Australia truly began its love affair with Canadian trio, The Tea Party in 1995. The band’s second album, The Edges of Twilight, became their first top 10 album in the country thanks to the incredible support from the fans, and Triple J championing them.
Continue reading The Tea Party with The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra – 28 April 2017
Review By Wanda Hill
Photos by Stuart Blythe
Shooglenifty were a great fresh way to start Bluesfest 2016 Day 4. Their celtic flavours are not often heard at Bluesfest. A great contrast and way to refresh the ears, kind of like sniffing a coffee bean in between wine tasting. With a fiddle, banjo, mandolin, drums, guitar and bass these guys from Scotland had the audience experimenting with their best River Dance impersonations and moving in energetic ways that are not your usual Bluesfest hip swinging standard. With beautiful tunes, jigs and reels that branched out to sound almost middle eastern and esoteric at times, this band can really get you dancing. Violinist Angus Grant kept the focus sharply on the music declaring ‘we only have an hour, so we are going to dispense with the hysterical banter that goes on between songs’. See Shooglenifty perform today at the Juke Joint 4:15pm.
Continue reading Live Review + Photo Gallery : Bluesfest Byron Bay 2016 – Day Four
Review By Wanda Hill
Photos by Stuart Blythe
Day three was all about soaking up epic saxophonist Kamasi Washington with his band from Los Angeles during their last Australian show for 2016. To see a jazz/funk band of this quality and diversity in Australia is a real treat and must be embraced if you like this genre. Each incredible musician on tour with Kamasi was given plenty of stage time to showcase their unique contribution and own original material with respectful introductions from Kamasi explaining how they met. It was a real neighbourhood affair with childhood friends and Kamasi’s father all on stage. Some have been friends before they had even picked up an instrument. The arrangements were intricate, full of detail, embracing difficult time signatures, highlighting the fine pedigree of these musicians who mix with jazz royalty back in their homeland.
Continue reading Live Review + Photo Gallery : Bluesfest Byron Bay 2016 – Day Three
Following yesterday’s massive announcement of the first group of talented artists and cultural leaders in the Boomerang program that will feature at Bluesfest next year, today, the 27th Bluesfest Byron Bay, held over Easter (Thu 24 March – Mon 28 March 2016), at its exclusive event site (the lush 300 acre Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm just outside of Byron Bay), releases yet another star studded artist announcement.
Continue reading Bluesfest Byron Bay 2016 adds a further 10 artists to the bill!
Last month the Australian music industry was devastated by the tragic death of well-known and much loved production manager, Shane Cooper, and the serious injury of drummer Mick Skelton, in a car accident while on their way to a gig in regional Victoria.
Continue reading One for the Road – A Benefit for the Cooper and Skelton families
In 1995, Australia truly began its love affair with Canadian trio, The Tea Party. The band’s second album, The Edges of Twilight, became their first top 10 album in the country thanks to the incredible support from the fans, and Triple J championing them.
Continue reading The Tea Party – The Edges of Twilight 20th Anniversary – Australian Tour – November 2015
Following a mammoth year of recording and touring in Canada and Australia, JEFF MARTIN will hit the road in solo acoustic mode nationally from March through to May on his ‘Returning From The Ocean At The End’ tour.
Armed with a bunch of new material under his belt, don’t miss Jeff Martin as he performs around the country this Autumn. Expect to hear acoustic versions of tracks from ‘The Ocean At The End’, as well as some classic Tea Party…and the odd little surprise. Dates below:
Continue reading JEFF MARTIN ‘Returning From The Ocean’ Solo Acoustic Australian Tour 2015
Review by Ben Connolly
The Tea Party set kicks off with a new album (“The Ocean at The End” ) sandwich of The L.O.C. and The Black Sea (with a filling of perennial favourite The Bazaar) highlighting just how crunchy the new offering is. Gone is the flowery bloat and overly-earnest emotive slather which marred the late-career albums, in its stead a return to the screeching wail of a well-throttled Les Paul backed by a thumping backline.
Continue reading Live Review | The Tea Party @ Palais Theatre, Melbourne – October 12, 2014
A musical coupling of tremendous proportions, The Tea Party’s Jeff Martin, and Sarah McLeod announce the ‘Man The Life Boats’ tour, with a run of exclusive dates early 2014.
The pair met in late 2012 and performed a one-off acoustic set that ignited the spark to record together when they both had time outside of their own projects. Fast-forward 12 months later, and the pair are currently in Martin’s Byron Bay studio and hinting at a possible album collaboration.
Continue reading Jeff Martin and Sarah McLeod announce ‘Man The Life Boats’ tour
Review by Billy Geary
On the 13th of April last year, The Tea Party announced that they had reformed after a six-year break. A tour of their native country in Canada quickly followed and, as such, it was only a matter of time before the Reunion Tour made it to Australia. Saturday night at The Hi-Fi was the second show of the tour, the first being at Melbourne’s Palais the night before.
Lone support band Georgia Fair peddled their inoffensive indie/folk rock to a largely disinterested crowd. The pair soldiered on through their lively half hour set, eventually winning over a few early comers, despite the stark contrast in sound with the headliners. Newer track ‘Blind’ in particular managed to turn more than a few heads, however Saturday night was all about The Tea Party.
Continue reading Live Review: The Tea Party @ The Hi-Fi, Melbourne with Georgia Fair – 14th July 2012
JEFF MARTIN (The Tea Party) returns to the intimate solo format this October, after a year of high praise with the formation of a new band 777 that stormed across Australia in May and The Ground Cries Out Album, to a sell out run of shows with the resurgence of The Tea Party in Canada, and to the magic of the collaboration with Terepai Richmond last month; one would think Jeff Martin should need a nice cup of chai tea and a good lie down…but rock & roll never rests ladies & gents, and nor does Jeff Martin.
Continue reading JEFF MARTIN (THE TEA PARTY) – Australian Tour 2011
Former Tea Party frontman JEFF MARTIN forms new band with J Cortez (The Sleepy Jackson/The Armada) and Malcolm Clarke (The Sleepy Jackson/The Basement Birds).
The Jeff Martin 777 project officially came together in 2010. While Jeff spent the majority of the year touring constantly both here & abroad, inbetween shows, Jeff, J (bass) and long-time friend Malcolm (drums) would come together to knock out songs at Malcolm’s Yo-Yo Studio in Perth. The end result sees this super-tight trio come up trumps with their debut studio album, The Ground Cries Out.
Continue reading Jeff Martin 777 ‘The Ground Cries Out’ Tour – May 2011 [Tour News]
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Exploding into the continent this October, the Montreal-based psy-folksters will be treating the good folk at Perth’s One Movement Festival and indoctrinating the salivating masses with a string of special guest appearances alongside Jeff Martin, Elliott Brood and The Trews.
Already ingrained into psyche of key Canadian tastemakers Final Flash can mark |
among their achievements well-recieved shows at CMW, Pop Montreal, the Whistler Canadian Music Showcase, as well as Transmission.
Continue reading FINAL FLASH – HEADING TO AUSTRALIA – October 2010
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Following his 2009 #1 placing of over 10,000 acts competing in the Triple J Unearthed Competition Scott Mellis has been busy opening for Jason Mraz and Tom Morello in Los Angeles after being spotted playing an impromptu acoustic set at a clothing store in Austin while in town for the SXSW music festival. Now he returns to Melbourne for his first (and last) show in the city for 2010 at The Toff on August 24.
Scott Mellis is a 23 year old singer/songwriter from Caloundra originally, moving to Melbourne at 19. Scott Mellis caught the attention of the local music community quickly on his arrival earning a reputation as an eclectic songwriter and performer. This reputation led to Mellis opening for visiting acts including UK folk-rock legend Richard Thompson, as well as Serena Ryder, Brett Dennen, Jeff Martin (Canada), Fink (UK,) and Joseph Arthur (US). |
Continue reading Scott Mellis to perform only Melbourne show for 2010 at The Toff in Town
Photographer: Naomi Rahim
Click the image to view the photo gallery
[Photo: Naomi R]
Jeff Martin @ Corner hotel, Melbourne – 14th May 2010
Continue reading Photo Gallery: Jeff Martin @ Corner Hotel, Melbourne 14th May 2010
