The Scene - Local Entertainment News

Mullum welcomes Childbrides

Quiet, demure Floyd Vincent...

It has been only once that Floyd Vincent & the Childbrides have played in Mullumbimby - which seems strange since they play Byron Bay so regularly and have a bass player who is almost a local.

They have maintained a touring schedule that has taken in Australia's coastlines, regional centres and a solo trip in Europe for Floyd at the Isolina Tiburina film festival in Rome - but nothing in Mullumbimby!

Well, this will be rectified when Floyd Vincent & the Childbrides play the Mullum Hotel this Friday, May 21, from 8pm.

Floyd's gypsy lifestyle provides much of the style and inspiration for his latest album Last Exit Motel. It is an amazingly diverse album, a journey with a vaguely cinematographic travel feel. Lyrically driven by real-life experience, fictional narratives and satire, it is a great appetiser to the live show.

"Last time we played in Mullum it was a street festival where people sold exotic food and the face painted children had flowers in their hair," Floyd said. "To celebrate our second ever show bring yer party balloons, streamers, cheezels, falafel rolls and throw anything you've got in the air. " (And then put it in the bin, of course.)

Anti-cancer comedy

Laughter the best medicine... just ask Mandy and S.

The NSW Cancer Council is set to benefit from two evenings of stand-up comedy at the Rod N Reel Hotel, Woodburn, this Friday and Saturday, May 21-22, from 8pm.

Auditions for budding stand-up comedians will be held at the hotel on the Friday. Organisers will then invite the best to perform alongside professional stand-up comics Mandy Nolan, Brendan Lovechild and S Sorrensen on Saturday night's comedy super gig.

Mandy Nolan and S Sorrensen are well known to North Coast comedy fans with their promotion of comedy in this area. Mandy has fostered the aspirations of novice comedians with her comedy workshops and courses as well as running comedy clubs on the coast. S Sorrensen is the head honcho of the Laughing Lizard Comedy Lounge.

Both of these comics work all over Australia - as does relative newcomer to professional comedy, Mullumbimby resident Brendan Lovechild. Recently returned from gigs in Sydney, Brendan performed with Mandy and S at the Woodford Folk Festival earlier this year.

With the aim of raising as much money as possible for the Cancer Council, Saturday's gig also offers raffles of donated goods, Rosemount wine tasting and lucky door prizes.

But wait, there's more!

A Hawaiian buffet will be served at 7pm.

Tickets are $30 and bookings are essential. To book phone 6682 2406.

Classy Classics

One of the most dynamic chamber music partnerships to emerge from Australia is the piano and violin duo of Miki Tsunoda and Caroline Almonte (pictured).

Called Duo Sol, the pair performs entirely from memory. Because of this freedom from the page and music stands, these gifted musicians establish a remarkable rapport with the audience that is more in common with the direct performance style of pop musicians rather than the more restrained traditional classical performance.

Duo Sol will perform as a part of the Musica Viva 2004 Concert Series next Friday, May, 28, at Lismore City Hall from 7.30pm.

Winner of Italy's prestigious Primo Trio Trieste in 1999, this Melbourne based ensemble is a regular on the festival circuit and has toured Australia for Musica Viva in 2001 and 2002, as well as tours of New Zealand, Canada, Italy and Spain.

Duo Sol's broad and extensive repertoire ranges from Beethoven to Debussy, Takemitsu and beyond. ABC Classics released Duo Sol's debut CD in 2000 and a new album is due for release this year.

Tickets are $28/24 with student tickets at $14. They are available from Dymocks, 84 Molesworth Street, in Lismore (6622 4987).

Phil and his Shadows

Phil Emmanuel nurses his muse.

Australian guitar legend Phil Emmanuel has been a fan of The Shadows since 1959. They were the reason he took up the guitar in the first place.

The Shadows were among the greatest and most influential pop instrumentalists of the last century - the true tunesmiths of a bygone era. In the early 60s it was not unusual to see at least three of their tunes in the top five hit parade at any given time. With the unique guitar sound of Hank B Marvin, they pioneered the way for a lot of bands, including The Beatles.

Even now, The Shadows are still the benchmark for tone and melody, their music is timeless and always a pleasure to hear - especially to guitar lovers.

Not many guitarists these days have the ability to emulate that unmistakable Shadows sound - except of course, Phil Emmanuel. And he's coming to Lismore to demonstrate that ability and entertain us once again.

Phil Emmanuel has shared the stage with the likes of Hank Marvin, Duane Eddy, Mark Knophler, Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, The Ventures, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, America, Jimmy Barnes and John Farnham to name a few. He has played all guitar styles but returns now to his favourite sound - The Shadows.

Phil has now put together a one-man show that pays homage to his early heroes. The show will feature all the well-known hits of The Shadows plus material from the Beatles and others of that era.

Check out Phil's tribute to The Shadows next Thursday, May 27, at Mary Gilhooleys in Lismore.

Climb Every Mountain

Chrissie Shaw discovers the drama of Tibet.

Footprints On The Wind is a one-act portrait of the extraordinary and eccentric French writer and traveller Alexandra David-Neel, who died at age 101 in 1969.

She claimed to be the first European woman to enter the forbidden city of Lhasa, Tibet, in 1924. You can be a part of her drama filled life next Thursday, May 27, at Byron Bay Community Theatre or on Friday, May 28, at the Star Court Theatre in Lismore from 8pm.

A devotee and scholar of Buddhism, David-Neel wrote many books on Buddhist philosophy and her travels, but began her career as an opera singer. Some say she was a fraud, but that makes the story more interesting!

A runaway from the age of five, she lived for adventure and exploration, rejecting the restrictions placed on women of her time. She studied oriental languages at the Sorbonne in her 20s, travelling to India to further this study. As an opera singer she toured the French colonies.

Footprints On The Wind is a visual feast. Set and costumes incorporate both Tibetan and European elements to emphasise Alexandra's love of dress and disguise, and her fascination with Asian cultures. Colourful prayer flags, a sumptuous French opera cloak and an altar made of a pile of suitcases transport us to the varying worlds inhabited by Alexandra.

The production features the remarkable talents of Canberra-based Chrissie Shaw.

Tickets for the Lismore show are $20/$15. Book on 6621 5600. For the Byron show tickets are $18 and available from the venue.

Surf's up at Ballina

A local surf movie night, Surfest, will be held this Saturday, May 22, at the Ballina RSL Club from 5.30pm to raise money for the Starlight Children's Foundation.

The feature movie of the night is Ignition by local filmmaker Marcus Baker. Ignition is a cinematic pastiche of the world's best surfers and our local surfing talent riding some wild and woolly breaks along Australia's east coast.

There is also windsurfing footage from Western Australia , two short films and highlights of the Quicksilver Pro at Snapper Rocks this year. You can even win big prizes on the night including a custom-made surfboard courtesy of Phil Myers and Mark Cleghorn.

Tickets to this great family night are just $5 and are available from the Ballina RSL Club Bottle Shop. To enter the draw to win the custom made surfboard simply SMS your name and year of birth to 0421 261 425. (In entering this competition you agree to receive SMS promotional offers and discounts from Ballina RSL from time to time).

Luke plays with Aurora Jane

Living in Lismore is one of our own favourite sons of music, Luke Vassella (pictured).

Like any authentic troubadour, Luke has been entertaining people, playing guitar, singing and writing songs for most of his life. Luke's career highlights have been many and varied and include playing support to Savage Garden, Wendy Mathews and Troy Cassar-Daley.

He has released and successfully marketed three original CD's, has won four Dolphin Awards including Best Male Vocal and won the 2003 Maitland Music Award with his song, We Got Something. Oh, and just to make sure he's kept very busy, he has made two successful trips performing in Europe.

Using his unique blend of guitar, harmonica, stomp box and voice, Luke creates original and cover music woven from his many styles - some borrowed and some definitely his own.

This local boy-done-good will perform at the Tatts Hotel in Lismore this Friday, May 21, supporting original new band Aurora Jane who are currently socking it to the east coast with their eye-catching performances. The music kicks off at 9pm.

Boogabilly

Local 50s and 60s rock'n roll dance band, The Stingrays, will perform at the Italo Club in North Lismore on Saturday, May 22 and at the Thursdays at the Civic gig on May 27 (at the Civic Hotel, of course).

Their jumped up versions of classic rock and roll dance music have earned them a big following up and down the east coast of Oz. They will entertain you with "boogabilly" - a term coined to describe the Stingray sound with songs from rock greats like Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley.

Both gigs kicks off at 8pm. Dust off ya dancing shoes and get along to these rockin' events.

Relive the high

Bob Marley - new footage and the whole story.

For the first time in Australia, Roger Steffens from the USA, an internationally renowned expert on the life and music of Bob Marley, will narrate the definitive history of the reggae legend and freedom fighter at the Byron Cinemas next Tuesday, May 25.

Steffens tells stories, shows rare film and previously unreleased videotapes from concerts, interviews and rehearsals drawn from the largest repository of Marley memorabilia in the world.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Bob Marley's one and only visit to this country for the Survival Tour in 1979. There is a whole generation of Australians who loved Marley's music when he was alive and continue to do so. Subsequently there's a whole new group of younger fans who have discovered his musical magic well after his death in 1981.

Roger Steffens' Catch a Fire - the Life Of Bob Marley has been hailed as the definitive history of the reggae king and as one critic commented "the next best thing to seeing Marley live!"

Clips that will be shown include the earliest known (black and white) footage of Marley in rehearsal, before his locks had grown and he became internationally famous. There are also stunning moments from live concerts, a long suppressed documentary on the assassination attempt on Marley's life in 1976, intimate interviews and Marley's final rehearsal in 1980.

A radio host, DJ, writer and lecturer, Roger has spent much of his life as an apostle of Bob Marley, whom he met twice before Marley's death from cancer.

It is not only most fitting but quite remarkable that a quarter of a century after Bob Marley toured this country, the individual who has done more than anybody to document and preserve his legacy is here to share the Bob Marley experience with the North Coast.

To see Catch a Fire - the Life of Bob Marley roll up to the Byron Cinemas at either the 5pm or 7.30pm session. Tickets are $25/20.

Big Apple triumph

Cathy receiving her award for Best Documentary Film at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

Local filmmaker Cathy Henkel's moving documentary The Man Who Stole My Mother's Face was recently named joint winner of the Best Documentary Film at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

The documentary focuses on the real life experience of Cathy's mother (now a local resident) who was sexually assaulted and bashed by a white teenager in her home in Johannesburg in 1988. A bungled police investigation meant the crime was never solved and Cathy's mother was left to face 14 difficult years, during which she rejected contact with the outside world.

Some years ago Cathy travelled to Johannesburg to get the case reopened and document the horrific experience her mother had endured. What began as a daughter's quest for justice soon became an important healing process for Cathy and her mother.

"We are delighted to win this award as it will help focus more attention on the issue of sexual violence," Cathy said after receiving the award in New York. "The film highlights the importance of bringing this crime into the open to help rape survivors and their families deal with what has happened, and to encourage the justice system to improve the way they handle these cases."

The film was judged by a panel that included Jeffrey Wright, Oliver Platt, Whoopi Goldberg and Glenn Close, who spoke glowingly of the film.

"I was profoundly moved by it and hope that everyone will have a chance to see it and be strengthened by it and inspired by it and healed by it," she said.

The Man Who Stole My Mother's Face has now been accepted for screening at the Brisbane International Film Festival later this year and will screen on ABC TV in mid August.

Scud approaching!

A decade of providing a world-class music program at Southern Cross University has created a deep pool of musical talent in this area. Jazz fusion band, Scud, are one such group of SCU grads and their music stretches the boundaries of musical classification. Hard to explain, so you'll just have to hear them when they feature at next week's jazz night at Mary Gilhooleys on Wednesday, May 26, from 8.30pm.

Scud features Joel McLaughlan on guitar (John's son?), Mitch Carey on sax, Gary Day pounding the keys, Scott Greenaway on bass, Luke Collins hitting the skins and special guest on trumpet, Nick Hewitt. Entry is an affordable $5.

The Lizard finds a new home

After the abrupt closure of its venue for the last four years, the Laughing Lizard Comedy Lounge has been homeless for two months. There were sad faces everywhere missing their monthly fix of stand up comedy.

But the Lizard is back! And the new venue, after much searching, encourages even more of the unique atmosphere that is the Lizard Lounge.

The Laughing Lizard Comedy Lounge returns on Tuesday, June 1, at the One Bar & Niteclub at Mary Gilhooleys. This is a totally refurbished room with the sort of comfort and sophistication that the Lizard loves.

Peter Willey, Sandy Gandhi, Doug & Biskit, S Sorrensen, the joke comp and support comics will all be there, under the Catwoman's gaze, for the big relaunch. Stay tuned.

Paul Kelly - filling in the dots...

Paul Kelly is recognised as one of Australia's leading singer/songwriters.

In a review of Lyrics, the 1993 collection of Kelly's song lyrics, Dr Imre Salusinszky of the Newcastle University English Department described Kelly as "our best songwriter and one of our finest poets."

American critics have been as effusive as their Australian counterparts. David Fricke, music editor of Rolling Stone magazine in the US, called Kelly "one of the finest songwriters I have ever heard - Australian or otherwise."

See this seminal artist perform live at the Great Northern Hotel in Byron Bay next Monday and Tuesday, May 24-25, from 9pm.

Reflecting on more than two decades of songwriting and performing, Kelly told an interviewer recently that songwriting remained a painstaking process, and he often felt like sinking to his knees in thanks when a song came to him.

"Songwriting to me is mysterious," he said. "I still feel like a total beginner. I don't feel like I have got it nailed yet."

But he is certainly coming close to having nailed something romantic in his latest album, Ways and Means. The album, Paul's ninth collection of new songs since Post in 1985, looks at love in its many guises.

"I want to write songs that don't get used up in the first couple of listens, that keep revealing things," says Paul. "As with every songwriter, I think, my staple song is the love song. Happy love songs are much harder to write than the sad ones. More and more as I've gone on, they're the songs I want to write. To me as a songwriter, that's a challenge: to write happy love songs without being banal, sentimental or smug."

Jazz at the Bay

The Northern Rivers Conservatorium is hosting Jazz At The Bay next Friday, May 28, at the Byron Bay Community Centre from 7.30pm. Jazz At The Bay features the unique and outstanding vocals of Laura Nobel and the renowned James Sherlock on guitar, with an incredible line-up including John Hoffman on trumpet, Thierry Fossemale and Jack Thorncraft on bass, the amazing Steve Russell on piano and Dave Sanders on drums.

If you know any of these people you'll know that they are some of Australia's finest jazz performers, so don't miss out on this chance to tap your toes to one of the most exciting jazz ensembles you'll see all year.

To reserve seats for Jazz At The Bay phone 6621 2266.

Blue Knob auction

A fundraising auction for the Blue Knob Hall Art Space will be held this Saturday, May 22, at the Blue Knob Hall outside Nimbin from 1pm.

There will be a pianola with 200 music rolls, artworks, building materials, plants, furniture and books as well as holidays and massages up for grabs - all to the highest bidder. And when the heat of bidding and the thrill of acquisition becomes too much, you can sample the refreshments or try your luck at one of the raffles.

Money raised will be used to revitalise Blue Knob Hall as a studio and art gallery with a café - called the Blue Knob Hall Art Space.

The Blue Knob Hall Art Space is situated on the corner of Blue Knob road and Lillian Rock road, Nimbin. Support the local hall and grab yourself a bargain.

Lismore Lantern Parade Afterparty

Fountain Room and Gardens at Lismore City Hall
Saturday June 19 from 8.00pm
Tickets: $15/$10 concession
Party ARTragously After

Put down your lanterns and join the Light n Up crew at Lismore City Hall for a post lantern parade celebration on Saturday, June 19, at 8.30pm. With mulled wine and full bar facilities, yummy food, amazing atmosphere and some hot music from the highly danceable, ska influenced Utopians - what could be better on a chilly winter's evening? Don't miss this opportunity to celebrate 10 years of the Lismore Lantern Parade. Tickets are available from Caddies in Carrington Street, Lismore.

Big Feet Little Feet

Short dance works from Northern Rivers artists
Byron Bay Community Centre
June 4 & 5 at 8pm
Tickets: $16, $13, $10 at door or from Caddies in Lismore and Bangalow or Soundwaves in Byron Bay.

It's a wonder you can't feel the earth shaking in the Northern Rivers with all those dancers jumping and stamping as they rehearse and prepare to amaze, amuse and bemuse you at the third Big Feet Little Feet show in two weeks: not to be missed for the latest in mature performers' dance, physical theatre and contemporary art.

'Contact Earth' are dancers from the Northern Rivers Conservatorium Dance Certificate who are working with choreographer Virginia Norrie. Their piece encompasses the early primordial journeys of the world, using contemporary dance, elements of African styles, contact and balance work evoking dramatic scene.

'The Frocks' are Gabrielle Smith and Emma Newman as 1950's women, striving to find bliss in dresses, dancing irreverently and fighting happily with sisterly competitiveness. Choosing their outfits carefully, they are never to be seen without gloves and appropriate accessories (except maybe shoes). Emma and Gabrielle are members of physical theatre group Flotsam, who are also performing in Big Feet. When they aren't Frocking around, Gabrielle is known as former Assistant Director of Lismore's 'Company CHAOS', a mixed-ability dance company including people with disabilities and Emma is the NORPA Dance Action Manager.

Big Feet Little Feet #3 is presented by NORPA Dance Action and is supported by the Regional Arts NSW Country Arts Support Program, funded by the NSW Government through the NSW Ministry for the Arts.

For further information and a program of events please contact Danielle Macintosh on 66803046, 0428 876 346 or visit www.norpa.org.au.