Michael Gallichio will open the show on Sunday 11th November at 2pm. Michael toured with us in 2010 on an east-coast Aussie tour, playing shows in Brisbane, Byron Bay, Sydney & Melbourne. Back then, he was our bass player & backing vocalist. But in November, you’ll see Michael’s solo show.

Max & I went along to see him play last year at The Empress in North Fitzroy – a thoroughly enjoyable mix of comedy & eclectic song-writing. A perfect way to kick things off at Remembrance Day Revelry.

CLFO

Ross Buckingham posted this on Facebook. A pic from the archives – a show at The Yak Bar, 2005. From memory – which is hazy – we’d lost our drummer (yet, another one) at the last minute. So I put the kick drum in front of me & we did the show Mumford & Sons style.

We played 3 sets every Sunday at the Yak from April 05 to May 06. The best bit about that year was the community that built up around those magic Sunday arvos – many of whom will be coming along to our Remembrance Day Revelry show next month, 11th Nov. In fact, we’ve modeled this forthcoming Melbourne show on the spirit of the mighty Yak – what with the meat raffle, Heidi bringing around the party pies & sausage rolls, Stalk behind the bar (for some of it), guest artists a-plenty on stage (soon to be announced), free entry & cheap beer. It’s all happening…

CLFO

It’s getting bigger by the day – a great Sunday arvo on 11th November. Guest artists a-plenty,
Yak Bar prices at the bar (cheap beer), free party pies, sausage rolls and the infamous meat raffle.
We’ll be playing songs from all 4 studio albums and EP releases – and a couple of new songs from the next record. Come along for an arvo of great vibes & good-lovin’-community-bohemia…

More news on guest artists and other stuff coming soon.

Checkya later,
Fires out.

Wednesday 31st October, The Vagrants play Hi Fi Bar Melbourne – a Halloween fundraiser for ‘Support Act’, Australia’s music industry benevolent fund. Steve from The Vagrants is one of the key organisers. There’ll be a stack of great acts on the bill (see poster below). And The On Fires will be there working behind the scenes (& maybe even some MC duties).

Planning for our November Melbourne show is building bigger by the day. Rehearsals for the show are kicking arse. More news soon.

CLFO

I heard over the weekend that Clive ‘Dundee’ Cooke will be down for the show on 11th November – with his eye on yet another meat tray raffle. For those who are wondering what this means: When we played Sunday’s at the Yak Bar a few years ago, we ran a weekly meat raffle during the half time break. Notoriously, Clive ‘Dundee’ won said raffle 7 times – and 3 times in a row. He certainly cleaned up, much to the chagrin of many in the audience – who could’ve sworn it was their turn that week.

Well, the battle for meat raffle supremacy is clearly not over yet. Clive will no doubt be warming up those raffle ticket buying skills over the coming month, in readiness for meat tray victory…

Clive, returned briefly from the road earlier this year, pictured at Stalk & Kim’s place.

Checkya later.
Fires out.

We were looking through some tour archives last night, partly to unearth some memories & partly to make sure the data was still there. Found this awesome shot from Ukraine in 2008 – Max and Sasha Pipa sharing the mic at one of the shows on a 3 week national tour. It was an intense, amazing time traversing the former Soviet country. We went on to play shows in Berlin, Romania & Turkey after the Ukraine leg.

We’re preparing for European & Asian tours early next year. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get back to Kiev and see our long missed friends there. We haven’t seen them for nearly 4 years…

CLFO

We’ve created a video highlights package from May’s China tour, featuring Strawberry Fest in Beijing & Chang Jiang Fesival in Zhenjiang (near Shanghai).

Our next show will be in Melbourne on 11th November at Abbotsford Hall, corner Hoddle & Gipps Sts.

This week, Melbourne is in the grip of AFL Grand Final fever. The city’s media and population is obsessing about Saturday, when just about everybody in town will find themselves in front of a TV somewhere to watch the Hawks & the Swans wrestle for football supremacy. Go Hawks…

CLFO.

Subscribed The On Fires to Triple R Radio in Melbourne this morning. A little late – the radiothon was a few weeks back. Better late than never. Fantastic community radio (lifeblood of Melbourne’s music & arts scene). Listening to Bigsy’s talk back show right now, without the guilt that comes with freeloading.

Rehearsals for the show in November underway. More news soon (check the post below).

Have a good weekend.
Fires out.

We’ve been working hard on planning a big Melbourne show for Sunday 11th November. We’ve booked a hall in Abbotsford for the event. The show is being modeled on the classic Yak Bar experience and we’ve got ourselves a liquor license for the day. We’ll have cheap beer & wine (Yak Bar prices circa 2005), free party pies & sausage rolls, audience percussion and Stalk working behind the bar (for some of the day). How good is that!

The show kicks off at 2pm (with the bar opening at 1pm) and winding up by 6. We’ve got a comedic opening act, after which we’ll hit the stage with a bevvy of guest artists from near and far. And as part of the community vibe, we’ll also be raising funds for charity.

It’s shaping up to be our biggest Melbourne show, ever. We’ll keep you posted as the show builds & more details come to hand. And if you feel like pitching in & helping us set up on the day, drop us a line. Feel free to leave a comment below – or hit us up on Facebook.

Checkya later.
Fires out.

Today we announce the winner of our Favourite Live Video competition. Over the past couple of months we’ve been asking you for links to your favourite live video. We’ve had a bunch of fantastic entries & an eclectic range of artists and bands. We’ve posted the video entries here & on our Facebook page to count the Likes for each vid. At the end of the comp, two videos are tied for the most ‘Like’ votes. And the winners are…

Pete Schmidt for his magnificent entry, MC5 Kick Out The Jams – live in Detroit.

Gary Bruce for his dark-horse favourite, Living Colour Desperate People – live in Philadelphia.

And the PRIZE: We want the guys to present 3 to 5 of their favourite live music videos. But first, we’d like em to film themselves presenting each video (smart phone vid will be fine – about 30 secs for each video). We’ll edit the video and present it Rage-style, on our website and Facebook page. Drop us a line when you’re ready Gary & Pete.

But wait, there’s more – the guys have also won a 5-free-drink pass each, for our next show in Melbourne (11th November – yet to be announced). You can pick up your drink tix at the show, guys.

Honourable mentions:
It was a tightly contested comp, and we had some cracking entires. These folks just got pipped at the line –

TC with his Megadeth Symphony Of Destruction live vid.
Kate with her ACDC Long Way To The Top vid.
Graham Jones with Derek Trucks Layla live.
And I can’t finish without mentioning Mat Ward’s Wombles live at Glastonbury video.

Many thanks to everyone who entered. It was certainly an enlightening experience.

CLFO.