The concerts that we played in February were a joy. Nice Theatres with good sound and most important the audiances loved it. We called the show Bound For Australia the set was half great Aussie covers and half Beggars tunes. There is some video from the Star theatre up on YouTube and a photo snaped of the folks at the Golden Grove Arts Centre which was packed. I am posting from my phone, hope it works. Q
2009 ended on a high note for The Beggars with their track The Banjo Song finishing the year at number 1 on the European Country charts. The Banjo Song is the first single from the bands new “Desert Flower” CD.
Quinton Dunne [The Beggars Bassist] says
“It feels great to get some recognition for all the hard work and touring we have done in Europe over the last two years. We actually played more shows in Europe in 2009 that we did in Australia. Now we are all really looking forward to playing some concerts at home and I love the theatre venues that we will be performing in they are all fantastic. These shows will also give us the opportunity to put a larger band on the stage and make use of all the theatres facilities”
The Beggars are presenting their show Bound For Australia in a season of matinee concerts in theatres around Adelaide in February. It’s a concert production showcasing 200 years of great Australian music including songs from The Seekers, Anne Kirkpatick , Lucky Starr, Chad Morgan, Slim Dusty and of course The Beggars. The show will also feature guest musician and Adelaide legend Trevor Warner. All concerts details are at http://www.outofthesquare.net.au/ and all tickets are $14.
Dates:
Monday Feb 8th at 1.30 pm Shedley Theatre Elizabeth
Tuesday Feb 9th at 11am Marion Cultural Centre
Wednesday Feb 10th at 11am Arts Centre Pt Noarlunga
Thursday Feb 11th at 2pm Golden Grove Arts Centre
Friday Feb 12th at 11am Parks Community Centre
Tuesday Feb 16th at 2pm Star Theatre
The Beggars want to wish you, your family and friends a Great 2010 and all the best for the new decade. And I would like to personally reflect on the spectacular changes in the music industry that this decade has brought and what they mean for little indie bands like us. 30 years ago when I started in the music biz there was no room for the independent. One reason for that was the cost of entry into the business it was so expensive to record and produce product that independents could not get a start but the main reason was the majors: who controlled the industry. They owned the business and if they didn’t invite you in you were out!
When the majors signed an Australia artist they signed a ‘territory the world’ deal which meant your music would never get released outside of Australia. Because the head office, usually in the USA would have its own Artist & Repertoire department pushing its own signings so they would not stand for the labels resources working against their own pet artists. Today independent artists are able to record and produce and promote albums and videos around the world on budgets that are a tiny fraction of what it use to cost. Surely this systemic shift in the industry will stimulate creativity and a lot of great music and artists will see the light of day. Artists that the majors would have crushed like weeds while they tended their garden of favoured acts will grow and produce new music. The downside is that it’s very hard for anyone to make money and survive in this new environment so I guess we can look forward to more “interesting times” in the next decade.
The past year was a productive one for The Beggars we were able write and record our second album “Desert Flower” and things have started happening for us in Europe, we made our second tour over there playing 14 concerts in October and arranged a January 2010 release for “Desert Flower”. But the highlight of the year for us is the way European Radio really got behind “The Banjo Song” the first single from Desert Flower and pushed it to the top of the European CMA chart. ECMA is the oldest Country music chart in Europe and its also very pleasing to see so many other indie Aussie artists represented on the ECMA chart.
Happy New Year
Stuart, Renee and Quinton want to thank Trish Rubenhold for writing; Ross Allen for promoting and all the DJs for playing The Banjo Song and helping it on its way to the top of the European CMA chart what a fantastic result and it will surely get better from here with the Desert Flower album set for a European release in just two weeks.
The Banjo Song has been climbing the European Country Music Association chart for four weeks and just cracked the top ten as a powerplay. Which means a lot of airplay in the last week, This chart is drawn from around 150 stations across Europe and is averaged out over several weeks. If you double click the pdf it will open.
In the snow near the glacier above Natters
This last week was always going to be the busiest week of the tour. As it turns out we are going to add three radio shows to the six gigs that are booked. There is also some travel between shows so we will know we are working. Tuesday we travel into Germany to Ulm to play live and prerecord a show for radio freefm On the road we were listening to Hank Williams from a radio show he recorded in the 1050’s and that gets in the mood for the radio broadcast. At the boarder we got pulled over by the German police but I think they are looking for drugs and not Australian CDs so it is only a brief check through our luggage..Friedrich Hog from the station made a copy for me so I will put some songs from the freefm session up on myspace. The sound is real and raw complete with creaking floorboards and vibe form the folks in the studio.
On Wednesday we play Herbert’s Club it’s called Illertal cowboys Voehringen and its legendary for great acoustic music and for Charlies Goulash. We want to go the hotel and change for the show. But instead Herbert drives to the Club for the
Playing on radio freefm
Goulash and says you can walk to the hotel but must not be late for the Goulash! The show is really good once again completely acoustic. Africola Man recorded it so I will put up a link when I have one. We head off on Thursday morning to the Pitschna Scena which is a gig in the Hotel Saratz about 2000m up in a valley and close to St Moritz. The hotel is very swish and I took the opportunity to grab a swim in their pool which is spectacular with a great view across the show covered mountainsides. This club is a real hang out and there are 250+ young kids in the club when we start. Apparently the drinking age in Switzerland is 16 for beer so even though they look underage to my Aussie eye they probably are not. This place must go right off when the snow season is high its pretty pumpin tonight. The manager of the club comes by on a regular basis and ask us to turn up the volume, this would be the loudest gig by far on the tour and the one where the audience listens the least. I think this is the paradox of playing loud.
Friday night we play the Dream Valley Saloon. Wow what a place it’s a giant log
In Herberts club - Friedrich Hog in the center of the shot
cabin big enough for Paul Bunion and there are buffalo in the paddocks, it looks fantastic. The place is full and it is a great night with a really good vibe. We play quietly through the house system. Its quite a big night but we to take it easy because we have an early start with a drive to Bern and a radio show at 10 am. The show is in the radioRaBe archive at http://www.rabe.ch/ you have to go to webradio and pick 24th October 2009 at 10am to hear it. You will need Winamp or Realplayer or something similar to play the file. Saturday is another acoustic concert in The Angle Share Whisky bar, very intimate and quite sophisticated. The name comes from the crystallized dustings that are shed form the whisky barrels while they age which is said to be the angles share of the whisky. It is a fine concert and I think we won over some concert promoters in the audience who did not take The Beggars on this tour.
That night we travel to Merlischachen where we will play the last two concerts of the tour. On Sunday morning we head over to the GottesdienstReformierte Kirche to play an acoustic set during the church service, The Priest Ursula has based her
The very swish Hotel Saratz
sermon on the lyrics of the six or so songs that we have picked. After the service we play a short set and then hi tail it over the Sheepfarm for the final concert of the tour. This is also the final concert ever in the Sheep farm. Irene the promoter has been a great supporter of The Beggars and the venue is on her beautiful property in a converted farm building. She has sold the farm and with it the venue. The Sheepfarm was where The Beggars made our European debut in 2008 and here we are playing the final show. It is a full house with some folks being turned away at the door. It is a great gig and a very fine end to the tour.
Now that I am at home in Belair in South Australia and writing this I have to mention the stark difference in the weather. It wasn’t even winter in Europe there were lots of warm days and some sun but some days were really cold around 2 degrees C and we could stand on a mountain above Natters with snow all around and next to a huge glacier. I mean that was really impressive. While this week in Adelaide it is a heatwave with temperatures around 39 degrees C every day and
Dream Valley Saloon
the bush where I live is rapidly drying out and going brown. That is a bizarre thing that high speed travel brings. OK that is enough for now I am going to go and jump in the pool for a swim.
The last gig at the Sheepfarm
Renee's view of the Neuchatel gig
The gigs in the City Hotel are last Minuit ones that our Swiss agent pulled to fill for the cancelled dates. The venue is a large restaurant in Brunnen, because of the size of the room we have to put in the pa system we are carrying and do a full mic up. The shows remind me of shows I use to do back in Australia, folks are smoking like they use to in Aus years ago, we play fairly loud and everyone talks over the top of our three or four sets. I am impressed that some of the folks who came to the Friday gig come back and bring their friends to the Saturday show and these tables all buy CDs. On Saturday the weather turns to cold rain and snow and we are all stuck inside for the day the weather has been really good till now but I can see how this could get tedious really quick. I resolve that for future tours I will get contracts with guarantees whether we play or not and to will tour in the warmer months next time. Today is Sunday and a day off for us
Cellar gig in Neuchatel
The Neuchatel concert was really good both the sound and the audience lived up to my expectations. The band feels really solid now and I think all these acoustic concerts are toughening us up. We have to sing and play with balance, strength and sensitivity as well as really listening to one another. I really like the honest nowhere to hide style of the acoustic show and the low volume means everyone must listen and not talk. Its ironic that the quieter we play the more the audience hear. On Tuesday morning we travelled in to the Wallis and to Brig where the Wednesday concert is. The accommodation is a hotel run by nuns. The hotel manager Fabien describes them as kind of nuns I think they are the catholic kind. It is clean and the wifi is free so I am happy. The Londres Bar where we play is an ancient underground vault and a lot like a smaller version of the Neuchatel venue, the very first customers in the place is a loud drunk ACDC and Rose Tattoo fan. They are both great Aust bands but worlds apart from where we are. By the end of the first set he is our best mate and gets us to autograph his arm and back. He left in a hurry during the second set and I believe he may have had a personal hygiene crisis. On Thursday we took the cable car up to the glacier on way above Naters and I decided to walk down the mountain. The walk was a lot steeper than I had expected and my legs and knees got pretty tired good fun though. The next stop is Brunnen for gigs on Friday and Saturday.