Flying up to Brisbane tomorrow to hang out with our first bass player, Rob Oshlack, for the weekend. Rob played with us from the very beginning in 2003 before moving up north with his family in 2006. These days he runs a tech company called Nicstar & the Christmas party is on like Donkey Kong tomorrow night. They have a permanent, fully equipped stage set up in the company warehouse – so there’s a whole bunch of jamming going on after work whenever they feel the urge.

The shot above is a little out of focus (band shots of Rob are hard to come by these days). It was taken at one of our shows in October 2005 – the ‘Lock In Love In’, I do believe. That’s Rob on Max’s right.

Checkya tomorrow,
Fires out.

Back in September 2008, we played about a dozen shows across Ukraine as part of a two month European tour. I kept a video diary of the tour & this episode below features the Goblin Biker Festival in Odessa and some of the shows leading up to it…

We returned to Ukraine in 2009 for a weekend of shows across the country. It was totally amazing but we haven’t been back there since – economic and apparent political/social unrest conspiring against us. We certainly miss our friends there. Maybe next year…

Checkya tomorrow.
Fires out.

Clive posted this video link on Facebook. Right now he’s out in a remote desert region, somewhere north of the Nullarbor Plain, South Australia.

Clive’s been on a solo traveling odyssey around Australia with caravan (Missy Daisy) in tow. He’s a long time supporter of The On Fires & even has some bootleg recordings of early shows (which he keeps well hidden). Clive was there at almost every show when we played every Sunday during 2005 at the mighty Yak Bar, Abbotsford.

It’s rumoured Clive might be back in Melbourne some time early in 2012.

Checkya tomorrow,
Fires out.

TC shot me this video link late last night – sitting there bright and early for Monday morning. Great way to start the week…

Nice work TC!

Checkya tomorrow,
Fires out.

It’s two weeks today since our final show for the year at Cherry Bar, Melbourne. We’re now back into the writing phase for the next release. We’re also in talks with our US promoter about next year’s tour of North America. At this early stage we look like adding Chicago to the tour – as well as shows in Florida, Georgia, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

As part of next year’s US tour in March, we’re also discussing the release of an EP on vinyl, along with the usual download & CD release. More info here as it comes to hand – including US tour dates as we lock ’em in.

Have a great weekend.
Fires out.

An old family friend of mine, David Evans released a solo album this year called ‘Internal Temporal Order’. I know this because his mum told me late last week. Anyway, I jumped onto David’s MySpace & listened to a track from the album (1am to 2am). It’s a really cool, ambient instrumental sound.

David Evans.

Before this solo release, David played drums (and other instruments) in Melbourne band, This Is Your Captain speaking. They released their first album to critical acclaim in 2005, signing to UK label, Resonant Records & touring Europe shortly after that.

I remember meeting with David & band mates for a few beers early in 2007 to talk about their OS tour experience. We were just about to take off to Europe for the first time & wanted a heads-up on what to expect. Check the video below, a song called ‘lift’ taken from This Is Your Captain Speaking’s ‘Storyboard’ album –

Checkya later,
Fires out.

Kent Aberle just emailed the shot below – an article about this year’s China tour in this months US Drumhead Magazine.

Kent (based in Atlanta GA) has done a bunch of touring with us over the past couple of years, including Canada, US and China. Check out the tour documentary vid at the top of this page.

Checkya tomorrow,
Fires out.

Darren loaded this pic on Facebook – taken after the show last Friday night, outside Cherry Bar, AC DC Lane Melbourne.

Check our Facebook.

Checkya later,
Fires out.

It’s been a big week since the show at Cherry Bar last Friday…

Caught up with members of the Yak Crew yesterday arvo at The Vic bar, Abbotsford. Had a few beers there before wandering across to The Tote in Collingwood with Craigie. We got there for the start of a ‘mystery’ band night – which turned out to be a secret show for Australian rock legends, You Am I. A great surprise indeed.

I say this every time these days – but I really need to pace the beer drinking a little better. By the time we left, neither Craig nor myself were particularly well, making for a long stagger home…

Me and Craigie on our way to The Tote last night.

Across the other side of town, Max and friends were cutting backing vocals for The Vagrants next release in a studio in South Melbourne. Max tells me everybody had a ball.

Checkya later,
Fires out.

Played one of our favourite shows for the year, Friday night at Cherry Bar (Melbourne). Again, the weather looked ominous – the same thing happened last year (almost a year to the day) – but The On Fires faithful made there way out in great numbers to be at the show. Mat Ward took some great shots…

Always great to see so many familiar faces in the audience (we loved this hometown show). Everybody dancing & singing along etc. The Resignators hit the stage after us and delivered the expected blistering fun set, Max and Mat Ward shakin’ it down front in the crowd, sweat pouring.

The Cherry Bar show on Friday was also our last show for the year. We’re bunkered down now, working on the next album & preparing for next year’s overseas touring to the US, China and Europe. There’s also talk of more shows in Melbourne (more than one for the year) and a possible Australian tour…

Checkya later,
Fires out.