Sally is without a doubt one of Australia’s finest female vocalists.

www.sallydastey.com

FLACCO has toured extensively in Australia and internationally with regular appearances at festivals in Edinburgh and Montreal. From 1998-2001 Paul was a weekly contributor to the Australian Weekend Magazine with THE FLACCO FILES, an illustrated commentary on the state of being which also appears in book form published by Allen and Unwin.

Paul's acting credits include BABE: PIG IN THE CITY, CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION, SWEETIE, UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD, DARK CITY and THE NAVIGATOR (AFI nomination for Best Supporting Actor). Theatre appearances include THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR and AS YOU LIKE IT for The Sydney Theatre Company.

Paul’s novel THE DIRT BATH was published in 1998 by Penguin books; THE FLACCO FILES, published by Allen and Unwin in 1999 and his self-help guide RELEASING THE IMBECILE WITHIN was released in 2003 by Allen & Unwin.

In 1996 Paul was the joint winner of the SIDNEY MYER PERFORMING ARTS AWARD for outstanding achievement in the performing arts in Australia.

In 1996 Paul was the joint winner of the SIDNEY MYER PERFORMING ARTS AWARD for outstanding achievement in the performing arts in Australia.

In 2001 Neil Armfield directed Paul’s first stageplay EMMA’S NOSE for Belvoir Street Theatre in Sydney, which also transferred to La Boite Theatre Company in Brisbane. In 2004, 2005 & 2006 Paul wrote and produced three radio plays for Radio National's Airplay ONE EYE ON VENUS was programmed in 2005. HER MASTER'S VOICE in 2004 & THIS HIDEOUS PROGENY in 2006. Paul's next radio play commission, GOING DOWN, will be programmed late 2006. In 2005, HER MASTER'S VOICE featured in Belvoir Street Theatres winter reading series and was produced in November for the NIDA DIRECTORS end of year production directed by Julian Louis.

Also in 2005, WHAT’S WRONG WITH BINGO? starring the Sandman, Flacco and the Non-Seekers was a smash hit at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. In July 2005 Paul debuted his solo performance, RELEASING THE IMBECILE WITHIN which played to standing room only crowds at The Studio, Sydney Opera House. Paul is currently head writer for SBS television's IN SIBERIA TONIGHT.

website

The life and career Boo now has first began to blossom with the group he formed in the mid-Eighties,

The Bible. Two of their finest songs, “Graceland” and “Honey Be Good”, came tantalisingly close to becoming huge hits. (A third, “Glorybound”, is one of the recordings about which Nick Hornby rhapsodises in his book 31 Songs.)

Boo now wishes he could have enjoyed The Bible’s time on the verge of success a little more. “I think I felt under a lot of pressure,” he reflects. “There were a lot of people telling me what I should do and I felt very bullied.”

And some things take years to seem funny. The Bible first decided to disband after being flown over to Germany to perform “Honey Be Good” on, they belatedly discovered, a talent show. A man who wore a bowtie with lights on that spun round, and who went by the name of Mr Gadget, won with 140,000 votes. The Bible were told that they had received twelve votes. “We all took it so personally that we split up,” says Boo.

The first Boo Hewerdine solo album, Ignorance, was released in 1992, followed by Baptist Hospital in 1996 and Thanksgiving in 1998, both made with Nick Drake producer John Wood, and by Anon in 2002. In between, in 1994, The Bible briefly reformed though the album they then recorded wouldn’t appear until released as Dodo at the end of the decade. That same year five songs Boo had written or co-written appeared on Eddi Reader’s Eddi Reader, triggering a parallel career with her that continues to this day. (In 2003 he produced the acclaimed Eddi Reader Sings The Songs Of Robert Burns.)

Over the past decade Boo has not only regularly played and written together with Reader, but has also enjoyed composing songs for her under her instructions: “Writing for Eddi, I’m forced to write from a woman’s point of view a lot of the time. She sets me homework. One song she asked me to write, which I nearly did a version of on Harmonograph, is called ‘Forgive The Boy’ – she said, ‘I’m a single mother and I’ve got two teenage sons and I want you to write a song about how women should sometimes forgive the way that men behave’. I like doing that.”

For many years Boo had been writing with and for other artists – in 1989 he released a whole album, Evidence, in collaboration with the American country singer Darden Smith – but towards the end of the Nineties he also began to write songs for and with pop artists, something he considers a complete separate endeavour. “I don’t think of myself in that world at all,” he explains. “It’s just I quite enjoy the Brill Building aspect. I enjoy it because it’s not what I do.” Amongst the many artists he has written for in this way are Natalie Imbruglia, Mel C and Alex Parks.

“I just read that Bob Dylan book, Chronicles,” Boo explains, “and I was amazed that two of the things that were in the back of the mind when he wrote, which you don’t hear in his music, were two of the things I had right from the beginning – always Robert Johnson, though my music doesn’t sound anything like it, and Jacques Brel, though my music doesn’t sound anything like that either. I’ve also now got Nashville in the back of my mind, and pure pop, though you might not know it from what I do. I just love having that stuff there. Some people think I’m a folk singer, but I actually have this really bizarre life where I may be hanging out with a pop singer or doing lots of different things, and I kind of want people to know that.” (Amongst the other different things, he also wrote the film scores to the movies Fever Pitch and TwentyFourSeven with Harmnograph’s producer, Neil MacColl, who was also in The Bible.)

Meanwhile, other songs had their own adventures. Baptist Hospital’s “Last Cigarette”, for instance, was covered by k d lang (as “My Last Cigarette”) on her smoking-themed album Drag. And in 2004 Boo was asked to re-record Thanksgiving’s “Bell, Book And Candle” for a climactic, award-winning death scene on the TV soap Emmerdale. “At my gigs people cry a lot,” says Boo. “Not necessarily because they’re miserable. Maybe it touches them. With songs, the subject matter’s not the most important thing – I just like to pinpoint something. It’s more that feeling. You don’t have to be specific or breast-beating or anything like that. They know what I’m talking about. I sometimes try to write a song about ridiculous things because I don’t think the subject matter is as important as the feeling. When it’s right, there’s a sense of something.”

In the late Nineties, Boo got nervous about playing live on his own. The evening in September 2001 at a folk club in a hut in Claygate where he rediscovered what it could be like – when you get that feeling down the back of your neck, and know for sure that someone in the audience is experiencing the same thing at the same time - is captured on his live album A Live One. “That was a very important night,” he notes. But for those who have not had the opportunity to see Boo Hewerdine perform – and for those foolish enough to feel that popular culture criticism is not thriving in modern Britain – here is the full, unedited text of a local newspaper review of his October 2005 tour.

Boo Hewerdine was the main attraction but Andy Comley got the crowd going with beautiful songs including ‘Paradise’. He showed his strong voice when he performed the Paul Young cover “Wherever I Lay My Hat” without music. When Boo started the crowd cheered, and he dazzled us with a range of songs that defied belief. He calls himself ‘a man with a guitar’ and he lived up to this, playing it with ease. He interacted with everyone, cracking jokes. Both singers performed well, thrilling everyone. Highly recommended.

Almost exactly like being there. Over the same tour there were other odd acknowledgements of both the power of Boo’s performance and his remarkable catalogue of songs. One new fan approached him after a concert in Portsmouth, otherwise full of praise, expressing only one reservation: “I’m just surprised you do so many covers”. In reality, less a criticism than a nice, accidental compliment – as is often the case, that night Boo hadn’t played a single song he hadn’t written himself.

“Having come from bands where the songs were complicated, I keep trying to get more and more simple,” Boo explains. This can be heard in the direct, often unflinching new songs he has been performing live – “definitely the best bunch I’ve ever had” - which he intends as the core of another album later in 2006. “I like Lucinda Williams,” he says, “because her songs sometimes seem almost stupid they’re so simple, but they’re brilliant. There’s a song called ‘Lonely Girls” that I love where she just sings ‘lonely girls’ four times in a row and then goes something like‘they’re lonely’– phenomenally brilliant.”

www.boohewerdine.net

This collaboration of some of the world's finest independent rock usicians will be the first time they have toured Australia in this incarnation. Robyn Hitchcock has been around for a while, REM accredited him for great inspiration and hence this long awaited collaboration with some of the Northern Hemisphere's finest and eccentric artists.

Robyn Hitchcock is without a doubt one of the UK's most regarded articulate, poetic and humorous singer songwriters, renouned for his sharp pop sensibilities and witty takes on life, which border on the silly to the brilliant. He has worked with REM, Gillain Welch and David Rawlings just to name a few.

His career has spanned more than 30 years in the early days with The Soft Boys he was releasing music in tandem with the likes of The Sex Pistols, Spandau Ballet & AC/DC in the late 70's and 80's where he aptly puts it we got the "...universal thumbs-down from the music press, although Julian Cope later describes it as a "red-hot poker un the arse of pop music".'

However, by the early 1980's the US college radio stations picked up Hitchcock's music on a massive level, and in 1984 REM sited Hitchcock as a major influence. This inevitably led to Hitchcock touring the States with REM, where standing ovations became the norm.

By the late 80's early 90's Hitchcock signed to A & M Records in the US, where his songs Element Of Light, Globe Of Frogs, Queen Elvis and Perspex Island all topped the Rolling Stone Alternative chart.

Since this time Hitchcock has continued to build his audience in both the States and The UK, where he deservedly has iconic status with musicians and fans alike.

This potted history leads to a new collaboration with Scott McCaughey who is a long time collaborator / instrumentalist with REM. McCaughey formed Minus 5 in 1993, he is now adapting his line up to the Venus 3 featuring friends & fellow Seattle-ites Peter Buck & Bill Rieflin for an exclusive tour of Australia & NZ with Hitchcock, en route from Japan.

McCaughey has released several albums and EPs including "Down with Wilco" - a collaboration with Wilco, The Minus 5 In Rock and Let The War Against Music Begin.

The collaboration as the Venus 3 with Robyn Hitchcock is yet another exciting and eclectic stage in the careers of all artists involved,

www.robynhitchcock.com

Melbourne singer - songwriter - guitarist David Hosking is really a solo artist in the truest sense of the term. Ever since he first started performing professionally, he has been stubbornly independent in his outlook and carreer, ignoring the attentions of record companies in order to articulate precisely his own musical vision without interference. As a tactic it may be unusual, but it certainly seems to work.

To date, he has released 5 self financed albums, and built a large and loyal following on the Melbourne pub circuit. His recorded work has been praised by critics in both mainstream and street press, at home and internationally.

To date, he has released 5 self financed albums, and built a large and loyal following on the Melbourne pub circuit. His recorded work has been praised by critics in both mainstream and street press, at home and internationally.

He has recieved airplay on radio stations as diverse as PBS, RRR, JJJ and 774. He has collaborated with the likes of Chris Wilson, Shane O'Mara, Rebecca Barnard, Shelly Scown, comedien Glynn Nicholas and Crowded House engineer, Paul Kosky. Most recently he has toured England with The Waifs, and shared the stage in Ireland with Ron Sexsmith, Brian Kennedy and Juliet Turner. He has also toured Australia with Glaswegian songstress Eddi Reader and UK songwriter Boo Hewerdine.

"The man writes like Shultz created cartoons; simple, uncluttered life pictures that strike you as nothing but authentic. He is one of the finest songwriting talents I have ever heard, and I wouldn't be surprised if you see his career unfold rapidly here in Ireland" - Mark Patterson BBC

One of five boys, David Hosking followed his borthers in taking up the guitar at the age of 11. Realising that no one ever got famous by singing songs in the outer - suburban backyard, he acquired a car and a driving licence at the earliest possible opportunity, headed into town, and started the long, tough business of establishing his reputation.

It was no easy task, despite his stylish playing, strong voice and engagingly quircky songwriting style. In those days the pubs and cafes were dominated by performers who sang covers of other people's work - something he refused to do. He persevered, however, and gradually built up a solid core of devoted fans, attracting more whenever he played.

He is truly a man of many talents. In between singing, playing guitar and songwriting, Hosking in true rock and roll style kept body and soul together by working as a wharf carpenter, barman, kitchen hand, crane driver, disability support worker and childcare worker.

In many ways, David Hosking has done it tough. He has his reasons, however. He has his albums out, the respect of his fans, the ciritcs and his musical peers alike. And he has done it all without a shred of compromise.

www.davidhosking.com

An artist the calibre of Eddi Reader comes but once in a lifetime. Maverick Arts Management has been privileged enough to bring her out to Australia three times.

During her last Australian tour, along with playing the Byron Bay Blues & Roots festival and a series of boutique shows, Eddi released an independent double live album on Belmore Records.

Why St Clare's night out you may ask? Well the concert took place at The Basement Sydney, on the 13th of August, the feast day of St Clare, the patron saint of television - and we thought
that's the name! And to top it all of Eddi also has a glow in the dark St Clare so we had an image too!

This album is a souvenir and a celebration of an intimate and breathtaking sell out tour, which
took place in Australia in 2005. After Eddi and her wonderful collaborators Boo Hewerdine and
Alan Kelly had toured New Zealand and Japan.

This double album is the concert in its entirety - giving the listener the opportunity to teleport
themselves to an event, which was an uplifting experience. The songs represent various stages
in Eddi's career, from Fairground Attraction to the Songs Of Robert Burns and many in between.

"On stage, Reader was poised between contrasting musical traditions: McCusker on one side - providing a strong folksy flavour on fiddle and whistles - and Boo Hewerdine, a blues-influenced singer-songwriter, hunched over his guitar on the other. One song leaned one way, the next the other, so the concert ticked between the two, as perfectly balanced as a metronome.....Reader recalled being admonished at Kilmarnock Folk Club for making free with Burns and other folk music. Now, one is tempted to think, she can do what she likes, having proved the Bard is safe in her hands, with her stunning revival of his songs. Now she shakes them up still further, stretches them, adds lyrics of her own and mixes them with other songs. She does it all with ease, in one of Scotland's most remarkable voices."
FOLK REVIEW ****GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL

Between tours in August 2005 and April 2006, Eddi wasawarded an MBE and performed further
sellout tours of the UK, as well as work on a new album.

The tours saw Eddi perform songs from throughout her career from the hugely successful Fairground
Attraction to the critically acclaimed and popular Songs Of Robert Burns. Eddi Reader is a true and
rare talent.

Eddi Reader’s rare blend of meltingly true vocals and towering romanticism combine with an astute
and pragmatic nature to make her a unique and powerful figure in contemporary British music.
She has effortlessly developed into one of popular music’s most thrilling and affecting performers.

Whilst the perfection of her technique is widely acknowledged, what sets Reader apart is the depth
and quality of the emotional performance; her ability not only to move the listener but to connect
her experience to that of her audience. Her passion and instinct move people in a way reminiscent
of those who have influenced her work.

Eddi grew up in Glasgow and it was there that she learned to use music as a vehicle for communicating with others. In the early 1980s, Eddi traveled around Europe with circus and performance artists before moving to London where she quickly became a sought after session vocalist. She famously harmonised with Annie Lennox touring with the Eurythmics after her time with successful punk outfit Gang of Four. It was the short-lived but warmly remembered Fairground Attraction that really brought her into the limelight and to the attention of a much wider audience. The single ‘Perfect’ and parent album First of a Million Kisses both topped the British charts.
However, it was perhaps the four subsequent albums which signalled her increasing ability to assimilate different musical styles and make them all very much her own. Her unerring instinct for fine material, whether self penned, collaborative or a carefully chosen cover version resulted in Mirmama (1992), Eddi Reader (1994) and Candyfloss & Medicine (1996).

Having built on this considerable body of work, Eddi then delivered Angels & Electricity (1998) - an album which she expertly co-produced with her long term musical partner Boo Hewerdine. The album included compositions and collaborations with former Fairground Attraction colleagues as well as Neill and Calum MacColl, sons of Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. To her pride and delight, the much respected songwriter Ron Sexsmith composed a song just for her.

One of Eddi's recent releases, Simple Soul (2001/Rough Trade) was described by The Independent as, 'the fully-fledged emergence of a songwriting talent'. Since the release of Simple Soul in 2001 Eddi Reader has toured in England, Scotland, Japan, Australia, Spain, USA and Ireland, collecting rave reviews from every performance.

In spring 2003 she recorded and released an album of material by 18th century Scottish poet Robert Burns with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Eddi Reader Sings the Songs of Robert Burns. She performed these songs at the Burns festival in Ayr in 2002 and 2004. Michael Tumelty of the Glasgow Herald wrote of her performance in Ayr, 'By any measure this was a great vocal performance and writing this 36 hours later, I'm still haunted by the sound and emotional depth of Reader's interpretation.' She further performed the songs of Robert Burns in two sell-out shows at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and a sell-out UK tour in 2003. The album has gone on to receive rare reviews in the UK and abroad.

‘Reader’s elegant renderings of such songs as ‘My Love is like a Red Red Rose’ and ‘Jamie Come Try Me’
seem fresh and magical.’ - USA Today

www.eddireader.co.uk

Kerri Simpson's ' Sun Gonna Shine' is out now on Belmore Records through OMB onlybluesmusic@aol.com and MGM distribution

Also available Vodou Songs Of The Spirits (2001)

"Kerri Simpson is a rare treat. Many female vocalists, when approaching Blues, fall under the misconception that they need to sound like Minnie, Bessie, Etta or Janis. Kerri Simpson sings the Blues like Kerri Simpson, not imitating but initiating, singing from the heart. …Developing her own unique sound which comes straight from her soul." - Paul Parello, Radio WRMN, Chicago, USA

Kerri Simpson is without a doubt one of Australia’s most versatile and accomplished vocalists. She has made her mark in a range of genres, but to many her star really shines when she is singing blues and gospel – and she has really hit her mark with SUN GONNA SHINE.

Working with long time collaborators, Dean Addison, Ron Tabuteau, Mark Grunden, Ben Grayson
and Ray Periera SUN GONNA SHINE is a refreshing and predominately acoustic approach blending
a sublime mix of blues, field hollers, chants and gospel.

Kerri is constantly drawing on life experiences, and this album is no different – it is a great combined
successor to the ARIA nominated Confessin’ The Blues, and also the ambitious and critically acclaimed
Vodou Songs Of The Spirits recorded in New Orleans & Haiti.

Like Vodou Songs Of The Spirits, on SUN GONNA SHINE Kerri delves back into the rhythms of
Africa and the American South. The music evokes haunting aural images of slavery, and prison chain
gangs, and then takes an uplifting turn with inspiring early spirituals.

Amongst the highlights on the cd are ‘We Will Fly Away’ – a song Kerri penned with New Orleans
songwriting team Norman Caesar and Jason Neville and ‘Haitian Freedom Song’ written from stories
passed on by Haitian Vodou priest and painter Andre Pierre. Kerri has an outstanding talent, and this
her sixth independent release in ten years deserves a serious listen, as does Vodou Songs Of The Spirits.

www.kerrisimpson.com

Hailing from Glasgow the Trashcan Sinatras are finally heading to Australia en route from the Fuji Rock Festival, Japan. In the UK and the USA the Trashcan Sinatras have been riding a renewed wave of interest receiving critical acclaim for their stunning album Weightlifting as well as rave reviews for their live shows. Each performance has been hailed as captivating, showcasing their intricately constructed songs, which are as affecting as ever.

In acoustic mode the Trashcan Sinatras reveal themselves to be fine exponents of alt-country. The Australian tour will present the Trashcan Sinatras in fine form performing acoustically as well as plugged in for all shows.

This inaugural Australian tour will be an intimate delight for all who attend, and in short their shows should not be missed. During the past two years, the Trashcan Sinatras have performed at 2 SXSW festivals, toured the US 3 times (selling out 3 LA Troubadour shows in 2 days) and have played to 1000 people at a show in Tokyo.

To coincide with the tour Stomp will be releasing Weightlifting…the CD & DVD.
"Tender, wise, compassionate and magnanimous, it's a special, special record for anyone who has ever hurt." - James McNair, Mojo

Weightlifting was released in North America to overwhelmingly favorable reviews. Exclamations such as "chock-full of well-textured pop reveries" (Rolling Stone), "their songs are rife with inexplicable magic" (Filter), "a joyful and reflective string of smart, gentle pop songs" (The Onion), "Weightlifting [was] worth the fight" (Billboard) and "a must have gem" (Under the Radar) were commonplace.

The Trashcans embarked on their first North American tour in over ten years, covering 26 dates, nearly as many in-store and radio appearances, and included sell-outs in New York City (Bowery Ballroom) and San Francisco (Slim's) and and three sell-outs in two days at the Hollywood Troubadour. With the release of Weightlifting the UK media could hardly contain their praise for the album: "We've done precious little to deserve a work so achingly pretty" (Observer Music Monthly), "Weightlifting is a work of unshowy genius" (Word Magazine) , "this is simply a lovely album" (The Scotsman) and "a filler-less cracker... it's a special, special record" (Mojo Magazine).

The fall saw a teaser tour in the UK, and then, with only a week and a half notice, the band returned to the USA for a short acoustic tour, selling out two shows in New York City (Fez), one in San Francisco (Cafe du Nord) and two in Los Angeles (Largo). While in Los Angeles, the band again appeared on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic.

www.trashcansinatras.com