pm on Saturday 14 March and again at 4pm on Sunday 15 March. Book at FringeTix.
Steph Acraman will be presenting a tribute to jazz legend Julie London with her show, Nice Girls Don’t Stay For Breakfast, as part of Adelaide Fringe. Backed by a stellar band that includes members of Lucky Seven, it runs at Published Arthouse, 11 Cannon St, Adelaide, from Thursday 12 March until Saturday 14 March. Book for 6.30pm dinner and show or 8pm show only via FringeTix. Busy Adelaide booking agency Twisted Echidna, in conjunction with Worldsend Hotel, 208 Hindley St, is presenting a host of music gigs for Adelaide Fringe. On Friday 6 March it’ll be Melbourne’s River Of Snakes with Filthy Lucre and Gun It and on Saturday 7 March it’s to be Sydney’s Sun Of Man with Inwoods and Filthy Lucre. Sumeru are a five-piece rock band from Sydney featuring members of Blkout, Lomera, Firearms, Shake Your Blood and No Apologies and will hit Worldsend Hotel, 208 Hindley St, on Saturday 14 March with Melbourne’s Olmeg as part of Adelaide Fringe. Melbourne bands Tequila Mockingbyrd and I Am Mine are getting together to head over the border and hit Worldsend Hotel, 208 Hindley St, for Adelaide Fringe on Friday March 13 at which they’ll have Jungle City as special guests. Brendan Fitzgerald Quartet will present Take Five: The Dave Brubeck Story at Brighton Concert Hall (Brighton Secondary School), 305 Brighton Rd, Brighton, on Saturday 14 March. Book at FringeTix. The Love Live Of The Ordinary, a folk opera without equal, was written by Rob De Kok and has music by Terry Bradford and Stuart Day. As part of Adelaide Fringe, the show will run from 8.30pm on Tuesday 10 March and Wednesday 11 March inside a building located at 129 Currie St. Tickets via FringeTix. As part of Adelaide Fringe, international traveller Dr Bubble, who blows amazing bubbles, has returned home to present some childrens’ shows which will take place until Sunday 15 March at various times during daylight hours at The Jade Monkey, 160 Flinders St. Book quickly at FringeTix. As part of Adelaide Fringe, Sydney’s legendary power pop band Sunnyboys have announced a huge national tour that will bring them to the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel, 59 Port Rd, Hindmarsh, on Sunday 8 March with soon to be legendary local band Bad//Dreems as special guests. Book quickly via FringeTix. Western Australian rockers Dallas Royal are heading over to play a free entry gig as part of Adelaide Fringe and it will take place from 9pm on Thursday 12 March at The Royal Oak, 123 O’Connell St, North Adelaide, with Surviving Sharks as special guests. Dallas Royal also play Crown & Sceptre, 308 King William St, on Friday 13 March with Trent Worley and Pink Noise Generator and Glenelg’s Jetty Bar on Saturday 14 March. Legendary Adelaide band Rum Jungle, featuring James Black (now of RocKwiz fame), Phil Colsen, Bruce Sandell and more) are reforming to play a one-off show. Catch them from 7pm in Aurora Spiegeltent in Rundle Pk’s The Garden Of Unearthly Delights on Sunday 15 March but book quickly via FringeTix as it’s sure to be a sell out on the night.
BUFFALO BOYFRIEND By Robert Dunstan Buffalo Boyfriend, essentially the young duo of folky blues singers Alana Jagt and Rachel Bienke, will be in full band mode with special guests when they launch their debut EP, In Colour. “We did the EP at Sody Pop in Norwood with Brett Sody,” Alana begins. “But for the song Dreams Run Wild, we recorded the drums with Brett but finished the song with Luke Eygenraam, a friend of ours, at his home studio.” There’s an odd sounding instrument on Lady Blue that I can’t place.
“So I didn’t know Rachel, but then started going out with her brother for a while,” she continues with a laugh. “So that’s how I eventually got to know her and then I started living around the corner from Rachel when I moved down to Adelaide from Pirie to go to university. “So then we started rehearsing together in her living room and then doing some cover gigs,” Alana adds. “And then we thought we should start writing our own stuff.” Alana and Rachel were born into music families with each of their fathers being guitar players. And they both say it was, initially, rather more intimidating than encouraging.
“That’s a homemade ribbon synthesiser,” Alana announces. “We actually wanted to have a Theremin on it or a musical saw but, at the time, didn’t know of anyone who played those instruments.
“Oh, absolutely,” Rachel announces. “Because our dads are both extremely talented musicians, as are the rest of our extended families, it’s intimidating trying to write something and wondering what they’ll think of it or if they will even like it.
“But we think the ribbon synthesiser [played by Matt Timmins] actually suits the song quite well,” she adds.
“But generally they’ve been very supportive,” she adds.
In Colours features a number of notable guests including drummer Mark Meyer and violin player Stuart Day, while Alana’s father John, who is also part of the full band, added guitar.
“Yeah, they have been supportive,” Alana agrees, “and while it was pretty easy to get started because there was always some music going on, there was always a nervous kind of feeling as well. I didn’t actually pick up a guitar until I was in high school because I was always worried about being judged,
“Mark plays on Tom, the opening song, because we had a specific idea in mind for that one,” Alana, who plays piano and guitar, says. “But Luke [Eygenraam] plays drums on the rest of the songs.” “And Stuart Day, who will be playing with us at the launch, was just fantastic on violin,” Rachel then enthuses. “And we really appreciated the advice and experience that Stuart gave us. He gave us some good tips on how we could improve on what we had already done.” Tom was the winner last year of SCALA’s FOOM (Festival Of Original Music) Studio section. “That was exciting because we only got that final mix of Tom back from Brett on the day the FOOM competition was closing,” Alana laughs. “So we just threw it in and were surprised when it won.” “Tom was a song Alana wrote and probably the first one we completed for the EP,” Rachel says. “So we quickly sent it in and, yeah, we were surprised it did so well.” How does the songwriting process work? “We write independently of each other and then wok on the ideas together,” Rachel says. “Together we work out any vocal parts and harmonies. But, initially, we each kind of come up with our own ideas for songs and then work on them together. “So the next challenge will be to collaborate from the very start a bit more and see how we go with that,” she adds. Alana says it’s a funny and rather long story of how she got together with Rachel to form Buffalo Boyfriend. “Rachel is five or six years older than me,” she reveals, “but my father, John, and her father, [guitarist] Leo Bienke, were great mates when they were young and living in Whyalla – Rachel’s dad was actually my dad’s best man at his wedding – but they kind of drifted apart a bit when we moved from Whyalla to Port Pirie when I was about eight.
“And it took me a long, long time to actually write a song because I was quite scared of having to play it to everyone,” she adds with a laugh. Buffalo Boyfriend will be in full band mode when they launch In Colours. “We love playing with a band,” Rachel says, “but it’s something we don’t often get the chance to do. And a full band gives the songs another feel so it’s going to be interesting to see how it’s received by our regular audience.” And is there anything in the name Buffalo Boyfriend? “Rachel kept coming up with all these crazy ideas that I kept shooting down,” Alana laughs. “But she then told me about a dream she had of having a buffalo for a boyfriend and then getting married to him. Apparently this buffalo was a gold medal winner at the Olympics. “”So we decided on Buffalo Boyfriend,” she laughs. Buffalo Boyfriend, who will undertake a CD launch in their original hometown of Whyalla, will also be venturing over to Melbourne in a couple of weeks. “We’ve got a little Sunday afternoon gig at a school fete through a friend of mine,” Alana concludes. “But while we’re there, we are trying to get a couple of other gigs on Friday and Saturday nights.” Buffalo Boyfriend will launch their EP, In Colour, with a free entry gig at the Grace Emily, 232 Waymouth St, on Friday 6 March with Halfway To Forth as their very special guests.
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CD REVIEWS
TIL THE BREAK Underneath The Fucking Bridge Reviewer: Savvy 5/5 Being a professional in the audio industry, artists have 30 seconds to impress me. Til The Break grabbed my attention before the CD even hit my stereo! I loved the artwork and design of the album cover. It made me want to pick up the CD, open it up, and listen to the music. I was even more impressed when track 1 “In The Way” started to play. This is a great intro track - and is also a weird twist of a Nirvana song – but as a listener it’s a perfect introduction to the band. Terrific use of audio clips in this track as well. So what separates Til the Break from the normal kind of rap sounds I hear? I think it’s got to be their unique style. They have taken acoustic instruments such as the guitar and percussion, and added their own rap style over the top. This works incredibly well. The manner of guitar playing also stood out. In some tracks, it is played clean, whereas in others, it’s used to create an atmosphere and set the overall tone for the song. The vocal performance in this album is addictive. The rap ability is highly impressive. You have to listen to this album to fully appreciate this skill. Til the Break have found their sound. It’s unique, it’s new, and it’s brilliant! Buy this album!
10
Music SA and BSide Magazine proudly bring you reviews of new releases by South Australian artists. If you’re a local act and have a new single, EP or LP, visit musicsa.com.au for details on how to submit it. Reviewers Wanted! We’re looking for talented writers with a passion for SA music. Interested? Email info@musicsa.com. au with your contact details and a sample of your writing.
HOLD FAST FOR NOW Silence Is Golden Reviewed by Craig Atkins 4/5
LSD MUSIC Anarchist Bloom Reviewer: Craig Atkins 2.5/5
Hold Fast For Now is a duo act comprised of producers Darryl Bennett and David Rogers, who are now offering their brand new ambient electronic hip-hop single ‘Silence is Golden’.
Sometimes as a reviewer you find that there are tracks that are sent to you that stand out, all for various reasons in their unique ways…
The intro’s simple, soft synth block chords really help lift, and also give some drama to, the transitions in the track when needed. These are accompanied by the cool groove of a both melodic and percussive beat. All of this is working within solid production and an even mix, while gentle panning separates and lends subtly to all the individual layers. “Talk is cheap, time is money, knowledge is power, silence is golden.” On this occasion, featured guests “The Outside Inn”, a Melbourne-based collective who provides the vocals, join the lads. These are shared between rapping verses with quite a bit to say, so it takes a few listens to take it all in. When interlaced with the use of restrained melodic vocal undertones during the chorus and main vocal hook, you get a nice blend. This is definitely one of those tracks you’ll put on repeat.
This time it is ‘Anarchist Bloom’ by LSDmusic, the electronic project of Adelaide song-builder Lewin Day. There is a definite retro homage to the electronica of yesteryear in this track; a kind of happy Casio keyboard midi sound, that as soon as the track started I felt as though I was transported back 30 years or so into one of the earliest Atari arcade games or a C grade ‘80s American action movie soundtrack. There is an interesting break about 2 minutes in where the track takes a different turn (perhaps the soundtrack for the villain of the movie?). Distorted synth notes and a slower beat create some drama, then returning to the original progression to finish. Any fans of electronica and retro gaming may find something in this... Me, not so much.
SIRINS Familiar Exploration Reviewer: Savvy 4/5 Are you ready for an audio adventure? Are you ready to explore some music? Well today’s sound tour guide is Sirins, and he is familiar with exploration in the electronic and down tempo genres. Personally, I always prefer to listen to electronica over more ‘traditional’ styles of music, because to make electronic music, you not only have to be a great musician who knows how to use audio programs, but you must also be a sound designer who can create custom sounds that compliment each other in the mix. This in turn, forms your music. Sirins uses these skills with great accuracy in this EP. Take track 1 “Tak” for example. The sound of crystal bells instantly captivates you and sets the scene. This is down tempo at its best. If you want some relaxing music to play in the background, definitely put this on your music player. Sirins’ style of music would also sound excellent for live performances and add some musical life to the visual arts. The mix is nicely balanced, and one particular element I noticed on this EP is how well the bass sits in the mix, and compliments the tracks with its steady pace and melodic tone. This is a feel good EP, so take a listen and explore the sounds!
TARA CARRAGHER
WOMADelaide! It’s that time of year when the picturesque Botanic Park hosts WOMADelaide which is surely one of the very best music festivals in the world.
TARA CARRAGHER By Robert Dunstan Having recently returned from Tamworth where she graduated from CMAA Academy Of Country Music, award winning local songstress Tara Carragher (photographed above by Tom O’Reilly) is now set to play a rare gig with her full band. “So it’ll be Richard Coates on accordion and keyboards, as usual, and Gilli Atkins [of Caliente] on drums,” Tara says before confessing to not having yet met the person who will be performing bass guitar duties. “Would you believe I don’t even know his name,” the songstress then admits with a laugh. “Actually though, that’s a lie about not having met him yet because he played bass with [US singer songwriter] Hayward Williams when he last came to town,” Tara then quickly realises. “And I now remember that his name is Mark, but I still can’t remember his surname. “All that will be sorted though when we all meet up this week to run through all the new songs I’ll be playing at the gig,” she adds. Some of the new songs came out of Tara’s recent trip to Tamworth when she was invited to take part in CMAA Academy Of Country Music. “Yeah, they choose artists each year and I got chosen this year along with 20 other singer songwriters from Australia and New Zealand,” Tara says. “So we had mentors such as Kevin Bennett from The Flood, Tamara Stewart and Lyn Bowtell so we had 12 hours per day with them for two weeks. “And Karl Broadie is the academy’s singer songwriter in residence, so it was quite an intensive course,” she continues. “We also got into some of the business side of things as well so it really covered all the bases. ‘So it was really inspiring to have access to all those kinds of people fot two weeks and to be really encouraged with my songwriting and to be taken seriously,” Tara adds. How did the process work? “Well we were split into three groups and assigned a mentor and the group I was in had Tamara Stewart,” Tara reveals. “So in the morning we had a bit of a warm up and a songwriting session with Karl Broadie and then in the afternoon we’d split up into groups and do some songwriting together. “But for the whole time we had access to all the mentors so that was pretty cool,” she continues. “So some of my new songs have come from that process. And while I enjoyed the co-writing, I came away from it all knowing that I am more of a solo writer.
“I think I’ll record another EP in April or May and then tour that,” she says. “And that’ll be in July because I’m going up to a songwriting retreat in Nundle, which is up near Tamworth at that time as well. “So I’ll tour the EP to Melbourne and Sydney as well and get some more stuff happening interstate rather than just playing Adelaide all the time,” she continues. “And I like the way my music has changed since that first EP,” Tara then remarks. “Live & Die By Love was my attempt at me being Lucinda Williams and I recorded Big River Crossing in New Mexico in 2012, but that was just a trio album with bass, accordion and me on acoustic guitar. “So I’m looking at my next EP as being done with a full band and hoping to spend more time on it,” she laughs. “Big River Crossing was recorded in just nine hours, so I am hoping to spend a bit more time doing the next one.” The songstress has already approached The Yearlings about recording her next offering at their studio, My Sweet Mule. “So, hopefully I’ll get Chris Parkinson [of The Yearlings] to co-produce and also play guitar on it as well,” Tara says. “And it’ll be really good to get out of the city and head down south to The Yearling’s studio. “It’ll be nice and chilled down by the beach with no stress,” she adds. Adelaide-based multi-instrumentalist Craig Atkins has chosen Tara to be one of his special guests alongside Jupiter and Benny C & The Associates when he launches his Fall Or Fly CD at The Jade Monkey on Easter Saturday. “Yeah, yeah, I’m excited to be part of that because Craig is a lovely, lovely guy as well as being a great songwriter and musician,” Tara enthuses. “Richard [Coates] actually plays accordion on one of the songs on Craig’s new album, so it will all work our well. “And I’ve known Craig for a couple of years now, but have never played many gigs with him,” she then says.
It’s one that I have had the good fortune to attend since the very first one on 1992 that was part of that year’s Adelaide Festival Of The Arts and it is estimated that some 30,000 people were in attendance over the course of the weekend. The highlight for many, myself included, was a late night set by the now late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and served as a taste for what was to come over the next 20 or so years.
It all seems so long ago now but I do recall friends coming down from Sydney to attend WOMADelaide that year little realising they would be spending much of Sunday along with much of their hard-earned buying me birthday drinks. It was also around this time that WOMADelaide was moved from being in late February to early March in an attempt to avoid the hot February weather. It’s mostly worked a treat although there have been some hot festivals over the years quite apart from the music. And thus I have also interviewed many artists who have appeared at WOMADelaide over the years with the most recent one being with Swedish-born rapper Neneh Cherry.
The first WOMAdelaide also boasted Seneglese singer Youssou N’Dour who had already worked with WOMAD founder Peter Gabriel on the song Shakin’ The Tree and was set for further mainstream success two years later in 1994 with the song 7 Seconds recorded with Neneh Cherry.
I knew that Neneh had begun her career with UK band Rip Rig + Panic, named after an album by Rashaan Roland Kirk and who had formed in 1981 and featured Gareth Slinger and Bruce Smith who had formerly been with The Pop Group.
Ironically, or perhaps not, Neneh and Youssou will both be appearing at this year’s WOMADelaide so there is some chance, especially as both will be here on the very same day, we may hear rather more than seven seconds of 7 Seconds.
When speaking to Neneh, I mentioned to her that The Pop Group, who have reformed, were touring Australia around the same time and would be performing in Adelaide at Freemason’s Hall, North Tce, from 8pm on Thursday 5 March as part of Adelaide Festival.
Such was its initial success, WOMADelaide soon became an annual event in Botanic Park apart from 1996 when it was staged as a train trip from Perth to Pimba in the far north. I didn’t go on the train trip but do recall interviewing Paul Kelly about it at Adelaide Railway Station when the train made a pit stop. And in 1998 for some reason, WOMADelaide was staged as a one-day festival in McLaren Vale. Hmm, if memory serves me right, and it does, the year of 1996 was the one in which Adelaide Festival finally recognised Adelaide Fringe as a bit of a threat and festival director Barrie Kosky set up Red Square on Torrens Parade Ground as a late night venue made entirely of red shipping containers. But that really is another story to be squarely red another time. The 1995 WOMADelaide, which featured such acts as The Leningrad Cowboys, Vika & Linda, The Mutton Birds and Papa Wemba, was particularly special for me at least as it was where I celebrated my 40th birthday one sunny Sunday afternoon.
“Are they?” Neneh asked. “Really! I didn’t know that. “My God! I had no idea. But I’m actually catching up with Gareth tomorrow because I’m going over to his house. So that’s so funny. Amazing. “And, Bruce Smith, my first husband is The Pop Group’s drummer,” Neneh then adds. “Bruce is Naima’s father. She’s the one I was pregnant with when Rip Rig + Panic played the very first WOMAD. “But it’ll be typical if we don’t actually cross paths in Australia and are just chasing each other’s tails around the country,” she laughed. WOMADelaide takes place from Friday 6 March until Monday 9 March in Botanic Park. Book via <womadelaide.com.au>.
The night prior to her own full band gig, Tara will be serving as a special guest alongside Kelly Menhennett for Little Miss when they undertake a free entry affair at The Exeter. For her own free entry show, Tara will have Zkye & Damo as special guests. “So that’s going to help make it a really good night,” Tara concludes. Tara Carragher will presenting new songs in full band mode when she plays a free entry gig from 9pm at The Wheatsheaf Hotel, 39 George St, Theabrton, on Friday 6 March with Zkye & Damo as special guests.
“It was still good to bounce ideas off of other writers though, and the whole process really inspired me to write a whole bunch of new stuff,” Tara adds. “And I’m really happy with the direction all that’s heading in.” Tara is now set to record her next album which follows her Live & Die By Love EP and the full-length album Big River Crossing a couple of years ago.
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STEPH ACRAMAN
LATE NIGHT DRINKING LAWS What do you think?
Do the survey at yoursay.sa.gov.au/ yoursay/late-night-drinking-laws To reduce late night alcohol-fuelled violence and anti-social behaviour, the late night drinking laws introduced 3:00am lockouts, drink marshals, CCTV cameras in and around late night venues, restrictions on ‘shots’ and ‘doubles’ and a ban on glassware. Give us your views on the late night drinking laws.
STEPH ACRAMAN By Robert Dunstan
How did Nice Girls Don’t Stay For Breakfast come about?
Steph Acraman enjoyed such a great success with Nice Girls Don’t Stay For Breakfast, a tribute to Julie London, last November, the cabaret-style show is now returning for Adelaide Fringe.
“Well, I’ve done everything in my past – everything from opera through to straight theatre, jazz and big band work and dance– so I’m always looking for something new to light my fire,” Steph says.
“Yeah, it went really well,” Steph says of the show when she premiered it at The Promethean late last year. “So it’s great to be putting it on again so quickly.
“And I’ve always loved Julie London hugely as an artist,” she adds. “And her vocal range fits mine really well, especially the songs from her first album, Julie Is Her Name, which we are focusing on.”
“And it’s great to doing it at a great new venue, The Published Arthouse,” Steph adds. “It’s such a great, great venue – it’s so cool and gritty – so it’s going to be great fun putting it on again.” The relatively new, 600sqm warehousestyle venue, which is part of Franklin St’s sophisticated and rather salubrious Publishers Hotel, came about when owner Peter Bulk saw that there was need for such a venture. He then teamed up with Duncan McHale and Joel ‘Vans The Omega’ Moore and Published Arthouse has since presented a diverse array of shows including an intimate Eskimo Joe performance as well as being used by The Hilltop Hoods. The venue, which currently has US magician Krendl performing there on Friday and Saturday evenings as part of Adelaide Fringe, will be transformed into a 1950-style nightclub for Nice Girls Don’t Stay For Breakfast. “Yeah, we’re going for an underground kind of jazz bar feel,” Steph confirms. “So it’ll be cabaret-style with tables and even cigarette girls. It’s to take people back to that time when Julie London first started off and was singing in little bars and clubs. “And it will be especially fun with the great bunch of players I have,” she then says of her band which includes Peter Caputo, Tony Lillywhite, Dean Barcello and Ben Adamson. “They came together when I moved to South Australia from Sydney two years ago – I now live over on Yorke Peninsula – and because I was looking for some Adelaide jazz connections, I came across Lucky Seven and it went from there. “And I’d first talked to Lucky Seven about doing something with them – and I am sure that will happen in the future – but as we looked into what we wanted to do with Julie London’s songs, we realised we needed to strip it right back and maybe just have Dean [Barcello] on guitar and Peter [Caputo] on bass. “But because there was a gorgeous grand piano at The Promethean, we then got Tony Lillywhite in,” she says. “And then, of course, we got Ben [Adamson] in on drums. We did talk about putting some horns into the show, but then felt it might lose its intimate feel. “It just really clicked from day one,” Steph then adds, “and all the guys – who are all great characters which you need for a show like this – have had lots of input into how we would present the songs as well.” Steph, originally from Napier, New Zealand, began as a dancer but has since enjoyed a singing career in opera and music theatre that has taken her around the world.
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Julie Is Her Name, released in December of 1955 in monaural before being reprocessed for the new stereo sound a year later, featured such songs as London’s signature tune, Cry Me A River, alongside It Never Entered My Mind and I’m In The Mood For Love. “That album is just so special because [guitarist] Barney Kessel and [double bass player] Ray Leatherwood did so many of the arrangements,” Steph says. “And it was such an intimate sounding album and you don’t often hear those jazz standards done that way. “Most of them are usually done with a big band or whatever, so I really wanted to bring those songs to an audience in an intimate way,” she continues. “And the players I have with me can do that so well. “We’ve also chosen songs from some of Julie’s later albums as well,” Steph then reveals. “There will be two brackets each evening, so the first will focus mostly on that first album with a gorgeous little bit in the middle to highlight the bass and guitar and the second bracket will come from across the board and take in Julie’s recordings of songs such as Fly Me To The Moon. “So, yeah, it’s been on my mind for a while to do something a bit different with Julie’s songs,” she adds. “And it’s not often you get to get up close and personal to your audience either. Whenever I’m doing large shows with big bands and orchestras, I don’t get that intimacy which I often miss.” Steph concludes by saying she would really love to take Nice Girls Don’t Stay For Breakfast on the road. “The shows we did at The Promethean back in November were really just to get the ball rolling and see how it went so now we would love to take it to venues such as Ellingtons over in Perth and maybe The Basement up in Sydney and over to Melbourne as well,” Steph says. Steph Acraman and her band (photographed above by Love That Shot Photography) will present Nice Girls Don’t Stay For Breakfast as part of Adelaide Fringe at Published Arthouse, 11 Cannon St, Adelaide, from Thursday 12 March until Saturday 14 March. Book for 6.30pm dinner and show or 8pm show only via FringeTix or <publishedarthouse.com>.
Living in the Sixties CD by: PETER TILBROOK From : THE MASTERS APPRENTICES A BABY BOOMERS DELIGHT AVAILABLE FROM: BIG STAR RECORDS
160 Magill Rd NORWOOD SA
CLARITY RECORDS
Pulteney St Adelaide CITY SA
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Norwood Parade NORWOOD SA
PORT RECORDS 85 Commercial Rd PORT ADELAIDE SA MR V MUSIC
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(10) NEW ORIGINAL SONGS INCLUDING A NEW ANTHEM FOR THE BABY BOOMERS 1. LIVING IN THE SIXTIES
2. LITTLE DANCING QUEEN
3. MY GIRL
4. CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF YOUR LOVE 5. MEMORY LANE 2015 version
6. YOU CAN DO THE BOOGIE NOW 7. THE BEST TIME OF MY LIFE 8. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC 9. EVERYBODY ROCK’N’ROLL 10. GOODBYE MY FRIEND
Released on 14th Feb 2015.
FOR BOOKINGS Phone: 8177 1325
Email: peter@thepartycats.com.au 13
LAKE STREET DIVE
MARCH 5TH - MARCH 11TH THURSDAY 5 MARCH Bridgeway Hotel – Northern Exposure (allages rock event) Crown & Sceptre – Puritan, The Serra, Teofabi Exeter – Little Miss, Tara Carragher and Kelly Menhennett Fowler’s Live – DZ Deathrays (Brisbane), Bass Drum Of Death (US) and Hockey Dad GASLIGHT TAVERN 36 CHIEF ST BROMPTON THE GROOVE FACTORY JAM (8pm) ROCK/BLUES Governor Hindmarsh – Front Bar: Gumbo Room Blues Jam with host Billy Bob Grace Emily – Over & Over (6pm), Monster Of The Week (7pm), A Butterfly Effect (8pm) and The Ronin (9pm) Hotel Metro – Pigeonholed Electronica Presents Eyepennies, Tiger Et Ghost and Little Scale Royal Oak – Royal Chant (Sydney) The Publishers – Lady Voodoo & The Rituals Whitmore – Rainbow Jam FRIDAY 6 MARCH Arkaba Hotel – Encore, The Musical Of Musicals (Antonio Villano & Kate Lara) Beach House Café (Victor Harbor) – Bondi Cigars (Bondi) Botanic Park – WOMADelaide Crown & Anchor – Massive (Melbourne) and Speedmachine Crown & Sceptre – Charlie, Abbey & The Golden Realm and Seraphim Governor Hindmarsh – Main Room: and Saloon Bar: Irish Sessions Front Bar: Appalachian Sessions GASLIGHT TAVERN 36 CHIEF ST BROMPTON LIVE MUSIC (8pm) VARIOUS GENRES Grace Emily Hotel – Buffalo Boyfriend (CD Launch) and Halfway To Forth Hotel Metro – Tom West, Louis Donnarumma, Todd Sibbins and Found Drugs DJs Marion Hotel – Graham Lawrence Railway Hotel (Pt Adelaide) – Duke from 5pm Semaphore Workers Club – live blues from 8pm The Promethean – Aaron Thomas (Sydney), Menagerie, Ghyti, Cabin Cults, Luke Carlino and No Birds & Thee Dub Division The Publishers – Krendl (US - magic) Tonsley Hotel – One Planet (Tavern Bar), Ri Granger (5pm), Tempus Vex (9:30pm) (Chrysler Bar) Wheatsheaf – Tara Carragher Band and Zkye & Damo Worldsend – River Of Snakes (Melbourne), Filthy Lucre and Gun It SATURDAY 7 MARCH Arkaba Hotel – The Neil Diamond Experience (Antonio Villano), Gate Crashers (Sportys Bar) Botanic Park – WOMADelaide Bridgeway Hotel – Crash & Burn (Melbourne), Speedmachine, The Menace, Hi Speed Life and Mark Bowley Crown & Sceptre – Howl N Bones, Flying Doormat and Ivory Peacocks Gaslight Tavern – The Mod Cons and Pumpin’ Piano Cats Governor Hindmarsh – Main Room: Bindi Cigars (Sydney) and Front Bar: Array and The Monikers (free) GASLIGHT TAVERN 36 CHIEF ST BROMPTON THE MOD CONS + PUMPIN’ PIANO CATS (8pm) PUNK/ROCK Grace Emily – Are You Trying To Kill Me? (5pm), Monster Of The Week (6pm), Onomatopoeia (7pm), A Butterfly Effect
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(8pm) and In-Person-Ate (9pm) and Cock (10pm) Hotel Metro – Chores (Melbourne), Archers and Hello, Lover at Hotel Metro Marion Hotel – Franky F (5:30pm), Boris Loves To Boogie (8:30pm) Pirie & Co Social Club – Client Liason (Sydney) and Retiree (Sydney) Pretoria Hotel (Mannum) – Mr Buzzy Tonsley Hotel – The A-Team (Tavern Bar) Wheatsheaf Hotel – Don Morrison’s Raging Thirst Worldsend – Sun Of Man (Sydney), Inwoods and Filthy Lucre SUNDAY 8 MARCH Arkaba Hotel – Vogue Duo (Lounge Bar), New Romantics By Request (Top Of The Ark), Ark Goes Greek (Sportys Bar & Arena) Botanic Park – WOMADelaide Crown & Anchor – Sunday Rubdown Crown & Sceptre – Teenage Crime (UK) Franklin Hotel – Steve Gower from 3pm GASLIGHT TAVERN 36 CHIEF ST BROMPTON THE JAZZ HANDS (6pm) JAZZ Governor Hindmarsh – Main Room: Sunnyboys (Sydney) and Bad//Dreems Grace Emily Hotel – 12-Hour Soapathon (1pm) Hotel Metro – Sedulous Rouse, Devonara and Awaken Cicada from 9pm Nook Nosh – Andrew ‘Wash’ Washington from 5pm Pretoria Hotel (Mannum) – Jackson Veich (1:30pm) Railway Hotel (Pt Adelaide) – The Tonight Show from 4pm Semaphore Workers Club – live blues from 4pm Tonsley Hotel – Andy Mac (Chrysler Bar) MONDAY 9 MARCH Adelaide Showgrounds – Future Music Festival Botanic Park – WOMADelaide Grace Emily Hotel – The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes (5pm), In-Person-Ate (7pm) and Billy Bob’s BBQ Jam The Lion Hotel – Brian Ruiz and friends Wheatsheaf – COMA Fringe Sessions: Jazzflip! TUESDAY 10 MARCH Exeter – Bitches Of Zeus DJs GASLIGHT TAVERN 36 CHIEF ST BROMPTON BLUES LOUNGE BLUES JAM (8pm) BLUES Gilbert St Hotel – The Airbenders Governor Hindmarsh – Adelaide Ukulele Appreciation Society Grace Emily – The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes (7pm) and Sink Or Swim (9pm) Hotel Metro – Acoustic Club Tuesday The Lion Hotel – Zkye & Damo Wheatsheaf Hotel – The Wheatsheaf Ukulele Collective WEDNESDAY 11 MARCH Adelaide Convention Centre – Macy Gray (US) Crown & Anchor – DJ Tr!p Exeter – DJ Oisima GASLIGHT TAVERN 36 CHIEF ST BROMPTON SCALA’s MIDWEEK MELT (8pm) SINGER/SONGWRITER Governor Hindmarsh Hotel – Front Bar: Open Mic Night Grace Emily – The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes (8pm) The Lion Hotel – Proton Pill The Deli – Aaron Thomas (Sydney) Wheatsheaf Hotel – The Wheatsheaf Ukulele Collective
LAKE STREET DIVE By Libby Parker Rolling Stone magazine called them ‘unexpected showstoppers’, everyone in the music industry is raving about them and, of course, over two million YouTube viewers can’t be wrong. Lake Street Dive have been dubbed the next Mumford & Sons and are expected to explode onto the music scene in much the same way as the British band. Luckily for us, Lake Street Dive will be heading down under to play WOMADelaide in March of this year. Speaking from her home in chilly, wintery Brooklyn, award winning jazz vocalist and lead singer of Lake Street Dive Rachael Price says she is enthusiastic about playing the diverse festival of music, arts and dance. “I’m really excited about getting to see the other acts. I was looking at the line-up recently and was super excited about how diverse it is. We play a lot of festivals here but they don’t seem to get the international pull that WOMAD has,” she says. Born in Sydney but living permanently in the USA, Rachael studied at the New England Conservatory in Boston where she met fellow Lake Street Dive band members. The band was hand picked by trumpet and guitar player Mike Olson and named after an actual neighbourhood of seedy bars in his hometown. He brought vocalist Rachael Price, bassist Bridget Kearney and drummer Mike Calabrese together in 2004 to form pop and soul juggernaut, Lake Street Dive. In 2012, the band posted a casually filmed version of Jackson 5’s I Want You Back which has now raced past two million views and launched them to where they are now: playing international gigs and being raved about in Rolling Stone. “We were thinking it would get the same amount of views as all the other videos we posted,” Rachael says of the group’s surprise at the video’s popularity. “It wasn’t even our idea to do that song. We were taking other videos of songs we’d recorded for the EP we were promoting, Fun Machine and our friend who was filming it told us to do one run through of that song. He put it up online and it went viral about five months later.” While the video was going viral, Lake Street Dive was holed up in a recording studio built inside an 18th century farmhouse in rural Maine with little knowledge that they were becoming a sensation. “We wanted to work with this one producer and that’s where his studio was. We didn’t have any internet or cell phone coverage. There was a landline phone but that was the only connection to the outside world. That was ideal for us and it was right around the time the I Want You Back video started to take off,” Rachael says. “We were completely shut off from the rest of the world and we didn’t know there was any attention on us. We were just a completely obscure band going in and making a record mostly for fun. It was nice because, in a way, we won’t ever get that back again. Now there’ll be added pressure when we make our next album, but it was really nice being shut off and not knowing what the Internet was doing.”
Lake Street Dive sound like a sultry mix of Amy Winehouse and Sia accompanied by Sly & The Family Stone. Dedicated to recreating the mood of the dive bars they are named after when they play, Rachael says that mood can easily translate to festivals, even one the size and diversity of WOMADelaide. “What we learned from playing in the dive bars is that people like music they can move to, and from doing gigs like that we started to gear our music more towards people being able to dance, or at least move their bodies. So that works really well in a festival setting because people are standing up and they’re in the sun and having a good time,” she says. Lake Street Dive will be playing songs from their latest album, Bad Self Portraits. The title track is about the modern trend of the selfie, but Rachael says it also has further significance to the band. “It came from the song and we figured it would make an apt title because the selfie is so prevalent right now in our society,” she says. “All the songs are written from the individual person’s point of view and expresses their feelings and we felt each song is like a self portrait in itself.” Having all studied music and being accomplished musicians in their own right, the members of Lake Street Dive have decided to set aside any side projects to focus entirely writing and collaborating as a band. “We all had our own projects. I sang in my own band for a while, but a few years ago we decided we would quit everything else and only have the band as our main project. “So currently Lake Street Dive is everything for us,” Rachael says. “We are very collaborative. Everybody writes separately so we bring our individual songs to the band, but then we arrange them 100% together and that’s how it’s been from the start,” she adds. Lake Street Dive will be playing at WOMADelaide so catch ’em while you can, because if their online following is anything to go by, they are set to be pretty huge. WOMADelaide takes place from Friday 6 March until Monday 9 March in Botanic Park. Lake Street Dive play Stage 2 on Monday 9 March. Book via <womadelaide.com.au>.
THE BIZZO
GETTING TO KNOW YOUR LOCAL SCENE By Corey Stewart Okay, here is probably the most important music industry tip you will receive in a while: “Join up and subscribe to every indie music industry and DIY band promotion email list, newsletter and resource that you can get your hands on and read everything that you receive.” Having too much information is much better than having not enough at your fingertips Remember, if what you have joined up or subscribed for isn’t giving you the information that you need, you can always just opt out and un-subscribe. Read what you receive, make notes, ask yourself if the information is relevant for you and where you’re at musically and integrate the information into your knowledge base. The only way to gain this knowledge is by research, and the Internet is one of the best places to research anything. However, researching on the internet though will only give you general (but nonetheless very important) indie music industry knowledge, the real power comes from knowing your local scene inside out and becoming active in it. Here are some ways that you can do this: 1. Start reading the music magazines in your area Local street press such as BSide Magazine is an invaluable tool in letting you know what is going on in the local industry. Generally these magazines have features/ interviews with local bands, a gig guide (great for targeting where to play), industry news and so on. There are online versions of street press that you can subscribe to and read at your own leisure and this will offer you a good cross sections of local music news from different viewpoints. 2. Go and see some local bands. Get off the couch, get out of the house and get into your local scene. Check out some
MEETA PANDIT
local acts, introduce yourself and immerse yourself in the vibe. Get familiar with the places where these bands play at and know who to talk to when it’s your turn to play there. Become an active part of the vibrant Adelaide Music community not just a passive observer of it.
MEETA PANDIT By Libby Parker This year’s WOMADelaide program offers a wide spectrum of talent and variety, with Hindustani vocal virtuoso Meeta Pandit certainly being no exception.
3. If there are music associations/ organisations that interest you, JOIN THEM
Festivalgoers will be fortunate enough to see her bring her famous Indian classical music to the stage.
Anything that supports indie music and songwriting on an association level seek it out and join up. If it costs money to do that then do it (generally its not an expensive exercise).
Meeta has been described as the true heir of the Gwalior musical gharana, being the grand-daughter and disciple of Padma Bhushan Pt Krishna Rao Shankar Pandit, the doyen of Northern Indian classical music in the 20th century, and the daughter and disciple of legendary Pt L K Pandit.
Joining these types of associations instantly gives you a sense of community and solidarity and also the amount of information you will gain about your local area will be huge. Organisations I’d suggest you look into would be: - SCALA (Songwriters Composers & Lyricists Association) - AMC (Adelaide Music Collective) - APRA (Australasian Performing Rights Association) - MMF (Music Managers Forum) - MusicSA 4. If these local organisations have websites and social media - SUBSCRIBE Most music organisations have websites and social media presences that offer more to online users of their services and because of this it really pays to subscribe and be an active online user. One advantage that comes to mind is that you’ll be able to participate in their members’ only forums and message-boards, which, in time will become powerful DIY marketing and networking tool for you.
She is the sixth in an unbroken lineage of a two hundred year old tradition, but she is the first woman in her family to become a musician. Having visited Australia twice before to perform at Melbourne Recital Centre and Sydney Convention Centre, Meeta is excited to be coming back this year for WOMADelaide to play music and to cook some Indian food. “It’s a beautiful venue and there are many wonderful performers. I hope to spend some time listening to the artists and meet them,” she says. “I am so happy and honoured to be a part of that. Not only am I excited to perform Indian music in front of the audience there, but the most beautiful part is the variety of audience and the cultural scene that is there makes it so vibrant. I am excited about the program, the Taste Of India and looking forward to cooking!” Having played in some of the world’s most impressive venues, Meeta is keen to perform in a different setting.
You got to start somewhere and the best place to start is with your own local area. As you expand your knowledge base you will work out ways to further your career and in time a snowball effect will start.
“The normal setting of Indian classical music is, we have everyone sitting cross-legged, which is the traditional style; but this is going to be a different experience with the audience standing up,” she says.
Once that momentum starts, HANG ON TIGHT!
Despite this difference to the more intimate settings, Meeta believes her music will be communicated to her audience in the same way. “With technology being so good, we are able to transmit the music in the most faithful manner,” she says. “Even to a larger audience, they are able to create that atmosphere everywhere. The fact that this music can be presented to an audience with thousands of people there is very beautiful and important.” Meeta Pandit has mastered the two styles of singing; Khayal and Tappa, also proving her excellence in the styles of Tarana, Bhajan, Thumri, Sufi, as well as cross-cultural music.
“What is really humbling is how my ancestors in the 1700s, invite the tradition and start making the style so popular that is still today one of the most heard and most popular classical music style. But it is also a great responsibility to maintain that tradition and add creative elements because, for any art to survive and to flourish, it is extremely important to revitalise it.” To challenge herself and to add creativity to her music, Meeta has collaborated with musicians in other cultures and styles. Combining her traditional, classical style with jazz from Parisian musicians, Meeta proved her versatility and courage as an artist. “I had the opportunity to be an artist in residence in Paris where I collaborated with jazz artists. That was really an eye-opener for me. I was quite new to the west, but it was very beautiful,” she says. “Indian music is based on melody, the west is on harmony. “There are rules of the scale and within those rules you are able to explore and lay the landscape, as you would like to. I also did a collaboration with piano and saxophone and I absolutely loved it. I love stringed instruments. I also like piano a lot. I like the saxophone but that becomes quite overwhelming!” As well as performing her classical music and collaborating with artists, Meeta teaches a range of students, imparting her deep knowledge and experience of her craft. “I teach a handful of students. We call it a guru-shishya parampara, which is a tradition where the master, the guru, teaches the student one to one. I have about ten students a year and they are from all parts of the world. Sometimes they come to me in Delhi, or sometimes I have higher level students who take training from me via Skype,” she says. Incredibly gracious and humble, Meeta Pandit’s extensive career is one to marvel at; she feels very fortunate to be bringing her wealth of knowledge, creativity and musicianship to WOMADelaide, 2015, but we are the lucky ones to receive her. “It’s been a wonderful journey for me. I started very young and I have been really blessed with love from people all over different parts of the world; spreading Indian music, spreading the beauty of our heritage and our culture. I feel really honoured to come there,” Meeta says. WOMADelaide takes place from Friday 6 March until Monday 9 March in Botanic Park. Meeta Pandit will take part in Taste The World at 6pm on Friday 6 March and will perform on the Zoo Stage at 6pm on Saturday 7 March and also Morton Bay Stage at 4pm on Sunday 8 March. Book via <womadelaide.com.au>.
She has followed in the footsteps of renowned musicians in her family, and to her, continuing on this tradition is an honour. “The importance is about the tradition. It is very beautiful if it happens to be in a family and where there are successes and unbroken lineage where the next generation also feels inspired to take up that art. I feel very honoured to be part of that very long tradition,” she says.
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