Going through the Tamworth sessions today. A mass of ideas, sounds and lyrics created over the past 6 weeks in the ‘bunker’ 20 kilometres outside the northern New South Wales township. The aim: the first demos to emerge some time over the next week…

AFL Grand Final fever grips Melbourne.
Tomorrow, Collingwood (our suburb) plays Geelong (outer western city, 1 hour from Melbourne) for the AFL Premiership Cup. This week, we’ve had the Grand Final parade through Melbourne City. We’ve have the footy shows throughout the week. We’ve had the teams announced and the tipsters have cast their votes. It’s game on. The whole shebang kicks off tomorrow morning (Saturday), with game time at 2:30pm as Melbourne goes into lock-down. Collingwood look to be hot favourites, but there’s no way you could discount the Cats. This one could be a thriller. Bring it on.

And on this Friday in Melbourne town –
A thought from the Urban dictionary (www.urbandictionary.com):

1. rocks a monkeys ass
Something that is so awesome, that it just totally rocks a monkeys ass. A great moment in time. A righteous opportunity.
I just got sold out playoff tickets, that rocks a monkeys ass.

Checkya later,
Fires out.
PS listening to Biggsy’s ‘On The Blower’, 3RRR Radio Melbourne, 102.7FM.

I love this Ad, published by community activist organisation, Get Up…

We’ve been smashed with one side of the story by pubs & clubs who make large profits from Australian gambling addiction. Slick TV ads running thick and fast. Darkly humours as the above advert is, it’s a breath of fresh air to hear the other side of the story.

And for our overseas viewers watching this, we’ve got a serious problem here in Australia – Aussies are the biggest gamblers on Earth. Our government is trying to do something about it, and business is fighting any proposed regulation every step of the way – even when they don’t actually know what that regulation looks like yet. You can imagine the sh*t-fight.

Years ago, when Poker machines were introduced into Melbourne’s pubs and clubs they all but wiped out a thriving local live music scene. Thousands of musicians and sundry lost their livelihoods. Ah, how the worm turns…

Checkya tomorrow,
Fires out.

Yep, my first day back, finally at home in Melbourne after 21 months traveling. Max arrived here about 2 weeks ago. And hasn’t Melbourne turned it on today…

The pic above: Melbourne Skyline at about 5:30pm – taken from The Age website (www.theage.com.au – photo by Tim Young).

It’s been bucketing down here all day. Massive thunder storms, flash flooding & power cuts. I left Tamworth yesterday morning (where the weather was perfect) & did the cannonball run to Melbourne in solo-record time (13hrs, 25 mins).

I’d been based about 20 kilometres outside of Tamworth (northern New South Wales) for about 6 weeks on a writing blitz. It was a totally awesome experience – prolific & experimental. Great hangin’ with my folks too. Now it’s time to dig into the ‘tapes’ & see what I’ve come up with.

Checkya later,
Fires out.

Previously unreleased video of a China tour show, earlier this year. I think Tom (tour manager) shot this one…

The song featured is ‘Without’ – the last song in the set. I remember the show pretty well. It was a great stage in a packed club. The crowd went off. Kent presented his latest epic tattoo (done a few days previously after another China show). Vox Bar in Wuhan was toward the end of the tour, we were exhausted and pumped.

Our next, and final, show for this year – 18th November at Cherry Bar, AC DC Lane, Melbourne.

Checkya later,
Fires out.

It’s no secret that Collingwood, despite some seriously dodgy umpiring decisions that robbed Hawthorn of their rightful place, will play Geelong next weekend for the profoundly glorious AFL Grand Final Premiership Cup.

The ridiculous question about whether AFL is a better game than rugby (of any code) is just a strange discussion. There is plenty of room for multiple codes of football (especially in Melbourne).

The real discussion should be about whether AFL is the greatest game on our planet. I’ve never seen anything like it. Two suburbs in a small city will play each other – the result 85,000 fans. Year in, year out. What a game. It attracts masses of women, men, kids, everybody. The WHOLE community. FAST, furiours, fair, brutal, exciting, strategic.

Grand Final next weekend. OMG – we can feel it Australia-wide. Time to rest now – but the tension will be palpable as the week draws on. Let it freekin’ rock. What a life. What a country.

Checkya later,
Fires out.
PS: The only thing bigger than football in Melbourne is Rock. 4.5 million tickets sold at AFL venues per year, 5.4 million tickets sold at local rock venues. (figures taken EOFY 2010)

It’s happening again. Up all night writing and those f*cking birds are starting. Do I stop? I’ll be shit tomorrow.
Dammit.

Checkya later,
Fires out.

Friday afternoon & the Cherry Bar poster hits the presses.
Here’s how it looks…

Have a great weekend!

Checkya later,
Fires out.

Many moons ago, London film-maker Ted Beagles joined us on the road for 3 weeks on a European tour in September of 2007. We played 10 shows across 7 countries in 18 days. It was one of the toughest tours we’ve done, getting ourselves on and off trains, planes and buses with all of our gear from Amsterdam to Kiev – and miraculously arriving on time to every single sound-check.

Ted was there, capturing every moment in high definition, from the minute we woke to the second we collapsed into bed (couch or floor) after each show. The footage is still largely ‘in the can’, most of it not seen as yet. At some point in the future it’ll become part of a documentary about The On Fires, some 5 to 10 years in the making. Dancin’ Ted (affectionately called) not only followed us everywhere with a huge camera, he also kept our spirits up, cracking jokes & mimicking the locals – he continually had us in stitches.

Anyway, Ted’s been at it again. This time producing and starring in the video above. Click to view it on Vimeo. It’s a viral marketing film he’s made for a client in England.

Checkya later,
Fires out.

We released the China Tour documentary a couple of months ago. Here’s the Chinese version complete with subtitles…

Cherry Bar show set for November 18th.
It’s our only Australian show for the year. We’ll be joined by The Resignators at Melbourne’s Cherry Bar, AC DC Lane. We first met ska-punkers, the Resignators, in Toronto earlier this year, on a six-week-long North American tour. We shared the stage at Horseshoe Tavarn as part of Canadian Music Week.

Checkya later,
Fires out.
PS – Somewhere In The World post below; the Youtube video is now live…

Once a month from wherever we happen to be, we record a song to video often with a local guest artist. The video goes out first in our monthly ‘Hose Down’ eNews & is released shortly after on Youtube.

We’ve recorded songs with local musicians from Warsaw to Brooklyn, Beijing to Tamworth. In this month’s Hose Down we’re featuring something really special – a performance by Australian indigenous Mungo man, Ernie Mitchell. Max and I went up to Mungo National Park in the Aussie Outback & Ernie was our guide, leading us through this ancient, sacred park. He played an acoustic song he’d written & explained the aboriginal art adorning his guitar.

Sign up for the Hose Down email at the top right of this page & get the latest Somewhere In The World video link each month, along with the latest gig & tour news, Max’s food diaries & more.

Check out the Somewhere In The World series as a slide show on Youtube.

Checkya later,
Fires out.