Pic Below: Steve from The Vagrants on the ski slopes of Austria 2 weeks ago. He’s back there again, working as a ski-instructor by day, playing in the bars by night. We toured with The Vagrants through Germany in April last year. It was one of the most fun tours ever. I’m tipping the guys are gearing up for another tour of Germany, Austria and beyond sometime over the next few months.

Steve Iorio – Austrian ski slopes 4th Jan 2014.

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Great Facebook chatter going on at the moment after Saturday night’s Mercy Dash re-union show. Check it out here at the Mercy Dash event page. Or here at The On Fires FB site. Thanks to Mick & Stace Brown for the shot below (and the shots in the video – see yesterday’s post). Crazy fun night. Great way to kick off 2014, playing with a bunch of old mates at such a great venue. And catching up with a whole lotta people I haven’t seen for so long.

Mercy Dash reunion show, 18th Jan 2014.

No doubt there’ll be another Mercy Dash show at some point. Everybody in the band is nowadays in another band – and working hard at it. That’s the tricky bit.

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A very short video of the long-awaited Mercy Dash Reunion which happened Saturday night (18th Jan 2014) – Many thanks to Al and Deb who shot the footage. Did a bit of splicing & threw some still shots in there. We had an awesome night – and yes, there was plenty of rock-piggery goin’ down. The still shots feature two other lead singers who were also in Mercy Dash, Manno and Adam (don’t have video of them yet).

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Sound check done. Kids running everywhere. People arriving. Beer flowing. Awesome monster ‘outdoor’ shed. First band about to start. Mercy Dash due on stage later.

2 days to go til the much-anticipated Mercy Dash re-union show. Here’s what the local paper had to say at the time.

I used to sing in the band, picking up the guitar occasionally. Although, as Mick the drummer pointed out at rehearsal last week, I never picked it up when I was supposed to. Either way, this Saturday will be an amazing night. The band sounds great, everything coming together. The show is down at Pearcedale, not far from Frankston – and it’s sold out. That said, we’ve put a few tix aside for fans of The On Fires. Message us on FB or leave a comment below & we’ll give you the details. We hit the stage around 7pm.

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Last year, in the middle of winter in Australia, we played Ho Hoi Yan festival in Taiwan. It was around 40 degrees on the beach when the show kicked off. The shot below was taken during sound-check before the crowd arrived. Much like Melbourne today, there was no escaping the heat. Great show & awesome festival, we were totally cooked by the end.

Me on the Ho Hai Yan festival beach, Taipei Taiwan 5 hours before the show.

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Maddy sent us this video link – Aussie band, Whitehouse – ‘The 26th’. A poignant reminder that Australia Day represents something quite different for our country’s first people.

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Took it’s sweet time but summer has finally arrived in Melbourne. Mercury set to hit 40 degrees (105 F) later this week. Already a beautiful Monday out there. Here’s a shot out the window from the room above what will be our new venue.

Collingwood – Buildings of Melbourne in the distance.

We were working on the new place all weekend. Bit tired today but all good. More on the venue soon.

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Interesting article in The Age yesterday. Apparently the Victorian state government has ‘vowed to implement an ”agent-of-change” planning principle’ for live music venues that ‘clash with new residents over noise complaints’. A welcome development indeed – driven by Music Victoria who represent our live music industry. The article goes on to say – “Residents who move into an area with live music venues would have to bear the cost of soundproofing. If a venue began hosting live music events in a residential area, it would have the responsibility”. How cool is that! Keeping our fingers crossed. Click here to read more.

Pic and article from The Age newspaper, Melbourne 8th Jan 4014.

Here’s one from our video archives – downloaded from China TV (sound gets a little rough) – ‘Sorry Now’ live at Midi Festival Beijing 2011.

See more footage at our Youtube Channel.

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