The Scene - Local Entertainment News

It's all in the stars, baby

Helen Hope with her new book Star Babies.

If you ever wanted to know how to settle a restless Virgo child or discover why a fiery Leo baby is acting up, you'll probably find the answers in Helen Hope's new book Star Babies: Astrology for Babies and Their Parents.

Helen, an internationally-renowned astrologer and Lismore local, provides a full rundown in the book on the characteristics of babies born under each star sign as well as listing the birthstone, herb, tree, metal, colour and even city associated with that sign.

Star Babies also features profiles of parenting styles for each star sign, so that parents and parent-to-be can see what the stars have in store for them.

"The book is about putting more joy into parenting and helping parents to be more aware and enlightened about their children," Helen said. "Parents will be able to recognise the unique qualities of their child and rather than impose things on the child, help them develop more naturally. The book is not just for parents with new babies or parents-to-be - I hope it brings enlightenment and illumination to all members of a family, because we've all been babies before. It's further insight into each and every one of us."

Star Babies is published by HarperCollins and is now available in all good bookshops. For trivia buffs, Helen's own daughter is a Capricorn, and has been working as the production manager on Lord of the Rings.

Freebie: The Echo has one copy of Star Babies to giveaway. To go in the draw to win phone 6622 2888 between 10 & 10.15am on Monday, January 19, and tell us what Chinese star sign begins this year on Feb 22.

Keep the Hick Ups at bay

Jimmy Willing (pictured) and his country folk band the Real Gone Hick-Ups will be performing this Saturday, January 17, at The Rails in Byron Bay.

Jimmy is renowned for his saucy cabaret nights in Lismore, which last time saw him sharing the stage with the outrageous Christa Hughes, who's better known as KK Juggy from Machine Gun Fellatio.

Some time ago the talented singer and songwriter wrote a song called Kate Kelly, which has since been played by The Whitlams and a new version, played by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, is now being played on ABC classical radio.

In his role as the frontman of the Real Gone Hick-Ups Jimmy excels, as performing with bands is what he does best. Together Jimmy and the Real Gone Hick-Ups play fabulous, funked out hick country music that will change the way you see country forever.

The gig starts at 7.30pm.

An artistic Havan 'Bali Manis' is just one of the stunning oil paintings currently on show in Brigitte Havan's new exhibition at Caddies in Lismore. The colourful, vibrant collection of works are on show until the end of January.

Short and sweet

This weekend is the only opportunity to see the 13th annual Flickerfest International Short Film Festival locally, and it's well worth the drive to Bangalow to see this clever, funny and sometimes confronting collection short films.

Presented in association with the Byron Bay-based Island Quarry, this year's festival features more than 15 short films from across the world, all of which have won awards and high praise for their quality and creativity.

Like Tropfest, the festival only screens the highest quality short films and the beauty of a short film festival is that if you don't like the film you're watching, you won't have to wait long for something more to your liking.

The festival is being screened this Saturday and Sunday, January 17-18, at the Bangalow A&I Hall. Tickets are $12/10 for one session or $20/18 for a weekend pass, with food and drinks available. The event kicks off at 8.30pm each night. For more information phone 6685 9999.

Skylark's the limit

If you're looking for something a little different to do this Friday afternoon, January 16, why not enjoy the smooth sounds of one of the north coast's finest jazz bands, Skylarks, at the Nimbin Hotel.

The band will be introducing Nick Peterson, who will add his own inimitable flair to their delightful repertoire of jazz favourites and Latin grooves. The music starts at 8pm.

If you can't make this gig the Skylarks have a regular spot at the Nimbin Hotel on the third Sunday of each month (market day) from 2-5pm.

Get some fresh air

Nimbin-based band The Romaniacs are one of four local acts that will gain national airplay after being selected as one of 12 winners in ABC's Fresh Air initiative.

Fresh Air, which received more than 650 entries, aims to promote and showcase quality bands that choose to live and work in a regional area. The Romaniacs were selected for their song Paso Fino, while other local winners include The Hottentots for Don't Trust the Enemy, Lennox Head-based artist Sara Tindley for Down The Avenue and Murwillumbah jazz artist Elizabeth Lord for her song Susanna.

Tune into ABC's Radio National to hear the winning songs, or catch The Romaniacs live this Sunday, January 18, at The Rails in Byron Bay from 6.30pm.

Dance action

NORPA Dance Action is calling all MCs, breakers and hip hop dancers to get involved in the Aussie Battlers competition to be held on Australia Day, January 26, in Lismore.

Aussie Battlers is an extension of the Australia Day Break Comp, which has been going for the last two years, and has been hugely successful.

In 2003 more than 200 people attended Aussie Battlers and this year the event is gearing up to be bigger than ever before.

Participants can enter three different sections: as a break crew, competing in crews of four and as a group or solo funk/break routine. MCs can rhyme, beatbox or freestyle for an open mike and battle. Anyone can enter and have a go.

For more info or to register email emma@norpa.org.au or phone 6622 3279 ASAP.

What a bunch of tarts

Australia's latest pop sensation, Amanda Easton (pictured), will be performing her Pop Tarts tour with fellow Sydney performers Alexis Hart and Kylie Memory at various venues across the north coast over the next two weeks.

Amanda, who recently performed with Powderfinger at the ARIA Awards and completed a tour with Wendy Matthews, is promoting her self-penned single Skin, which looks set to be the newest pop hit around the country.

You can catch the Pop Tarts tour this Saturday, January 17, at the Ballina RSL Club and next Thursday, January 22, at the Canberra Hotel in Lismore. They will also be at the Lennox Point Hotel on Saturday, January 24, and at the Shaws Bay Hotel in Ballina on Sunday, January 25.

For information or ticket bookings phone the venues.

On the Downsyde

When it comes to DJ-based live hip hop bands, Western Australian six-piece outfit Downsyde (pictured) are right up there with the best.

The band started as an MC trio in 1996, with the average age of the band members being just 16. They are now a six-piece with the addition of deck master DJ Armee, percussionist Salvatore and Cheeky on keys, loops and samples.

Using influences from their differing backgrounds - Middle Eastern, Aboriginal, South American, Australian, Asian and European - the band have created a style of hip hop that has moved away from the US-driven gangster rap to a more soul-based, funky type of hip hop that talks frankly about life, politics, racism, tolerance, respect and of course, girls.

Downsyde will perform a one-off gig this Saturday, January 17, at the Great Northern in Byron Bay. Tickets are $15. Doors open at 9.30pm.

Serotonin's all I use

Darwin-based powerfunk act Neo (pictured) will be performing this Friday, January 16, at The Rails in Byron Bay.

Neo was the Northern Territory winner of the University Battle of the Bands and they are now touring to promote their new album, Serotonin.

The group mixes elements of funk, pop and rock with a fantastic live show that recently scored them gigs supporting Machine Gun Fellatio and the Violent Femmes. The gig starts at 6.30pm.

Flying solo

John Dahlsen's primary digital prints, which are currently on show at the Lismore Regional Gallery. John recently won an award at the prestigious Florence Biennale.

Byron based artist, John Dahlsen, is currently working towards a major exhibition of his work in New York in February, hot on the heels of his success at last December's Florence Biennale.

John, who currently has work on show in the Lismore Regional Art Gallery's Flood Sign exhibition, received a prestigious award in the mixed media/new media category.

"The Florence Biennale was an amazing experience," John said. "My work was given one of the most prominent positions and received a critical review by the internationally acclaimed art critic John T Spike. Mr Spike also gave me the honor of interviewing me in front of my artwork, before a large audience and was very generous with his comments."

Based on this success John was offered a solo show at Gallery 49 in New York City, followed by a show in Milan at the D'Ars Exhibition Space in May this year. Check out John's work in the Flood Sign: Memories of a City Underwater exhibition, which is on show at the gallery until January 31.

A fair go for artists

Photographer Jacklyn Wagner's image Karaoke Boys, which is just one of the artworks on show at the annual Australia Day Art Fair at the Winsome Hotel.

The second annual Australia Art Fair will be opened at the Winsome Hotel next Thursday, January 22, with performances and a short film screening.

The art fair, organised by the Lismore Regional Gallery, was extraordinarily successful in 2003, attracting more than 400 visitors. It is a unique art concept, with artists using each of the hotel's upstairs rooms to create a mini-gallery of their work or a site-specific installation.

"The Winsome Art Fair will once again be a showcase for excellence in contemporary art," gallery director, Bronwyn Larner, said. "The exhibition will have a distinctly local flavour this year, with all the artists involved living in the area surrounding Lismore."

The Heritage listed Winsome Hotel was built in 1925, in late Victorian/Federation style. The beautiful old building will be the setting for a display of diverse artistic expression and many of the artists involved will be making a thematic connection to the Hotel itself.

One example is local photographer, Jacklyn Wagner, who has produced a series of layered images that look closely at the hotel and its people, some of whom have lived in the hotel for many years. Others are visitors, who come for the special events and the atmosphere, and stay only briefly.

The 16 artists involved in this year's art fair include Maree Bracker, Cornelius Delaney, Fran Tomlin, Marko Koludrovic and Des Sheridan.

The art fair will be opened at 6.30pm next Thursday with performances by Black Train and Kilderkin. There will also be a guest appearance by noted contemporary Australian artist Luke Roberts and a film screening by Cal McKinnon.

The exhibition will then be open in the evenings from 3-7pm at the Winsome Hotel, 11 Bridge Street, North Lismore. It is on show until Wednesday, January 28, 2004.

Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll a Daley affair

Local musician and author of King Tide Rollin', Mick Daley.

The life of a rock band may appear to the average punter as an existence filled with nothing but sex, drugs and rock n' roll. But behind the scenes lies a very different story, as Mick Daley's new novel, King Tide Rollin' - A Tale You Might Believe, clearly reveals.

Mick, a freelance journalist and lead singer of local band The Re-Mains, has given The Echo a special sneak preview of his new book, which details the crazy, sometimes dangerous and always entertaining world of a touring rock band.

The book details what happened during a month-long tour in 1989 from Darwin to Perth with Weddings Parties Anything and their outspoken touring companions Tiddas. It was the year of Mabo and in the Northern Territory emotions were running high, and that was before the band even arrived.

Whilst on the road with the band Mick wrote a tour diary, and the resulting novel (which he finished in 2000) is a 'Fear and Loathing' style account of the tumultuous tour and the outrageous adventures that were had along the way.

"It was pretty wild and controversial for that time - we were taking radical leftist folk into the far right hinterland, and there's some interesting and eye-opening anecdotes," Mick said. "There were some incidents of quite savage prejudice and it was quite extraordinary to be amongst that reality of racism - the book highlights a lot of stuff that goes on that you wouldn't otherwise hear about. I originally wrote the book for Weddings Parties Anything fans, but I hope it's written well enough that people just enjoy it as a good adventure yarn. It was very vibrant, very colourful tour and what went on was pretty entertaining stuff - on and off stage."

Mick plans to release King Tide Rollin - A Tale You Might Believe in coming months through his burgeoning publishing company, The Silver Eggheads, which he has established with local writer and performer Laurie Axtens. The book will also include illustrations by Pete Lawler, the Weddings Parties Anything bass player at the time.

Mick's novel will be the first released under the company's label, with several other books already earmarked for publication after that.

Here is the first exclusive extract from the novel...

King Tide Rollin' - A Tale You Might Believe

Chapter One

Billy Bragg grinned and offered me a beer. Mick Thomas had just introduced us and I gratefully stuffed the can into my gob, in lieu of having anything intelligent to say to the cheerful Marxist troubadour.

He sauntered off to the toilet and we were left to be entertained by Wiggy, Mr Bragg's guitarist, who looked like a hungover Jesus and Mary Chain roadie with his floppy afro and air of genial fatigue.

My mate Mush and I were backstage at the gig of the year, at Sydney Town Hall in 1989. Outside, a couple of thousand people were beginning to get a little over-excited, as they waited for Weddings Parties Anything to take the stage.

Mick, Pete, Wally, Richie Bergman and Marcus Schintler (the guitarist and drummer at the time) were hanging out with Bragg's mob and having a few sustaining beverages for the laughs that were in them. I hadn't seen the Weds play for a long time, and this gig was a welcome return to the fold. While I'd been otherwise engaged, they'd been conquering the world.

They strode onstage confidently, beaming like schoolkids as they surveyed the surging mob. They waved g'day, using the open palmed salute instituted by vodkabilly avatars The Johnnies and since enshrined as a traditional rock roosterism. They played a fine rambunctious set, giving Bragg a high tide mark to reach, as the crowd demanded two encores. The final number, 'Hobart Town' nearly tore the high-beamed old roof off. But this was Bragg's crowd too, and his record 'Worker's Playtime' had whet their appetites for his fiery invective and pop polemics. Bragg was in form, brilliant and funny, his incisive lyrics and gritty charisma reinforced by pianist Cara Tivey and the guitar work of the glum little firecracker, Wiggy.

Billy worked through some older songs, 'St Swithins Day' and 'Valentines Day is Over' and the beautiful ballad 'Must I Paint You a Picture', off his current record, with Cara's lovely voice giving it a leg up into ethereal realms.

Then he started singing his signature hit, 'The Great Leap Forward' and with each successive verse the Weds came out to join him, one by one. By the time the whole band was onstage the song had swelled to a grand crescendo and the crowd surging through the Town Hall were bellowing along with the refrain; 'We're waiting for the great leap forward'.

They weren't letting anybody leave after that either, and Bragg's encore, the socialist anthem 'There is Power in a Union', crashed out heroically over the fervent audience, stopping and starting again on cue, eight bars and then silence, another eight bars and silence. Teased beyond endurance, the crowd was uttering terrifying guttural roars as the makeshift band worked the song with the pantherlike precision of an overweight SS Panzer division.

When the performance was finally over, I didn't bother trying to fight my way backstage.

The entrances had been mobbed by yelping punters desperate to show Bragg and the Weddings their solidarity, maybe see Billy give a V sign or something. I was keen to taste the beers backstage, where the musicians were no doubt gathered, grinning conspiratorially at each other, but I'd have to wait.

The easy camaraderie evinced by this performance was no showbiz farce. As a result of this and a previous tour Bragg had became a great fan of the Weds, identifying with their form of muscular folk-rock.

Though the Weds had never been an overtly political outfit, their authenticity as a humanitarian, socially concerned band (see 'Made Farrar', 'She Works', 'Hungry Years', Sisters of Mercy' et al) and their love of beer and a riotous good time had spawned a symbiotic relationship with the 'Cockney Commie'. Their own take on the benefits of socialism was about summed up by their top-selling t-shirts, featuring a 1950's Soviet Union propaganda-style worker bearing a piano accordion on his broad shoulders.

A few years later I was to receive a postcard from Mush, then in England. He's Pete Lawler's brother, and a colourful figure of a fine bouncing man himself. In a brief, lurid passage he described various cavortings in London Town, including his attendance at a Billy Bragg show at The Garage.

Here, Mr Bragg had shocked hell out of him by announcing he was about to play a Weddings Parties Anything song, and launched into 'Ship in The Harbour', the lament penned by Pete himself.

Later, Pete told Mush that Bragg had said to him that the only reason he played that one was all Micky's songs had Australian place name references in them, and he wanted to sing something less defining. For my money, the cover also showed that Bragg had taken something from what he'd experienced playing on the bill with the Weds and was visibly savouring the memory.

My theory went that he'd felt something emanating from their work that gelled with his ideal of universal socialism, which roughly translates into the camaraderie and romance of hard working, bittersweet lives. The Weds might eschew such a fanciful notion, but they would I think, go along with the idea that their music is an integral part of a larger symbiotic relationship that begins with their audience and extends into all their lives.

Music as a social unifying force, invoking ideas of egalitarianism and social justice that are reflected in their lyrics and attitudes. Or they might just say that they like Billy Bragg's songs and he likes their's.

Shared experience and common bonds were instrumental in my own experience of the Wedding's world, which went back to when they first moved to Sydney, back in the days when you moved there from Melbourne, rather than the other way round.

They were a fledgling folk-rock mob, and I was a loose cannon caroming around Sydney, goat-dancing at the Paddo RSL and singing along to 'Ticket in Tatts' in the front row at the Hopetoun, where Mush scored free beers for us as part of his role as the sausage salesman in his in-house barbeque.

We followed the band all over Sydney and witnessed the swelling crowds, drank their riders and met their girls as they became a part of my life and my life became a part of the writing of this tale, a tale you might believe...

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