Thursday March 23rd we play our Melbourne In A Mistly album launch at the Nightcat in Johnston st Fitzroy. We played every Wednesday night in 1999 at 8pm at this venue in one of the first things we did in our post Coral Snakes period. Mick Medew and Ursula will be coming down from Brisbane to open the show as a way to launch their album Love Is Calling in Melbourne as well. This is a very rare Melbourne show for us and we will be playing with the mistLY. Stu Thomas on bass and Stuart Perera on guitar with Clare Moore on drums and myself on guitar and vocals.
Friday March 31st we play Smiths in Canberra.
Saturday April 1st we launch In A Mistly in Sydney at the Great Club in Marrickville.
Sunday April 2nd we play The Link And Pin -
18A Railway St, , Woy Woy NSW 2256
Our West Australian dates have been re-scheduled for May. Martyn Casey will be playing bass with us at these shows.
Lyric's Underground (Maylands, WA)
Friday, 12 May 2023 7:30 PM
Saturday 13 May 2023 7:00 PM - 11:00 PM (UTC+08)
The Vault Restaurant
21 Haynes Street, Kalamunda WA 6076
The Duke of George, Fremantle WA
Its been a weirder time than usual being a musician and songwriter. (Which is what I see myself as having done with my life).
So many tours have come out of the blocks like a pipe that had been blocked for several years being backed up with sludge and then spewing it all out. The Victorian state government helping struggling artists like Billy Joel and Elton John to fill stadiums by sponsoring tours. (Allegedly)
We released In A Mistly in Nov 2022 and are just now playing launches for it. The music has been great to record and then to play. Playing with different musicians has been a really enriching and energizing experience too.
The album has been written up by some supporters in music media situations or roles from the UK and Australia. Thanks Bob, Chris, Noel, Arun, Arnold, Robert and everybody who has supported us so far. You know you are right!
Its been tough otherwise but as ConwaySavage was always wont to say, "whoever said playing music was an easy ride?" (Or words to that effect) I can't take any of this personally as I am aware the machine is broken and has been for decades.
Jeff Jenkins is an old school entertainment writer from Melbourne who takes his position seriously and cares about people and thinks about the whole scene. He wrote a story about mainstream media's treatment of music in Australia.
Nevertheless, In A Mistly is a great album and is up there with the high standard we have kept maintaining for decades now. Humming! We return to form every time!
Out of the blue we found we were Classic Album Of The Week this very week on Double J FM which is a digital platform for people who like music but presumably fall outside of the tight teen demographic which the main FM music station, JJJ is concerned with.
Caroline Tran did and interview with Clare Moore and myself which is up on their page. We talked about the experience around the making of the record and several songs. It was nice to chat about our work and all week people have been in touch via social media in regard to this album. It has been very positive.We have been planning to do some shows around that album in July and will announce them when they are all set. That run of dates will be by Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes. Rod Hayward on guitar and Robin Casinader on keys.
Looking forward to playing these shows. We have had some intensive rehearsals and I've just been working on my guitar setup and looking into my wardobe. (I had to throw some stuff out in order to be able to peer into it)
I've also been writing and recording quite a lot but am in several minds about what to do with recorded music at all.
The situation is so odd with digital recording freeing musicians from having to work with record companies to acess their capital but then digital platforms like Spotify devaluing music almost totally. Then there is the strange re-emergence of vinyl records as physical artefacts but they are so expensive to make that you need a record company so as to access their capital to do so. Huh?
I like Compact Discs. I play them in my house and in my car. I have thousands of old vinyl records but never buy anything new. Its too peverse for me. Its like craft beer to me. Superfluous stuff. Weird.
I sometimes think I would like to just release music digitally only and will probably head more in that direction.
I love to perform music live most of all and will continue to do that. Hopefully this will be the last of an album tour kind of cycle. There has to be a more interesting way. Generally, I love surprises in music. Presenting new things. Probably playing music that is unrecorded - or unreleased- would be the best.
I am also aware that I live and work in Australia.
Currently reading ADA by Nabokov. ( Could be affecting my state of mind)
Recently finished The Sweetest Dream by Doris Lessing and The Big Whatever by Peter Doyle.
Currently watching episodes of the Canadian comedy LETTERKENNY.
