SYDNEY DRUM & PERCUSSION SHOW SET TO SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL ROSEHILL GARDENS GRAND PAVILION ON MAY 27 & 28
Australian Music Association has today announced the inaugural Sydney Drum & Percussion Show set to engulf the Rosehill Gardens Grand Pavilion on May 27 and 28. Proudly presented by Australian Musician, the monster exhibition promises to be an electrifying presentation of all things hit.
Boasting an impressive live performance program with some of the world’s best players and biggest names including Thomas Lang (George Michael, Tina Turner, Peter Gabriel), Virgil Donati (Tommy Emmanuel, Steve Vai), Michael Schack (Netsky) and more (with Lang and Donati playing together for the first time ever), the show will also feature a huge array of drum gear and brands and will act as the country’s largest pop-up drum and percussion shop. You can see, try and buy drum kits, cymbals, orchestral and traditional percussion, electronic percussion, hand percussion and accessories from all the major brands, plus never-before-seen gear. There’ll be some tasty home grown and handmade gear too.
Run by the same team that put on the annual Melbourne Guitar Show (MGS) and based on the successful MGS model, the Sydney Drum & Percussion Show will also host information seminars, demonstrations, and live performances from Australia’s most talented drummers and percussion players including Lucius Borich (Cog), Lozz Benson (Urthboy, Drummer Queens), Stan Bicknell (Kimbra, Miami Horror) and more. From double-kick drummers, groove and touch drummers and jazz stylists, to exotic percussion players, orchestral percussionists, and hard hittin’ rock n rollers, there’ll be something for everyone.
The voice of the Australian music products industry, the Australian Music Association (AMA) is thrilled to present this drum-centric weekend. “There’s so much about percussion, it’s the world’s most accessible form of music – people take their first steps in music through percussion,” says AMA CEO Rob Walker. “We are excited to showcase our industry’s products and the wealth of local talent that Sydney and Australia has to offer, as well as international guests – three of the best in the world! We seek to educate and entertain, and showcase and grow our drum and percussion community.”
Punters will have the opportunity to participate in drum circles and other hands on percussion workshops, see Australia’s leading percussion ensembles, Taikoz and Synergy Percussion, as well as leading student percussion ensembles from The Sydney Conservatorium and combined school’s ensemble, Drumfill. They can experience the latest electronic drum technology, meet a stack of the industry’s finest drum and percussion players, take part in workshops on drumming for fitness and wellbeing, performance clinics, panels and more.
Additionally, the 2017 Sydney Drum & Percussion Show will provide a hands-on chance to see, hear and play a broad range of the world’s favourite brands. It will also see exhibitors offering great show deals.
If you can hit it, ring it, shake rattle and roll it, it’ll be at the Sydney Drum & Percussion Show.
The Sydney Drum & Percussion Show will be held at Rosehill Gardens Grand Pavilion on May 27 & 28, 2017
SYDNEY DRUM AND PERCUSSION SHOW DETAILS
SATURDAY MAY 27 | ROSEHILL GARDENS GRAND PAVILION |10.00am – 6.00pm
SUNDAY MAY 28 | ROSEHILL GARDENS GRAND PAVILION | 10.00am – 5.00pm
HUE BLANES RELEASES NEW VIDEO ‘FERNANDO’ AND ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM ‘
Piano fiend and enigmatic genius singer-songwriter, Hue Blanes, PBS Young Elder of Jazz 2017 and 2017 Green Room multiple nominee, has today released his new single, Fernando and announced his sophomore record, Holiday – a darkly wonderful song cycle full of modern poetry – set for release on April 14. To support this stunningly beautiful work, Hue will play a strictly limited run of intimate shows across Ballarat, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Mullumbimby in April.
Hue’s sound sits somewhere outside of the usual genre boxes, yet somewhere in all of them; jazz, classical, artsong, pop, the album is a rare and musically sophisticated work, ahead of its time, yet deceptively simple – just Hue, sitting at his piano singing his stripped back melancholy. It is like Father John Misty, Jeff Buckley, Bach and David Foster Wallace all having an existential crisis in a room somewhere.
Speaking on the single, Fernando, Hue explains, “It’s about a troubled world famous soccer player and what I may have in common with him. I was wondering if hugely successful sports players suffered loneliness and anxiety and when I read a story about one of my favourite players – Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima from Brazil – having a setback before a crucial game in the World Cup, I decided to write about the story from my perspective.”
The song has been paired with a simple, poignant video clip. Disarmingly voyeuristic, we follow Hue as he walks apparently aimlessly around the lonely, dark and quiet streets of Brunswick. Filmed by Ben Stace ‘Cowboy’, the video was an immediate reaction to a botched attempt at another clip. “We had wanted to superimpose painting on top of a video shot in the studio of the finished take of Fernando,” Hue says, “It looked a little bit like The’ Mulligrubs’ or something out of the 80s and we weren’t feeling too good about it, so we got a camera and shot the clip in an hour, edited it the next day.”
Holiday is a stunning, bleakly comic song cycle featuring Hue’s virtuoso singing and piano, a story of loneliness, despair and the difficult search for meaning amongst the everyday tedium of being human, told in Hue’s trademark wryly moving style. With this work, Hue takes his place as the troubadour of the troubled, the singer of solitude.
Written over a two year period and heavily influenced by Hue’s troubled and anxious state of mind at the time, he explains, “The album was written while I was living with a schizophrenic golfing marijuana shaman who spent 8 hours a day shaking maracas on his knees whilst massaging himself and giving complex advice on posture and world politics to the other housemates and myself… Things needed to change. I wrote songs and got some new housemates. Meanwhile the shaman is living in a volcano in Nicaragua and having a great time and I’m releasing the album 3 years later and still in the same house.”
Available on vinyl, the LP will be accompanied by a booklet of original drawings by illustrator, Bernard Caleo who has interpreted the songs with scribbled drawings, with one drawing that perfectly sums up this desolate record – a man with an umbrella over his head with rain pouring out from inside the umbrella.
Hue has a host of fans near and far, with collaborator and artist, Bernard Caleo saying, “In this song cycle, Hue Blanes immerses you in a world of troubled dreamers, estranged lovers and ex soccer stars. The tunes ache with a sweet loneliness and the search for another, more bearable world.” Deborah Conway is also a supporter, saying, “Hue Blanes has a transcendent voice, perfect timing and an angelic touch on the piano, he’s a star.”
The intimate shows set for April are on sale now, offering an opportunity for those lucky enough to encounter one of Australia’s most startlingly original performers.
Fernando is out now. Holiday is set for a vinyl release on Melbourne’s Pound Records on April 14
HOLIDAY TOUR DATES
FRI 14 APR | MINERVA’S BOOKS & POT OF GOLD COLLECTABLES | BALLARAT
SAT 15 APR | THE JAZZLAB with special guest JOE O’CONNOR | BRUNSWICK
THUR 20 APR | VENUE 505 with special guest BRIAN CAMPEAU | SURRY HILLS, SYDNEY
FRI 21 APR | SMITH’S ALTERNATIVE with special guest ALICE COTTEE | CANBERRA
SAT 29 APR | DRILL HALL | MULLUMBIMBY NSW
BOB EVANS ANNOUNCES EXTENSIVE NATIONAL TOUR
Bob Evans, the ARIA winning alter ego of Jebediah frontman Kevin Mitchell, has today announced an extensive national Australian tour, hitting up capital cities and regional towns across April, May and June, letting fans know he’ll be treating them to a complimentary six track EP, Zeroes To Heroes, of unreleased material for all tickets purchased from his website and online outlets. After the release of his critically acclaimed LP Car Boot Sale, and following a packed out co-headline tour alongside Josh Pyke in late 2016, the Lonesome Highways Tour will kick off at Front Bar in Canberra on April 20, before moving through Newcastle, Central Coast, Katoomba, Sydney, Cronulla, Bulli, Toowoomba, Bellingen, Brisbane, Rye, Melbourne, Geelong, Adelaide, and wrapping in Castlemaine at the Bridge Hotel on June 9.
Gracing the Australian music scene for more than two decades, Mitchell is a self-confessed romantic who has written some of the country’s most beloved songs. Under the alias of Bob Evans, Mitchell has released five albums, all of which showcase the versatility and skill of this talented songsmith. Gentle, acoustic melodies prevail, enveloping the classic folk storytelling and strong emotional pull that charactises Mitchells’ substantial body of work. Reflecting on his remarkable career, the ever-humble Mitchell says, “I never could have forseen where all of this was going to lead way back when I was a teenager just starting out, making an almighty racket with Jebediah. I have been gifted a pretty amazing life and career and I still get such a huge buzz out of it. Knowing there are people out there who have been supporting me for years and years just blows me away and makes me want to be better.”
To give fans a taste of what’s coming, Mitchell has today released a live acoustic video of My Matilda, a track from this exclusive package of unreleased material. “The Golden Age of Showbiz” and “My Matilda” are both songs that just missed out on being recorded for ‘Goodnight, Bull Creek!’ back in 2008 and ‘Car Boot Sale’ just last year. I just like ’em and wanted to give them their moment.” Speaking on the complimentary six track EP for online ticket buyers, Mitchell generously offers, “I have so many songs that have almost made it on to records in the past but have just missed out for one reason or another and I’ve always wanted to share them with people and I thought this would just be a good way to say thank you to the people who support me.”
Continuing to champion young female artists, Mitchell will name an all-female cast of main supports across each leg of the tour. Thrilled to embark on such a wide-ranging tour, Mitchell still cherishes the special connection experienced between the performer and the audience, enthusing, “I’m still really drawn to getting up on stage in front of a room full of strangers and giving myself over to that experience, and trying to create something out of nothing for us all to share. I’ve honestly been doing it for such a long time now that I wouldn’t know what else to do with myself. A lot of the time, I feel more comfortable and more myself when I’m onstage than off of it and the feeling of statisfaction I get from playing a good show is unbeatable.”
And what is to be expected from this run of shows? Mitchell hints at what’s in store for excited audiences, “These are all going to be intimate shows so it will be very up close and personal. I’ll be playing songs from across all of my records, a few covers too… I’ll take requests and then screw them up. We’ll all be firm friends by the end of the night.”
Tickets to the Lonesome Highways Tour will go on sale on March 10 at 10am and all ticket purchases from www.bobevans.com.au and other online outlets will receive an exclusive six track EP of unreleased material.
BOB EVANS LONESOME HIGHWAYS TOUR
THU 20 APR | FRONT BAR, CANBERRA ACT | 18+ no supports
FRI 21 APR | LIZOTTES, NEWCASTLE NSW | 18+ w/ Amy Vee
SAT 22 APR | HARDY’S BAY CLUB, CENTRAL COAST NSW | 18+ no supports
WED 03 MAY | CLARENDON GUEST HOUSE, KATOOMBA NSW | 18+ no supports
FRI 05 MAY | CAMELOT LOUNGE, SYDNEY NSW | 18+ w/ Bree De Rome
SAT 06 MAY | BRASS MONKEY, CRONULLA NSW | 18+ w/ Bree De Rome
SUN 07 MAY | HERITAGE HOTEL, BULLI NSW | 18+ w/ Hannah Park
THU 11 MAY | THE SPOTTED COW, TOOWOOMBA QLD | 18+ w/ Bree De Rome
FRI 12 MAY | 5 CHURCH ST, BELLINGEN NSW | 18+ no supports
SAT 13 MAY | BLACK BEAR LODGE, BRISBANE QLD | 18+ w/ Bree De Rome + Royal & The Southern Echo
THU 01 JUN | BAHA, RYE VIC | 18+ w/ Alana Wilkinson + TBA
FRI 02 JUN | THE CROXTON FRONT BAR, MELBOURNE VIC | 18+ w/ Alana Wilkinson
SAT 03 JUN | WORKERS CLUB, GEELONG VIC | 18+ w/ Alana Wilkinson + Rachael Brennan
THU 08 JUN | GRACE EMILY HOTEL, ADELAIDE SA | 18+ w/ Bec Stevens
FRI 09 JUN | BRIDGE HOTEL, CASTLEMAINE VIC | 18+ no supports
For tickets and details head to www.bobevans.com.au