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THE CRUISE | REGURGITATOR

July 10th 2011 03:50
REGURGITATOR ANNOUNCE GUESTS FOR THE CRUISE

Stay toned for new music and enter the eye of the wind for the...

REGURGITATOR Annual Sail tour 2011

Plus guests DISASTERADIO (from New Zealand)*
*not appearing Townsville and Cairns.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW
REGURGITATOR CRUISE



AUG 5 Townsville THE CLUB James Cook Uni
Plus guests DNA and Popli Kids
Tickets from Revolver Music, SkinSki & Surf, Creative Skate, oztix outlets and regurgitator.oztix.com.au

AUG 6 Cairns TANKS ARTS CENTRE
Plus guests...
Tickets from TicketLINK 1300 855 835, and regurgitator.oztix.com.au

AUG 10 - Armidale 'THE STRO' UNE
Plus guests Disasteradio and Manic Sleeper Cell.
Tickets from 'The Stro' UNE, Campus Essentials, regurgitator.oztix.com.au (ph 1300 762 545)

AUG 11 - Newcastle CBD HOTEL
Plus guests Disasteradio and Alps
Tickets from the venue, Rock Shop, Catfight Collections,
regurgitator.oztix.com.au (ph 1300 762 545)

AUG 12 - Wollongong UNIBAR

Plus guests Disasteradio and Sydney Girls Choir
Tickets from the venue, Redback Music, bigtix.com.au,
regurgitator.oztix.com.au (ph 1300 762 545)

AUG 13 - Sydney MANNING BAR
Plus guests Disasteradio and Step Panther
Tickets from www.manningbar.com (ph 1300 762 545) & regurgitator.oztix.com.au

AUG 14 - Canberra ANU BAR
Plus guests Disasteradio and Super Best Friends.
Tickets from www.ticketek.com.au (ph 132 849) &
regurgitator.oztix.com.au (ph 1300 762 545)

AUG 18 - Byron Bay HOTEL GREAT NORTHERN
Plus guests Disasteradio and Oh Ye Denver Birds Tickets from The Northern ph 02 6685 6454, Oztix ph 1300 763 545
oztix outlets and regurgitator.oztix.com.au

AUG 19 - Gold Coast COOLANGATTA HOTEL
Plus guests Disasteradio and
Oh Ye Denver Birds
Tickets from OzTix Outlets (Coolangatta Hotel, Sunflower, Rockinghorse, Atlantis Music, Kill The Music, Rockaway Records, Gooble Warming, The Tempo Hotel, Butterbeats)
and regurgitator.oztix.com.au

AUG 20 - Brisbane THE HIFI
Plus guests Disasteradio,
Oh Ye Denver Birds and Ponyloaf
Tickets phone 1300THEHIFI (1300 843 4434), Rocking Horse, Butter Beats, Kill the Music, Gooble Warming, and regurgitator.oztix.com.au

AUG 21 - Caloundra KINGS BEACH TAVERN
Plus guests Disasteradio and Vagrant City Scandal
Tickets from venue, Mosh Pit Music, Oztix outlets and regurgitator.oztix.com.au

AUG 25 - Ballarat BENDED ELBOW
Plus guests Disasteradio and The Dark Arts
Tickets from venue, Oztix outlets
and regurgitator.oztix.com.au

AUG 26 - Melbourne THE HIFI
Plus guests Disasteradio, Boys Boys Boys and 8Bit Love
Tickets from regurgitator.oztix.com.au

AUG 27 - Geelong BENDED ELBOW
Plus guests Disasteradio, The Universal and Boys Boys Boys
Tickets from venue, Oztix outlets and regurgitator.oztix.com.au

AUG 28 - Hobart THE BRISBANE HOTEL
Plus guests Disasteradio and Tiger Choir
Tickets from venue, Ruffcut Records, Tommygun and www.oztix.com.au

AUG 31 - Adelaide THE GOV
Plus guests Disasteradio, Boys Boys Boys and The Bottlerockets
Tickets from venue, regurgitator.oztix.com.au

SEPT 1 - Bunbury THE PRINCE
Plus guests Disasteradio
and Boys Boys Boys
Tickets from venue, www.bocsticketing.com.au and regurgitator.oztix.com.au

SEPT 2 - Albany STUDIO 146
Plus guests Disasteradio
and Boys Boys Boys
Tickets from venue, regurgitator.oztix.com.au

SEPT 3 - Perth AMPLIFIER BAR
Plus guests Disasteradio and Boys Boys Boys

Tickets regurgitator.oztix.com.au

SEPT 4 - Fremantle NEWPORT HOTEL
Plus guests Disasteradio and Boys Boys Boys
Tickets from
regurgitator.oztix.com.au

In addition to New Zealands crazy electroid DISASTERADIO come the following inclusions: Townsville locals DNA and POPLI KIDS; Armidale local MANIC SLEEPER CELL; Newcastle's ALPS; Wollongong locals SYDNEY GIRLS CHOIR; Sydney we have STEP PANTHER; Canberra is SUPER BEST FRIENDS; for Byron, Coolangatta & Brisbane we have OH YE DENVER BIRDS plus in Brisbane the re-emergence of PONYLOAF (with Shane Rudken ala Unit era Regurgitator); Sunshine Coast locals VAGRANT CITY SCANDAL at Caloundra; THE DARK ARTS in Ballarat and THE UNIVERSAL in Geelong; Quan's Push mentor band 8 BIT LOVE in Melbourne; Tasmania's TIGERCHOIR in Hobart; Adelaide locals THE BOTTLEROCKET at The Gov; plus BOYS BOYS BOYS from Perth as well as doing all the WA shows will be coming along for Melbourne, Geelong and Adelaide. Fun time friends!


In regard to the AUGUST tour and the SUPER HAPPY VIDEO CONTENT... we want to engage a more collaborative involvement with anyone interested who wants to submit video material for the live visuals. We are looking for video of any substance... short or not too long... incidental, accidental, generated, handmade, prefabricated, collaborated, specifically created... then submitted to a funtimes-crazed-chopped-up-sp licing frenzy by Quan and Ben for their tour visual collage. Upload your video pieces either via VIMEO or YOUTUBE or via SENDSPACE or MAIL in on DVD... if possible per the suggested specs noted below. Please include your details about submission as all used will receive entry to shows and music. Please be careful regarding usage of any copyrighted material and provide an email address so we can confirm copyright clearance for the bands usage. Shoot us with your visual mayhem!


You can either upload on your own VIMEO or YOUTUBE site or share to the regurgitator YOU TUBE or VIMEO tour site

VimoRVW or upload via your own sites or SENDSPACE etc and send us an email with detailsregurgitatorband or mail a DVD to PO BOX 12700 George St Brisbane Qld 4003


As ONE DAY surfs up the radio and net waves further new tracks will rise with the coming tide of new album SUPERHAPPYFUNTIMESFRIENDS

Out of the great wide blue the guys have now dropped an album's worth of dynamic material all forthcoming over the next month or so on digital, vinyl, cassette, CD and even Playbutton. Shacked up in their Melbourne dwellings and put together in the midst of a enforced creative blizzard... it seems the concept of the album was not without value still as it afforded the more focused structure and disciplined approach they seem to require. Ahhh... the frenzy of an an artistic tempest whipped up by the wild seas of a deadline - all comes now pieced together under the title SUPERHAPPYFUNTIMEFRIENDS.

REGURGITATOR CRUISE
Also of note... Regurgitator's "UNIT" was not only recently voted #13 on the industry voted Triple J TOP 100 Australian albums... but has now come in at #10 on the public voted campaign... with Tu Plang at #44.


Regurgitator's live soundtrack performance of Akira at the Sydney Opera House Graphic event last year has been nominated for two Helpmann awards - Best Australian Contemporary Concert and Best Original Score.


ONE DAY available online now.

Get for free from Regurgitator's facebook bandpage:

Or for free or donation from Regurgitator's bandcamp page:

new album SUPERHAPPYFUNTIMESFRIENDS out AUG 5!
We love dissemination!
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JC Williamson Award

June 8th 2011 12:05
Three legends of the Australian musical stage awarded the highest honour by the live entertainment industry.

Nancye Hayes OAM, Toni Lammond AM and Jill Perryman AM MBE

Announced as the recipients of the prestigious JC Williamson AwardTM



The last three Leading Ladies of the Golden JC Williamson era.



Live Performance Australia (LPA) today announced that the recipients of the prestigious JC Williamson AwardTM, to be presented at the 2011 Helpmann Awards, are Nancye Hayes OAM, Toni Lammond AM and Jill Perryman AM MBE.



Andrew Kay, President of LPA said "Since the inception of the JC Williamson AwardsTM back in 1998 Live Performance Australia has recognised 24 of the most distinguished members of Australia's live entertainment industry for their extraordinary contribution to our industry. Past winners include such iconic figures as Dame Joan Sutherland OM AC DBE, Barry Humphries AO CBE, David Williamson AO, John Farnham AO and Graeme Bell AO MBE, to name but a few. All in their own way, and in their own field, have made extraordinary contributions to shaping and changing the landscape of our dynamic live entertainment industry. This year we salute and celebrate the life time achievements of three legends of the Australian musical stage, Nancye Hayes OAM, Toni Lammond AM and Jill Perryman AM MBE."



LPA's Chief Executive, Evelyn Richardson, said "the Helpmann Awards are the pinnacle industry event for Australia's live performance industry, recognising the very best in live performances that annually attracts over 15 million people to shows across the nation with revenues of over $1.1 billion, and growing."



Craig McMaster, CEO, Showbiz International, JC Williamson Award Partner, said "Showbiz is pleased to support the Helpmann Awards as presenting partner for the 2011 JC Williamson Award, celebrating these three outstanding performers who have contributed so much to live entertainment in Australia, and thrilled audiences with their starring roles in musical and dramatic theatre."



This year the Helpmann Awards will be held in the Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House on Monday 1 August.



Jill Perryman AM MBE was born into a showbiz family and made her stage debut when, aged two, she wandered onto the set of White Horse Inn. At age 19 Jill joined the J.C. Williamson chorus and appeared in Call Me Madam, Paint Your Wagon, Can-Can, South Pacific, The Pajama Game and the lead in Can-Can. In the late 1950s and early 60s Jill sparkled in a string of Phillip Street revues. In 1965 she was cast in Hello, Dolly!, which led to her first great triumph: the starring role of Fanny Brice in Funny Girl in 1966. Her music theatre successes continued: I Do, I Do, No! No! Nanette, A Little Night Music, Annie, Chicago, Side By Side By Sondheim, and Follies in Concert. In 1976 she played Gladys Zilch in Leading Lady, a show specially written for her. Jill is a fine dramatic actress and her credits include 'night Mother, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Gulls and Noises Off.

In 1995 Jill toured as in a brand new production of Hello, Dolly!, In 1998 she created the role of Marion Woolnough in the original Australian production of The Boy from Oz.

Nancye Hayes OAM, at age 18, won a place in the chorus of My Fair Lady. From there her career, firstly with J.C. Williamson's, and then with every other major entrepreneur in Australia led her to play in a vast number of musicals, to include How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Hello, Dolly!, Promises, Promises, Cabaret, Pippin, Irene, Nine, Sweeney Todd, Chicago, Annie, 42nd Street, and Guys and Dolls.

She made her 'straight' debut in Born Yesterday in 1971, going on to appear in Danton's Death, Same Time, Next Year, Going Home, Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi, The Glass Menagerie, Steel Magnolias and Stepping Out.

Her cabaret show, Nancye with an E, toured Australia in 1992. Nancye's directorial credits include Crazy for You, The World Goes Round, Australia's Leading Ladies in Concert, The Wizard of Oz, The Three Divas and Annie, plus Gypsy, Sweet Charity and The Boy from Oz for The Production Company.

In 2006-2007 Nancye toured Australia with Todd McKenney in the enormously successful Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, and she is currently touring with Reg Livermore in Turns.



Toni Lamond AM was born into a showbiz family and soon became part of her parents' touring variety show. In 1951 she was featured in revue and pantomime in Adelaide which led to a stint on the Tivoli Circuit.

Toni became a familiar figures on early TV and for eight years she was a regular on IMT; she also guest-hosted the show, making her the first woman in the world to front a 'Tonight' show. She returned to the stage in the musical Wildcat, and in Gypsy.

Toni lived and worked in the USA from 1976 to 1988, appearing in major musicals and in featured roles in TV drama. On her return to Australia she toured with her son, Tony Sheldon, in shows written by him. Toni's other musical theatre credits include For Amusement Only, Expresso Bongo, Cabaret, 42nd Street, The Full Monty, Shout!, Follies in Concert, High Society, The Pirates of Penzance, My Fair Lady and Beauty and the Beast. Toni has published two volumes of autobiography - First Half (1990) and Still a Gypsy (2002) - as well as the sadly practical Cooking When You're Broke (1976).


Strategic Partners:Events NSW, Foxtel
Premier Partners:Fairfax, Ticketmaster, Ticketek, Sydney Opera House
JC Williamson Award Partnerhowbiz International
Major Partners:Media Super, The Argyle
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LIONEL RICHIE GUY SEBASTIAN

DUET OF ALL NIGHT LONG FOR CHRISTCHURCH EARTHQUAKE &
QUEENSLAND FLOOD APPEALS


LIONEL RICHIE, GUY SEBASTIAN


A new collaboration between music legend Lionel Richie and Australia's Guy Sebastian of Lionel’s hit single All Night Long is now available for purchase and download from the iTunes store to raise funds for those affected by the Christchurch earthquakes and Queensland floods.

Grammy Award nominated producer RedOne - known as ‘the man behind Lady Gaga’ - also donated his time to the track, contributing irresistible club beats and smooth synthesizer effects to give the classic hit a modern twist and fresh new sound.

Plus, in what is set to be an unforgettable concert highlight, the two chart-topping stars will also perform the song live at all shows on their upcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand starting in New Zealand on March 18.

Lionel jumped at the chance to help those in Australia and New Zealand affected by these multiple natural disasters.

“The floods and earthquakes have caused damage on a scale not seen in our lifetime. I can think of no better use for one of my most successful copyrights than to help raise needed funds for the people of Australia and New Zealand. The people of these countries have been very good to me over the course of my career and I welcome the opportunity to return the kindness.”

“Music is meant to lift the spirit of mankind. There will always be the appropriate avenue for sombre reflection on what was lost in these disasters, however, I chose All Night Long because it will give people a reason to donate and celebrate the good times ahead instead of just dwelling on the past.”

Guy Sebastian said “Being offered the tour with Lionel is a real honour but getting to record with him is truly humbling. He is a legend and ‘All Night Long’ is one of his greatest songs and biggest hits so I'm still pinching myself. I hope people get behind it and support the appeals that the money is going to.”

Lionel Richie’s original composition ‘All Night Long (All Night)’ from his second solo album Can’t Slow Down was a smash hit in the 80s. The single peaked at #1 on Billboard Pop, R&B and Adult Contemporary charts as well as #1 on the ARIA Singles chart.

100% of proceeds from the sale of the single in Australia will be donated to the Queensland Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal. 100% of proceeds from the sale of the single in New Zealand will be donated to the New Zealand Government Christchurch Earthquake Appeal.

The single is available now to purchase and download from the iTunes stores in Australia and New Zealand.

Lionel Richie and Guy Sebastian tour Australia and New Zealand from March 18 to April 6 with tickets on sale now.


LIONEL RICHIE
with special guest GUY SEBASTIAN


MARCH/APRIL 2011

Friday 18 March Vector Arena, Auckland
Ticketmaster 09 970 9700 or www.ticketmaster.co.nz

Saturday 19 March A Day On The Green – Church Rd Winery, Hawkes Bay
Ticketmaster 0800 111 999 or www.ticketmaster.co.nz

Sunday 20 March TSB Bank Arena, Wellington
Ticketek 0800 4TICKET www.ticketmaster.co.nz

Tuesday 22 March Sydney Acer Arena
Ticketek 132 849 or www.ticketek.com.au

Friday 25 March Brisbane Entertainment Centre
Ticketek 132 849 or www.ticketek.com.au

Saturday 26 March A Day On The Green – Bimbadgen Estate, Hunter Valley, NSW
Ticketmaster 136 100 or www.ticketmaster.com.au

Sunday 27 March A Day On The Green – Centennial Vineyards, Bowral, NSW
Ticketmaster 136 100 or www.ticketmaster.com.au

Tuesday 29 March Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
Ticketek 132 849 or www.ticketek.com.au

Wednesday 30 March Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
Ticketek 132 849 or www.ticketek.com.au

Saturday 02 April A Day On The Green, Rochford Wines, Yarra Valley, VIC
Ticketmaster 136 100 or www.ticketmaster.com.au

Sunday 03 April A Day On The Green, Leconfield Wines, McLaren Vale, SA
Ticketmaster 136 100 or www.ticketmaster.com.au

Wednesday 06 April nib Stadium, Perth
Ticketmaster 136 100 or www.ticketmaster.com.au
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The Dynamites

December 5th 2010 00:50
The Dynamites Feat Charles Walker
Touring Australia Dec-Jan

“KABOOM!” In Stores Jan 7th via Top Shelf/MGM
Sydney Festival
If the first attention-grabbing horn lines of The Dynamites album Kaboom! evoke a dramatic curtain call from a late ‘60’s soul concert at the Apollo Theater, it’s no accident. After all, that’s exactly where Charles Walker, the band’s singer and front man, first cut his teeth as a performer. When the revolutionary ‘new bag’ now known as funk first made the scene, Walker was right there in the thick of it, opening for the likes of James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Etta James, and Wilson Pickett, and imbibing himself in a cultural movement’s genesis. Walker recorded on many of the most reputed soul labels of that era, including Champion, Chess and Decca.

The Dynamites and Charles have been touring the U.S. and Europe extensively since their formation in 2007 and this will be their 2nd trip to Australia after first hitting our shores in April of this year for Byron Bay Bluesfest. Their 2nd album “Burn It Down” was released at the same time and received strong alternative radio support including being named a Feature Album on both 2SER (Sydney) and PBS (Melbourne).

“12 cuts of rambunctious virtuosity… Exceptional stuff” – Scene Magazine

Freshly partnered with Top Shelf Productions, The Dynamites Feat Charles Walker return to Australia THIS MONTH, for what promises to be a mind-blowing string of summer festivals shows. To celebrate, they will be making their debut album “Kaboom!” available in stores Jan 7th via Top Shelf/MGM. Catch the band:

Tue Dec 27th / Wed Dec 28th / Thu Dec 29th @ The Woodford Folk Festival, QLD


Fri Dec 30th @ Peats Ridge Festival, NSW
www.peatsridgefestival.com.au

Thu Jan 6th / Fri Jan 7th @ The Order Of Melbourne, VIC
www.theorder.com.au

Sat Jan 8th @ Sydney Festival (First Night)
www.sydneyfestival.org.au

Sun Jan 9th @ Sydney Festival (Becks Bar)
www.sydneyfestival.org.au


In the early ‘60’s, Charles Walker’s group ‘Little Charles and the Sidewinders’ became one of the hottest acts on the New York club scene, residing for many years as the house band at the legendary Harlem jazz and soul/R&B venue, Small’s Paradise. All this, combined with his Tennessee background, made Walker a natural to be included in the Country Music Hall of Fame’s ‘Night Train to Nashville’ exhibit. As Doyle Davis, now owner of Outta Sight Records (the U.S. label that releases The Dynamites’ records) milled through the exhibit, curator Michael Gray raved about Walker’s recent performance at an event promoting the exhibit’s Night Train to Nashville release on Lost Highway Records. Davis knew then and there that he’d found the singer that Bill Elder (a.k.a. Leo Black), The Dynamites’ founder, had been searching for.

The result is The Dynamites Featuring Charles Walker, a full and heavy, explosive, “rawthentic” super soul outfit fronted by a dynamic, tried and true soul veteran in top form.

The Dynamites are far from being alone in their second millennium pursuit of rekindling soul-funk’s original flames. Spearheaded by The Dynamites good friends and frequent touring partners ‘Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings’, a renaissance of funk and soul is snatching up listeners all around the globe. As a New York Times article titled ‘What’s Going On? Everything Soul is New Again,’ says loud and clear: soul music is making a formidable comeback. “More than at any time in recent memory soul music’s pressing syncopation and stirring hollers are churning within the popular mainstream.”

Walker is relaxed and at the top of his game and any discerning listener can feel it. The fuse has been lit. “Kaboom!” is readymade for detonation. And as comeback albums for soul artists like Charles Walker hit the charts more and more, it seems the public is ready too.
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Bliss'nEso

December 3rd 2010 06:29
BLISS N ESO
LAUNCH INNOVATIVE TOUR CAMPAIGN

Sydney’s Bliss N Eso, a group that has long been at the forefront of the digital media game, have launched a campaign which enables their fans to decide the route of their next national tour.

It’s an unusual move for a band of their size, who last year completed the highest ever selling tour by an Australian hip-hop act, headlined some of the biggest festivals in the country and their latest album, Running on Air debuted at #1 in August this year.

Before becoming an all-conquering juggernaut, they built their fanbase through a combination of online promotion (in the ‘MySpace era’) and a never-ending touring schedule. In more recent years, they’ve focused touring internationally and in capital cities, but they’ve decided that it’s time to pay homage to the smaller towns once again.

The band have utilised a Facebook sharing application which enables entrants to gather the troops on their own personal page, amplifying the reach of their 200,000 fans to an infinite number of Australian Facebook users. Within 48 hours of launching, the competition had drawn tens of thousands of votes from across the country, and around the world.

As of Thursday 2pm AEST, the top five poll voters consisted of Wagga Wagga, the Sunshine Coast, Mount Gambier, the Blue Mountains and Sydney – making only one of them a capital city. Seemingly the more rural areas are seizing their opportunity to bring an act of Bliss N Eso’s size to their doorstep. The competition ends at 10pm AEST on Wednesday 8th December, with the winners announced on that Friday.

Competition link: www.blissneso.com/vote


Bliss N Eso have just released Reflections, the new single off their latest album – Running on Air. The upcoming festival season sees them play at the sold-out Southbound Festival on NYE before they take to the main stage at the (also sold-out) national Big Day Out tour.

Running on Air out now through Illusive
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World AIDS Day

December 1st 2010 00:44
Take Action. No Discrimination.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is transmissible through bodily fluids such as blood. With time, HIV most often causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Disease, which is not communicable. HIV positive individuals need special health care and support from their community, and to live free from discrimination.

Bono and Kevin


We need to understand HIV and what it means to be HIV positive to properly support the individuals living with the virus. Through support, we can educate how to prevent HIV transmission.



World AIDS Day is one of the most globally recognised events of the year. World AIDS Day is celebrated across Australia to raise awareness in the community about the issues surrounding HIV/AIDS.

The theme for World AIDS Day 2010 is Take Action. No Discrimination. The aim is to encourage all Australians to be aware of the prelavence of HIV/AIDS; to take action to reduce the transmission of HIV by promoting safe sex practices; and to accept individuals living with or affected by HIV/AIDS.

HIV positive people need to be empowered in society to strengthen community spirit, feel included and educate on HIV and AIDS. They have the right to participate in the community free from stigma and discrimination.

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75 years of DC Comics

November 21st 2010 21:23
Super heroes from the Atom to Zatara: 75 years of DC Comics

In 1935, DC Comics founder Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson published New Fun No. 1, the first comic book with all-new, original material - at a time when comic books were mere repositories for the castoffs of the newspaper strips.

DC Comics' Superman


What was initially considered to be disposable media for children was well on its way to becoming the mythology of our time - the 20th century's answer to Atlas or Zorro.

More than 40,000 comic books later, in honor of the publisher’s 75th anniversary, TASCHEN has produced the single most comprehensive book on DC Comics, in an XL edition even Superman might have trouble lifting.
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Actor's Film Workshops

November 14th 2010 05:22
International Programmes

The Australian Institute for Performing Arts (AIPA) Pty Ltd

performingartstours.com.au

The Australian Institute for Performing Arts (AIPA) Inc, Los Angeles, CA, 90046, United States


THIS IS A GENUINE OPPORTUNITY TO STUDY WITH:
Amanda Mackey – Feature Film – Los Angeles & New York, USA
Jane Jenkins – Feature Film - The Casting Company – Los Angeles, USA
Jen Page - Feature Films & Television Series – Vancouver, Canada
Kathleen Chopin – Feature Films & Television Series – New York, USA
Matthew Barry – Feature Films - BGK Casting – Los Angeles, USA
Richard Mento - Feature Film & Musical Theatre– LA & NYC, USA

Date: 17th – 28th November, 2010

Take one 4 hour class OR ten of them, it is up to you

Location SYDNEY: The Australian Institute for Performing Arts, 40 Merrenburn Avenue, NAREMBURN NSW 2065


Location MELBOURNE: Melbourne Acting Academy, 73 – 81 Cardigan Street, CARLTON VIC 3053


HOW TO REGISTER: Please visit www.aipapaws.com.au to register for your workskop(s)

Any questions please give call 02 9966 5425

The series has been put together by casting professionals for actors. We all recognise that there is a need for a genuine series of workshops so that emerging Australian actors can work with the American & Canadian decision makers. Actors will get honest feedback about their performance. There are no promises of employment, representation or visas. As any agent of repute knows, if a studio wishes to employ an International actor, they will get the paperwork done.

The aim of the workshop series is simple – ‘to introduce actors to the leading casting directors and network casting executives from Los Angeles, New York and Canada in Sydney, Australia. The team of casting professionals who will be teaching are listed below. As you will see, they are not associates or assistants; they are Casting Directors with substantial credits, experience and reputation. Many of them do not teach workshops. They have agreed to teach this series as they have cast Australian actors and respect the work ethic Australian professionals possess. The casting directors are being remunerated for their time as they are teaching. These are not paid ‘go-sees’, but they have all given up Thanksgiving with their families to come to see you, so they are dedicated to this project.

Actors interested in taking a class or a series of classes should enrol online. No bookings will be taken over the phone or in person. The online system counts down, so enrolment by any other means could cause over-enrolment. Receipts are issued immediately from the website and should be brought with you on the day of your class.

Classes are limited to 16 per class.

Private lessons are available with some of the casting directors.

The official website for this project is www.aipapaws.com.au

Please ask any questions you may have before enrolling. Sides will be supplied by the casting directors and will be emailed to you prior to your workshop. You will also receive a tax invoice for your classes.
The Australian Institute for Performing Arts is proud to present this opportunity to actors.



International Programmes
The Australian Institute for Performing Arts (AIPA) Pty Ltd
Office: 40 Merrenburn Ave, Naremburn, Sydney, NSW, 2065, Australia.
Phone 61 2 9966 4473. Fax 61 2 9966 5014.
Postal: PO Box 434 Artarmon, NSW, Australia, 1570
Registered Office: 1 Chandos St Lv 4, St Leonards, NSW 2065

The Australian Institute for Performing Arts (AIPA) Inc
Office: Suite 317 - 1425 N Sierra Bonita Ave, Los Angeles, CA, 90046, United States
Postal: P O Box 69A43, West Hollywood, CA United States, 90069-9998
Registered Office: 9229 Sunset Blvd, Suite 414, Los Angeles CA, 90069 USA.
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The Prelude opens in 2007 at The Hollywood Bowl where Rufus Wainwright is performing his Judy Garland show to 13,000 people, then the focus turns to 1968 and The Village Gaslight a legendary folk bar in Greenwich Village where Bob Dylan sang in his early days.

The brush strokes in this portrait are immediately broad and significant. As with most biographies this one devotes some time to the parents of the subject; where they were at and what was going on in their lives. The father had been having tea parties with Liza Minnelli as a seven year old and eventually in 1968 he was an aspiring Dylan wannabe, he once described the woman he’d marry as a wild and crazy swingin rock chick’.



As a singer songwriter he shares quirky ironic songs about his life; that’s his act. When their first child, a son, is born he writes a song called Be Careful There’s A Baby in the House.

When I was a kid I consciously noticed Judy Garland in a mid-day movie I’d seen during the school holidays. It was the film A Star is Born (George Cukor, 1954) and her rending of the song The Man That Got Away that snapped me up into the throngs of people world wide who are fans of hers. As long as I can remember I loved the blending of those words and her voice in that song.

Imagine for a moment your favorite song. How does it reach you? If you are anything like me, you will have more than one song that’s a favorite, for a range of different reasons. One song is a favorite because of the time and way you learnt it; another one you really related to after a bad experience. Songs, once inside you can stay there for ever laying dormant for years and then suddenly resounding. The lyric or tune or both flood in from memory and for a moment you are washed with the spirit of whatever song it is, and probably residue of the emotional baggage or memories you’ve attached to it.

What are the impacts of someone writing a song for you; about you, over a childhood say? The teenage years and then young adulthood and beyond; how would the existence of a song meddle with who you are discovering yourself to be in your life? Songs are very strong magic. They can get inside you just the same as they can get inside the next person. Anyone can sing a song or hum a few lines. If a song was a weapon surely it would have to be considered a potential weapon of mass influence if not distribution. Songs can spread like wildfire and could be just as destructive.

Interesting then that Rufus Wainwright was born into a world that quickly included a song that reflected upon his very existence, written by his singer songwriter father. A father who would split from his mother after the second child Martha was born. It does sound a little like the makings of a modern Greek tragedy doesn’t it?

Thankfully Kirk Lake’s biography of Rufus Wainwright, There will be Rainbows, isn’t a scandalous expose of a Meth-sucking ribald queer desperately returning from Crack City soaked in shiny slick Queer as Folk afterbirth. Although part of the type of journey Rufus Wainwright took received quite a good shakedown in the US Queer as Folk series: The character Theodore (Ted/Teddy) Schmidt slipped down the slide to lose himself in debauched sexual acts under the influence of drugs. Eventually druggie Teddy ended up in a twelve step program. Squinting, I could easily imagine Rufus in the role of druggie Teddy but only in a most generalized sense. In the way any television series’ weave issues into their ongoing dramatic trajectory. Doesn’t this character journey get used as a storyline because the drugged out character journey to hell and back is a common morals story we can all relate to? You either die or you survive.

What’s so great about the variation on the theme with the trajectory of singer songwriter Rufus Wainwright is the evolution of his persona as he returns from his particular hell. He’s a self aware kind of guy, and he sings gorgeously.

I was impressed when I saw Rufus in the concert Came so far for Beauty at the Sydney Opera House during the Sydney Festival. I wasn’t really there to see Rufus; I was looking forward to catching Nick Cave back in Sydney, singing something different. I had previously reviewed Poses by Rufus Wainwright; released in Australia by Universal Music. I liked the album. I remember being taken by Rufus’ voice and the lyrics.

Rufus’ Poses struck me as more your Andy Warhol Pop Art than soundtrack to Queer as Folk club music. It had a refined constraint about it and a resonance connected to living the Queer as Folk lifestyle in a grittier downtown Drella kind of way, more real than the newly ingested stereotypes provided by the US series. Curious it was to me, that here was an out gay artist in the days of out gay television soap, and there wasn’t an inordinate deal of hype around about either of them in the mainstream press here in Australia.

It made sense to me when I read newspaper articles saying Rufus was an out gay artist and the son of performing parents but I had no great detail of exactly who these parents were exactly, or what tradition he’d come from. Lake’s biography traces the career shifts and turns of both folks, keeping a reasonably detailed account of their post-divorce couplings.

When Rufus was in Sydney in 2004 a young law student who was producing a regular segment on one of my community radio programs at the time, he was gay, but usually quite straight-laced. Quite mild mannered in fact relatively conservative; and most interestingly this young fellow was smitten with Rufus. He relished telling me the bittersweet story he’d heard of a young intern at ABC Radio who had been taken out to supper and invited back to Rufus’ hotel room; I thought it was cute to see this very serious student of law so irrepressibly whipped up about Rufus’ exploits in Sydney.

It was so great to see he was really into Rufus. Great because he could express himself that way, I couldn’t have gotten away with it so unselfconsciously when I was his age, in my early twenties. It was empowering; two gay guys talking about a gay artist. It’s also curious to see what punters find attractive about him. I know what I think. Rufus is quite handsome and sings really well.

For me, it was definitely Rufus’ track that stood out of the soundtrack of Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann, 2001). Rufus sang Complainte De La Butte the lyric by Jean Renoir, it is very simple and beautiful. I had no notion of who he was at the time, but I loved the song.

I had never really heard of the McGarrigle Sisters but I knew of Loudon Wainwright way back when I was a kid myself. Along with classics like Rolf Harris’ Jake the Peg, John Williams’ The Ball-bearing Bird and Red-back on the toilet seat, Loudon Wainwright penned and sang Dead skunk in the middle of the road. It had quite a lot of air play at some point in my 1970’s youth. Loudon Wainwright is of course the father of Rufus and he sang the dead skunk song.

Many years before my face to face interview with Rufus I had met Liza Minnelli in 1978 when I was seventeen. I purchased tickets to the Liza Minnelli concert at the Adelaide Festival Centre as a gift for my mum, but mum had a migraine on the date of the concert so I ended up attending with a manic depressive friend of mine who could drive us to the concert and back afterward. I was enthralled by splashy show business at this particular time. During the concert Liza was fabulous at her prime doing numbers from Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972), New York New York (Martin Scorsese, 1977) and her television special Liza with a Z (Bob Fosse, 1971),all of which I’d seen.

In the days leading up to me going to the concert one particular song had been going around and around in my head for no evident reason, not a Liza Minnelli song as far as I was aware. It was from the musical Gypsy (Mervyn LeRoy, 1962) with lyrics by Jule Styne and music by Stephen Sondheim. For some reason I thought to myself, if Liza were to sing this song it would be a sign that I was going to somehow meet her.

Meeting Liza was a simple task. After all it was Adelaide, the Festival Theatre. She had to leave by the stage door and I knew where that was. My friend and I would just go and stand there, so we did. We waited by her big white limo until she came out.

We waited so long for my friend had bid me leave my gift for Liza with the limo driver. She was ready to call it a night. She was my driver so I left my gift, a hand knitted two foot long multicoloured stripy Wee Willy Winky hat, with Liza’s driver. Just as we were about to leave, Liza emerged. I was flabbergasted.

Coming face to face with such a great talent, noticing how tiny a person she was. Realizing how enormous she had just been on stage. I was thrilled. I shook her hand and said something like You were in Judy’s womb, Liza said Yes I was. The whole sixty seconds was really terrific.

Days later I received a very poorly typed letter on Liza Minnelli letterhead thanking me for the terrific hat (my address was on a note I left inside the hat). Liza was such a forceful star and such a great sport.

My reaction to Rufus singing in the Came so far for Beauty concert was similar to my reaction to hearing Liza in concert and Judy on records. Rufus has a truly beautiful voice and his relationship with the audience is very clean, I would call it transparent, glowing, and shining.

I had been excited to see Nick Cave in this concert, I knew more of Martha than Rufus Wainwright because she had the saucy Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole around on radio - I’d played it several times as well as other songs from her self titled debut album. Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole was about her father; but once you start to digest the life long song writing habits of Loudon and Kate, it’s their family tradition; Martha’s song has great appeal.

The parents divorced after the birth of Martha, the kids went to live with mum while dad pretty much went on the long tour to peddle his work. Along the way Loudon wrote songs about his relationship, his kids and his philandering.

It was only a matter of time before the daughter grew up and wrote a few songs of her own and Martha’s letter to daddy was a ripper.
Combine my press release readings related to Martha and my gay law students girly demeanor when gossiping about the dreamy Rufus, I was picking up the vibe that I was missing out on something.

Sat listening to Rufus singing at the Sydney Opera House I realized I had been missing out. He was excellent. So I requested an interview with him. I wanted to get a better sense of who this guy was.

Just prior this time I had seen a preview of the film The Aviator (Martin Scorsese, 2004), a big epic movie with Rufus playing a club act in the recreated Coconut Grove replica the production had built in Montreal. I thought he was great; there was a quality that reminded me of Barbra Streisand dancing in Hello Dolly (Gene Kelly, 1969), untrained. This is not to be mean or criticize. I find the physicality of the comedic untrained dancer vastly superior to watch at times than the trained dancers’ slick precision.

Rufus busts a couple of moves that are pretty hilarious in The Aviator. I felt there was a generalized essence he had; hard to not lack subtlety when performing live in such a massive scene, but he certainly works it through his number and it entertains. To me it resembles Al Jolson or a Persian Sufi, someone very skilled at pure expression.

Rufus and I met in the coffee shop area of the hotel where he was staying in Sydney. I’ve deliberately left the greater part of his um’s and ah’s in this transcript because they are very him, but I have trimmed some of them out. Virtually anywhere there is an um or an ah you can imagine another two or three. His mercurial thinking on the fly seems very honest as he answers questions; to me this was a nice interview even though I showed myself up a little by being a bit flirtatious. I actually pulled back a little too far, out of embarrassment, made the decision not to flirt any more but think I ended up sounding a little straighter than I’d hoped to sound by the end.

Rufus had a cup of tea on a saucer; he was unshaven with a white shirt unbuttoned around the chest and jeans. He cuts a dashing young figure. We made our greetings, sat down at a table and I started recording. His laugh is something bright, like a Parrot; gawkily devilishly geekish, very unselfconscious.

David: It’s been said that great art is something that arises from great suffering and you’ve been pretty open in the press about having some periods in your life where maybe you’ve described it as being a little bit lost in um-

Rufus:
Hedonistic behaviour…? (Laughs)

David: Yeah, hedonistic behaviour; so do you think a lot of your work is informed by some of those hard times?

Rufus:
Ah well, I mean, uh, I don’t, in any way, consider my, you know, my dark days to be um, truly dark; I mean compared to you know, what a huge- a vast majority of the world goes through you know, if you don’t live in a first world country. You know, I do think that I as an artist, you know, I was definitely drawn to you know, the romantic and to the sort of ephemeral and I kind of went there you know mostly because I was just attracted to it and loved it really; and so I think, and in the end it did become you know very painful and, kind of um, really like an illusion, you know, empty, so, so.. but I got all that I could out of it, you know so, and I still respect it tremendously like that whole you know, bohemian lifestyle and I still, you know, love those movies and stuff and who knows? But in the last while I just figured I hit a point where you know I just had… I just needed to… I just needed some basic things that all humans need you know, just like care and love and positive outlooks on life and had to you know and I had to sort of switch gears a little. So I think it was necessary just as an artist to go there but I think it was necessary as a better artist to like return and continue.

David: Is there a point then in your development as a performer when you’ve gone from being the kid of someone or some ones who sing on to an artist in his own right?

Rufus: I don’t know I mean I play both sides really. I very much take advantage of my unique relationship with my parents; we do shows together, Martha’s been in my band and I definitely am seen often with them, so, so I feel that um, I don’t know. I really do feel like both Kate (my Mother) and Anna (my Aunt) McGarrigle, Loudon Wainwright (my Dad) and Martha Wainwright (my sister) we’re all very very different musicians and really incomparable in a certain way, um, I did feel like, you know, I didn’t necessarily always feel this way you know after all this time since I made my first record. I think I needed about three records probably to really be confidant in my own sort of position and so now I’ve made my fourth um,

David: Do you mean be confidant in your own position in the family sort of thing?

Rufus: Well just my own position, not so much in the family but my own position in the music world as compared with my family members, I mean I really think that um, I mean when you see the family show, which we do sometimes; we just did it here (Sydney) I think one is initially kind of shocked by sort of the level of quality of ah, of each performer, uh like me and my sister we were talking about it the other day, like my sister comes out and it’s like this nuclear bomb goes off-

David: It sure is.

Rufus: I’m just sort of like grasping at the piano trying to survive it you know and then my mother and my aunt you know there like these two sort of elves from Lord of the Rings who like, cast these magical spells, so I gotta get up there and do my little thing, and so I think it’s kind of. I don’t know. I think that’s how I feel about it, I think we’re all at the same level in a certain way.

David: You’re very comfortable and relaxed in your own skin on stage, I mean, is that because you’ve been working with them on stage a good deal of your life?

Rufus: I’ve been on the stage since I was at least twelve.

David: And you’re like what twenty-five, twenty-six now?

Rufus: No I’m thirty-one (laughs) Thank you that’s very sweet of you-

David: You?

Rufus: Yeah.

David: You really are?

Rufus: Yeah (long laugh)

David: Okay.

Rufus: Can’t you tell I got a beard and everything?

David: Yeah I just thought you were wearing the butch look today.

Rufus: Oh well that’s sweet, that’s very sweet of you; that made my day.

David: Okay.

Rufus: It’s a good thing you said that. Yeah but no, I’ve been doing; been on the stage for years and I watched you know, both my parents perform and I also was very much as a young child um, drawn to classic um, stagecraft, you know, movies from the forties and thirties and old Judy Garland musicals; just that whole idea of being able to tap dance and sing and-

David: Do you tap dance?

Rufus: No. I took tap dancing lessons once-

David: I would have thought that in The Aviator in your featured role there you would’ve sprung into a bit of tap dancing if you did tap dance.

Rufus: Ah yeah if I did I would’ve. But I ah, I just, I don’t know I’m lazy (laughs)

David: Can we talk about The Aviator? You perform in an extraordinarily huge scene-

Rufus: Yeah.

David: It’s comparable to the opening scene of New York New York that other Scorsese film

Rufus: Yuh

David: Um, how long did it take? What did you do to prepare? And, did you have a ball because it looked like you did.

Rufus:
Oh well I had a great time I mean I was, very much, it’s funny because it didn’t take that long to do, it took about three days for that scene to be done and um I arrived the most amazing thing about it; or well, one of the most amazing things about it was that it was actually filmed in Montreal which is my home town, they’d rebuilt the Coconut Grove up there. I went up there to do it and it was my thirtieth birthday on the day of filming and I was quite exhausted just from you know, touring and running around so I was asleep a lot in the trailer in fact my mother came and brought a cake and brought it out on the set and I wasn’t there because I was asleep but then we went out and started filming and um, and I was very comfortable in that environment. I guess ‘because I’d made videos in the past that I just regarded you know, Leonardo DiCaprio was just sort of like another extra -

David: Well why not!

Rufus: (Laughs excitedly) A very you know, defined looking one, and then, and then, but you know, and then, we did it and I don’t know, it was really, I mean I had a ball doing it, but it was also, I don’t know, it was, it was I don’t know, it’s funny because I had another experience not too later, not much later which was, you know, later on, which was actually where I acted in a movie with Glen Close, I have a scene in this movie called Heights a couple of scenes where I actually had to act and that was much more daunting and sort of frightening-

David: Is that the first formal acting you’ve done?

Rufus: That was the first sort of formal on screen acting that I’ve done um-

David: But you’ve acted on stage?

Rufus: Yeah I used to do a lot of plays and stuff as a kid, you know in high school and stuff obviously-

David: Do you think doing that sort of stuff has fed into your ability to be a creative genius?

Rufus: (Laughs big and embarrassed)

David: For want of a better word.

Rufus: Well I don’t know, I definitely… As I said before just, I was sold on the whole idea that you know, great performers have to be really well rounded artistically you know? You got to know how to read an audience, you got to know how to move in a certain way and you got to know how to; you know you gotta really sort of ah, compare yourself to the greats who came before you and I think that’s; that in doing that you have to learn from them some how; so, so I do, I don’t know, I just feel like that’s where I’ve, that’s how I’ve chosen to survive by trying to you know- Even if it’s not popular today even if it’s not, you know, current or anything, just to sort of emulate what’s really great and undeniably so. I’ve tried to add it in my set somehow. So I dunno (laughs)

David: Well you sang Over the Rainbow the other night at The Enmore

Rufus: Yeah.

David: And it kind of got me thinking that here you are, you’re a first generation kid of a pretty famous coupling maybe you’re kind of like the Liza Minnelli of the new century (he laughs) What do you think about that?

Rufus: Ah well, ah, don’t tell my mother that. She’d have a heart attack. I don’t think I’m remotely like her.

David: You’re much taller. (he laughs)

Rufus: I would say that I; I mean that I wouldn’t mind being sort of the male Judy Garland in a certain way. Um, I mean I’ve always been a un, um, unabashed kind of um, unforgiving kind of fan of her work. Um, I know that it’s... And that’s a pretty daunting and daring thing to say-

David: It is

Rufus: for a homosexual-

David: It is.

Rufus: of my age.

David: Well especially one who sings-

Rufus: Yeah yeah-

David: and writes-



Rufus:
Yeah. Cause there’s such a, you know, one is really pegged when they become you know a fan of hers, but we’re all, you know, every time I sort of return to her singing and her kind of phrasing and her really emotional way of carrying a song, it is like Wagnerian to me and it is this kind of this amazing; I’m still always constantly fascinated by it and ah, and moved so, so I don’t know. I do base a lot of my ideas of stagecraft on the Garland ethic but without the pills I guess (laughs)

David: Yeah which is you know; and that’s a good thing. On Want Too you’re, you’re kind of- that’s you there on the cover isn’t it?

Rufus: Yeah that is-

David: -and rather beautiful in some sort of almost err, renaissance or is it-

Rufus: It’s supposed to be Pre-Raphaelite



David: Pre-Raphaelite?

Rufus: Yeah.

David: Okay so, so what inspired that sort of behaviour? Is that a kick back to the kind of Judy Garlandesque sort of thing as well?

Rufus: No I think that’s more, I mean, that is more a kind of, when I said Wagnerian before it’s maybe a little more you know nineteenth century ah, romanticism which is really, takes a lot of; the pre-Raphaelites has always interested me as an art movement mainly because their paintings are just so beautiful and also their poetry and they really tried to make this sort of rich mixture of poetry and life and painting and theatre and you know mix it in with a little Oscar Wilde and a little you know, Beardsley, it’s very you know, unabashedly beautiful art form, and it’s funny because only recently after completing these two covers Want One and Want Too where I’m dressed as a Knight and then as The Lady of Shallot I realise that in fact my music is very pre-Raphaelite like I’m sort of operating on the same tenants like bringing past music to the future

David: Yeah.

Rufus: and sort of romanticising it almost like giving it steroids

David: Well it’s interesting you say that because I mean you described one of them I think the art teacher as a song that you wrote from the perspective of a young girl at school who is having an art class and then reminiscing when she is married to a wealthy man

Rufus: Yeah

David: yada yada which was a you know, nice little joke in there that you make but at the same time the song is deadly beautiful it’s incredible you pay homage to so many extraordinary artists in that song it’s kind of like ‘now where does that come from?’ is that from, is that just from you or what?

Rufus: I was I was a very solitary young person, I mean I was your typical kind of, or atypical I don’t know, wandering teenager who didn’t.. I mean I had a, had a few friends but I pretty much felt somewhat disconnected to the world and I would go to the opera alone at thirteen or fourteen or I would go to the Metropolitan Museum and kind of really relate more to the pictures on the wall that the you know, the people in the room and um, and I was kind of, you know I did fancy myself a kind of dandy, a misunderstood dandy and uh,

David: Is there any other kind?

Rufus: (laughs) and ah, and so I was, you know, that’s sort of the character that I’m hankering back to sort of my; who I don’t think you ever lose really I mean like even now like for instance I even go, like yesterday I even went to the gym here in Sydney and then we went to like, Manly Beach you know I just felt like that twelve year old again. I don’t know, whatever I still feel like that sort of gawky person. Even though I’m ravishingly beautiful. (laughs)

David: I wont make any comment because I don’t want to offend you. I mean you’ve got this sort of internalized beauty that is extraordinary and you’ve got to be able to acknowledge that and forget about your external

Rufus: Yeah I guess so but it is hard to kind of um, it’s very difficult to eh, lets just say it’s a job to do that for every gay man I think in our society

David: That’s exactly what I was going to ask; do you think there’s more pressure placed on you, you’re out in the industry and in the media as a gay man so obviously you’re; every gay guy that I know is madly in love with you the rumours of you picking up interns are everywhere you go, (he laughs) are stronger and stronger as we get around the place sort of thing (at this point Martha made an appearance) is this your sister yaeh?

Rufus: Yeah there’s my sister; are you off? You got your bag or are you going?

Martha:
Great to see you.

Rufus: Yeah you too.

Martha: I’ll talk to you very soon.

David: Great concert the other night, you rock.

Martha: Thankyou. Have a good one tonight.

Rufus: Okay bye Pounie.

David: You’ve got one tonight?

Rufus: Yeah the Cabaret Voltaire. It’s a little secret show or something.

David:
Oh okay, where Anthony performed the other night?

Rufus:
I think he was at The Vanguard wasn’t he?

David:
Oh you’re doing the Voltaire. Have you ever been there?

Rufus: No, is it nice?

David: Ah it’s the tiniest bit flea bitten sort of, maybe we’d call it a shit hole but it depends always on the

Rufus: Yeah yeah yeah.

David: On the performance.

Rufus: I have no idea I just show up and perform.

David: Oh well that’s really cool. Gosh you’re really doing a lot because you are doing The Basement as well.

Rufus: Yeah I’m doing two nights at The Basement as well.

David: Wow you’re doing a lot while you are here which is great for us. But is that what your tours are usually like, so jam packed?

Rufus: Well I mean I’m, I’m kind of, you know, I’m in my prime at the moment.

David: Yep yep.

Rufus: If there’s any time to rest it’s not now.

David: Okay.

Rufus: and I very much, I don’t know, I think because, ah, and I don’t say this in a complaining way but I would state that ah, I kind of have to work a little harder than certain acts um, mainly because ahh, I don’t quite, I mean I get a lot of support from my record company um and I do get; I am on a major label and you know, and that compared to people who are on like indy labels and who get nothing mmm and tour in vans you know? It is.. I shouldn’t complain but when you kind of go over this other border where you know people in my own sort of position. I don’t quite get as much promotion in a certain way like, or money put behind me as Iike big acts, you know, like I don’t get to make videos anymore I don’t really get a huge amount of; you know they don’t buy ads a lot, it’s like the radio thing isn’t totally jammed down the radio you know, and I mean I know a lot of the very famous, you know like The Strokes and the Nelly Furtado’s and all those people like that you know and I would consider them you know, for better for worse my contemporaries, but I don’t get that same sort of push, so.. but I still have this sort of big

David: Following

Rufus: Following yeah, but I have to constantly

David: Feed the animal

Rufus: Feed it, feed it and which means I got to work all the time which in the end I think it means does make a sort of better performer and a better kind of (pose voce) celebrity (embarrassed, breathing in) but ah, but, cause, cause I find there’s so many of those people now that are just so sort of um injected with fame you know and sort of that they become sort of bloated idiots and they can’t really, they don’t have anything interesting to say cause they have no real experiences they’re just like all of a sudden they’re famous like Ashley Simpson or that whole thing and they’ don’t really know, there’s nothing there to really warrant it, so when I do become famous it will be completely warranted (laughs).

David: I think by the time you become famous you will have earned it well and truly and that’s what you’re saying isn’t it?

Rufus: Yeah that’s what I’m trying to say.

David: Cause you’ve worked your butt off.

Rufus: So I think it’s worth t in the end but it is a lot of work. It is a lot of work and it’s also, you know, it’s I do think that I’m at a kind of a point where I could handle more of a little more of a push just in terms of you know just getting on certain shows and stuff.

David: Get it while the beauty is intact before you-

Rufus: Yeah yeah there’s this documentary coming out, soon in England on me, on Channel Four which is an hour long thing, I think it will be really great and I watched it
last night and you know, I’m great right now I was very beautiful when I was young like when I was twenty three and starting in my first album and a lot of those tracks like April Fools and California and like Poses I mean they were great songs those albums should’ve done better than they did. You know?

David: Yeah.

Rufus: Yeah, and they could’ve really been like, it was like amazing at that point and I was watching the documentary last night but it was a little sad you know when you see it and it wasn’t um, pushed as much as it could’ve but in the end there were other reasons why that was better for me. I don’t think I could’ve handled that kind of success at that point in my life.

David: You might have gone through such a bender when you, ‘cause I mean it was after that was it not?

Rufus: Yeah it was after Poses

David: Yeah, so I mean; and there’s a lot of the self awareness in ‘Poses’ that kind of says okay look out world here I come

Rufus: Yeah yeah yeah yeah

David: And obviously you had a bit of a party there for a while

Rufus: No it was great (laughs)

David: which You know, look, I think all gay guys have go through at some time otherwise we end up kind of getting to a point where we’re regretting that we never you know?

Rufus: And it’s also I think, it’s important to kind of dispel the myth that that’s where you know being gay is

David: Centred?

Rufus: Is centred so, you go there and yo see it and you’re like well maybe this isn’t all there is in the world

David: No, but I mean you’ve got to go there to discover that

Rufus: Yeah, you gotta go there

David:
So do you think it’s been more difficult for you because you’ve been out about your sexuality



Rufus: Well I don’t think it’s more difficult for me

David: You say that because you’re good looking.

Rufus: I think it’s easier for me. Well, no I mean a-

David: And now he’s buttoning up his shirt

Rufus: (laughs) I’m fairly, I’m confidant in my looks and everything I do think that it’s easier on me in an emotional sense to not lie about it

David: Yep

Rufus: And to er.. you know it’s good for my head and I do think it’s important to have at least some variety in show business and have different types of people so

David: Sure

Rufus: So I think that I do think that I’ve been penalized for it though at times.

David: Well okay so how do you suppose that may have happened?

Rufus: Ah you know..

David: Like penalized as in..?

Rufus: Ah just as in you know just very subtlety and you know as I said before like I said with videos and being placed on the radio and like for instance like you know I’ve done Letterman and Conan O’Brien

David: Yeah yeah

Rufus: And all the kind of big talk-shows; I’m never interviewed

David: Just singing? Just?

Rufus: I just sing

David: They don’t come over

Rufus: They don’t come over and talk to me at all

David: So what do you think that’s some kind of internalized homophobia from

Rufus: I don’t know, I don’t think that it’s necessarily something planned. I don’t think it’s something that’s stated necessarily it could be

David: Do you think they’re frightened a little bit maybe?

Rufus:
Well I think that they’re very much um, they just don’t um, it’s just not a safe bet. You know I mean,

David: Okay.

Rufus: It’s just not a safe bet so they’re not going to make it

David: They can’t ask the same questions that they’ll ask

Rufus: Yeah, and that’s the most depressing part of the whole situation with the music business in general is that their not willing to take those chances anymore on certain artists who may be out left of centre they just go with what’s sort of bonfide at this point and it’s kind of ruining music really. What I’m trying to say is my being gay is one thing, but I think I probably relate to other artists who might be a little crazy or black or folk singers you know what I mean? You know other people who aren’t necessarily arian and stacked.

David: Thanks again so much for talking with us; thank you so much. You were great.

And so he was. Thoughtful and brave and quite cheerfully divulging a true person at me, even though I was arguably a little mean once or twice.

So back to There will be Rainbows: A biography of Rufus Wainwright by Kirk Lake. So much detail is relative in the Wainwright clan. Mum did this, dad did that etc. It’s a little like the kitchen sink drama version of The Sound of Music but it’s not because the problem of Maria is never solved. I was continually impressed with the way the book balanced what was worth knowing about Loudon and Kate and left out what was not all that interesting like detailed negative hypothesis. I like the step back it maintains when it comes to throwing stones at any of the main characters in the family. It doesn’t read like anyone’s ultimately damned or held accountable.

What I did get was a notion of the amount of work Rufus really does have to do, and has had to do in order to build and maintain his market. Interestingly if you looked at it from a particular perspective it’s like a defense mechanism of evolution and genetics for performers to have a gay son because that way he’s already kind of wired to put the greatest effort into his work or art or what have you, rather than to spend all his vigor on a wife and family.

If you don’t know all that much about Rufus; and I couldn’t claim to know a great deal about him before reading this book, apart from impressions meeting and talking with him, reflecting on what he said is all I had. Mainly I had read press releases for his albums, concerts, the bio in the program for Came so far for Beauty and a couple of newspaper articles prior to meeting him. I hope I’ve explained that awakened in me a desire to know more about him when I heard him sing; particularly Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah; There will be Rainbows provides some well researched and footnoted insights and references that bring to light all the more detail and depth of his journey along the way from gawky teenager to well honed adult performer, or dare I say creative genius.

The book is fascinating the way it reveals enormously significant details of Rufus’ life without necessarily lancing any boils. Significantly Rufus was sexually assaulted as a young teenager; so was I. Something like this is a difficult experience to grow after. It creates a very complicated situation, particularly for a same sex attracted individual; just the way that coming out to your parents does. Even dealing with divorced parents is a difficult thing as a teenager. As aspects of your own personality start to emerge as similar traits to those you have identified in your parents, you can start to understand how these traits in your own behavior may press buttons in your parents.

Loudon and Kate sent Rufus off to boarding school against his wishes, but it seems the sojourn away was the ultimate tonic for his recovery at the time. Loudon introduced his young son to Penny Arcade, a performance artist famous for interactive experimental theatre shows where she invited the audience to check out her vagina as part of the program. Great work, and under the circumstances, Arcade was probably a great person to hook Rufus up with. Lake manages to sensibly contextualize all of this within the era. This is the terrifying era of AIDS. There was justifiable fear around concerning the spread of HIV, so a hip and pro-active individual such as Penny Arcade would have brought a lot of good learning to the table.

Rufus is honestly the geek, the galloping gawky guy; drop dead gorgeous and handsome on a multitude of levels, superficially and less superficially. That Lake has been able to comprehensively put everything together for Wainwrights fans is great, it’s neither a gushing fan book that says everything’s swell about Rufus or a tabloid dressing down.

In some of my favorite sections the book descriptively references the details behind the images on the Want album covers; it channels the course of touring and the playing in clubs like musicians must. It speaks to the truth of action more so than the myth creation of a series of press releases.

In some ways it seems Lake is suggesting that it will be Martha Wainwright who will have the greater music career proving ultimately that it’s the youngest member of the clan who will grab the biggest brass ring; yet there are others, half siblings. Loudon’s other singer songwriter offspring Lucy. Lucy is yet to emerge on the international scene, and I don’t see any books about her waiting to be released at this point in time.

Not that it’s a competition as such. As Rufus so rightly points out they each have their own merits and are quite a musically diverse bunch.

By now I have also seen Martha perform a few times, and she is great, there is that family trait of seeming a little unrehearsed, seems disinterested in maintaining the crowds interest for long. Her performances on screen for Rufus as part of his Judy Judy Judy Concert is astonishingly good, and her moments in I’m Your Man (Lian Lunson, 2005) are fabulous; I do very much like her, but I’m more fond of Rufus.

I did speak with Martha on the phone about her self titled debut album after they’d all left Australia. This interview was for my national music program broadcast on the Community Radio Satellite - Welcome Release.

David: So what sort of stuff is going on in your life that’s exciting for you right at the moment?

Martha: Well I’m about to cook a rack of lamb which is very exciting to me (both laugh), cause I’ve been on the road for so long I’m very excited about putting something in the oven and then putting it in my mouth.

David: Excellent.

Martha: And um, and I’m very excited to go to England in a couple of weeks with my band; because it will be fun to be able to go over there with them.

David: Now it’s not that long ago that you were here in Sydney, and Australia in general, did you enjoy yourself while you were here?

Martha: I did. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to do much out door stuff which I think you know, is something that your country really has to offer.

David: How about the relationship with the audiences here did you feel really comfortable with them?

Martha: I found them to be incredibly warm and receptive you know they seem to be quite avid music lovers at least the ones who came to the family shows.

David: What kind of reaction have you had for your CD so far where it’s been released around the place?

Martha: Well I’ve only heard good things but you know maybe my friends are not telling me about the bad things. But I think that because, the nature of the record is that it’s a very emotional and revealing album and I think that sometimes you cannot deny those raw and true feelings and I think people are touched by them and I’m very happy for that.

David: Certainly they’re very touching. You introduced Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole as a song you’d like to dedicate to your father and that was a really revealing moment I guess, but then what teenage or young girl-

Martha: Exactly-

David: hasn’t felt that about her father?

Martha: Absolutely I think that song is about everyone’s father and it’s also about me more than it is probably about my dad. Anyway I’m sorry I cut you off-

David: I really love your song, the lyrics to your song TV Show. I wonder if you’ve ever been on Oprah yet?

Martha: No unfortunately, and you know it’s very funny I had to change the title of that song because the record company was afraid of going to court with Oprah understandably because that was always called the Oprah Song and I’ve always thought about having the opportunity to sing it on her show some day.

David: Surely she’d be flattered not litigious.

Martha: Absolutely I think it’s totally positive. You know we can all be victims of the trappings of daytime television. I found myself quite literally at four in the afternoon, you know, crying watching the Oprah Winfrey Show and she’s telling me to love myself; you know, I’m a sucker for humanity as much as the next person and she goes for it and it’s okay.

David: Tell me about Factory because it’s such a beautiful lyric and the characters, do you see it as a character telling a story or do you see it more autobiographically?

Martha: Well it is autobiographical as all of these songs are although I see that I have the images of someone running you know, along the beach from factory to factory and trying to get the hell out of a place and away from the types of people that she doesn’t like. That song is about a place in southern California which is a place that you know, no one should ever have to live. It’s right on the beach and the beach is covered with factories and loads of Mexican migrant workers that have been shipped in from some other town. You know it’s just an American nightmare. Maybe I shouldn’t be so strong about it because I’m sure there are people who live there that are very happy to live there. I just didn’t have a good feeling from it and I was also surrounded by music company people music label people who are you know sometimes can be… ahhh, you know.

David: One of the songs particularly that I find really quite huge; a big emotional engagement is This Life. Can you tell me a little bit about where you were at when you were writing This Life?

Martha: I’ll try to remember. You know I think that this song it sounds like someone who has a lot of time on their hands isn’t it? I think that where I was at is that I was very depressed and didn’t know really what to do with myself and that song is sort of saying instead of killing yourself you know, there is music and that’s just about really realizing the power of music and when I say there’s a little country song in my head I think that’s about me going and listening to music and just being so moved by it which sometimes happens where you can be so sad and have tears running down your face and it’s such a relief when you hear someone else singing the sad song that you’re not alone at all and that that’s a very powerful thing that music can do and very helpful I think to a lot of people you know.

David: You were born into a musical and very creative family weren’t you.

Martha: (laughs) I don’t know I wasn’t there. No. (Both laugh) Yes I was born into a very creative and musical family and that’s probably why I’m able to recognize the power of art and music and get a lot from it. I’m very happy for my um.. for where I come from.

David: Do you see it as something you want to do now with the, for the rest of your life or do you see it as something maybe you’ll want to do for a little while but there are other things that you really want to get on to and achieve as well?

Martha: No I think that it’s taken me this long to really come out with the debut album and come out as a singer songwriter and an artist and I think that I want to keep doing that I think I know for sure now that this is what I want to do and I think that you know, music will always, I’ll always do music, I don’t know if it’ll be in attempts to sell as many units as I can it might not be, you know,

David: Well that’s fair enough

Martha: But I think I’ll always sing.

David: Well it seems there’s a deeper passion in you that goes beyond just wanting to sell units as such. There seems to be a real person in there that wants to express themself through song.

Martha: Yeah. I think I have enough to say. Some of these songs are eight years old. It’s really the story of a woman through her twenties, namely me, and ah, I didn’t sign a record deal with people and I always stay one foot in and one foot out of a career in music and I think that I did that because I felt the need to have a relationship with music myself rather than have anything be handed to me which I could’ve taken more advantage of being from the family that I am.

David: I imagine coming from a family with creative parents who are performing and living their life in that sort of magical realm of entertainment it (Martha laughs)

Martha: Although it’s all; I mean the funny thing with entertainment, it’s so great that you use that word because entertainment is just the fact that it’s two dimensional plastic you know sort of thing. It’s kind of great, I love it, I love that, it’s behind… you know, people’s faces are painted and they’re all on a stage in a scene made out of cardboard you know, I mean I think - anyway sorry…

David: That’s kind of where I was going, it’s sort of a magical world from the outside but being inside of it as a young person, you can be kind of engulfed by it but at the same time you see that there’s a dichotomy there that isn’t real-

Martha: Yeah absolutely-

David: And I guess that that would by some degree mean you could respond to that by saying ‘Oh I don’t want to get sucked in to what is here I want to find my own way through it kind of thing and deal with it myself.

Martha: Absolutely I mean I think I really needed to make sure that this is what I want to do because I know that, you know, it’s a crappy business and it’s filled with a lot of bull shit artists, I don’t know, I’m sorry but you know there’s a lot of falsity in it and I think that most young people would be very very content to sign a record deal and I think it was something that I wasn’t particularly impressed with because I’m jaded as all hell because of my upbringing-

David: And fair enough too, but at least you’re not Liza Minnelli hey.

Martha: Yeah at least I’m not Liza Minnelli, good.

David: There’s way more tragedy that surrounds her sort of life coming from a showbiz background.

Martha: Absolutely.

David: That’s what I’m getting at there.

After thanking Martha and wrapping up the interview, and now listening to reinscribe it after a few years I think of how her work fit in among other songs we were playing on the radio at the time. Martha does have a more commercial sound than Rufus, but there are potential problems with her overall sound becoming a little too repetitive; things start to sound the same at the live gigs I’ve attended in most recent times 2008 at the Governor Hindmarsh in Adelaide she was only okay compared to being brilliant at the Enmore in Sydney four years ago.

The bottom line is after reading this biography I’ve become much more interested in the whole family, particularly the beautiful, brash singing son who wouldn’t mind being thought of as the male Judy Garland; and whom I’d thought sounds similar to her any way, so, I guess he is perfecting his abilities around her work. The complete evolution of Rufus has yet to transpire, I’m sure there will be more to come, and I fully agree with Lake, there will be rainbows. I’d even go so far as to say I think the young Mister Wainwright will some day make a perfectly dazzling effort with something quite spectacular, and it will be he playing the pot of gold at the end of this colorful family rainbow. Jingling and sparkling like bountiful exuberance, golden Rufus triumphant; great read!

David Jobling


Note: this item is due in-store late June 2009 Paperback, 352 Pages, Published 2009

all rights reserved
Copyright 2009


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RUFUS WAINWRIGHT
Returns for a very special solo evening at the
Sydney Opera House




“One of the most talented singer-songwriters of his generation.”
Bernard Zuel, Sydney Morning Herald


Fans of wonderfully intimate music take note: the one and only Rufus Wainwright is returning to the Sydney Opera House for one very special evening featuring our prodigious wunderkind in solo piano and vocal mode.

The evening in question is Thursday October 14, 2010 at the Concert Hall within the Sydney Opera House.

As supporters of Rufus will know, this concert is a special thank you to his loyal and understanding Australian fans who had bought tickets expecting to see Rufus perform solo in February 2010 at Sydney’s Verbrugghen Hall.

That show and surrounding performances were regrettably cancelled due to a family illness earlier this year, but Rufus made a promise to return to Australia later in 2010.

The passing away of his mother and “greatest admirer and critic”, legendary folksinger Kate McGarrigle, in January this year, and the enduring admiration for his sister, folk-rocker Martha Wainwright, are themes that pervade much of Rufus Wainwright's breathtaking sixth studio album: All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu.

This is an album steeped in beauty, with hugely personal and deeply emotional songs, each channeled through Wainwright via only his fingers, voice and piano. A perfect precursor then for this hugely anticipated Australian solo concert and upcoming tour.

“The greatest songwriter on the planet.”
Elton John

“Rufus stands next to Nina Simone.”
Michael Stipe

Of his latest offering to fans, Rufus said “Though it may appear at the outset that my new album and show are quite dark, don't be alarmed, I'm no fool and will always make sure to ensure a well rounded evening: be prepared to laugh as well as cry your little eyes out.”

Reactions from fans and critics alike have been universally positive.

About All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu, Q Magazine has said, “It’s a flabbergasting, intense album that demands intense listening.” While All Music Guide agreed the record is “a bold, absolutely emotionally naked statement that retains Wainwright’s devastating talent for artful, universally compelling songcraft.”

Do not delay in securing your tickets for this very special concert. As we said earlier this year – if the 2008 Rufus Wainwright Australian tour is anything to go by – his return in 2010 will no doubt be the absolute musical highlight of your calendar year!


RUFUS WAINWRIGHT SYDNEY PERFORMANCE
Thursday 14th October, 2010
Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House


sydneyoperahouse.com
02 9250 7777






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