Expect the unexpected as these “virtuosos of the bizarre” create a live stage experience that must be seen and heard to be believed. Jug band blues, political satire and lunatic on-stage antics combine as a new-vaudevillian comedy cabaret. Audiences know Mic Conway’s tongue-in-cheek style from “Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band” and “Circus Oz”. From Byron Bay BluesFest to Port Fairy and Woodford Folk Festivals to Adelaide Cabaret Festival and The Famous Spiegeltent … the National Junk Band have become festival favourites for their unique collision of illusion, passion, irreverent satire, fire, magic, singing saws, flying chooks, musical mayhem and some very funny songs. Wielding National guitars, ukuleles, sousaphone, phono-fiddle, garbage cans and even the kitchen sink, there really is nothing like them in Australia today.

Geoffroy is a Prize-winning French pianist and composer, working on a jazz composition research project at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. The aim is to develop a portfolio of compositions integrating features, sounds and processes from Francophone Pacific Islands traditional music. Ultimately the project intends to propose original approaches to the sustainability of tradition through creative composition and collaboration.

The project, entitled Pasifika Sounds,  is at its early stage of development, and this will be the very first presentation of the work before he returns to France for the summer and then French Polynesia to study traditional music (lucky him).

You can hear some sounds here: soundcloud.com/geoffroycolson/sets/pasifika-sounds/s-Q8jve

 

Program:

 

Set 1:

- A l'Ombre du Purau
- Pastels
- La Mangue Verte
- 'Aito (*)

Set 2:

- Swell (*)
- Matamua
- Tēteta (*)
- Huahine

All compositions by Geoffroy Colson
(*) World premiere

Musicians:

Geoffroy Colson: composition, arrangement, piano, Tahitian ukulele, tō'ere, programming
Nishchal Madjunath: tenor and soprano saxophone
Steve Harris: Bass
Jeremy Cook: drums

www.geoffroycolson.com

Time: Doors open at 7pm. Hat Fitz & Cara Robinson are opening the night, then Captain Matchbox will take us to midnight!
Tix: $50 full, $40 concession, $30 children under 16 yrs
Bookings: http://www.trybooking.com/BCAQ

 

Inspired by early jug band music and jazz recordings they heard on reel-to-reel tapes as teenagers, brothers Mic Conway and Jim Conway formed a raggle-taggle group which grew from an underground art school band to a national icon, with a cult following, film and television appearances, Top 10 hits and two Gold Records.
From 1970-1980, The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band toured the length and breadth of Australia, performing more than 2,000 shows, supported by the likes of Skyhooks, Cold Chisel, Split Endz and others along the way.
They were a very odd sock in the glam-rock world and Aussie pub scene. Their debut LP “Smoke Dreams” went to Gold in 1972 and was released in the USA. This year, “Smoke Dreams” has been listed among The 100 Best Australian Albums. Their second LP “Wangaratta Wahine” featured a classic cover design by Michael Leunig which won the award for Album Cover of the Year in 1974. Assisted by their memorable first appearance on Countdown performing “Wangaratta Wahine”, this album became their biggest success. In 2010, at the request of Woodford Folk Festival, a hot 8-piece band has been built around Mic and Jim Conway and is set to present the songs, silliness and satire from the Matchbox repertoire including “My Canary Has Circles Under His Eyes”, “That Cat is High”, “Smoke Dreams”, “Half a Moon”, “Hernando’s Hideaway”, “Nagasaki”, “Sophisticated Mama”, “Who Walks in When I Walk Out?” and many more.
The reincarnated Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band deployed a broader brand of humour amid expert musicianship, and its endlessly cavorting leader, Mic Conway, has found an ideal foil in violinist George Washingmachine.
: John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald, March 2011.

 

PLUS.... HAT FITZ AND CARA ROBINSON:  one of Australia’s festival favourites and perennial showstopper Hat Fitz is now joined on stage by Northern Ireland’s critically acclaimed vocalist extraordinaire and multi instrumentalist Cara Robinson on drums, washboard, flute and tin whistle.
Countries including Australia, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany can’t get enough of their live performances and although their debut independent release, the critically acclaimed and ARIA nominated “Beauty ’n the Beast” is already considered by many to be a classic it’s experiencing one of their live shows that’s exciting audiences.
The blending of pre war hill country and delta blues with traditional Celtic and early Australian folk has produced a truly unique musical style that’s seen fans world wide drift off into the early morning, often drenched with sweat and always covered in smiles.
Sometimes referred to as “Aussie mongrel Celt tinged blues” ... you’ll soon appreciate what all the fuss is about.