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[CONTENTS]
[Canberra’s
Guide]
Entertainment
#511
Oct/Nov
Brought to you by the Eternal Lords of Unnatural Energies
CIRQUE STRATOSPHERE
p. 16
Mail: 36/97 Eastern Valley Way Belconnen, ACT 2617 Publisher Radar Media Pty Ltd General Manager Allan Sko T: (02) 6257 4360 E: advertising@bmamag.com Editor Allan Sko E: editorial@bmamag.com Accounts Manager Ashish Doshi T: (02) 6247 4816 E: accounts@bmamag.com Graphic Designer/Cover Design Tracy Ng
p. 18
ED KUEPPER
AMERICA
p. 19
Film Columnist Cam Williams Entertainment Guide Editor John Harvey Social Media Manager Allan Sko Columnists Ruth O’Brien, Josh Nixon, Peter O’Rourke, Allan Sko Contributors Buddy Waters, Ruth O’Brien, Josh Nixon, Vince Leigh, Cara Lennon, Andrew Myers, Rory McCartney, Allan Sko NEXT ISSUE #512 OUT Thursday, 19 December
WEEDING OUT HAZY CANNABIS LAWS p. 24
EDITORIAL DEADLINE Friday, 6 December
PAUL MCDERMOTT & GATESY
p. 26
ADVERTISING DEADLINE Wednesday, 11 December ABN 76 097 301 730 BMA Magazine is independently owned and published. Opinions expressed in BMA Magazine are not necessarily those of the editor, publisher or staff.
MISSION H20
p. 28
HANNA CORMICK
p. 15
REBUS THEATRE
p. 30
BANDALUZIA
p. 17
TIM FERGUSON
ES 199 T 2 PAGE 10
CLARITY OF CHAOS
p. 42
TRANS VOICES @bmamagp.43
rootin’-tootin’ western? Some delightful shit about unicorns? No. It’s about running out of water, and climate change. Because that’s what our kids are forced to do in their creative time. Worry, worry, worry.
FROM THE BOSSMAN BY ALLAN SKO [ALLAN@BMAMAG.COM]
It is often stated that children are our future. Well, I’d bloody well hope so. If children were our past, that would mean we had entered some hellish temporal warp from which there would be no hope of escape; smashing the long-held notion that time is linear and heralding the terrifying notion of having to experience puberty backwards. I’m not ready for that, man. No one is. Going through it forwards was painful and awkward enough. Ahhhhh youth. I remember it well. Actually, no I don’t. I can barely recall what happened last weekend. And where are my glasses? What do you mean they’re on my face? OK, let me start that paragraph again. You wouldn’t know to look at me, but I used to be young once. I seized the editorial helm of this ‘ere rag back when I was but 22 years of this earth and I didn’t know my arsehole from my elbow (some would argue I still don’t… My family being the foremost progenitors of this theory. Or “fact” as they call it). My mother has shown me picture evidence of Allan as A Young Person; a face that’s an explosion of protruding teeth and volcanic acne, nicely topped off with a fetching bowl haircut and plastic National Health Service glasses that could be mistaken for bin lids.
Remember when this ubiquitous internet meme pictured above was just a funny little cartoon? Lightheartedly posted into forums to point out someone’s lack of awareness to something trite and cute? Now, it seems to form the backbone of government policy the world over (except New Zealand). It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to discover if this was adopted as the new logo. This is meant to be a humorous cartoon, not a frickin’ life drawing! It’s a sad indictment when a children’s musical at Tuggeranong Arts Centre is putting more thought into water management and climate change than our own leaders. So here’s hoping that children are our future, in so much that they can do something to ensure there’s a future at all.
An episode of QI once stated that the ideal - or “best” - age to be is 17. A virginal (but desperately wishing he wasn’t) face-of-a-fattoddler 17-year-old Allan would fervently disagree. Trying to get served at a pub - a questionable rites of passage for any youth in England - was a nightmare. I was told by a particularly witty Watford bouncer - upon handing over my appallingly fake looking ID that: “‘e doesn’t even look old enough to have a wank!” Well; the joke’s on him! Upon further research I have discovered that ALL of us - yes, even you my unbelieving cynic - used to be A Young Person. And look at where you are now. Living the dream in uppermiddle-sideways management, gleefully ignoring the plights of the environment that Young Persons, and Future Young Persons, are set to “live” in. Y’see, that increasingly seems to be the problem. Whilst at the time I was consumed with the slings and arrows of unkind bouncers and permanent residency in the Friend Zone, it pales in comparison to the stuff kids are worried about today. Such as THE END OF THE WORLD. A troop of talented youngsters over at Tuggeranong Arts Centre are putting an original musical, which you can read more about this issue. So what’s it about? A jungle adventure? A facebook.com/bmamagazine
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[HOT TIX]
High-Vis Futures / Mandy Martin, Alexander Boynes & Tristan Parr / Now until 1 Feb / CMAG From ‘eco’ to ‘FIFO’. From high-value to high-vis. This art installation encompasses the complex political, environmental, and fundamental social issues that are occurring right now and for the visible future. A collaboration between artists Mandy Martin, Alexander Boynes, and musician Tristen Parr, High-Vis Futures is a sequence of sound, video projection, and mixed media artworks depicting the intimate connection between industry, carbon emissions, and the end of the fossil fuel era. 10am - 5pm, more info on the artists at cmag.com.au/exhibitions/hi-vis-futures
Eishan Ensemble / Persian Chamber & Middle Eastern Jazz Fusion/ Sun, 24 Nov / The Street Theatre Eishan Ensemble defies neat labels. Variously described as Persian Chamber Jazz and Middle Eastern Jazz Fusion, Eishan is a vehicle for acclaimed Iranian-Australian tar player/composer, Hamed Sadeghi. After a successful debut album last year, Eishan has new material, further blurring genre lines to create the stand alone. Original music with lashings of improvisation, diverse, plural, completely fresh sounds from the ‘burbs of Sydney, drawing on the contemporary and the traditional, and the East and the West. 4pm, tix $30-37 from thestreet.org.au
Kimberley Echoes/ Cross culture collab for country / Tue, 3 Dec / The Playhouse With five years of collaboration, Kimberley Echoes is a powerful cross-cultural celebration of Kimberley country and its people. Curated by Tura, it features The Narli Ensemble (Nar-lee), high profile First Nation artists, and some of the country’s finest instrumentalists, Mark Atkins (didgeridoo virtuoso and singer) Stephen Pigram (guitar and vocals), violinist Erkki Veltheim, guitarist Stephen Magnusson, cellist Tristen Parr, percussionist Joe Talia and flautist Tos Mahoney (Tura Founder and Artistic Director). The Narli Ensemble is joined by special guest, Gabriel Nodea. 8pm, tix $55 + bf from canberratheatrecentre.com.au PAGE 12
UPCOMING EVENTS
Drapht / Tasty hip-hop / Sat, 23 Nov / Kambri @ ANU In a whirlwind ten years, Drapht has gone from releasing his platinum selling, ARIA award-winning album The Life of Riley to taking some time out to reignite his passion for music by becoming a restauranteur in Perth, before returning five years later with yet another ARIA winner, Seven Mirrors. Drapht’s latest offering Summer They Say is another example of the man’s persistent pushing of himself and his boundaries to progress as a songwriter, while forever staying true to his classic upbeat signature sound. 8pm, tix $34.90 from moshtix.com.au
The Silver Lining / Local gallery retail space Opening Sun, 24 Nov / 32 Mort Street, Braddon As part of the ongoing DESIGN Festival, Custom Limited Edition seeks to uncover emerging artists and designers who live and develop their body of work in Canberra. The place to find and buy local handcrafted objects in glass, ceramics, textiles, furniture, and jewellery. Come and enjoy drinks at the opening party and events throughout. Meet the makers, explore the range, and purchase gifts for Christmas. The free opening party will be held on Sunday, 24 November at 4pm. All welcome. For more: designcanberrafestival.com.au/event/the-silver-lining/
Claude Hay & Brian Cachia / Old school funk Fri, 13 Dec / Austrian Club, Mawson Blue Mountains songwriter Claude Hay is hitting the road with the new, wonderfully titled The Kung Fu Mustard. Taking cues from old school funk, it promises to take the dance floor up a notch from his already heaving shows. Producer-composer Brian Cachia will be playing the role of funky drummer. Long-time friend and sometime collaborator Cachia spends much time working on Hollywood film scores, whilst Hay has been a mainstay of the Aussie festival scene for almost a decade, with his famous weird and wonderful homemade guitars having cranked out five albums in that time. 7pm, tix $25 door/$20 from canberrabluessociety.com.au @bmamag
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Meeting Place puts focus on the Australian disability arts scene, accessibility, and inclusion for people with disability. This conference offers a range of discussions, events, exhibitions, and opportunities for people in the arts in Canberra and around Australia to convene at different cultural institutions across our capital city.
LOCALITY
[THE WORD ON LOCAL MUSIC] WITH RUTH O’BRIEN. SEND YOUR GIGS AND INFO TO: [RUTHMVOBRIEN@GMAIL.COM]
Well, it’s that time of the year again and what a year it’s been! Canberra has seen a number of spectacular events and there are still seven weeks left. And artists, makers, events producers, and creatives sure aren’t slowing down for the holiday season. First up, Orange Wolves is happening from 26-28 November in City Walk, Canberra CBD. This event sees the various creative teams of the Canberra Institute of Technology come together to present a multidisciplinary immersive experience using six retired action buses. The buses will be transformed into small cinemas, music venues, creative spaces, and installation areas. Students from each creative area will display and demonstrate the work they’ve created throughout 2019. For more information about this fantastic project, head over to orangewolves.com.au Flux is an exhibition curated by local artist, Daniel Savage. Including digital work from disabled artists from Australia, Asia, the UK, and Europe, the exhibition demonstrates and showcases the way in which disabled artists have utilised digital technology to explore the variations of lived experience in the world. The opening night is Friday, 29 November from 6-7:30pm at the Belconnen Arts Centre and the exhibition goes through until 9 February, 2020. Visit belconnenartscentre.com.au/exhibitions/ flux/ for more information. On Saturday, 30 November the Canberra Symphony Orchestra Shell Prom will take place on the Lawns of Government House. Beginning at 6pm, the concert will feature tunes to suit everyone’s taste with recognisable numbers from musical theatre and film including Frozen and My Fair Lady. Tickets are $20-$30 and can be bought online at cso.org.au or by calling 6262 6772. Shoeb Ahmad will be taking the stage at sideway on Sunday, 1 December. One of Canberra’s musical mainstays, Shoeb brings together her own set of experimental sounds. Plus a new series of abstract song forms and dub-tech-minimalist sets from Hence Therefore and Genie. It kicks of at 2pm and entry is $10 at the door. From 1-3 December, Canberra will host Meeting Place 2019. An annual conference put together by Arts Access Australia,
For the full program and to purchase tickets go to meetingplaceforum.org The National Live Music Awards are coming up on Wednesday, 4 December at sideway. This event recognises the achievements of musicians, venues, music photographers, and events in the industry. Nominees Endrey, Kirklandd and Vendulka will be performing at this very special event with special guest DJs to keep the party going after official proceedings have wrapped up. Tickets to this event are free but strictly limited. To book, head over to nlmas.oztix.com.au/ and click the ACT event. We at BMA are very happy to be media partners for this important event. Hope to see you there! If getting gifts for people is your kinda thing, why not buy local this year and head along to some of the markets happening around town over the next few weeks. Presented by AIATSIS, The Indigenous Arts Market is on at the Acton Peninsula on Friday, 6 December - 10am-9pm & Saturday, 7 December - 10am-4pm. With over 20 Indigenous artists and arts centres participating from all over Australia, this is a great opportunity to experience the diverse range of cultures from across Australia on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin. For more information go to aiatsis.gov.au/news-and-events/events/ indigenous-art-market-2019 The Sly Fox Christmas Market is on Saturday, 7 December from 11am. This wonderful community flea market is a great chance to find some local handmade items, or set up a stall yourself if you feel so inclined. For more info head to the Sly Fox Coffee Facebook page or contact the lovely Sly Fox Team via their webite: slyfoxcoffee.com/contact Kirklandd, Groovy Daughter, and WeirdoGvng will be taking to the stage at Transit Bar on Saturday, 7 December from 8pm. Kirklandd has had a busy year playing festivals, and is currently touring his most recent single Knowbody - an upbeat trap anthem that explores the balance between social media and self-growth. The support acts for this show are amazing Canberra artists in their own right and well worth checking out. Tickets can be bought online at Moshtix for $11.50 + booking fee. The afternoon of Saturday, 14 December is well worth setting aside for all the happenings at Smith’s Alternative. From 4pm, local band Scroggin will be recording their live album. This energetic foursome fuse bluegrass, country, and Australian folk songs and they can’t wait to immortalise these tunes at one of Canberra’ most popular venues. And to jack the night up one further notch, you can stay on for the wonderful tunes of Julia Johnson from 7pm. Accompanied by her full band and with the amazing Pheno supporting, this evening is likely to be a perfect way to wrap up your weekend. Well, that’s prolly enough heaped on your plate to last a while! Check back next month for more Canberra arts and music events news to see off the year. And as always, be sure to shoot me your event deets if you want something plugged - see email address above. See you next time for the final issue of 2019!
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@bmamag
BMA BAND PROFILE
What are your plans for the future? We have just begun writing a new album which is always fun and really, that’s what it’s all about. Plus, we finally started shooting our first video
What makes you laugh?
With their debut self-titled album still fresh (gleaning a healthy four star review a few BMAs ago), and a coupla Canberra shows on the horizon, we thought it high time to catch up with five-piece purveyors of heavy music, Clarity of Chaos. Vocalist James Dohm tells us how it is.
The look on Toby’s face when he makes a mistake in our show is absolutely priceless. Toby is pretty hard on himself when he does, either in rehearsals or live. So keep an eye out for it at our shows! [I’m sure this profile really going to help the lad’s confidence – BOSSMAN AL]
What pisses you off? When Toby makes a mistake.
Artist name origins: We had a ton of different names and quickly found out how many were already taken. The name we stuck with was the one that nobody instantly went ‘nup’ to.
Group members: James Dohm (vocals), Timothy Whalan (rhythm guitars), Darren Mead (drums and arrangements), Toby Lagan (rhythm and lead guitars), Marty O’Connor (bass).
What about the Canberra scene/the music scene in general would you change? More venues would be fantastic now that Canberra is turning into a city from a small country town. There is definitely an opportunity for someone to start putting on local original bands. It doesn’t matter what your taste in music is; there’s a wealth of talent out there. Seriously, if you have friends in bands then get out and see them play. You won’t be disappointed.
Describe your sound:
What would you like to plug?
Heavy is what we like to think we are. Not over-the-top brutal. Just HEAVY.
If you miss us playing with Largerstein on the 15th on November at The Basement, you can all get down for our first show of 2020 at Transit Bar on 24th of January with Flaming Wreckage, Mason, and Innaxis.
Who/What are your influences, musical or otherwise? Slayer, King Diamond, Alice in Chains, Killswitch, and Lamb of God comprise just a small sample of what sounds we like to have in Clarity of Chaos. But of course, there’s too many to really cover.
What are some of the most memorable experiences you’ve had as an artist? Playing interstate gigs in our first year of being a band. At the second show we played, we were approached by a studio to record with them. A year-and-a-half later we had done so, and released our first full length album with David Pendragon and Jack Buchanan.
Tell us about one of your proudest moments? Getting through a set without Toby making a mistake (he will always have one). facebook.com/bmamagazine
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Cirque Hits New Heights by Ruth O’Brien People often complain that nothing ever comes to Canberra. And sure, many acts do national tours and manage to always, either strategically or ignorantly, bypass the nation’s capital. However, many of the shows that do visit our humble yet evergrowing city are arguably world-class. And this couldn’t be more true about the show, Cirque Stratosphere, which will be coming to the Canberra Theatre from December 10-21. I recently chatted with director of the show, Neil Dorward (whose other acclaimed works include The Illusionists, Circus 1903, and Le Noir), about what audiences can expect from this magnificent production. “We came up with Cirque Stratosphere, trying to be very retrofuturistic,” he says. “Very hip, very fresh. And then we were heavily inspired by the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing. So it seemed the right year to make this show.” Dorward described how the show has more of an “arc” rather than a story line. The first act hints at the building of the Apollo 11 rocket ship and the training program of the N.A.S.A. Astronauts training to go into space. Act two is set in space and will feature real sound-recordings from the moon landing. “We have an amazing cast”, Dorward enthuses, “with talent that’s never ever been performed in Australia”. The cast is sourced from all over the globe by a top talent agent, who has previously discovered and recruited acts for Cirque de Soleil. Circus festivals and competitions around the world are scoured each time a show is put together, in order to present
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the most talented of acrobats, clowns, contortionists, musicians, jugglers, strong men, and any other act a show may require. Dorward describes the Russian Bar act, in which two men, facing each other, stand about 4.5 metres apart, balancing a strong but flexible plank of wood on their shoulders. They do this while a third member of the act somersaults, backflips and defies gravity on the bar in every imaginable and unimaginable way possible. “We try and do something different with circus,” he says. “There’s lots of different genres and we try to focus on the skill and the human ability and try and draw out the best of the performers rather than turning them into some crazy character.” It appears that Dorward was destined to go into directing, explaining that he used to put on shows with, and for, his large extended family as a child. At 16, he left school to study at the world-renowned Italia Conti Academy, a performing arts educational institution based in London. After studying and spending most of his 20s as a dancer, he had the opportunity to choreograph and direct. Since then, all his shows have received critical acclaim and sell-out crowds. “What I hope to achieve with Cirque Stratosphere that I’ve not done in previous productions, is [to have an] Olympic opening ceremony-feel…with amazing lights and people out in the audience. It’s going to be immersive”. Cirque Stratosphere will be hosted by America’s Got Talent 2016 Finalist, Tape Face, comic mime and performing artist from New Zealand. Show times vary and tickets are available online via the Canberra Theatre Centre website, canberratheatrecentre. com.au and prices range from $79-$99.
constant communication through the language of flamenco. This creates an environment of creativity, variation and improvisation. Flamenco is a giant of a genre in that there are so many unique artists and periods with particular styles of flamenco mixed with the fact that it’s also a highly progressive music. Who are your influences, musical or otherwise? From the flamenco world definitely Paco de Lucia, Camaron de la Isla, Diego del Morao, Dani de Moron, Santiago Lara and many more. Outside of flamenco probably Avishai Cohen, Anouar Brahem, Brad Mehldau, Radiohead, and many artists and composers from the classical, jazz, rock and hip hop worlds. I love the music that moves me regardless of the genre. What are some of the most memorable experience you’ve had as an artist? Acclaimed modern flamenco ensemble Bandaluzia, led by ARIA nominated Flamenco guitarist Damian Wright will present a spectacular new show, showcasing contemporary flamenco dance and music whilst displaying the essential characteristics of the flamenco tradition. We got the chance to catch up with Damian Wright ahead of the 14 December at The Street Theatre. Artist name and origins: Damian Wright - Bandaluzia Flamenco The name Bandaluzia is a play on words. Basically “Banda” is Band in Spanish, Andaucia is the south of Spain where flamenco is from and Luzia is a great album by flamenco guitar legend Paco de Lucia. Group members: Damian Wright (guitar), Jessica Statham (flamenco dance), Rosalie Cocchiaro (flamenco dance), Ben Hauptmann (mandolin/guitars), James Hauptmann (percussion). Describe your sound: I believe our sound could be summarised as contemporary flamenco with a love and respect for flamencos traditions, which we are constantly referencing whilst being true to our own Australian origins and influences.
In 2014, I had the privilege of being invited to Rajasthan International folk festival as a soloist. Also performing on top of a 500 year-old fortress in Jodhpur. The atmosphere was extraordinary and unforgettable. Performing to a sold out Sydney Opera House concert hall as part of TEDX would also be on the list. Tell us about one of your proudest moments? When I look around me on stage and the artists are musically firing and we are all in the “zone”. That’s when I’m happiest and proudest as an artist and musical director. When the collaboration you create gives you the sensation that it is something essential and that is transmitted to, and well received by, the audience. What are your plans for the future? To shortly release an album of some of the music I have performed over the last ten years and to tour in 2020 with some of my favourite musicians and dancers. To continue growing as an artist and to explore collaborations and new exciting projects. What makes you laugh? Irony, wit, and the ridiculous situations we find ourselves in at times. What pisses you off?
We strive to create an atmosphere of music and dance that is spontaneous, improvised, visceral, and virtuosic.
Insincerity in art and life, and the disingenuous nature of politics.
What about Flamenco draws you to it?
Anything else you’d like to add?
I think firstly the depth that is inherent in the music.
We are really excited to be performing at The Street Theatre. I have had a strong connection and success with the audience there over the years with my various projects and we can’t wait to present our new show that we are really proud and excited about.
There is something essential in what flamenco expresses, that explores our human condition and experience. The many varying forms within flamenco present a wide range of expression, and provide a medium for whatever one wishes to express. Whether it’s humour, happiness, or melancholy. Then an attractive feature is the collaborative nature of flamenco, where the guitar, dance, and singing are in facebook.com/bmamagazine
Bandaluzia Flamenco dances its way into The Street Theatre on Saturday, 14 December. Tix are $29-32 and are available from thestreet.org.au
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Hanging With Mr Kuepper By Allan Sko Ed Kuepper is a veteran of music, clocking in over 40 ever-changing years as the cornerstone of seminal The Saints and Laughing Clowns, the prolific The Aints and, of course, what brings him back to Canberra’s The Street Theatre - playing solo. He is, I am to discover, a man of happy contradictions; he’s restless, yet content; relaxed yet alert; exudes a perfectionist trait but with a freeform style. Much though he may love his Aints band mates Peter Oxley, Paul Larsen Loughhead, Alister Spence, and Eamon Dilworth, Ed relishes the freedom allowed by striking out on his ownsome, both personally and artistically. “[Playing solo is] a completely different way of performing,” he says. “I enjoy both, but they’re really different in repertoire and approach. I get a lot out of it. The two artistic and musical approaches push me; keep me on my toes. There’s not a lot of room for complacency when you’re constantly changing from one to the other. But when I say I get a lot out of it, I don’t necessarily mean financially!” he laughs. “It’s an artistic thing. It’s very satisfying. You’ve gotta do this stuff out of a reason to keep going. “It never gets lonely,” Ed continues. “I do like the freedom aspect of it. With the band, it’s very time-arranged. What’s necessary for a band like The Aints, is there’s not much room for improvisation. The way I work solo is to pull a song apart on the fly, essentially, and change it as I’m going along; but hitting all the important reference points that are keeping it together. I’ve never played the same set twice as a soloist. That’s not the case with The Aints. When asked if Ed finds himself improvising into an entirely new song whilst on stage, he enthusiastically responds. “All the time! All the time. Some of the versions of old songs I’ve played that - with the exception of the same lyrics and same title - are essentially new songs! That’s all part of the writing process. That’s where that style of composition has an influence in styles of music like jazz or classical where you’re doing variations of the theme. So I certainly didn’t invent it, but I do it in the area I work in, which is maybe novel.”
As a multi-instrumentalist (“I dabble,” he states humbly. “Guitar is my main instrument, but I do a bit of keyboard, a bit of cello and banjo and stuff like that.”) with 40 years’ songwriting experience, I sought insight into his creative process. “It works usually with a melody first,” he says. “That melody often can be played by a number of different instruments. I start with one instrument in mind then it becomes something else along the way. I’m open to suggestion from myself, or other people. I just hear things differently from time to time. I think in terms of organ lines and horn lines for instrumental things more so than guitar lies. I seldom think of things as guitar lines; even if I end up playing them on guitar. “There’s no point being close-minded about it. Unless you go into a project with distinctive parameters. I think you have to be philosophical. It’s not beneficial to work something into the ground; it would drive me nuts. A big part of what I do is try to derive a degree of pleasure and, at the risk of sounding corny, gain a spiritual feeling so it feels good when you play, and you make other people feel good. Not just hammering things into the ground. “There are intense musicians who are a pain in the arse that I work with!” Ed cheerily quips. “Because they’re obsessed with an exact musical realisation. Since the late ‘80s, so maybe the last 20 years or so, I made a decision to change and remain open; that things may turn out the way I didn’t originally intend it. I just can’t think of many times, especially with solo shows, that I’ve walked off thinking ‘that was a shithouse show’. It’s weird. It isn’t meant to sound complacent; you still have to get yourself into the right mental space before you head on stage. I don’t want it to come across as some sort of exercise regime. There has to be something else about it. It’s a mental process as well as a physical exercise.” With over 40 years and 50 albums is there, heaven forfend, an end in sight for axe-pert Ed? Or will they have to wrestle the guitar from his cold, dead hands? “I don’t know,” he ponders. “At this point in time I enjoy it. As I get older things might change and there may come a time when I can’t. But I’m not sure. Having made that statement I have, at various points in time, quit.” But, as Michael Corleone laments in the lamentable The Godfather Part III - “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in?” “Well, it’s not ‘they’ so much,” Ed says. “There’s not an army dragging me back. It’s a self motivational thing; not pressure from other people. I find you are a lifer.” Uncertain though the distant future may be, what is certain is Ed’s forthcoming The Street Theatre solo show; something he is greatly looking forward to. “I’ve played there a number of times,” he says. I proffer that a few more show there and he could qualify for a residency. “Yeah! Not a bad idea!” he laughs. “It’s a great venue, especially for a soloist, with the tiered seating. I’m happy to be back there. I’ve always enjoyed being in Canberra.”
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Ed Kuepper’s New And Old Dreams (Unedited/Unhinged) is at The Street Theatre on Friday, 6 December at 6pm. Tickets range from $39-45 + bf and are available from thestreettheatre.org.au @bmamag
50 YEARS OF SUMMER NIGHTS BY ANDREW MYERS The soft rock band America has made hit after hit throughout the decades, including I Need You, Sister Golden Hair, Ventura Highway, the upbeat You Can Do Magic, and A Horse With No Name that have featured in Breaking Bad, The Nice Guys, and the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The duo is/are returning to our sunny shores in December for their 50th anniversary tour. Just in time for that, I caught up with the man behind such hits - Gerry Beckley. There’s ten shows across Australia, and Gerry could not have been more chipper about it. “It’s always good to see Australia and New Zealand back on the schedule, so we’re excited to be back in a professional capacity,” he says. It’s a celebration of half a century (half! century!) of music, touring, releasing hit albums, band members coming and going, life experience… “We’ve got a lot of production elements to reflect the 50th anniversary tour,” Gerry explained. Over the upcoming months, in lieu of the anniversary tour leg, America will be releasing a biography book, a live recording of their London Palladium set from last year, and boxsets of rare material. So save up your Christmas money! Gerry reflected on his love of music, this passion reaching much further than his time with America. “I started playing piano when I was three – but at that point I didn’t have the idea of ‘oh, good, this will be my living!’” We spoke about where he finds inspiration after all these decades: “Every night, you are reminded by the fans that have waited to see you. I hope we never get tired of touring. As much as we have aged, the travel aspects - all the waiting in lines, all the flights - all got old so many years ago. It’s never going to be easy. But the shows have become more and more rewarding – that’s the trade off. Every night you get a lovely reminder of why you’re doing this.” On the topic of retrospect, Gerry was humble about his career: “It’s been a gift since Day One. But our time’s marked. As it is the 50th anniversary, it’s a time for all of us to reflect on how fortunate we have been, and what a journey. I don’t know about another 50 years, but we aren’t slowing down. It’s basically been a rocket ship ride. It’s been a lovely trip.” America will be playing at Canberra Theatre, Tuesday, 3 December at 7:30pm. Tickets can be purchased from the website, prices range from $109.00–$139.00 facebook.com/bmamagazine
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I’ve got my record label, and a few event crews who will continue to put on parties. But I’ve also got other projects, including now being the proud parent of a baby boy. I’m also happy to say that I’ve never become jaded either. Music is as cool as ever, and the good and the bad of the world of electronic music, and the parties that accompany it, is the same as ever.
DANCE THE DROP [THE WORD ON DANCE MUSIC] WITH PETER “KAZUKI” O’ROURKE [CONTACT@KAZUKI.COM.AU]
If I can pass on one bit of wisdom it’s this - things always evolve, and each genre or club or DJ will have a peak moment. But this doesn’t mean that things were ‘better back in the day’. The fact is, if you’re young (or even old) and discovering a new world of hazy evenings and sketchy mornings with ringing in your ears, that is the best time it will be. That will be your moment. ‘The kids’ creating their own interpretation of clubbing culture will always push boundaries and, in my experience, the Gen Z clubbers just discoving the temple of techno for the first time are a super nice and creative bunch. We’re in safe hands. And over the summer, that will be Niamh - an up-and-coming super keen DJ, promoter, and writer who’s thrown herself headfirst into the amazing electronic dance music scene we have here in our fine city. She’ll bring a fresh perspective to this column, and I look forward to seeing what she comes up with. So on that note (and to quote a rave movie that was already getting old when I was 18) - ‘Reach for the lasers. Safe as fuck.’ But for one last time from me, onto the gigs. There’s a heap locked in for the lead up to summer, so start planning your calendar now.
Godspeed, Peter O’Rourke. You were too beautiful for this column Well, dear reader, this is an interesting one to pen (and forgive me for a bit of self indulgence). For this writer, it could well be the end of the road with Dance: The Drop. I can’t remember exactly when I started here with BMA, but I reckon it was around 2012 or so, when Tim Galvin passed on the column to me. I was just really starting to forge my own niche in the Canberra clubbing landscape, DJing at some pretty cool parties at Clubhouse (now Mr Wolf, for you younger readers) and the now defunct Trinity Bar in Dickson. I was also running my first parties with the Techno Liberation Front crew, with raves under bridges, the rock-climbing centre in Mitchell, and outdoors in the bush (I guess some things don’t actually change that much!). Pretty soon I was attending every single bush doof and festival, and playing at a fair few of them. Picking up the dance column was a pretty sweet gig. Having studied journalism at university, this actually gave me the chance to write about what I wanted and was actually interested in - especially as I had given up on pursuing a career in media, and instead went to the dark side of public relations. Being connected to everything that was happening in the city on both the music front and the journalism front was an incredible thing to be part of. Meeting promoters from different crews and exploring ideas in print about the hidden late night world of darkened rooms and music that fills your chest is darn special. For me, electronic music has always been about new horizons, or as I like to say - ‘Techno: the sound of the future since 1987’. And with that, it’s probably time for this enthusiast to make sure that the same is the case for writing about in Canberra. Having been hitting the dancefloor for at least 15 years, and writing about it for seven, I reckon it’s time to keep it futuristic. Does this mean the end of my clubbing and DJing life? No way, man. I intend to keep rocking for a long while yet. There’s nothing I love more than producing my own music, or travelling to other cities to cut shapes either behind the decks or on the dancefloor. PAGE 20
Fiction has some huge names booked over the coming months. Brisbane producer Young Franco is back in Canberra on Friday, 6 December, while the following Friday, 13 December has UK house producer Weiss. More sounds in the bass house side of things will be going down as Luude and Jordan Burns hit the venue on Friday, 20 December. Fiction’s UK Bass night plays homage to the latest incarnation of sub-rattling womp, taking place on Friday, 29 November with Australia’s WA-FU headlining, and Friday, 27 December with Skepsis & Bru-C from the UK in the top spot. For those sticking around Canberra in January, put these UK internationals in your diaries - Chris Lake on Friday, 3rd, Michael Bibi on Saturday, 4th, and Denis Sulta on Friday, 10th! Mr Wolf has some heavy hitters coming up in December. On the 20th, Jensen Interceptor will grace the decks, fresh from from Boiler Room shenanigans with his infectious blend of EMB/electro influenced techno. Friday, 27 December sees Sydney’s Hydraulix & SubHuman, who have both been killing it lately (to use a triple j phrase). Dark vibes ensured. Hard Attack have your hard dance covered on Saturday, 11 January as Scotland hardstyle gun Avi8 will be at Boardwalk in Belconnen. Chuck it in your phone. sideway has plenty to choose from on the alternative/indie dance edge of clubland. Luen & Genie go back-to-back all night to launch an EP (including a vinyl copy to purchase) with some weird techno on Thursday, 21 November, while Friday, 22 November live group 30/70 bring a blend of future-jazz afrobeat trip-hop weirdness. The following evening has queer power couple Eris Drew and Octo Octa for some up-front techno and house as part of Throb. Montreal-based radio station n10.aus have set up shop in Canberra. Find out more at the N10.AUS launch party & fundraiser on Saturday, 30 November with a heap of local acts. Finally-finally, we end with a huge one. Canberra House Social have Leon Vynehall (UK) playing their end-of-year show at sideway on Friday, 6 December. This super creative DJ/producer is definitely not one to be missed. And with a three-hour set you can’t go wrong! @bmamag
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METALISE
[THE WORD ON METAL] WITH JOSH NIXON Busy month for local guitar player Rohan Todd (pictured) with not one but two absolutely killer releases across two bands with a bunch of shows around their launches coming this summer. Mental Cavity will release their second full length album Neuro Siege through three labels: Brilliant Emperor, Medusa Crush, and Oblivious Maximus Records on LP, CD, digital, and tape on the Friday, 6 December, and the band are supporting Crowbar at Crowbar in Sydney on the very same day. The local launch will take place on Thursday, 6 February at Transit Bar with Blight Worms and Facecutter. A couple of tracks have been drip-fed along with a video, and another is on the way. It’s a ripper of an album, so chuck it on your Christmas list.
Wolves In The Throneroom haven’t dropped a new album since the great Thrice Woven a couple of years back, but that’s not stopping them making a welcome return to The Basement on the Monday, 2 December. The tour includes Melbourne black metal super group King. The boys are about to release their second full length album Coldest of Cold on Friday, 22 November and you can check the video for the first single Star on the YouTubes. Ploughshare also playing this gig, as are Claret Ash. Does it need to be mentioned here that Iron Maiden are touring in May with Killswitch Engage? Probably not. But for internationals there’s still time to pick up Marty Friedman tickets for the Saturday, 14 December shred fest at The Basement! There’s so much international action in the 1st quarter of next year for Christmas present tickets too; Cattle Decapitation, Sacred Reich, Vio-lence, Jinjer and The Exploited all before March. Not really brutal, but worth mentioning is that Bob Log III is at Transit Bar on Friday, 27 December which should prove to be a great Christmas present/hangover shaker! And finally, an early warning for Saturday, 25 January with The Neptune Power Federation coming to town to play with the Pilots of Baalbek at the Transit Bar. Their new album Memoirs of a Rat Queen is out and you can read my review in this very issue or online. Going to be an unmissable show.
Rohan’s other band is an altogether darker experience. Ploughshare have collated their latest harvest in the form of a new EP entitled Tellurian Insurgency. The reviews and press say they’re a black and death metal blend, but I’ve always found their sound to be more in the black metal camp in terms of oppressive atmosphere and aesthetic. Maybe it’s due to the fact that their execution is of such high quality that the technical death metal identification is made. The EP is launched at The Basement on the Saturday, 30 November with a killer line-up including Sydney’s Sumeru, Burden Man, and Yoko Oh No. To warm you up for that show, there’s a KILLER gig at Transit Bar on Friday, 29 November with Sydney black thrashers Bastardizer coming to create bangovers and hangovers. The “night of darkness” features Mytile Vey Lorth, Black Mountain, and Auld to warm into the blast beats with some doom. At 15 bucks you can’t go wrong. That same weekend, Canberra acts Lucifungus, Pod People, and Witchskull head to Victoria to play the inaugural Sunburn stoner doom festival on Friday the 29th and Saturday the 30th at the Tote in Melbourne with Whitehorse, Peeping Tom, Potion, Earth Tongue, Yanomamo, Bloodnut, Sloven, Reaper, Burn The Hostages, Dr Colossus, and Thaw. With Lucifungus enjoying rave reviews for their debut, Witchskull going into the studio for album number three, and Pod People emerging from hibernation, it certainly bodes well for doomy sounds in 2020.
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...are on their way to Canberra to create bangovers and hangovers @bmamag
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Exhibitionist | Politics in the ACT
WEEDING OUT THE TRUTH - THE NEW ACT CANNABIS LAWS ARE STILL HAZY With Buddy Waters
Labor back bencher Michael Pettersson’s bill passing the ACT legislative assembly, effectively legalising the recreational use of cannabis, was always going to kick off some classic conservative vs progressive reactions around the nation.
It struck me that the debate, from its proponents to its detractors, had something in common. They have no fucking idea what they’re talking about when it comes to the substance they’re trying to regulate.
While the bill has been in discussion for quite a while, it seemed to catch many of the assembly’s federal counterparts by surprise. At a high level (sorry, the puns will be kept to a minimum) the law allows for 50 grams of dried cannabis, 150 grams wet, and/or two plants in the backyard without charge.
You see, I’m a product of Belconnen, and was hitting adult hood just in time for the arrival for the Simple Cannabis Offence Notice, or SCON. I have greatly enjoyed recreational use of marijuana and, at times, growing it in my backyard, and even in a hydroponic tent a few times through the cold winter months.
In principle, it’s not all that revolutionary. Michael Moore, then Health Minister, led the decriminalisation of pot back in the early ‘90s, and for similar amounts of possession. The worst thing you would expect to cop would be a small fine and an empty stash.
It should also be noted here that I do not for a moment advocate or deny the potential negative health impacts of marijuana use. That said, I’ve experienced 28 years around people who are regular users who are fine, tax paying citizens holding down steady jobs and careers.
The thing that united both sides of the debate all over the media, however, was something that you had to be a recreational smoker to pick up. The Deputy Prime Minister said he didn’t want to drive in Canberra anymore because of drug drivers; ironic given how prevalent methamphetamine use is in his Riverina electorate. Something else he suggested in the heat of the interview at a road safety event in NSW gets to the heart of this riff. He accused our assembly of, “…probably spending too much time smoking hooch themselves”. Our very chill Chief Minister, who fronted the ABC Drive show the day the bill passed, says that he doesn’t partake. I went to school with him, and I believe him. The Minister for Home Affairs, on a 2GB radio interview, lambasted the assembly for being “trendy” and saying the law was “dangerous”, as the potency of marijuana has increased because it’s “grown in factories now”. The almost soulless metronome his conservative ex-policeman response reminded me of his tendency to over cook an issue. Think of his “Victorians are afraid to eat in restaurants” type take on so-called African gang issues. But this was to be expected. Less expected was the 1992 decriminalisation bill Michael Moore passed, which was quoted earlier in the week as saying, “the bill had struck the right balance’” On 2CC’s Sunday Roast with Rod Henshaw and Robert Macklin of the Canberra City News, Mr Moore was asked about how police manage this new law. Without missing a beat, the former Health Minister talked confidently on the Australian Federal Police’s ability to exercise their well trained discretion. Then he made me realise what had been so irksome about the rhetoric in the week since the bill passed. Mr Moore said that someone with a two metre plant in their back yard would, “clearly not be a recreational user”. PAGE 24
So while the politicians and media hand-wring over the poor, highly trained, and mostly very sensible police being confused about their job from January 31 2020 (not to mention the temptation of children to the gateway of gateway drugs) spare a thought for the people this law, at its core, is there to benefit the recreational pot smoker trying to avoid breaking the law. Here’s a quick newsflash. Despite all the t-shirts and paraphernalia featuring pictures of the famous seven-fingered green palm, unless you are utterly desperate, no one is consuming the leaf. As many people who have had the police raid their grow rooms will tell you, every last scrap of matter, including the largely useless stem and roots, will be weighed and held against you in the charge. Marijuana is also split into two main species. The Cannabis Indica strain, and the Cannabis Sativa strain. Grossly over simplifying, Indica produces more of the psychoactive THC and the medically fantastic CBD. Sativa still is able to pack a punch, but less so. While there are a dizzying array of varieties in the taxonomy of these two species, the point is the plants themselves. Indica are typically shorter, bushier, and produce denser flowers or ‘buds’ which is what you will want to produce for your 50g dry quota. Sativa varieties, while less potent, are more appropriate for fibre and oil production, but can grow very tall indeed. In either case, two plants in your backyard could be comfortably seven foot plus in a pot, unless you know how to manage their growth. Either of those plants could comfortably weigh 3-4 kgs of “wet” pot in leaf and flower. So if there was a maximum of four plants in this scenario, the day you pull them out of the ground, you could suddenly find yourself with 16 kgs of wet weed.
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Exhibitionist | Politics in the ACT
Are users required to harvest 150 grams at a time? If Michael Moore was concerned that a two metre tall plant was not for personal use, where are we now? The ACT Liberals also blocked hydroponic weed because there’s a perception that it’s more dangerous and able to produce higher THC weed. Well, I hate to break it to you guys, but that’s not strictly true. All hydroponics really do is create a better condition for your 2-4 plants to grow all year round, and allow them to be cultivated a little quicker. Also, the law is ambiguous here too. By definition, “hydroponic” is a method of growing a plant without soil in a nutrient enriched water solvent, usually under lights. So, is the issue the lights, or the water? Does this mean you can grow pot under lights as long as it’s in soil? I’ve got some more good/bad news for you. You can grow some intensely strong, high THC Indica strains in soil. Minister Dutton’s “they grow it in factories” comment comes back into it. The cooler way of saying it is, “it’s not your grand daddy’s pot”. You see, the thing that hasn’t come up in the last few weeks is that marijuana has been a commercially legal goldmine in 11 states in the USA, and medically available in 33. As one would expect from America, this has turned marijuana into a massive industry that has also monetised and refined the product into a very well understood commodities market. During a trip to a dispensary in Colorado or California, one might more closely associate the salesperson to a sommelier, explaining the product’s flavour, strength, and effect with a detail that would be at home in a Bret Easton Ellis novel. “Your grand daddy” would have been familiar with pot and hashish, the dense chocolatey resin that used to be the kind of ‘next level’ in the taboo world of pot. The sheer abundance of supply that legalisation has heralded in America has created an explosion in the ‘innovation’ of pot products. Dried herbs and hash now share shelves with ever stronger products from edibles that would REALLY upset the segment of the population concerned with marijuana appealing to youth. Gummy bears and every lolly and chocolate you can think of being packed with THC that can deliver an almighty hit to even seasoned smokers that is absolutely NOT for kids. Another ‘innovation’ in recent years has been the advent of concentrates. Rosin is an Ancient Greek method of pressing pines (typically) for a thick yellowish oil concentrate. This has been applied to marijuana for a very intense THC rich wax. There are solvent extracted tinctures, sap and oil products, and there are more cleaner refined concentrates under the banner of dabs, shatter, and wax, which generally describe the texture of the product. This grouping also includes flavoured vaporiser liquids that have come under the spotlight of the Trump administration recently. The ‘innovation’ has also changed the method of delivery. Smoking is still the most common, but vaporising and edibles have exploded in this environment.
[A Think Piece By Buddy Waters]
Let’s not pretend smoking anything is a healthy pastime, least of all a concentrate that has been extracted utilising a solvent. Let’s not pretend that marijuana is safe for young people in particular. Excellent studies in New Zealand measured the terrible impacts of marijuana on young brains that had yet to develop into adulthood, demonstrating where IQ noticeably depreciated throughout adult life on children who smoked marijuana before their brain developed. It should be noted for balance that users that started after adulthood suffered no such deprecating effects. The studies on people with schizophrenia using marijuana – particularly high THC content pot – are also damning. This is not a product for children and it is not a product for people suffering with anxiety and schizophrenia. And drug driving? You don’t need to be a deputy Prime Minister to know that’s a bad idea, even if you’re bombed out of your brain. The binary nature of the tests days after taking it, though, does’t accurately reflect impairment. The positive thing that the US has learned post legalisation is that extracting CBD from Marijuana has had a plethora of medical applications without the psychoactive effects. These offer a great alternative to pharmaceuticals, and that element of the legalisation discussion has almost been completely overlooked in the initial reactive outpouring to the bill. While a bunch of his comments I disagreed with, possibly the best point made in the first days after the passing of this bill were by Shadow Attorney General Jeremy Hanson, in an interview on ABC 666. I’m paraphrasing, but essentially he said the most important part of a good bill is clarity. What we have from these laws is not clarity. For anyone. The Federal Government, and those opposed in the ACT, should indeed press for harm minimisation from the health angle. Education is going to be one of the most important aspects of this being any measure of a ‘success’. However, it isn’t just going to be young people that require the education. Politicians from either side of the debate are going to need to understand the reality of this decision. The opposing crowd need to do some objective research to acknowledge, for example, the Netherlands where the pot coffee chop experience was such a tired cliché that their youth had far lower instances of trying or regularly using pot than pot prohibition in USA and Australia. And recreational users are going to have to learn to swallow some facts; if you’re going to use an argument that “it’s not as bad as alcohol/cigarettes/gambling/trans fats/harder drugs” then it’s inherently flawed. Especially flawed when arguing about being behind the wheel of a car. For God’s sake. We’re pot smokers, not idiots.
All of this is a million miles away from where we are now – but it is relevant to the discussion on where this road goes.
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Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
Collaboration has clearly been a challenge, but one that Gatesy enjoys, and after 23 years of collaboration in Tripod, it’s one he’s experienced with. “I figure that anyone who’s been doing something for a long time, especially in a group, you’re equipped with the right set of skills to negotiate collaboration and all that. But of course, the way Tripod work and the way DAAS work, it’s completely different. With Tripod it’s very much we wait ‘til we get into the room together to write. That’s how the stuff that we come up with together will always be better than just one person bringing that song in.
GOING SOLO (TOGETHER) By Cara Lennon “Usually I’m the stupid idiot in Tripod,” volunteers Gatesy. It’s Wednesday lunchtime, and I’ve caught him between checking into a hotel and the notorious challenge of finding somewhere to goddamn eat in Parramatta. “I’m the gormless idiot. The himbo! Love that stuff. But in this show, it’s far more freewheeling and chaotic. If you can imagine Paul McDermott on stage anyway, he’s like herding cats. But his brain is—every personality he has is a different cat. And I’m really enjoying just being the voice of reason. I enjoy the different dynamics we’ve got going.” We’re talking Paul McDermott and Gatesy Go Solo, the middleman union of Australia’s most popular musical comedy trios, The Doug Anthony All Stars, and Tripod. “We’ve got this show about two mates. Two middle-aged, middle-class mates who sing songs about that. It just sorta came out of nowhere,” says Gatesy. “We’ve been singing together a long time and talking about it, but actually making it happen was a-wholenother interesting thing.”
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Paul and Gatesy came together with the song Stone Crows, written in memorial of a mutual friend. From there they wrote in private for years until circumstances conspired to get them on stage. “It was through a friend, Fiona Scott-Norman, who was programming the Ballarat Cabaret Festival. I had lunch with her and I mentioned it to her, and she goes, ‘I want that show in my festival; you’ve got six months.’ “Six months! That was the perfect kick up the arse that we needed to get it together. And although the show was a collection of pretty songs with silly banter in between, now it’s become a proper full-bloated comedy show with beautiful little excursions off to this side, which is what Paul really enjoys anyway.
“The problem with the material you write by yourself, you’re not surprised by it, because you know it and you thought of it. But what’s beautiful about collaboration is to take that idea and, even if they misunderstand what your intention was— which is often the case in Tripod. So much. So often—in that misunderstanding was a funnier idea than the original one.” Misunderstanding? You’d think Tripod, a band that’s been around since the mid’90s, has communication in the bag. “Sure, but we would make the mistake of predicting what the other person thinks: ‘I reckon I’ll pitch it this way because ____ will really like that.’ “But no, no, it just doesn’t work that way. It’s almost meta too: ‘I’ve got this idea that you’re gonna hate.’ “Then the other person: ‘Oh will I hate it, will I? Oh, you know me so well. Okay, give us it, give us it. Ohhhhhh no, I actually love that idea.’
“I also like subverting those expectations,” Gatesy continues, “that people think it’s a serious song when really it’s not, and vice versa. Which is really fun to do with Paul because he’s so dang sincere when he sings; especially the pretty songs. They’re perfect. They’re beautiful.”
“Passive aggression. It’s all that kind of mixed up stuff. But it’s also important, that thing of leaving it in the clubhouse, you know? Like Paul, Yon, and Scott know me better than anyone because they’ve seen me at my most vulnerable and my most anxious and that sort of stuff.”
Gatesy even sounds a little in love as he talks about them.
Tripod must be pretty comfortable with each other, because the band are in earshot while Gatesy’s telling me this. He breaks off occasionally to read out signs and make suggestions while they search
“But because we rehearse on Skype… we can’t rehearse everything down to the T.”
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for a food court (“Fresh food markets… there’s an information thing around the corner there”). “The flaws, or even the strengths of a particular person, they bring out different aspects in you. And rightly or wrongly you could say that someone who is very difficult to work with brings out something in you that’s so much better than if you were ‘Yes, anding’ each other, d’you know what I mean? “Creating something out of nothing is a brutal and violent exercise. There’s a lot of heartache, usually.” So how does this exercise break down when Gatesy’s working with prolific ideas man Paul McDermott? “We’re looking at about 100 starting points and ideas,” he says. “Paul’s a generator; instead of working on a song that’s halffinished, he’s already started writing another one. So my job is to bring it all together and synthesise all the various ideas and turn them into songs. And he’s very generous with that ‘cause he just wants to finish and start writing another one. “We’re interested in complementary things. Sometimes we have a starting point and it goes completely in an opposite direction. But we’ve still got the original songs, and that’s kinda hard to let go of. “That’s where the mileage and wisdom of the collaboration comes in. Of just acknowledging that where we got to is better than the original idea… we can fuckin’ lose the original idea, you know? “With Tripod it’s very much a democracy; there’s three of us, so it’s easy to make that decision. You’re outnumbered. But when there’s a duo and you’re locking horns or disagreeing then it’s basically a battle of attrition. And I hate that. I hate that. I hate just going, ‘Well, I think it’s funny… well, so do we keep it then… uh, yes… wellll… but the audience… y’know… how do we…’ “It’s just harder to navigate. But it’s that other person’s perspective or the other’s brains that turn in it into something more universal or bigger than I ever expected. And coming to terms with that is really important to recognise.” Given the challenges of writing together over Skype, from different cities, is there any writing that happens on the road?
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“Creating something out of nothing is a brutal and violent exercise. There’s a lot of heartache, usually.” “Nah. You try to but more often than not it’s just too tiring. You gotta enjoy the travelling part. Ferris Bueller it; stop and look around once in a while. And then, when you get back home, you’re rejuvenated and you want to work on new stuff. But you can’t do it all at once. It’s insane. “Paul would probably like to ‘cause, again, he likes to just keep creating and wants to film and all that sort of stuff. But I’m more of a Mars Bar—a work, rest, and play guy, you know? I know when to clock off each time. “Tripod learnt pretty early on; we thought we could keep working as we toured, but no; that was never how the good stuff came.” Gatesy’s taken away many lessons from his years in the bis, but he’s firmly against the idea that anyone can tell you how to do it. “We’ve explored all manner of different genres of music comedy. You know the ‘ga-digga-ding-digga-ding,’ the ‘I say, I say, my wife—’ etcetera, like keeping the music really simple so the jokes land. But that’s not what we wanna do. We want the songs to stand up on their own. And if you’re laughing, then that’s even better. “Timing is everything; hitting the joke at the right time. We’ve kind of learnt the timing of music comedy stuff over time. “But that idea of the Rules of Comedy. Anyone telling you the five rules of comedy or whatever or—anyone! Anyone telling you how to do anything! How to write a song, how to do stand-up comedy. Nah! Show business in 2019, you just gotta keep doing different things, and everything seems like a side hustle when really it’s all one big hustle. And that is show business.” Paul and Gatesy Go Solo is showing at The Playhouse on Thursday, 5 December at 8pm. Tix are $59 + bf and are available from canberratheatrecentre.com.au
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we have written together is actually using art to address and inspire people to act. “For us as facilitators, it is a privilege to open an artistic platform for them to voice their concerns and their hopes in a safe and playful environment,” he adds. For the last six months, a group of children aged 6-13 have been diligently training at Tuggeranong Arts Centre (TAC), meticulously constructing their own rocket-like musical. Working with facilitators Tim and Nathalie Bevitt, as well as choreographer Caroline Wall and artist Tom Buckland, the children have written and produced an hour-long musical entitled Mission: H2O and are now ready to launch their debut performances. Mission: H2O is set in Space School 11 where all is well until suddenly tragedy strikes when the students discover... That all the bubblers are broken!!! In their mission to fix them, they uncover a sinister plot by a group of evil-yet-cute-yet-evil (but still pretty darn cute) kittens that could spell doom for Earth and all its water. Will they get there in time? How will they get there? Is it OK to trust a space tube star? [What is a space tube star? - BOSSMAN AL] The musical’s plot was developed in response to a prompt from the TAC team to think about water management and environmental sustainability. I mean, someone bloody well has to, amarite? TAC CEO Rauny Worm says: “As we have seen from the recent Schools Climate Strikes, our children are increasingly aware of the environmental challenges we are facing. With this project, we wanted to provide a place for young people to explore these ideas in a creative way and give them an artistic platform to express their ideas.”
And the message from the children is clear in the show’s lyrics, with lines such as: “You know the grass is far, far greener where there’s water/So let’s fix our mistakes, no matter what it takes.” Of course, these issues are not limited to Canberra, and an important part of the project has been a new collaboration with Goulburn’s Lieder Theatre. In July, the project kicked off with a one-day collaboration between the Tuggeranong participants, young people from the Lieder Youth Theatre, and a group of schoolchildren from Kathmandu in Nepal. And following its debut season in the TAC Theatre in November, Mission: H2O will tour to Goulburn in late January with actors from Lieder Youth Theatre adding to the cast. “We’re excited about this new regional collaboration,” Rauny Worm says. “It is a great chance for our participants, who are living in suburbia, to engage with young people living in regional areas, which are really at the forefront of these environmental changes. And it’s also a fantastic artistic development opportunity for them to work with other young performers and to adapt to different theatre environments.” So water you waiting for!?! (probably for the groans to die down on that pun). Mission: H2O debuts at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre Theatre on Friday, 29th and Saturday, 30th November. Tickets are a mere $12 and can be booked via trybooking.com/BDNGE
Tim Bevitt says he and co-facilitator Nathalie have seen this first hand: “The children have totally embraced the subject of water issues. They are looking at the issues of water shortage in Australia and the causes of this in our country and around the world, as well as climate change and the human environmental impact. They know that all these problems are there and the musical
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What ideas do you explore? My current practice is centered around disability activism. I describe it is “a reclamation of body through radical visibility”, reclaiming the body, my body, from social constructs, from societal oppression, from the control of illness and symptoms, from the sensorial cage of pain, from the invisibility of the marginalised, from the unimaginative ugliness of hospital gowns and fluorescent lights, from the dehumanising datafication of test results and scans. On the one hand, it explores fairly universal notions within disability and illness politics - the Social Model of Disability, external and internalised ableism, bodily autonomy and diagnostic agency - but which are still largely unrecognised by the general public.
meeting place with... hanna cormick The annual Meeting Place forum takes place in Canberra for the first time in 2019. The engaging and thought-provoking threeday program will take place across leading arts and cultural venues in Canberra and will feature some of Australia’s most culturally ambitious artists with disability. Hannah Cormick will be performing Crip The Stage, and she’s here to tell us all about it. Describe your practice: I create performance-based artworks which implicate my body as the artistic medium. I’ve been called a performance artist, physical theatre performer, actor, dancer, circus artist, auteur, director, writer, curator and activist, and my works over the last 20 years, spanning an array of art genres, have been performed in an adventurous mix of places around the world: from prestigious theatres to freezing town halls, boats on French canals, refugee camps on the Syrian border, house temples in Bali, cabaret jazz halls, inside cars in Australian heatwaves, the tops of trees in Avignon, underground urbex squats in Paris, tiny fringe festivals and major international festivals. I used to be prolifi. Now, I’m a slow-burner, creating fewer works to grow and develop over longer periods of time, but with deeper consideration. When, how, and why did you get into it? Art has always affected me sensorially, somatically, so it’s quite natural that when it came to me wanting to express that artistic impulse, I was drawn to forms of physical expression. I trained in dance from age five, then in theatre from my teens. My first professional theatre work was almost 20 years ago at The Street Theatre in Canberra with Shadow House PITS, and though not my first exposure to the avant garde, it certainly sharpened my taste for it. I continued performing over the next two decades, also training at NIDA Young Actors Studio, Charles Sturt University, and Ecole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, as well as brief or extended brushes with a suite of inspiring practitioners: Thomas Richards and Mario Biagini from the Grotowski Center, Peter Brook, Margaret Cameron, Stefano Perrocco di Meduna, Per Brahe, Ida Bagus Anom, Sergei Kovalevich, Enrique Pardo and Linda Wise. This training and practice drew me to evermore physical forms of art, but when my physical capabilities dramatically shifted when I became disabled, I had to start rediscovering the role of my body in art and art creation. It’s an interrogation I’m still in the middle of [lovely turn of phrase - BOSSMAN AL], one which influences my art both practically and conceptually.
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On the other, it explores my autobiographical experience and the way in which my specific story intersects, or is at odds, with those ideas. But it’s also based around shifting pre-conceived notions of disabled bodies and disabled people, usually with an element of the surprising, the subversive, the playful, or the glamourous. My recent pin-up modelling series with photographer Shelly Higgs is a good example of this subverting the visual stereotype of wheelchair users, and shifting attitudes away from pity towards expressing the power and beauty of disabled bodies. Who/what influences you? I have just finished reading Anne Boyer’s The Undying, which is everything I’ve been looking for in an artwork to reflect the new feelings, absurd experiences, and temporal and physical upheavals of the last few years of my life-in-illness. If my art could be half as candidly unapologetic as Boyer’s writing, I would be content. If it could also be half as brazen as a Bowie genre-shift, half as sincere and vulnerable as a Van Gogh painting, and half as fierce and glamorous as Viktoria Modesta, then I think we’re getting close to the mark. Of what are you proudest so far? My performance artwork, The Mermaid, has been selected for Sydney Festival 2020, which is an incredible honour. This particular artwork is also emblematic of my re-ignited arts practice, after a three-year hiatus due to illness. I wasn’t cured, but I did start making art again, and this work represents that rebellion against the anti-creative, silencing force of illness, exhaustion and social oppression. I think sometimes people are relieved to see me creating, that it somehow symbolises a “getting better” or a silver lining. It isn’t. I just don’t really know how else to process the violence of emotion I’ve been exposed to in becoming chronically ill, except through art. I’m not proud of creating again - it’s perhaps an easy fallback, being the only language with which I am able to express myself - but I am proud of doing it in a form that was so terrifying, unknown, and exposing to me. I’m proud of staring down my fear, and then using the alchemy of art to claw back what part of my life, and my power, that I can. What are your plans for the future? Next year involves co-curating (with Daniel Savage) artworks to exhibit with Eastern Riverina Arts’ PLATFORM for regional festivals over the year, as well as an artsACTfunded development with a troupe of exceptional actors of my stage work, Zebracorn, at The Street Theatre. Probably a lot more infusions, injections, scans, and maybe some minor slicing on the cards as well; chronic illness is a full-time job. @bmamag
What about the local scene would you change? I’d like less pseudo-arts funding - “enlivening spaces”, erecting new buildings and committees - and more direct support to artists. These indirect funding streams do a lot to decorate civic or corporate spaces, art-wash questionable building developments, give an aura of “culture” to gentrified (and progressively soulless) commercial districts, and masquerade as creating employment for artists. But art isn’t just about providing entertainment and making things more cheerful, and civic engagement isn’t just about brighter colours and free gigs. Art can be uncomfortable, challenging our ideas, our identities and the status quo, and these initiatives implicitly censor the creation of that type of work.
I’ll also be releasing a new photoseries collaboration with Novel Photographic’s Shelly Higgs, The Mermaid Virtual Exhibition, in the week leading up to I-Day. The exhibition will be released online, and was made possible with the support of the ACT Government I-Day Grant program. And, of course, my performance work, The Mermaid, will be touring to The Coal Loader for Sydney Festival in January 2020. Crip the Stage: Performance and Disability meetingplaceforum.org/program/crip-the-stage/ The Mermaid sydneyfestival.org.au/events/the-mermaid#info
They also compromise the work of the artists, who often do their best to create something meaningful and sincere, but are hampered by the straightjacket of having to fulfill briefs and of not offending government- or corporate- sponsors. This cultural commodification and co-opting of art does exist in other places, but there’s an oversaturation of it in Canberra which only further highlights the paucity of direct-to-artist support, and indicates a kind of mistrust of the artist. These initiatives aren’t intrinsically problematic, but when it means that funding is going there, and subsequently siphoned off into administration, bricks and community decoration, instead of to artists, that’s when we have a problem. There are many great artists here, with brilliant ideas; fund them directly, without ulterior motive, you will be surprised at the quality of what comes out when an artist is adequately supported. Upcoming events? Crip the Stage: Performance and Disability is a workshop/ panel event that I will be facilitating, and presenting within, for Meeting Place, the leading Australian forum for arts, culture and disability, hosted by Arts Access Australia. On I-Day (International Day of People with Disability), myself and other disabled stage artists will be presenting a series of miniworkshops followed by a panel discussion around the theme of how different artists use disability in their arts practice. It’s on December 3rd, 12pm-3pm, at Street 3, The Street Theatre, Canberra.
Photo credit - Novel Photographic
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PAGE 31 Composer Sandra France. Photo by Jessica Conway
Exhibitionist | Arts in the ACT
LITERATURE IN REVIEW WITH CARA LENNON Year Of The Monkey by Patti Smith [Bloomsbury Publishing; 2019] Patti Smith is back in the saddle with a travel diary that’s also a fantasy, but is best approached like a volume of poetry—don’t expect anything substantial in the way of plot or characters, just an excuse to get lost in someone else’s mind for a day or two. Year Of The Monkey isn’t about much more than what it’s like to be Patti Smith at the age of 69. Still gigging, hitch-hiking, daydreaming, watching her friends getting old. It’s nice to know Patti Smith is still out there doing Patti Smith things. The punk rock poet of the ‘70s and ‘80s made waves with her debut album Horses, fusing Bob Dylan and the beat poets with a voice uniquely hers. Year Of The Monkey is the most recent offering of a career spanning multiple decades and mediums—music, prose, and poetry to name a few. Her Man Booker Prize winning autobiography Just Kids was a zeitgeist tale about the power of youth, documenting two young artists rising from the ashes of the Warhol scene. At the outset, Year Of The Monkey lacks Smith’s usual genius with language. Instead of her direct, vibrant, and inventive style we get something unfortunately laboured, with the prose overthought, overwrought, or both. But it recovers quickly, and breaks into an engaging rhythm, carrying you to the end before you’re ready to be there. The magical realism element that’s threaded throughout wanders rather than drives, appropriately for a story that’s three parts wanderlust, and involves a certain amount of heel-dragging through eddies of ennui. The possibilities suggested by talking motel signs and mystical candy bar wrappers peter out without really going anywhere, more so than is usual even for works of the stubbornly surreal. Smith is at her best here when she’s conjuring the real, and writes with a cool companionability that makes the reader into a travelling partner. The otherworldliness is accentuated by Smith’s turning of the present into the past. Though set in 2015, the yellowed pages and monochromatic photographs lend Year of The Monkey a nostalgia that’s suited to the contemplative mood. Smith’s reflections are often memories of the better days of friends; and though she dreams of the future too, it’s a future that seems to be missing as much as it that it promises. Tales of missing children marr Patti’s footsteps and as she drifts between friends aged, ill, and ailing; her reminiscences and Pied Piper daydreams all seem to lead back to the same question - What happened to the kids? Year Of The Monkey lacks the strong narrative of Just Kids and, at half the length, it reads like an afterthought: unnecessary, but in the manner of many unnecessary things, idle and pleasant to linger over. PAGE 32
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GIG REVIEW - Katie Noonan, Kaleenah Edwards & The Australian String Quartet - The Glad Tomorrow Sat, 9 November - The Playhouse Review by Belinda Healy There are words and stories of our ancestors which need to be heard. They need to be translated to resonate with people living in this modern society, which is worlds away from what this land once was.
Noonan and her band mates (as she affectionately calls them throughout the night), as well as Kaleenah Edwards, the composers, and all the others who helped to create this magic, have done a magnificent job of bringing these important stories to life in a very different space.
That is exactly what Katie Noonan, in collaboration with the Australian String Quartet and Kaleenah Edwards, were striving to do. A collection of poems written by Great Grandmother Oodgeroo, and translated by her grandson Joshua Walker, was turned into songs by ten Australian composers. These songs reflect oral traditions, the environment around us, the ecological, the spiritual, and the change in Australian society. Noonan and the string quartet take their place on the stage, dressed in the same flowing scarves, decorated in earthly browns and reds. Designed by Elverina Johnson, they are called ‘paper bark’ – and fittingly, Oodgeroo means paper bark in Jandai. The night begins with a welcome to country from Aunty Violet Sheridan. Country is a word for all values. Before each song, Kaleenah Edwards, the great granddaughter of Oodgeroo Noonuccal, reads poems in the Jandai language. It’s haunting, the words almost musical as they flow out of her mouth. It feels like a privilege to experience this. Noonan’s voice floats from song to song, her voice an instrument reaching impossibly high notes with ease. There are probably no words left that haven’t been used to describe her voice before: angelic, graceful, powerful, ethereal. It is certainly all of these things and more. There are sombre songs, like The Curlew Cried composed by Thomas Green, and Then and Now, and some with more uplifting messages of hope like, unsurprisingly, A Song of Hope – “Look up, my people, the dawn is breaking. The world is waking, to a bright new day”. The Australian String Quartet play some songs without Noonan, showing off the incredible skill of their nimble fingers, their precision, and ability to stay in perfect unison. No More Boomerang is a song which has taken on different iterations. It is a difficult song to listen to, albeit beautiful. “One time naked, who never knew shame. Now we put clothes on, to hide whatsaname”. / “No more firesticks, that made the whites scoff. Now all electric, and no better off.” / “Now we got atombomb, end everybody.” Noonan tells the audience she discovered Oodgeroo’s words when she was seven, doing an English assignment. “I read her words and just fell in love with this world that lifted the window into the learnings and teachings of our First Nations people. Although Oodgeroo’s words are pretty tough and they don’t beat around the bush, what I do love is that her words have a huge amount of hope. We are really glad to be singing these words as a musical offering to the Uluru statement.” The encore, Maranoa Lullaby, is truly moving, and Noonan dedicates it to Richard Gill and John Curro.
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Photos by Rachel Braddy PAGE 33
[ SINGLES, AND LOVIN’ IT - SINGLE REVIEWS] FRANCIS GROOVE FT. ND FRIENDS CAN’T WAIT [
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Belgian-born producer Francis Groove has just released Can’t Wait, a contemporary pop track that features Miss X on vocal. Francis is best known for his EDM production and has just recently had a hit with I Swear, another collaborative project that featured fellow Euro club star AM-A.
Can’t Wait is an interesting amalgamation of styles, fusing pop, hip hop, with added traces of soul and smidgens of dance. But above all, this is a pop record. The melodic hooks are there, the journal style lyric is there, and the production provides all the requisite highs and lows, subtle crashes, and flaring swooshes. Everything here caters to the vocal and the beat, with the barroom piano quarter note stabbing deftly, providing a vital emphasis,
TLOVE FT. LILO MARRIED TO THE BEAT [
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DJ TLove (Thiery Valentin Peronet) is considered to be a pioneer of the Belgium House music scene, beginning his career there in 1992. He’s also been a resident DJ for some of the biggest clubs in Ibiza and has played alongside some of the revered innovators of house music like Bob Sinclair, Eric Morillo, and Ron Carroll.
This latest track features guest vocalist Lilo. The tune not only has an enamouring title but is replete with EDM slash house music characteristics and lush and effervescent production. This version was remixed by Barcelona producer Shakespeare and, having not heard the original mix, it appears the Bard of Barcelona has added healthy dollops of sonic ingenuity and tonal caresses to TLove’s version. Lilo does a splendid job of affecting a vulnerable yet commanding stance, most particularly during the choruses. The verse melody
COREY LEGGE ROSE [
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Folk and alt-country artist Corey Legge has let fly Rose as the second single from his debut long player Driving Out of Eden (which refers to the south coast town, not the biblical garden). After the fast-paced title track/ first album single, with its slightly ragged vocal delivery, Rose shows another side to Legge’s talent as a singersongwriter.
pushing the track along its persuasive path. And it is quite persuasive. Miss X’s vocal performance is controlled and measured yet this seems to be a perfect fit for the sentiment of the track and for the style of sonic embellishment Francis has cooked up for it. When dissecting the melodic components of the song, the highlight follows the verses; a pleasing arrangement of notes that don’t escape the brain too quickly once you’ve been exposed to it a few times. Another minimalistic hook follows which resolves this main hook and that provides a smooth transition into the next part of the song. The general mood of this track is chilled expectancy; the tempo is laidback sauntering, the tonal reading is light with streaks of impertinence, and the message is suitably summarized. What is perhaps most significant about Francis Groove’s production, and no doubt his writing too, is the adherence to this general mood, as though the music really is reflecting some inner compartmentalization of an aspect in one’s life that needs to change. Therein lies its persuasive qualities. VINCE LEIGH
is quite strong, with the chorus not of the in-your-face variety but the kind that sneaks up on you, augmented as it is by some equally sneaky programming and sound choices. The governing synth, which kickstarts the song, remains a consistent and inviting part throughout, displaced only by a very house-like bass part which gets its own four-bar feature before the choruses. This then leads to an acoustic guitar part with a subtle flamenco flavour, an abutment that works, navigating the track towards yet another kind of temperament, as though in response to Lilo’s soft warning of needing someone who is just like her: married to the beat. The track exemplifies one aspect of the modern state of pop music—most effectively in the bitesized snippets of vocal after the bass drop—that of technology manipulating the human voice into something otherworldly yet connected to a level of innocence previously hidden until now; raw, unearthed emotion translated in the digital realm and harnessed for communicable language. And all this contributes to the song’s armoury of hooks. We don’t know why these elements have those fuzzy feelings attached to them, why they work, but they do and that’s part of the mysterious architecture of music. TLove will find a lot of love for his latest release. VINCE LEIGH This only adds to the anguish of Legge as the witness to an unknown ‘her’ and their troubles, as he sings: ‘I don’t know what’s making her this way, there’s nothing left to take this pain away.’ And yet, he has faith that it will all turn out alright. Simple, sad and sweet, the gentle rhythm and subdued instrumentation really show off the quality of the artist’s voice. RORY McCARTNEY
The deep, mellow sound of the singer dominates the track, which progresses slowly, accompanied by sparse strums with wide spaces between them. Then Legge’s slide guitar slips in, underlining the emotion. Legge stretches the words out too, to emphasise the feeling. Using simple rather than sophisticated lyrics in a tale overflowing with sadness; they carry mystery, as the source of distress is never explained. PAGE 34
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SINGLE IN
for an effective gospel touch certain chords can recreate in an instant. We are adequately prepped for some amount of wistful endeavour but as yet not quite sure how entrenched we will become.
FOCUS
ANTHONY CALLEA WHAT’S WRONG WITH ME? [
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Anthony Callea is embarking on what surely must be one of the most challenging transitions of his musical career, leapfrogging from his highly admirable near household name status to being just another in the ever-expanding profusion of original artists seeking to carve out a niche in what is now a very saturated playing field.
If the talent show phenomenon that was once a sure ticket to chart success has shown, nothing lasts forever; including the seemingly ubiquitous power those TV quests once possessed. Only a handful of performers who’d cut their teeth on such stages, or to put it more succinctly, who had a career suddenly bestowed upon them, have maintained a presence in the public eye. Anthony Callea is no doubt one of these artists. His was quite the meteoric ascent. In the same year he became the runner-up in the 2004 season of Australian Idol, his debut single The Prayer hijacked the attention of Australian music consumers and went on to become what is still to this day, apparently, the fastest-selling single of all time in this country. How does one top that? With great difficulty, of course. The success was a convergence of all manner of things, but essentially it must be said that Callea’s voice played a crucial role, perhaps one can even whittle it down to the very specificity of his tonal qualities which was the spark that rejuvenated a ‘90s track from an animated film originally recorded by Celine Dion and Andre Bocelli. Having a ready-made TV audience clearly helped too, but Callea’s interpretation struck a nerve. He has gone on to release six albums, the last two reaching the number one position on the ARIA charts. Cut to 2019 and he releases What’s Wrong With Me? The title alone might be enough to claw back some of the stalwarts of those Idol years, drawing attention with its vague allusion to Callea’s private versus public persona. Without harbouring on this aspect, this four-word proposition immediately and literally conjures an image of the contemplative artist at work, setting out the very parameters of exposed vulnerability. It is what most ardent music lovers secretly or openly hope for when tuning in to a musician’s creation: am I going to be getting some truth here? It appears that Callea has acquiesced on some level to this silent demand. The track opens with piano and organ, utilising the verse chord progression as well as an obvious hankering facebook.com/bmamagazine
Callea’s lower register gets straight to the point: ‘If I broke your heart, are you lost in the dark’. From here the relationship-in-trouble dynamic plays out: ‘fighting with myself, cigarettes and Scotch don’t help’. So far, so good. However, I do take note of the discrepancy regarding those first two lines, something about the tenses—but one must acknowledge the pop song’s allegiance to melody rather than syntax, to the rules that need not be adhered to. There are a few lines worth noting for their openness: ‘I’m frightened of the truth, that without you I’m no good’ and ‘I’m ashamed of the thrill but I could not help myself, saw myself with someone else’. Nothing is more eviscerating within the confines of a three-minute pop song than self-evisceration, and likewise, nothing is more detectable than if such emotional plundering doesn’t ring true. Anthony’s approach is to espouse these statements of soul-searching with an apt vigilance rather than mournful indulgence, without acceding to histrionics, a style of interpretation which such a song might easily tempt him to perform. This measured tone is adopted for the duration of the song, except for the chorus tag ends, where one generally expects the full weight of the vocalist’s power to get a good run at it, which it does here. Lyrically speaking, Anthony and his co-writers have skilfully created the artifice (or not) of a man with a problem and married that to the suggestion of a relationship in the midst of being trawled across extremely rough terrain; it is in a sense, a song that considers these two trials as part of the same process but we know that, of course, they are quite different, hence that driving, ever pertinent question that remains unanswered: sustained intimacy is the garden in which unknowable provocations hiss and simmer, occasionally imprisoning another victim but always threatening those who question it. This song can be seen as the prelude to that mental incarceration; though the doubt, the anxiety, the trepidation, that damn cigarette and scotch combo can be viewed as a painful enough precursor. This dithering at the precipice of emotional unmooring is given the appropriate musical treatment, drawing on the aforementioned gospel-like veneer to enhance the melody’s meditative spirit, and this oft-applied musical archetype is utilised with sustained vigour during the choruses when Anthony’s voice is supplemented by a chorale in full flight. As one expects from an artist whose career was initially spearheaded by an operatic pop crossbreed of a song, the voice is the defining instrument here, with the accompanying kinds—the piano, the organ, the rhythmic components, the layers of background voices—doing just that, shadowing Anthony through his disquieting voyage. And rightly so; a production that tried to cloak Anthony’s former self with an overzealous sonic treatment would not have served him well as he attempts to transcend this old self to reach the new. This is gangplank time for Anthony. But I have a feeling he will submit to the ocean only to realise he will swim to shore without too much difficulty. VINCE LEIGH
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ALBUM IN
FOCUS
because if you haven’t seen the band live yet, you’ll not appreciate how just nut balls amazing they’ve become in terms of presentation over that time. The key to this is not in the blokes, who are awesome and on fire on this record, but the world class talent of vocalist, and for the sake of formalities of the review her majesty’s full official title, The Imperial Princess, Screaming Loz Such (TIPSLS hereon).
THE NEPTUNE POWER MEMOIRS OF A RAT QUEEN [CRUZ DEL SUR MUSIC] [
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The Neptune Power Federation are a five-piece Sydney band featuring four exceptionally seasoned rockers on the classic two guitars, bass, and drums from bands as diverse as Mortal Sin, Daredevil, Fattura Della Morte, and the rebirthed ‘70s legendary Buffalo (and that’s just some of guitarist Troy Scerri’s work). The band have been around most of the decade and Memoirs... is album number four, coming relatively quickly on the heels of their 2017 effort Neath a Shin Ei Sun. What happened in the interim is that the band have absolutely written their tits off, producing the best songs to date on what was already solid bedrock.
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TIPSLS has the best stage wear of pretty much any performer ever, such that should TIPSLS choose to perform in a box in the dark on the side of stage her vocals would still command fealty from all in her imperial presence. The theatre of her presentation has just about rung through into this record. It feels like the greatest ‘70s glam rock musical ever written, like if Hair was written not by a bunch of hippies but a malevolent space monarchy with TIPSLS in front of four well-drilled storm troopers. Kicking off with Can You Dig, a suitably spacy intro soon gives way to an offbeat glam riff T-Rex would be proud to furnish, you will absolutely belt out “YES” in answer to the question posed in the chorus.
What’s helped shape this is the sheer amount of touring off the back of album three, including a trip to Europe that saw the band crush Germany and get picked up by Cruz Del Sur Music.
Watch Our Masters Bleed brings that musical theatre flavour to the verses, but crushes the chorus to balance it out from straying too much into thespian territory. This is a killer rock ‘n’ roll album first and foremost after all.
It’s also in the nature and scope of these shows,
That said, the song writing, production, and scope of
the eight songs on offer here are spatial in terms of blending the classic rock backing with some killer keyboard sounds, acoustic interludes, and electronic soundscapes in between killer riffs and some of Scerri’s blistering best on the guitar solos. I’ll Make a Man Out Of You evidences this well. The keyboards on Pagan Inclinations also serve to add some Deep Purple to the spectrum of this record that is resting itself comfortably in the ‘70s without being a tired rehash of ‘90s stoner rock. I have read comparisons of these guys to Wolfmother and I will take the stomping riffage on The Reaper Comes For Thee over that tripe any day. TIPSLS’s vocals are absolutely a tour de space force, layering perfect backing vocals to compliment her main vocal line melodies. They soar just as well solo, such as the intro to Flying Incendiary Club for Subjugating Demons, before blending all of the bag of tricks throughout the rest of the song in a way that is simply killer. I can’t recommend enough for you to catch a live performance from these guys. In fact, it is essential. Their previous work has all been great, but with Memoirs of a Rat Queen, The Neptune Power Federation have finally delivered an album of songs that are as exciting and vital as their live show. JOSH NIXON
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The Hard-ons album number 12 - not counting the live albums, the EPs, and the rest of a discography that’s deeper than the Marianas Trench - has arrived. But first, a rant.
THE HARD-ONS SO I COULD HAVE THEM DESTROYED [MUSIC FARMERS] [
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Frankly, should the ARIAs, or any other organised musical body ever decide to honour musicians before they die, or have some other cultural driver like a documentary or someone from overseas trigger a worthy acknowledgement, THIS is the band.
Guitarist Peter ‘Blackie’ Black alone should have gotten something for putting out a song every day in 2017, but whatever. These guys have too much integrity and would probably tell the ARIAs to fuck off; in fact, I know this to be true because that’s exactly what Blackie told me they’d tell them when I bought up something along these lines a few years ago. Anyway, it was 1983 - that’s nearly 40 years ago - that three ethnically diverse Punchbowl punks set off on a musical life with a potency that eventually made Turbonegro nervous fanboys when they supported them in 2003. Nervous to the point the guys thought Turbonegro were rude, until they played with them again in Europe and the Norwegian deathpunks bought a pile of Hard-ons records for them to sign. Flash to 2019, and So I Could Have Them Destroyed is an absolutely superb LP that builds on the band’s fearless exploration of a wide array of
KG’s last two single releases, Change and Come Along, feature on his new EP, DOIN’ ME, but the South African born Canberra based rapper has also added a few surprise elements to his brand of hip hop; his dedication to the genre clearly on show.
KG DOIN’ ME [FREEDOM MUSIC]
The set kicks off with the title track, which sees KG shift his focus to the inner workings of his artistry with lines such as, ‘Do people really care if I’m here or there?’
The song frees KG of the more robust social justice centred themes of his earlier work to revel in the more playful aspects, with the chorus hook of DOIN’ ME, with an infectious melody reminiscent of something that Outkast would produce, highlighting this. [
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musical influences, and succeeds at this both in individual song writing and the album as a whole. From the metal influenced harmonies of the opener into a breakneck verse chorus on Made To Love You II, into tough punk riffing on Bad Temper To Match, and then to the almost Beach Boys influenced power pop of Better By The Hour. That’s in the first three songs of the 12 tracks for your perusal on this outing. These elements have been displayed on previous records, namely the Most People... albums , Alfalfa Males Once Summer Is Done and Peel Me Like An Egg. But The Hard-ons as a four-piece in 2019 is in a particularly fertile place. Blackie’s solo work since he started doing solo acoustic shows has influenced his writing. Not Just For A Day is a good example of this, where the solid acoustic underpins the song and gives yet another dynamic option for the band to explore. Midnight and This Is How We Roll have killer single note guitar lines that change the mood and further the layers of the album, and the rhythm sections of Ray Ahn and Murray Ruse are just superb. The former’s spooky delay guitar line and the latter with a great chord progression on the chorus, combined with a Beatles-come-Beach Boys vocal refrain at the end, will stick in the head long after the track is done. There’s plenty of flat out bangers too. Do The Bunk, Oh…You’re Crushed, and A Whole Lot of Tooth all pound heads. Instead of being incongruous, they meld together across a well curated song list that keeps the album fresh throughout. I’m pretty much convinced that the band can go until 2053 without turning out a bad album, and on the evidence presented on So I Could Have You Destroyed there’s no reason that the material won’t continue to grow and refine. All four members should be chuffed, playing vitally well and writing superbly. JOSH NIXON
With Hustle, which features vocalist Mi-kaisha, we get yet another layer of KG’s multifaceted approach, while maintaining the urgency and dynamism of the previous tracks. But here we have a slam dunk chorus that contains a piece of melodic joy with the line, ‘We’re gonna make it in the city’, melded to the gritty avowals. Staying humble is the missive highlighted in Live It Up, a track that embraces a party ambience. The young wanting to be young forever. It's a typical proclamations one might argue, but when considered within the context of the other tracks, the sound is refreshingly valid. This an example of the two sides of KG’s infused sensibilities, creating a thoughtful whole. The EP concludes with Day/Night, a suitable track to close on, as it harnesses a mood of optimism and buoyancy with lines like, ‘No matter where we go you’re always there to check my ego’, alluding to an intimacy that transcends some the heavier tones of other tracks. But it’s no less effective, leaving the listener with the feeling that KG’s creative spirit is in fine form, attentive to the political possibilities as well as the personal. VINCE LEIGH
Come Along, a track that features Mirrah, follows with its invigorating yet slightly melancholic twist, a rallying call whose edge is sweetened by Mirrah’s persuasive cadences. With Change, KG utilizes a weightier message; a different call to arms but one that nonetheless cuts through with rawness and a slow-burning exposition of oppression.
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LEEROY STAGGER STRANGE PATH
[TRUE NORTH RECORDS/MGM]
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Canadian alt-country singer Leeroy Stagger (yes, it is a brilliant moniker for a country dude) began his quest for musical fame and fortune with the 2002 EP Six Tales of Danger. He has been a prolific artist ever since, with ten albums to his credit, and now Strange Path clocking in at number 11. Opener Mother, a fast-paced foot-tapper with pinprick keyboard highlights and smoky vocals, speaks of the bonds to one’s family and country. However, expectations of a predominantly country flavoured album fly out the window from there on. Deeper Well employs an unusual, offbeat twangy start, while the kick-off for Breaking News also stands out with its combination of unconventional drumming and a bubbling synth line. The song features a catchy riff of high-pitched guitar picks, has a fuzzy aspect to the vocals, and a story line which is definitely non-rural in theme. Strange Attractor has an indie-electro flavour, courtesy of the buzzing synth which dominates the song. Nobody Alive Gets Out of Here, an alt-county track with keyboard highlights, looks at the difficulty of escaping the gravitational pull of smalltown life. The variety continues with the rocker Jesus & Buddha and the indie These Things with its warbling electro undercurrent. Leonard Cohen is Dead advances slowly at funeral march pace, with a haunting atmosphere, as it philosophises about existences beyond this life in an offbeat salute to the famous singer. Get To Love then wraps up the album with snarls of dirty, bluesy guitar. Stagger’s latest album is a long way from the expectations generated by his altcountry tag. He grabs the attention with plenty of indie-rock influences and some inventive beginnings. RORY McCARTNEY PAGE 38
BRENDAN MCMAHON IN THE MOMENT [INDEPENDENT RELEASE]
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Melbourne-based roots artist Brendan McMahon started out as a glam rock fan and member of cover and pop-rock bands. He eventually changed his focus and began modelling his solo career on singing storytellers such as Paul Kelly. McMahon released his first two albums under the stage name Satellite Gods, before issuing On This Fine Occasion in 2017 under his own name. On this latest LP, McMahon blends country, folk, Celtic, and alt-rock elements into songs inspired by life experiences and extensive travels. Country rocker and album highlight I Am grew from his strong presence of self and thirst for adventure in the wider world. It will resonate well with anyone who sees the world as their oyster, or who has a strong sense of self sufficiency. Standing out with its echoed effects, strong bass features, and swelling backing vocals, Limitless Fluidity ponders the interconnectedness of life and the wonder of every single moment. Rich and mellow, the atmospheric No Rush Today paints a portrait of an idyllic place for the ultimate chill. The bright, chirpy On This Fine Occasion has a strong Celtic vibe as McMahon celebrates the common humanity which unites us all.
PAT TIERNEY RED MOON
[INDEPENDENT RECORDS]
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Roots singer-songwriter Pat Tierney launched his debut album Wild World Blues in 2015. It comprised a mix of blues and folk and included a couple of short instrumentals. That album made Tierney’s mark as a man with a delicate touch in both his rich vocals and fine musicianship. Now he’s back with his sophomore LP Red Moon with more wistful songs expressing a blend of sorrow and happiness. The record commences with the whispering guitar of The Midnight Bloom. Notes from the Weissenborn lap steel guitar curl away, sparkling and fading as they rise softly into the air. The folk song becomes more determined as it progresses, as Tierney’s mellow, echoed vocals slip in with a fragile beauty and a slight blurry edge to his singing. Atmospheric lyrics express emptiness in this love song of loss, and regret at what he has let slip away. Acoustic strummer Tomorrow is a Long Time is another song of pining for an absent love, followed by the haunting track Angels which contemplates death and what follows after. Bold use of the lap steel produces a tragic aura as Tierney sings, ‘Want to get to heaven but I ain’t got no say, I know that I will die someday.’
Only High, an uplifting duet with Amber Ferraro, shifts the focus from problem dwelling to the positive aspects which are the real gems in a relationship.
The instrumental The Light of Day brings one of the best melodies on the record. The track is underscored by a mysterious, muted roaring, sounding like skateboard wheels on asphalt.
Rising guitar notes in the striking Relate and Tethered portray the raptures achievable through internal journeys through your own mind.
The album closes powerfully with the title track, whose strident percussion and robust guitar strums lend the song a hypnotic quality.
A special album from a storyteller whose very original song themes burst into life, projecting messages of joy, celebration, and personal growth.
Red Moon impresses with the pulling power of the simple yet entrancing lyrics, and the captivating voice in perfect balance with the superb instrumentation.
RORY McCARTNEY
RORY McCARTNEY @bmamag
ALBUM IN
FOCUS
BEC SANDRIDGE TRY + SAVE ME {INDEPENDENT RELEASE]
MAT BLACK TRUCKER CAPS & HEART ATTACKS [INDEPENDENT RELEASE]
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Mat Black has been on a journey in search of his best musical fit. Having played in both alt-rock and acoustic roots bands, he has switched to alt-country and launched his debut record. These City Lights steps slowly to the ghostly moan of the lap steel. Black’s songwriting skills are well displayed in such emotional-visual projections as, ‘Here I am, this cardboard cutout of a man, searching for a man-shaped hole in this cardboard life’. ‘ Three Holes, a story of a hanging, is a standout, with its well-spaced banjo plucks, spookily echoed vocals, and call and response elements. (Too Old to Be) The Wandering Kind wears the cloak of an old-style blues-rock ballad, that is smoothed by brass and boosted by female backing vocals in the chorus, with some mellow trumpet in the bridge.
Following the 2016 indie pop EP In The Fog, Wollongong’s Bec Sandridge has released a very personally focused debut album which tackles such deep issues as her early upbringing, body identity, and coming out. And Sandridge has coopted a bolder employment of synths, and application of more extensive electro effects to tell her tales, making her earlier EP look positively conventional by comparison. The short intro features a moody crosshatched vocalisations before huge burring synths sweep in amidst a gurgle of electronica. Sandridge wastes no time addressing her sexuality in the first real song of the LP, I’ll Never Want a BF. The track rushes in at light speed, with a bright falsetto and a racing synth-driven melody, as she boldly dismisses family expectations of a white wedding. Dressed up with sharp guitar hooks, it screams out for frantic dancing.
The start of Animal sees Sandridge use a sultrier tone as she embosses her vocal delivery with clever inflections, before the song breaks out a disco ball glitter vibe. The electro melody of album highlight Eyes Wide is so infectious, it is irresistible. W My X epitomises the new Sandridge style of explosive elements; a complex mix of catchy tunes and inventive lyrics, it gallops forward with woodblock percussion. A sound like a scratchy record launches My Friends Think I Can Do Better before its synths buzz in like a swarm of angry hornets. Even Love brings a misty cloud of echoing vocals reminiscent of The Jezabels, while the slow track Before the Radio has a Lana Del Ray vibe. Sandridge has shown real inventiveness in her first album of catchy, danceable tracks with plenty of character to make it stand out in the crowd. RORY McCARTNEY
There is a full-bodied feel to the spaced, deep tones of Pockets Full of Dust, which relates to Black’s previous fondness for the bottle. His voice comes echoing out of a deep well at the intro to Railman’s Son, with a baritone guitar giving the track a real oldstyle western atmosphere. Black sounds at his best in the blues rocker Lost; his rich vocals scorched by lonesome guitar licks. The mood lifts dramatically with the fast and frivolous rockabilly swinger Big Leg Woman, before the album wraps up with Same Old Song with its trilling Hammond organ accompaniment. Part internal reflection, part storyteller, the album has a pensive mood. While the sentiments often have a rural vibe, Black keeps the music varied with lots of rock-blues elements, including some great electric guitar work from his backing band. RORY McCARTNEY facebook.com/bmamagazine
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THE WORD ON
FILMS with Cameron Williams IT'S WHAT IT IS
to assume everyone is wearing a wire, and they have a saying: it’s what it is. Once a decision is made there’s no time for questions. It’s what it is. Regret? That will occupy the time of those lucky enough to survive, which often means betraying an associate. We never
American life that eventually spills into the public arena. The rot slowly exposes itself over the course of the film. The path to the JFK Assassination and Watergate is laid out. It’s a world where men refuse to talk to each other and doublespeak rules. But what does any of this yield? Scorsese’s film is full of remorse, highlighted by De Niro’s performance that slowly wears Sheeran down until he realises the futility of it all when it’s too late.
In Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, characters are not defined by how they live but how they die. Mid-scene, text flashes up on the screen with info about the fate of mobsters; often under grisly circumstances. There’s a savagery to their demise, which highlights why they were swiftly removed from ‘the business’, and it’s brutal because it’s based on a true story. From a nursing home, an elderly Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran (Robert De Niro) reflects on his life. The World War II veteran recounts his time as a mobster, navigating the politics of a crime family (led by Joe Pesci) and his involvement with the disappearance of labour union leader Jimmy Hoffa (the best Al Pacino has been in years). The crime bosses in The Irishman talk in mundane riddles, experienced
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see a bulk of the assassinations in this epic crime saga that runs a whopping 210 minutes, yet Scorsese’s film is a bit like life itself; it flies by when you’re in it.
Scorsese is 76 years old and The Irishman is a late-career
masterwork where’s he’s measuring the value of a life through the filter of a crime saga; his go-to genre. Sheeran dwells on the past, isolated in old age and only visited by the FBI. He’s the one who outlived all his associates and kept all the secrets. Was it worth it? It’s what it is. The Irishman will release on Netflix on Wednesday, 27 November 2019, with a limited cinematic run at Dendy Cinemas from time of writing, Monday, 11 November.
The Irishman is an immersive film that spans decades by digital de-aging its cast. Seeing De Niro and Pesci’s faces smoothed like they got lost in a videogame is unnerving at first, but you slowly accept it as a tool of the trade. 50 years ago, people complained a prosthetic nose looked too fake; the technology is not there to match the ambition yet. Scorsese and screenwriter Steven Zaillian (Moneyball, Gangs of New York, Schindler’s List), adapting the book I Hear You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, trace Sheeran’s involvement in the corruption of
@bmamag
OFFICIAL SECRETS
MILITARY WIVES
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With the benefit of a factual basis in a sequence of official deceits of the public by three western national governments, Official Secrets follows the repercussions of a decision to leak to the press a conspiracy to corrupt a UN Security Council vote on prosecuting a second US-led invasion of Iraq. Katharine Gün (Kiera Knightley), a conscientious translator– analyst in the British Intelligence organisation Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), receives a directive to all staff to meet a US National Security Agency request to obtain, by spying on UN Security Council delegates, “the whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge” — meaning blackmail. Gün can’t stand by to see thousands of innocent Iraqis bombed in an illegal war, and at great personal risk she leaks the request to somebody who passes it to investigative reporter Martin Bright (Matt Smith), on The Observer. At The Observer, Bright checks the document’s legitimacy and fights for the paper to report on it despite the stance its editor, Roger Alton, has given the paper in favour of the war. Bright eventually succeeds in convincing Alton that the story is important, and the front-page headline creates waves the world over, though it fails to shake the politicians beating the war drums. That is, in a nutshell, what actually occurred; though the repercussions for Gün personally are less widely appreciated. Official Secrets dramatises remarkably well Gün’s difficult decisions not only to leak the information but also to confess to having done so, and the aftermath of that confession for her, her husband, and her legal advisors, including a long wait to learn whether she would be charged under the tightened Official Secrets Act. And it paints an interesting picture of the newsroom in which key players had to decide whether to put their own necks on the line in order to tell the truth, and recaptures the global outrage at the plainly unjustified invasion juggernaut. Well plotted, and using the articulate Gün’s own words (“I work for the British people. I do not gather intelligence so the government can lie to the British people”) to define what was at stake, the film brings back with immediacy what was obvious to so many at the time: that the vague “intelligence” that British, the Americans, and the Australians claimed as a basis for invasion was utter fabrication. Filmed immaculately, this superbly acted film may be the best reminder you’ve yet seen of the necessity for open, functioning democracy, with parliament, judiciary, and press independent of government, in order to call to account the brokers of the surveillance state.
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Military Wives is a glimpse into the largely unrecognised complexities of the lives of partners of combatants in the armed forces. We acknowledge the enormity of what serving personnel face in conflict, and recognise that partners waiting behind probably have a hard time of it, but few understand just what such partners face as they go about their lives waiting for every scrap of news, raising their children to believe that daddy is safe and will come home, whilst keeping in check their dread of an official knock on the door. Military Wives opens as serving personnel are being deployed for six months to Afghanistan. Relationships are stripped bare as each partner faces his or her inner fears and seeks to provide reassurance to the other. Not all such attempts have the desired outcome, revealing early some of the challenges couples and families face in these situations. Now that they’ve been left behind on a largely deserted military base, a kind of hum-drum sets in, and the wives slip into familiar patterns of behaviour. As it happens, Kate (Kristin Scott Thomas) is to hand over the duties of running the social club to Lisa (Sharon Horgan). Unfortunately, Kate and Lisa are polar opposites, and Kate, unable to let go of her long-held position running the club, interferes and railroads Lisa at every turn. When one of the wives raises the idea of singing, Kate and Lisa enter into a very uneasy partnership to create the resultant choir. Through the tumults, griefs, fears, and triumphs, the women find something much greater than the huge success the choir goes on to enjoy: they find their shared humanity and, through forgiveness and acceptance, the meaning behind true friendship. Kristin Scott Thomas’s Kate is snobby, cold, and superior — and a tremendous foil for the equally strong but laidback and easy-to-get-along-with Lisa, portrayed with great veracity by Sharon Horgan. The rest of the cast do an admirable job depicting how each manages, with good humour born of experience, the tough situation she faces. The film may be predictable, but it is moving and heart-warming, and a worthy revelation of part of the price of armed conflict. MICHELE E. HAWKINS
JOHN P. HARVEY facebook.com/bmamagazine
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Some specific themes have been climate change, young people’s experiences of conflict, disability and love, and living with the impact of trauma. Who/what influences you? All of Rebus’ staff and members bring their own influences and experiences to the organisation, both artistically and thematically, which inform the projects we do. Some of these influences are Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, various improvisation disciplines, Viewpoints, Giovanni Fusetti’s movement theatre, the lived experience mental health movement, the climate justice movement, and disability activism. Of what are you proudest of so far? Our work-in-progress performance Moving Climates based on interviews with climate scientists; our most recent Forum Theatre performance Access All Areas: Justice about people with disability and the justice system; and winning the ACT Chief Minister’s Inclusion Award in 2018. What are Rebus’ plans for the future?
meeting place with... rebus theatre The annual Meeting Place forum takes place in Canberra for the first time in 2019. The engaging and thought-provoking threeday program will take place across leading arts and cultural venues in Canberra and will feature some of Australia’s most culturally ambitious artists with disability. And it wouldn’t be the same without Rebus Theatre, so we caught up with the good folk to see what they have in store. Describe your practice: Rebus is an award-winning mixed ability company using theatre for social change. Rebus runs classes and workshops, delivers workplace training, and produces creative projects. The main form that we work in is Forum Theatre, where we present a short play that depicts a social problem, then invite members of the audience onto the stage to help solve the problem. We also draw on a range of other theatre forms and multi-disciplinary performance. When, how, and why did you get into it? Rebus began in 2013 as a community project led by Artistic Director, Robin Davidson, to promote disability awareness and provide performance opportunities for actors with disabilities. This program was led by NICAN, and funded by an ACT Government Innovations Grant.
Our plans are all funding dependent, but include rolling out our Forum Theatre work nationally, training people in community theatre and cultural development, setting up an exchange with a university in Canada, and setting up an ongoing disability theatre ensemble. What about the local scene would you change? We would like to see better accessibility in venues, not just for audiences but for performers and presenters. We would like government, private, and community sectors to acknowledge the value of the social and healing power of the arts, and to see more employment of artists in hospitals, schools, consultations and other areas where our skills in empathy and creativity can be put to use. What are your upcoming events? We’re performing Open Doors Open Minds at Belconnen Arts Centre at 11.30am on Tuesday, December 3 as part of Meeting Place. This is a Forum theatre performance about the barriers people with disability experience in gaining meaningful participation in the community. A Tender Thing, a devised play about disability and love, opens at the Ralph Wilson Theatre at Gorman House on Friday, December 6. Contact info: www.rebustheatre.com info@rebustheatre.com or 0403 815 784
Forum Theatre had long been an interest of Rebus Artistic Director Robin Davidson, who came across it during his undergraduate studies in Theatre/Media at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst. As Rebus gained other opportunities, the company developed its own unique rituals and ways of working with communities and audiences. What ideas do you explore through your organisation? Our projects look at issues surrounding the challenges faced by people with a disability, mental illness, or lived experience of any type of marginalisation, as well as issues that affect the community and world as a whole. PAGE 42
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TRANS VOICES CABARET CELEBRATES GENDER DIVERSE VOCALISTS
Also performing will be local singer/songwriter Shoeb Ahmad, who offers a rich and extensive background in Australian music, creating idiosyncratic music over the last decade.
On Friday, 6 December, Tuggeranong Arts Centre’s TuggersPRIDE program will conclude with the spectacular Trans Voices Cabaret, featuring an all-star line-up of transgender and gender diverse singers.
Shoeb has released a diverse range of original music while also working on sound design for dance/theatre, installation pieces, and contemporary chamber composition, inspired by 20th century avant-classical works, Indian ragas, and minimalist electronic music.
Trans Voices Cabaret is born from an enthusiasm for seeing more trans bodies and voices represented onstage in an authentic and autonomous way. Hosted and headlined by jazz singer, cabaret artiste, and gender-transcendent diva Mama Alto, and featuring a set from Canberran singer-songwriter and producer Shoeb Ahmad, audiences can expect a line-up of original performances in a range of genres. The show includes a cast of ten emerging vocalists from the Canberra performance scene who will astound, soothe, or disquiet audiences. The cast came together through a series of vocal workshops developed by Tuggeranong Arts Centre (TAC) mentee Florin Douglas. The workshops, held in October, were designed to support the performers to feel confident in their voices and performing abilities. Douglas is a local singer and performer who went through rigorous vocal and singing training as a teenager, but when he transitioned medically, was left with little understanding of how to wield his own speaking voice, let-alone sing. “For trans and gender diverse populations, the voice is an integral but oft-overlooked expression of the self,” Douglas says. “Many trans, non-binary, and gender diverse folk have a relationship with their voice that is reminiscent of a tired truce, whether growing to love it, not liking the sound of it, or because of fears that their voice will ‘give them away’ as trans.
Among the ten local performers on the bill are InkBits and Electra Powerhouse. InkBits is Canberra’s very own Queen of Punk Cabaret. Known both locally and nationally for performing their gender fluid covers with a twist, this artist melts modern music with Brecht undertones to deliver a captivating show that packs a punch. Electra Powerhouse is a nonbinary performance artist and an aspiring DJ. Electra is inspired by a wide range of genres from experimental electronic music to jazz, blues, and contemporary. In their teens, they trained in classical singing with aspirations to join the Opera someday. Nowadays, Electra performs sensual jazz and blues with the goal of integrating their performance art with music. This powerful celebration of transgender and gender diverse performers is the final event in TAC’s month-long TuggersPRIDE program, which brings together some of the best and brightest LGBTIQA+ artists in Australia in a specially curated series of events, performances, and discussions. Trans Voices Cabaret is on at Tuggeranong Arts Centre on Friday, 6 December at 7.30pm. The event is free but bookings are essential. Bookings: trybooking.com/BFYKD
“Sounds and voices are intimately connected to gender and expression, and the trans and gender diverse community long for more information about their voices. “Being a singer, or a performer of any kind, while also existing as a trans or gender diverse person can be uncomfortable, volatile, and scary,” he continues. “With the segment of the cabaret that is dedicated to emerging local singers, the event will make a space for talented performers to be respected both for their art and for their lived experience. In putting together Trans Voices Cabaret, the objective has been to honour and explore gender diverse performance communities in creative and nonmedicalised ways.” Trans Voices Cabaret will be hosted by jazz singer Mama Alto - a transgender & queer person of colour who works with the radical potential of storytelling, strength in softness, and power in vulnerability. Fierce, femme and fabulous, she has performed at beloved venues including Brisbane Powerhouse, Melbourne Recital Centre, the National Gallery of Victoria, and festivals such as Adelaide Cabaret Fringe, Emerging Writers Festival, Festival of Voices (Hobart), Marysville Jazz & Blues, Melbourne Cabaret Festival, Melbourne Fringe, Midsumma (Melbourne), and Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras. facebook.com/bmamagazine
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ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE]] ENTERTAINMENT [POLL POSTERGUIDE PRINT PAGE] LIVE MUSIC National Capital Allstars With Michael “Mikelangelo” Simic, Konrad Lenz, Netty Salazar, Beth Monzo, Bec Taylor, Chris Endrey & Broods. 8pm POLISH WHITE EAGLE CLUB Melting Pot Original and improvised funk, soul, jazz, and blues. Doors 8pm, start 8:30pm. Tix $18 conc/GA $20/$25 on thge door. newacton.com/ events to book MAKESHIFT, NEW ACTON, NISHI 3 BroKen Strings’s first headliner 3 BroKen Strings comes to Canberra for its first headlining show, with guests Hence the Testbed, Biilmann, Clarity of Chaos, Innaxis, and Axiomatic Theory. Tix from Oztix THE BASEMENT Precipice #24 Every year a diverse range of improvisers from around Australia gather to collaborate in Canberra. Four opportunities to see extraordinary improvisation artists live. Tickets at the door (no late entrances). $15/$10 per show, or $20/$15 for the two Saturday shows. 7pm & 9pm QL2 DANCE THEATRE The Great Wizard’s Ball A place for Potterheads to prance. The ball is your chance to break out your most extravagant wizarding finery and dance the night away. From 7pm, tix from quizzicalley.com/greatwizardsball THE ABBEY FUNCTION CENTRE Tex Perkins and The Tennesse Four: The Man in Black The 10th anniversary of the Johnny Cash tribute tour. 8pm. Tickets are $89.90-99.90 through the Canberra Theatre Centre website CANBERRA THEATRE Sugar3 ‘Party Crier’ single launch Indie-pop-rock Canberra fourpiece Sugar3 are launching their latest single Party Crier with 2410 Records stablemates Powder Blue and a solo set by Jaclyn from The Differs THE FRONT
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MAY 27 – JUNE 2 MAY 18 – MAY 22 MORE EVENTS @ bmamag.com/entertainment-guide
DANCE Le Doof with Steeplejack boss Harold Taking you through some weird electronica and techno ’s apocalyptic sound. With resident Big Data (formerly Bàobīng) SIDEWAY BAR
Bass heavy house and EDM FICTION CLUB
DANCE Cube Nightclub 14th birthday Feat. burlesque show, pole dancing performances, DJ Rawson on the decks, and debuchary aplenty CUBE NIGHTCLUB
Sunday 1 Sep
THEATRE
LIVE MUSIC
The Woman in the Window In Stalin’s Russia, the great poet Anna Ahkmatova is forbidden to write. In a future, denatured world, a young woman, Rachel, searches for what is missing in her life. .Fri Sep 6 – Sat Sep 21. Tix from venue website THEATRE 3, CANBERRA REP
Precipice #24 Every year a diverse range of improvisers from around Australia gather to collaborate in Canberra. Four opportunities to see extraordinary improvisation artists live. Tickets at the door (no late entrances). $15/$10 per show, or $20/$15 for the two Saturday shows. 7pm QL2 DANCE THEATRE Monday 2 Sep Tuesday 3 Sep LIVE MUSIC Jazz at The Lab - Miroslav Bukovsky/John Mackey Quintet: Miro’s Greatest Hits Music starts at 7.30 pm. Please book early at gpage40@bigpond. net.au. Seating limited to 80 THE LAB @ ANU, ACTON
TALKS Jacinta Price - Mind The Gap Info and bookinging from truearrowevents.com.au or the venue THE STREET THEATRE Wednesday 4 Sep Thursday 5 Sep Friday 6 Sep
LIVE MUSIC Seeker Lover Keeper Bring their ‘Wild Seeds’ album to the on Friday, 6 September. Tix are $65 + bf from the venue CANBERRA THEATRE
Saturday 7 Sep
LIVE MUSIC Jazz Haus Vocalist Kristin Berardi/Bassist Sam Anning CD Launch AUSTRIAN CLUB ’70s Tribute Night Including tributes to Led Zepplin, Queen, Kiss, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath and more. From 7pm THE BASEMENT
TALKS A Rational Fear Featuring Dan Ilic, Hobba, Mark Humphries, triple j Hack’s Shalailah Medhora, and Mike Bowers from The Guardian. Jokes about sad things, bad things and all things political from 7pm. Tickets are $35 and can be found at http://www.thestreet.org.au. THE STREET THEATRE
ARTS Handmade Markets Featuring many local artists, designers and makers across the board. EXHIBITION PARK
Handmade Markets Featuring many local artists, designers and makers across the board. EXHIBITION PARK Monday 9 Sep Tuesday 10 Sep Cradle of Filth On a special tour showcasing their 2nd full-length, 1998’s Cruelty & The Beast in full THE BASEMENT
ARTS Spinifex Gum THE PLAYHOUSE Wednesday 11 Sep Thursday 12 Sep
LIVE MUSIC AM Reruns — Self-titled album tour Melbourne modernist trio AM Reruns announces its debut selftitled LP. 8pm, tix on the door SIDEWAY BAR Friday 13 Sep
COMEDY Club Sandwich Comedy - Sarah Gaul and Jacinta Gregory Hosted by Chris Ryan and featuring RAW Comedy national finalists Tim Noon, EdwinTetlow and young musical comedian Ashy Kinsella. Tickets $10 students (must bring ID to door) and $15 adults, or $20 at the door TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE
DANCE 5 Years of Bassic tour Plenty of bush techno styles with Kase Kochen, ZigMon,
Sunday 8 Sep
DANCE
ARTS
LO’99 @bmamag
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[POLL GUIDE [ENTERTAINMENT ] ]] ] GUIDE POSTER PRINT PAGE [ENTERTAINMENT ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE [POLL POSTER PRINT PAGE]
Thu 22 Aug
ARTS Metamorphosis Adapted by Steven Berkoff Featuring an all Canberra cast including Christopher Samuel Carroll, Ruth Pierloor, Dylan Van Den Berg, and Stefanie Lekkas. Shows until 31 Aug. Tix from venue website THE STREET THEATRE
The Missing Lincolns Lost Album launch From 7pm. $10 on the door SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE Girls Rock! Canberra fundraiser Featuring The Buoys, Cry Club, Lady Denman, Lucy Sugerman and Peach Lane. From 6pm UC HUB
MAY 27 – JUNE 2 MAY MORE EVENTS @ bmamag.com/entertainment-guide MAY1818– –MAY MAY2222 FOR MORE EVENTS HEAD TO bmamag.com/guide
Oztix THE BASEMENT Signs & Symbols Counting in Colours album launch 8pm - Tix at the door The Polo
DANCE
troupe plays out the stories as each scene is introduced. Runs until Sat 31 Aug. 7:30pm. Tix from stagecenta.com PERFORM AUSTRALIA STUDIOS
LIVE MUSIC
It’s a London Thing UK grime/garage/2-step covered with Big Ting Recordings (SYD) & MCs Dtech & Tukka D SIDEWAY BAR
Canberra DIG hosts Crop Up Sessions. For your mid-week dose of music head over to have a listen to Eloria, Neko Pink, LIV LI and Pheno from 8pm. Tix available at the door for $10/$5. SIDEWAY BAR
TALKS
Thursday August 29
Blanke Bass heavy house and EDM FICTION CLUB
Isaac Butterfield Why So Serious? Explores our changing world. With a fast-growing audience, Isaac’s commentary videos have had more than 60 million views. 7:30pm, tix from Moshtix KAMBRI PRECINCT
Saturday August 24
Wed Aug 28
DANCE
ARTS
AUTHOR TALK
Techno Thursdays Techno techno techno techno! FICTION CLUB
Blood on the Dance Floor by Jacob Boehme Through a powerful blend of theatre, image, text and choreography, Boehme pays homage to their ceremonies whilst dissecting the politics of gay, Blak and poz identities (recommended for age 15+). 5pm & 8pm. Check the website to book TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE
SoundOut Series #3 Featuring Mahagonny “Qrt” (revealing sonic places), Lena Czerniawksa (drawing; Poland) Emilio Gordoa (vibraphone; Mexico/Germany), Josten Myburgh (electronics; Perth) Laura Altman (clarinet; Sydney) TRIO Alexander Hunter (viola de gamba; Canberra), Tony Osborne (vocal/electronics; Sydney), and Richard Johnson (wind instruments; Canberra). 7:30pm, $10/$20, at the door DRILL HALL GALLERY
Annika Romeyn exhibition - Endurance Inspired by the personally significant site of Guerilla Bay, Yuin Country. Runs until 20 Sep MEGALO PRINT STUDIO & GALLERY Shakespeare in Love Comedic theatrical tell of the Oscar winning film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes. Running until 31 Aug with Saturday matinees. Tix from Canberra Theatre CANBERRA THEATRE
Section Seven: Martial Order SIDEWAY BAR FRIDAY AUGUST 23
COMEDY Tommy Little Self-Diagnosed Genius After completing the world’s most gruelling marathon in Antarctica (with no previous experience), Tommy’s got a cracking story to share. Two shows at 6:45pm, and another at 8:30pm THE PLAYHOUSE The Song Company Mind Over Matter A zany and toonful chamber opera about two lifts and a computer virus in a bed of 1980s pop gold served up by five singers, two speakers, and PAGE 46 four hands at one piano. 7:30pm. Tix from venue
DANCE Rising Stars New up-and-coming DJs hit the decks, featuring the might of Woody, Theo, Alex Allen, Vivace, Haylee Karmer, Nue Dae, Bouncii, and Take-Tu MR WOLF
LIVE MUSIC Powder Blue - Flower Town single launch With supports The Narcissists, The Dirty Sunflowers, and Hedy Blaazer. 7:30pm – 11:30pm, $10, at the door THE FRONT Smoke Stack Rhino Doom Boogie single tour Support by Muddy Wolfe and Local Horror. 8pm TRANSIT BAR Red Hot Chili Peppers Tribute Show Performed by Chilly Willy, with
Evie Farrell, author of Backyard to Backpack: A Solo Mum, a Six Year Old and a Lifechanging Adventure In conversation with Evie will be Amanda Whitley, of HerCanberra. 6pm. RSVP: books@ paperchainbookstore.com.au or (02) 6295 6723 PAPERCHAIN BOOKSTORE
THEATRE
Friday 30 Aug
LIVE MUSIC Precipice #24 Every year a diverse range of improvisers from around Australia gather to collaborate in
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NEXT ISSUE: #494
OUT JUNE 7 The Good Doctor An adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s short stories for the stage,
Canberra. Four opportunities to @bmamag see extraordinary improvisation artists live. Tickets at the door
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