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blues rock

Brad Cook Trio

Gear up for a captivating night of Psychedelic Blues Rock as the ‘Brad Cook Trio’ hits the Cherry Bar stage on Friday, February 9, 2024. Celebrating the EP ‘Time to Fly,’ the evening highlights Brad‘s retro guitar finesse and classic rock influences, showcasing the band’s genuine love for psychedelic rock and power blues.

Joining the lineup is ‘War Birds,’ fresh back from their recent UK tour. With catchy riffs and powerful vocals, they promise a memorable performance.

Round up your friends, grab a drink, and immerse yourself in the authentic essence of rock ‘n’ roll. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Gwyn Ashton

In Sydney, Australia in the 80s Gwyn Ashton was one-time lead guitarist for Stevie Wright and Swanee and in the 90s he moved to Melbourne and played on two of The Masters Apprentices Jim Keays' solo albums. Ashton opened for Rory Gallagher, Junior Wells and various blues bands from the USA when they came to Australia. Asked by Billy Thorpe if Mick Fleetwood could sit in with his band, Ashton was instantly on the short list as lead guitarist with according to Mick's sound engineer "something big but we can't say who it is", but he was told to get his passport together! One can only imagine...

After relocating and playing the European circuit for three years by 2001 the now Virgin Records France recording artist Gwyn Ashton was nominated at third position as ‘Guitarist of The Year’ in Guitar Part Magazine. First and second positions were Jeff Beck and Gary Moore, fourth was Popa Chubby, fifth was Guns N Roses Izzy Stradlin. Ashton’s first gig in France was opening for Buddy Guy with ex Rolling Stones Mick Taylor on before Gwyn. Ashton questioned this and said 'we don't deserve to be on after Mick. It's the wrong way around' but the organisers insisted on this as his popularity in France had grown. Ashton then played the Paris Music Trade Show where Fender France presented him with a new Stratocaster.

With numerous worldwide radio appearances under his belt, in the '90s Ashton appeared live on a radio show in Kent, England with Bert Jansch. He played on a derelict Dutch train carriage on the pirate station Radio London in the Netherlands and networks in Australia including various ABC stations and public radio. He was also interviewed and played a live performance in France on Paris Inter.

Ashton then co-headlined Garden Blues Festival in Marseille with Robben Ford and on the bill with Ray Charles at Cognac Blues Passions. At this time Ashton had two of his albums simultaneously in the Amazon France Top 100 charts. He has played many guitar and blues festivals including two appearances at the Acoustic Festival of Great Britain, Popkomm in Berlin, Guitar Heroes Festival in Germany with Mick Taylor and has conducted blues masterclasses at London’s Guitar Institute, Guitar X and Academy of Sound in Birmingham and Exeter, England. Ashton also played the 10th annual ’Thanks Jimi’ Festival in Wroclaw, Poland onstage with Bernie Marsden and Jimi Hendrix’s brother Leon Hendrix, leading 8000 guitarists playing ‘Hey Joe’ in the market square setting a new ‘Guinness Book of World Records’.

For five years Ashton was Gerry McAvoy’s choice for fronting the Rory Gallagher celebratory group Band of Friends, replacing Thin Lizzy/Motorhead guitarist Brian Robertson. They headlined the first two Ballyshannon Rory Gallagher Festivals with members of The Dubliners opening for them. Rory’s brother Donal was taken aback by Ashton’s interpretation of his late brother’s guitar playing stating ‘I like the way you put your own slant on Rory’s music, you don’t just copy him’. The band consisted of Gerry, Lou Martin, Brendan O’Neill, Mark Feltham and Dennis Greaves, all who at the time played in the band Nine Below Zero. Gerry and Brendan played on Ashton’s ‘Fang It! album with Greaves producing it. The album received great reviews and won many awards for ‘Album of The Year’ in a host of magazines.

Italian guitar company Liutart then asked Ashton to design his own signature guitar which he uses to this day with the configuration based on his favourite classic guitars - Gibson Firebird, Danelectro and Fender Telecaster pickups. Ashton called this 'the ultimate slide guitar'.

Since then Ashton has been touring Europe with many acts including The Yardbirds, Johnny Winter, Peter Green, Slade, The Sweet, Canned Heat, Magnum, The Troggs and headlining his own shows. He has also played dates in England with Van Morrison, Robin Trower, Jeff Healey, Tony Joe White, Walter Trout and 15 arena shows, including Wembley, with the legendary Status Quo with Francis Rossi asking him about co-writing and Rick Parfitt wanting some slide guitar tips. Ashton has shared the bill twice with Joe Bonamassa, once at Birmingham NEC for Music Live and once at a guitar festival in Sweden. Ashton has performed at guitar shows appeared twice on Czech National TV, ZDF TV in Germany and in Bulgaria on Slavi's Show, Slavi being the 'Bulgarian Jay Leno' with an audience of two million. This coincided with Ashton's concert for the American Chamber of Commerce celebrating American Independence Day, 50 years of Bulgarian occupancy and the 50th anniversary of the Stratocaster, the show being organised by Fender Bulgaria July 4 2004.

Three years running he played at Deep Purple keyboardist Don Airey’s charity show near Cambridge, England with members of Whitesnake Bernie Marsden, Mickey Moody and Neil Murray, plus Uli John Roth, Robert Hart and Jimmy Page’s first choice for Led Zeppelin vocalist Terry Reid. Don has played on two of Ashton’s albums ‘Prohibition’ (alongside Chris Glen and Ted McKenna from Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Ian Gillan, Michael Schenker Group) and ‘Radiogram’ which also features guest appearances from Kim Wilson (Fabulous Thunderbirds), Robbie Blunt (Robert Plant), Mark Stanway (Magnum, Phil Lynott’s Grand Slam) and Mo Birch (Robert Plant, Go West, Paul Rodgers, Culture Club). Ashton has recorded eight albums, some with special guests mentioned above.

Ashton has been invited onstage with some of the greatest blues and rock musicians including ex Black Crowes Marc Ford who also asked him to play lap steel on a studio session in Los Angeles. They also played three duo shows together. He jammed with Walter Trout, the legendary Canned Heat and Hubert Sumlin at blues festivals in England and Germany, bassist extraordinaire Jerry Jermott (BB King, Aretha Franklin) and Cactus and former Vanilla Fudge bassist Tim Bogert in Los Angeles and he even sat around David Crosby's dining room table trading licks on acoustic guitar with the former Byrd's legendary singer, songwriter. Jackson Browne and Robert Plant have both commented favourably on Ashton's playing and both been part of his audience. Ashton has even been known to sit around former Rainbow and Alcatraz singer Graham Bonnet in his living room, playing and singing Beatles songs together! He's also played with Steely Dan's Elliott Randal and former Jethro Tull's Mick Abrahams at a fund-raising show in England. Tull's former drummer Clive Bunker was Ashton's first UK drummer and Ashton played two shows with ex Rick Wakeman singer Gary Pickford-Hopkins.

During a tour of Spain, Ashton found himself jamming with former Wings drummer Geoff Britten who played on ‘Venus and Mars’. In Austin Texas, he was invited onstage with the hierarchy of the Austin scene including Derek O’Brien, Malford Milligan, Chris Duarte, Roscoe Beck and Frosty.

Eric Johnson’s bassist Chris Maresh joined Ashton on a 2018 German tour with Welsh drummer Chris Sharley from the 70s band Sassafrass. Budgie’s Burke Shelley gave Ashton a CD to learn their songs as they were possibly looking for a replacement guitarist at one stage. Shelley’s blues band opened for Ashton at a Christmas party at Tawe Delta Blues Club in Swansea, Wales. They were introduced by Dire Straits and Rockpile drummer Terry Williams.

Ashton’s first Czech Republic gig was with BB King at Golem Blues Festival, where he was the only other musician apart from King's entourage allowed in the dressing room prior to his

performance. Ashton has recorded nine albums, some with special guests mentioned above.

Gwyn Ashton’s critically-acclaimed release ‘Solo Elektro’ saw him reinvented as an alternative progressive blues-rock solo artist with elements of 60s garage rock, psychedelia, acoustic roots and some good old-fashioned rock 'n' roll influences. The follow-up power-duo album - 2019's Sonic Blues Preachers features ex Bon Scott Fraternity drummer John Freeman.

An inductee into the South Australian Music Hall of Fame for recognition of his contribution of sharing original Australian music with the world, Ashton's show is retro with a modern evolution as he crosses the boundaries between indie rock and the blues, mixing his electric set with acoustic lap side and steel-bodied resonator guitars along the way. His two-hour show takes his audience on an eclectic musical mesmerising story-telling journey, as he engulfs and engages them in a hypnotic musical adventure, showing music has no boundaries.

Joni Mitchell

Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell CC (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her starkly personal lyrics and unconventional compositions, which grew to incorporate pop and jazz influences.[1] She has received many accolades, including ten Grammy Awards and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Rolling Stone called her "one of the greatest songwriters ever",[2] and AllMusic has stated, "When the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century".[1]

Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and throughout western Canada, before moving on to the nightclubs of Toronto, Ontario. She moved to the United States and began touring in 1965. Some of her original songs ("Urge for Going", "Chelsea Morning", "Both Sides, Now", "The Circle Game") were recorded by other folk singers, allowing her to sign with Reprise Records and record her debut album, Song to a Seagull, in 1968.[3] Settling in Southern California, Mitchell helped define an era and a generation with popular songs like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Woodstock". Her 1971 album Blue is often cited as one of the best albums of all time; it was rated the 30th best album ever made in Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time",[4] rising to number 3 in the 2020 edition.[5] In 2000, The New York Times chose Blue as one of the 25 albums that represented "turning points and pinnacles in 20th-century popular music".[6] NPR ranked Blue number 1 on a 2017 list of Greatest Albums Made By Women.[7]

Mitchell switched labels and began exploring more jazz-influenced ideas, by way of lush pop textures, on 1974's Court and Spark, which featured the radio hits "Help Me" and "Free Man in Paris"[8] and became her best-selling album. Mitchell's vocal range began to shift from mezzo-soprano to more of a wide-ranging contralto around 1975.[9][10][11] Her distinctive piano and open-tuned guitar compositions also grew more harmonically and rhythmically complex as she melded jazz with rock and roll, R&B, classical music and non-Western beats. In the late 1970s, she began working with noted jazz musicians including Jaco Pastorius, Tom Scott, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Pat Metheny as well as Charles Mingus, who asked her to collaborate on his final recordings.[12] She later turned to pop and electronic music and engaged in political protest. She was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards in 2002[13] and became a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2021.[14]

Mitchell produced or co-produced most of her albums. A critic of the music industry, she quit touring and released her 17th and last album of original songs in 2007. Mitchell has designed most of her own album covers, describing herself as a "painter derailed by circumstance".

Persecution Blues

After a two-year stint living and working in Sydney, Van Dungen returned to Melbourne just as The Tote was celebrating its 21st anniversary. Van Dungen had already taken note of Melbourne’s vibrant live music scene, and hatched an idea to document various live music venues in their natural, thriving state. “Initially I thought it might be good to do a documentary on the Rainbow, which I used to go to, and which was threatening to close because of noise complaints,” Van Dungen says. “Then the next day I was going through the street press and realised it was The Tote’s 21st anniversary, so I thought I’d seize the moment and do some filming in The Tote.”

Van Dungen approached then-licensee Richie Ramone to film a Magic Dirt gig. “Richie said it was fine, as long as the venue didn’t have to do anything to set up,” Van Dungen says. Van Dungen gradually realised that, rather than a collage of Melbourne venues, she should concentrate on the legendary Tote. “I did a lot of research on The Tote, and started shooting bands and interviewing people,” Van Dungen says.

The original concept – a long-form documentary celebrating The Tote in all its festering rock ‘n’ roll glory – took a sharp turn when Bruce Milne announced that the venue would be forced to close in the face of Milne’s escalating debts. Van Dungen took her camera into The Tote to witness The Tote staff, past and present, come together to provide a suitable send-off. As a former Tote staff member herself, filming the last days and hours was a particularly emotional activity. “It was hard because I was pointing a camera at the staff as they went through it,” Van Dungen says. “It was hard watching the grief that went through the community. But I was hoping it would re-open, because there was so much grief going on, and it seemed wrong that The Tote was being taken away from this community,” she says.

But as the local music community grappled with the shock of The Tote’s impending closure, a rear guard action – in the form of the Save Live Australia’s Music (SLAM) community action movement – was being conceived. Van Dungen took her cameras to the SLAM Rally in January 2010, an outpouring of support for live music that took the state government by surprise. Having previously been given a distribution deal and the use of an edit suite by Madman, Van Dungen approached the ABC for funding support to finalise the documentary, now recalibrated to narrate the events leading up to, and immediately following The Tote’s closure.

The final product, Persecution Blues – named after the Powder Monkeys song featured on the wall of The Tote as a poetic tribute – premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival last month. “At the first screening I was looking out into the crowd and seeing all these familiar faces,” Van Dungen says. “Having spent seven years making it, it was tremendous to be able to share it – but it was also quite nerve-wracking!” she laughs.

Persecution Blues has now secured a feature run at the Cinema Nova in Carlton, with a DVD release slated for early 2012, shortly after the film is shown on ABC. “With the DVD I’d like to use as much footage as we can that didn’t appear on the final documentary,” Van Dungen says. “It’s pretty hard to cram 400 hours of film into 57 minutes, so there’s still a lot more to show.”

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Dan Brodie

Dan Brodie is an Australian singer and songwriter from Melbourne, Australia, best known for his prolific solo career, during which he has released seven studio.

In addition to releasing his own albums, Brodie's songs have been recorded by other artists including two songs on Love Is Mighty Close, a Vika and Linda Bull Album. Also in 2010 Brodie appeared on the Paul Kelly produced Maurice Frawley tribute album, Long Gone Whistle – The Songs of Maurice Frawley, performing the Frawley track, "Roll me" to a sold out audience at the Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda.

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Brodie was raised in a musical family, his father, a professional guitarist and singer taught Brodie the basic chords of guitar. With his brother Chris Brodie (Dallas Crane), they began playing in bands together, honing their skills of playing live to audiences around the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne before landing their first pub show whilst still in their early teens at the Richmond Club Hotel in 1990.

Over the next five years, Brodie performed around Melbourne, recording his first proper Album in a student run studio at Monash University in Clayton in 1993, released on tape and sold at live shows. After a move to the inner-city in 1996, Brodie joined dirty swamp rockers, Luxedo, on bass, the line-up also including Tom Carlyon on lead guitar and vocals, Emilie Martin on violin and guitar and Jamie Coghill on drums, contributing to the debut LP, Beauty Queen and the follow up, City Lights and Roadkill departing in 2001 to concentrate on his solo career.[citation needed]

1998-2000: I'm Floatin' Mamma and Big Black Guitar
A five track EP, I'm Floatin' Mamma was independently released in 1998; followed by debut album, Big Black Guitar in 1999. Backed by The Broken Arrows which featured his brother Chris Brodie on slide guitar, Craig Williamson (These Immortal Souls) on drums and Dan Kelly on bass, Brodie signed to EMI who re-released his debut album. Both the EP and debut album were produced by Maurice Frawley and engineered by Dave McCluney at Atlantis Studios in Melbourne.[citation needed]

2001-2004: Make Me Wanna Kill and Empty Arms, Broken Hearts
In 2001, Brodie released a four track EP featuring songs recorded for his forthcoming unreleased album, as well as some from earlier demos.[citation needed]

Brodie's second album, Empty Arms, Broken Hearts was released in 2002. Containing the singles "Jesus, Try and Save Me", "Take a Bullet" and "Hope That We Get Home Tonight", the album was nominated for two ARIA Music Awards.

2005-2009: Beautiful Crimes
Brodie's solo album entitled Beautiful Crimes was released in 2005 that veered away from country into a more indie rock sound and was produced by Barry Palmer of Hunters and Collectors, releasing the two radio friendly power-pop rock anthems, "Wanna Shine" and "Sweetheart".[citation needed]

Brodie took an extended break from touring with a band and spent several months playing solo shows across the Americans.[citation needed]

2010-2011: My Friend The Murderer
Brodie returned to Australia to record My Friend The Murderer which was released in 2011. The album was recorded at Headgap Studios in Melbourne, Australia by Brent "Sloth" Punshon and for the first time showed off Brodie's newly formed backing band, the Grieving Widows, featuring Chris Brodie on bass and Dave Nicholls on drums.[citation needed]

2012-2014: Deep Deep Love and Run Yourself Ragged EP
Brodie completed work on his fifth album Deep Deep Love in 2012 before a diagnosis of Hodgkins Lymphoma and subsequent treatment of chemotherapy and radiotherapy sidelined him for most of 2013, delaying the record release. Deep Deep Love features minimalist backing of double bass by Dean Schulz Layla and Rhianna Fibbins on backing vocals and Grieving Widow's alumni Chris Brodie and David Nicholls on guitar and drums respectively.[citation needed]

In June 2014, Brodie entered St Charles Recording Studio in Northcote with the Grieving Widows to record a song from their live set; a cover of Ian Rilen’s (Rose Tattoo/Love Addicts) "Booze to Blame". Three more songs of original material quickly followed, and Run Yourself Ragged EP was released.

2015-2016: Big Hearted Lovin Man: A Retrospective 1999-2014
In March 2015, Brodie released the live album, Big Hearted Lovin' Man: A Retrospective 1999-2014. The album was recorded in one night in January, 2015 at Salt Studios in Melbourne. In April 2015, Brodie embarked on a three-month solo acoustic tour of Europe playing back to back shows at France.[citation needed]

2017: Lost Not Found and Funerária do Vale
In early 2017, Brodie returned to Melbourne to record Lost Not Found a collection of reinterpreted cover songs.[citation needed]

Brodie's seventh studio album, Funerária do Vale was released on 30 August 2019. The album cover and title are taken from a photo that Brodie took of a funeral home in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil during a six month stay in 2007. He said "I found the imagery so evocative (with its English translation of 'Valley of the Funeral Home'), and always hoped to use it as an album cover. In a way I wrote the songs to fit the existing photograph, exploring themes of loss."

The Radiators

One of the first major bands on the Irish punk rock scene, the Radiators fused the angry, upstart attitude of their peers with a tough, guitar-based attack and intelligent songwriting that would earn them a potent cult following both in Ireland and Great Britain. The Radiators were formed in 1976 when guitarist and singer Philip Chevron, who had been fronting a band of his own, met guitarist Pete Holidai after reading about Holidai's like-minded band Greta Garbage and the Trashcans in an Irish music paper. Chevron, Holidai, and one of Holidai's bandmates, vocalist Steve Rapid, began rehearsing together, and after the addition of bassist Mark Megaray and drummer Jimmy Crash, the new band toyed with several different names before christening themselves the Radiators from Space.

TV Tube Heart
The new group quickly began recording demo tapes of their material, and less than a week after they made their live debut opening for Eddie & the Hot Rods in Dublin on November 13, 1976, they signed with Chiswick Records, and their debut single, "Television Screen" b/w "Love Detective," was released in April 1977. The single went into the Irish Top 20, and Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy endorsed the band, but their luck took a turn for the worse when the Radiators from Space organized a punk rock festival at a college in Dublin; a fan was killed during a fight at the gig, and the publicity cost the band a number of major bookings, though they appeared on the bill at a massive open-air gig in August with Thin Lizzy, the Boomtown Rats, and Graham Parker & the Rumour. The Radiators from Space made plans to relocate to England, but Steve Rapid opted not to go, and Chevron took over as lead singer; both sang on the group's debut album, TV Tube Heart, which appeared in October 1977.

Ghostown
By this time, the band had streamlined their name to the Radiators and had signed a deal with CBS Records for Ireland. In 1978, the band started work on their second album with noted producer Tony Visconti at the controls; the group also added guitarist Bill Morley, who had been a member of Greta Garbage and the Trashcans. An early single from the Visconti sessions, "Million Dollar Hero," was well reviewed after it was released in April 1978, but it stalled in the charts, and the group's ambitious new material didn't click with fans at live shows, and the band stopped touring in England after a combative London gig at the end of October. It wasn't until August 1979 that the Radiators' long-completed second album, Ghostown, was finally released, and despite rave notices from critics, it didn't do well in the charts. By the time the album had finally appeared, Bill Morley and Mark Megaray had quit the Radiators, and rather than tour to support the disc, Chevron focused on writing and staging a musical, The Ha'Penny Place.

Rum, Sodomy & the Lash
The Radiators soldiered on for a bit, recording new material with producer Hans Zimmer, but while two singles were released in 1980 and the band toured Ireland for the first time in two years, tensions grew within the group, and shortly before releasing a farewell single, "Song of the Faithful Departed," in March 1981, the group announced their breakup. In 1985, Chevron joined Celtic folk-punks the Pogues in time for the recording of their breakthrough album, Rum Sodomy & the Lash, and finally enjoyed the international success that had somehow avoided the Radiators. The Radiators reunited for a one-off show in 1987 to benefit a Dublin AIDS group, and the show was recorded for a cassette-only release, 1988's Dollar for Your Dreams. A new song from Chevron, "Under Clery's Clock," was debuted at the benefit show, and a studio recording was released as a single in early 1989; it was later added to a remastered reissue of Ghostown that appeared later the same year.

Alive-Alive-O!
In 1996, the same year the Pogues announced their breakup, a live Radiators album, Alive-Alive-O!, recorded at a London gig in February 1978, was issued. In 2004, the Radiators reunited for a handful of live shows and released a new EP. More shows followed in 2005, and the following year the group recorded a new album, Trouble Pilgrim, which was released in Ireland on October 20, 2006; it featured the group name the Radiators from Space, possibly to avoid confusion with the American roots rock act the Radiators. The album was issued in Great Britain in 2007.

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The Modfathers

Heavy Soul, the follow-up to the million-selling Stanley Road, saw Weller twist his sound again. The album was more raw than its predecessor; Weller was now frequently playing live in the studio in as few takes as possible.[citation needed] The first single "Peacock Suit" reached No. 5 in the UK Singles Chart, and the album reached No. 2. Success in the charts also came from compilations: "Best Of" albums by the Jam and the Style Council charted, and in 1998 his own solo collection Modern Classics was a substantial success.

In 2000, while living in Send, Surrey, he released his fifth solo studio album, Heliocentric. Once again finding himself without a record contract, Weller's Days of Speed worldwide tour provided him with the opportunity to view his works as one back catalogue, giving rise to a second successful live album in 2001. Days of Speed contained live acoustic versions from the world tour of the same name, including some of his best-known songs from his solo career and the back catalogues of his Jam and Style Council days.

There were rumours at the time that Heliocentric would be Weller's final studio effort, but these proved unfounded when he released the No. 1 hit album Illumination in September 2002. Co-produced by Noonday Underground's Simon Dine, it was preceded by yet another top 10 hit single "It's Written in the Stars". Weller also appears on the 2002 Noonday Underground album called Surface Noise, singing on the track "I'll Walk Right On".

In 2002, Weller collaborated with Terry Callier on the single "Brother to Brother", which featured on Callier's album Speak Your Peace. In 2003, Weller teamed up with electronic rock duo Death in Vegas on a cover of Gene Clark's "So You Say You Lost Your Baby", which featured on their Scorpio Rising album.

In 2004, Weller released an album of covers entitled Studio 150. It debuted at No. 2 in the UK charts and included Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" as well as covers of songs by Gil Scott-Heron, Rose Royce and Gordon Lightfoot, amongst others.

Weller's 2005 album As Is Now featured the singles "From the Floorboards Up", "Come On/Let's Go" and "Here's the Good News". The album was well-received, though critics noted that he was not moving his music forward stylistically,[14] and it became his lowest-charting album since his 1992 debut.

In February 2006 it was announced that Weller would be the latest recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the BRIT Awards. Despite a tendency to shun such occasions, Weller accepted the award in person, and performed four songs at the ceremony, including the Jam's classic "Town Called Malice". In June 2006, another double live album titled Catch-Flame!, featuring songs from both his solo work and his career with the Jam and the Style Council, was released. In late 2006, the album Hit Parade was released, which collected all the singles released by the Jam, the Style Council and Weller during his solo career. Two versions of this album were released: a single disc with a selection from each stage of his career, and a four-disc limited edition, which included every single released and came with a 64-page booklet. Weller was offered appointment as a Commander of the Order of British Empire in the 2006 birthday honours, but rejected the offer.[15]

In 2007 Weller was guest vocalist on the album issue by the folk musical project the Imagined Village.

The Opals

The Opals, a blues influenced rock band that has been in hibernation since last year with their work in the studio, have finally woken up from their slumber, headlining a matinee show at The Workers Club for their re-entry into the live scene.

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Dane Blacklock and the Preacher's Daughter

Dane Blacklock moved to Melbourne in 2010 and immediately fell in with a bad crowd. Those unwashed miscreants from the wrong side of the tracks that were up to no good. They were into pre-marital sex, illicit substances and rock and roll music. Dane began frequenting live music venues where he was exposed to a host of grimy, rough, blues and country artists. His poor innocent mind was never the same. Soon he was practicing guitar, and 'jamming' with other would be musicians, he formed rock and roll 'groups' with his friends, first Golgotha Motel, a rough and ready savage little enterprise, then the later more refined evolution, Dane Blacklock and the Preacher's Daughter, who together created a kind of doom-folk grime blues hootenanny sound. They played around the Fitzroy and Collingwood area in dive bars of low moral calibre. Now after years of fraternising, dallying, drinking alcoholic beverages, playing music, and other dangerous behaviour, Dane plays with the Preacher's Daughter ...

Kid Congo and The Pink Monkey Birds

From the early '80s onward, guitarist Kid Congo Powers (born Brian Tristan) was a distinctive presence at the nexus where roots music meets punk. Powers had memorable tenures with the Gun Club (which he co-founded with Jeffrey Lee Pierce), the Cramps, and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. However, while he was the instrumental half of the Congo Norvell duo in the '90s, Powers didn't consider stepping out as a frontman until 2005. That year, Powers released two solo albums, Philosophy and Underwear and Solo Cholo. As Powers began refining his skills as a songwriter and vocalist, he ramped up his recording and touring schedule, and formed a band to accompany him on his projects. Fusing primitive, swampy rock & roll, garage rock, and fractured blues with East L.A. Chicano rock and a dash of punk and psychedelia, Powers dubbed his new band the Pink Monkey Birds. The group initially featured Powers on guitar and vocals, Jack Martin on guitar, Kiki Solis on bass, and Ron Miller on drums. By the time the band recorded its first album, Dracula Boots, in 2009, Martin was out and Jesse Roberts had stepped in on guitar and keyboards. Kid Congo & the Pink Monkey Birds continued to tour regularly, racking up more miles than Powers had since the '90s, and they released Gorilla Rose in 2011 and Haunted Head in 2013. In 2016, Powers and the group delivered their fourth album, La Arana Es la Vida. The LP introduced a new Pink Monkey Birds lineup; Jesse Roberts parted ways with the band, and Powers recruited guitarist Mark Cisneros to fill the vacancy in the group.