Author: karenconrad

 

Saturday, 12th March, good people, Steve Boyd is back – Healing and Howling for your pleasure and mine at the Rainbow Hotel from 9.30, no cover charge.

Flashback to the late nineties/early noughties when Boyd was fast gaining a reputation as a singer, songwriter and performer of considerable substance.
Borrowing largely from the classic American roots music forms, his band Steve Boyd and The Preachers were festival circuit regulars sharing stages with the likes of Bob Dylan and Ray Charles. Their wildly impassioned performances drew a large, loyal crowd and their recordings were heard on American College radio and mentioned in prestigious UK music bible ‘Mojo’.

Changing the core line-up and the group’s name to The Steve Boyd Revue did not slow things down in the slightest. In fact, as the sound morphed into a bigger Gospel-Soul affair, complete with Hammond organ, percussion, brass and backing singers, the group’s credentials only grew. Steve was seemingly poised to ease into a long and successful career in music.

So what happened next?

Life happened.

A series of life-changing events, unexpected challenges and personal tragedies occurred and Boyd was hurled into an inward journey of epic proportions.
Through this period of soul-searching and healing, he established a new relationship with music.

For over ten years Boyd ran music and song writing groups for VincentCare Victoria. Primarily working with marginalised members of the community, He discovered music’s power to ease the hearts and minds of those struggling with poverty, mental health, addiction and homelessness.

Running song writing and music therapy groups, Boyd discovered he had a talent for drawing out the creative spark within a broad range of participants from all walks of life. Under his guidance these groups performed at various community festivals and even most memorable time at the Vinnies CEO Sleepout at Etihad stadium.

Upon occasion, Boyd enlisted additional music mentors to assist him. At one time none other than Spencer P Jones caught the bug and got on board Steve’s plight to soothe, challenge and inspire some of the folks who would otherwise miss out on the opportunity to make music altogether.

In actuality the entire process was cathartic not only for the participants but for Boyd himself. Over time he rediscovered his muse with a vengeance and began considering the next chapter of his musical odyssey. Now was the time to recommence writing and rehearsing new material for his own project. It simply felt right.

Time had done its job healing old wounds but a creative void desperately needed filling.

Enter Steve Boyd’s Rum Reverie.

Essentially the brainchild of both Steve Boyd and Paul Fiddes (long time friend and musical collaborator), the project came about over many nights of shared musings, quaffing of shiraz and listening to vintage vinyl records.

Much the same as Boyd, Fiddes had taken an extended excursion from music whilst focusing on exclusively on photography. It became apparent that both shared a yearning to return to the fold.

At the end of the day it was agreed that nothing else quite compared to the wild high of bashing out original tunes in the sweating bars of Melbourne. Both agreed it was time dust off the drum kit and restring the guitar.

There was new music to be made.

The influences are primal and instinctive; perhaps not schooled and certainly not slick. Initially starting out as a two-piece, the core group of Paul on drums and Steve on guitar and vocals was eventually augmented by upright bass and brass. This process occurred through many writing and recording sessions: Steve and Paul allowing the music to dictate what should happen next.

The sound is heartfelt and raw.

With a punk brain, a gospel soul, a blues heart and even hints of jazz trickling through its veins, Steve Boyd’s Rum Reverie may be something of a musical Frankenstein’s monster.

It’s a monster that will hoot, holler, growl and grind with all it’s might.

Check out the new EP and first single ‘Papa Likes It’ at this downloadable link:

https://soundcloud.com/steve-boyds-rum-reverie/papa-likes-it?in=steve-boyds-rum-reverie/sets/healers-and-howlers-ep

Only two more days to see artist Grant Gronewold’s (aka HTMLflowers) solo debut exhibition ‘No Visitors’ on view at Fort Delta from February 5th – 27th.

Gronewold’s long-form narrative comic work-turned-exhibition No Visitors consists of coloured drawings in the form of limited artist proofs and editioned prints. The work attempts to show the complex, painful and often isolating reality of living with a life threatening illness while still favouring and revealing this through a more intimate approach. Rooted firmly in real life experience, Gronewold uses his avatar, Little, to recount the embarrassing, demeaning compromises that often define the lifestyle of the disabled.

Drawing from his time as a chronically ill child visiting Ronald McDonald House, Gronewold uses the logic of insomnia to question the true function of corporate charity; often designed to aid the chronically and life threateningly ill, namely children.

Frequenting the exhibition are looming depictions of Ronald McDonald stalking wandering children in hospital gowns – revealing him as a kind of talent scout in search of new mascots to join him in McDonalds’ ongoing PR crusade to image themselves as a force of good. This major theme of the exhibition – the formation of corporate identity coercively appropriating the plight of others less fortunate – is presented alongside images of negligent doctors practicing paternal procedures on their patients – their faces hidden and disguised behind bright surgical masks.

Gronewold’s style and philosophy for the exhibition deceptively blends Injury, punishment and violation into colourful images, abundant with motifs and bright settings rendered in the waxy, porous textures of coloured pencils – a medium often associated with child’s play and bold imagination. Images of ripe, engorged strawberries being split with enormous razorblades, pop-up flying windows circulating the outskirts of hospital rooms, and wooded allotments appearing as feverish apparitions all ambivalently contribute to a fantastical and renewed picture of the sterile utilities and institutions; seemingly born from tides of contemplative, mindful insight and maddening boredom.

Fort Delta, Shop 59 Capitol Arcade (Basement Leevel) 113 Swanston Street. Enter via Howey Place, Melbourne.

Enquiries: info@fortdelta.com.au ‪#‎grantgronewold‬ ‪#‎htmlflowers‬ ‪#‎fortdelta

Scottish born Duncan Phillips will play his new single ‘The Wilderness’ along with other choice tunes with his crackin’ band The Long Stand on Sunday, 28th February at The Standard Hotel, 293 Fitzroy St, Fitroy VIC.  Free gig!  

Listen to ‘The Wilderness here:  https://soundcloud.com/duncan-phillips-music

 

Duncan has been playing his excellent alt-country Americana tunes all around town for the past few years after stumbling upon Melbourne during his holiday travels and deciding to stay and explore the massive music scene here.

Originally from the village of Scalloway in The Shetland Islands, Scotland, his accent is heavy in conversation, less so in song, but if you can understand him, you’ll love his songs.

“I was lucky to grow up in household where music was part of everyday life. My mother was the booker for the world-renowned Shetland Folk Festival and my stepfather was lead singer in a popular local blues/rock band.”

“I was constantly exposed to a wide array of musical styles. There could have been anything from traditional Scottish music to the Ramones blasting from the stereo. I also had the benefit of meeting and interacting with highly accomplished musicians from an early age.”

“The Wilderness came around shortly before pre-production for the album began. I’d been listening to a lot of Springsteen and that influenced the overall feel of the song. The Wilderness is metaphorical for being emotionally lost after watching friends fall victim to lifestyle choices, and ‘home’ in the song is symbolic of wanting to return to a healthy state of mind.”

Recorded and produced by Alics Gate-Eastley and Duncan Phillips at Appleby Studios, The Wilderness is the first single from his soon-to-be-released debut album of the same title.

Visit Duncan at https://www.facebook.com/duncanphillipsmusic.