COMPETITION WINNERS ANNOUNCED TOMORROW

A double pass to The Happy Endings with The Skybombers at Ding Dong and another double pass to experience the beautiful music of Mark Wilkinson. Details of the comp in yesterday’s post. We’ll announce the winners tomorrow.

VIDEO IAN’S PARTY FLORIDA USA

We met Ian after a show in Lake Worth Florida. Turns out his Mum kinda knows my Mum, to cut a long story short (me being Marty). Anyhow, he invited me to his place the next Friday and I shot this video. It’s an extraordinary inside-look at the lives of these most generous and friendly people.

I had a total blast at the party/jam. This was one of my favourite nights on the tour. I can’t thank them enough.

Checkya tomorrow.

Fires out.

You could win a double pass to one of two fantastic shows this Friday evening 10th December in Melbourne. Whether you’re into insightful acoustic music or dancin’ fun-time rock we’ve got the goods!

COMPETITION 1: To win a double pass to see our mates The Happy Endings with The Skybombers at Ding Dong, tell us where The Happy Endings are originally from before they came to Melbourne. Click here for event details.

COMPETITION 2: To win a double pass to experience the beautiful music of Mark Wilkinson, tell us in which country we first met Mark. Click here for event details.

You have until 8pm Thursday to enter by email theonfires@theonfires.com.au. Winning answers will be chosen for either their factual correctness or their entertainment value. Thanks to The Happy Endings and Mark Wilkinson for sharing the love with our crew!

In the photo below, Mark Wilkinson (bottom right), Renee Brack, Time Arney (Mark’s manager) and Max. At an Australian Defence Force/Federal Police event for artists who’d toured to play for troops and police posted overseas.

Checkya tomorrow,
Fires Out.

Another Tour Therapy band, Nashville’s The Dead Weather. I really got into this album toward the end of the US tour. We rented a small room in Brooklyn for about 7 weeks in notorious Bedford Styvesant, to set up the remaining leg of the tour (September). One night somebody started shooting out in the street. After the 2nd shot Max was like “OK, let’s turn off the lights and get down” – which we did pretty quickly. The shooting stopped, nobody got hurt, the lights stayed off.

It was during the Brooklyn stay that I discovered The Dead Weather. I’d heard a few singles on radio back home but I hadn’t paid much attention. Chris Bourque, our Texan bass guitarist, gave me the Horehound album (released 2009) and it quickly grew on me. It’s an often sparse, chilling sound. Spooky and dark, then it bursts into hard garage-rocking mayhem. There’s a real soul to what’s happening underneath the drama, particularly in the vocal delivery. The video above features the 1st track on the record, ’60 Feet Tall’.

Checkya tomorrow,
Fires out.

Video – live at Seven Festival, Poland – Sat 10th July this year. This footage features about a minute-and-a-half of ‘Uncool’ – one of our live favourites (a track from the Motherfu*ker EP released 2009).

Check yesterday’s post for live video of ‘Sky Caves In’ also from Seven Festival. They held the festival in a small town in the north of Poland called Wegorzewo (pronounced Vengo-shevo). We had an amazing time there in a truly beautiful part of Europe.

In the week before the show we played live on Poland’s biggest morning TV show to a viewing audience of around 4 million people. Later that week we did an interview and album feature on Trojka Radio Warsaw to an estimated audience of 7 million. By the time we got to the festival it seemed everybody knew The On Fires, people stopping to take photos in the street, or occasionally coming over to say hello.

We’ll be touring Poland and surrounding countries again mid 2011.

Checkya tommorrow,
Fires out.

On 10th July this year we played the Seven Festival in Poland. It was one of the highlights of the year. Everything about it was amazing – the show, the scenery, the people, the food, the accomm…

The festival was held in the northern lakes district of Poland, about 100 miles east of Gdansk.  The video you’re about to see features a live version of Sky Caves In (taken at Seven Festival).

Checkya tomorrow.
Fires out.

I love this band – the mighty Stone Roses.

We were getting well beyond fatigued toward the end of the US tour this year (September). We were kicking back in a hotel in upstate New York after a show at Ithaca & I put this track on LOUD in the headphones – which made me not feel so tired after all. This was not necessarily a good thing – I then found myself having to drink a lot more beer to get to sleep (yep, a likely story but I’m sticking to it).

That said, hangover aside, I couldn’t get the song out of my head the following day or the days after that. The chorus just stays with you. It’s a pretty uplifting vibe.

‘She Bangs The Drums’ is an extraordinary song by this amazing seminal English band from the 80s & 90s. The Stone Roses paved the way for bands like Oasis & Blur some years later. In fact, it’s widely thought that if they had just held it together a bit longer, they would have taken Nirvana’s place at the forefront of cultural change. When they disbanded it left a so-called ‘void’ in the British music scene – perhaps an indictment on expectations placed upon the band, and how greatly they were respected.

Checkya tomorrow.

Fires out.

Something fun to finish the working week – me, Dad and Mojo in a pitch battle kick-to-kick session on the farm where we’re staying, east of Melbourne. The idea is to keep the ball off Mojo. If he gets it, you haven’t got long before he chomps it flat – note the panic when ball meets ground.

This brand of football (or ‘footy’ as we call it in Australia) is known as AFL, Australian Football League. Americans know it as Aussie Rules. Dad used to play it at the state level, a rover for over 30 years. He’s now the coach of a country football team about 5 hours north of Sydney. They tell me he makes the local news up there as an AFL development coach for the region.

Alas, as the video shows, I administer a royal thrashing upon Dad in scintillating style. Barely able to glimpse me as I whip by in the wind at the blink of an eye, Kev darts aimlessly back & forth, bewildered as the ball pierces the sky…

He told me yesterday to get some practice in before he teaches me another lesson next time.

Ha.

Checkya tomorrow.

Fires out.

This one brings back some great memories…

The C-Men – a punk band based in Kiev – playing a show at Club Bochka. We love the C-Men – we played on the same line-up with them in Ukraine last year, at the mighty Bochka.

A little about the band: They play classic old-school punk covers; Sex Pistols, The Clash, Ramones etc. In fact, we added a Clash song to our set after we saw them do a spectacular version of ‘White Riot’ at a show in Kiev. The C-Men pump out the punk attitude on stage while appearing to ‘take the piss’ as well – great gear to drink & dance to.

The C-Men’s Dave (drums) and Mick (lead vocals & guitar) have a radio show, the only alternative rock show in Kiev. We’ve been their guests a couple of times since 2007. Things get pretty casual in there as the vodka flows & the questions get harder to answer.

And finally, in this video the bass guitarist in the band is none other than Ukraine’s legendary Sasha Pipa. We’ve toured all over Ukraine with Sasha. He’s a fantastic bloke – the reason we went there in the first place – and the last few times we’ve been lucky enough to stay with him at his apartment on the out-skirts of Kiev.

Checkya tomorrow.

Fires out.

As part of the publicity lead up to the Cherry Bar show (13th Nov) we had a great interview on the Travel Bug radio show at Melbourne’s SYN FM. This video shows more of what we were doing behind the scenes, between songs, while the guys were figuring out what to ask & play. At the end we do an acoustic live-to-air version of Skeleton.

The Travel Bug interviews are always fun, this time with Simon and Stu (had a great interview with Simon last time). As it happens, Stu’s band, Sons of Messengers, played the Cherry Show with us 10 days later.

Checkya tomorrow,

Fires out.

PS First day of Summer in Melbourne – flash flooding.