ed kuepper

The Exploding Universe of Ed Kuepper
+ DC Cross
Blue Mountains Theatre, Springwood, NSW
Saturday, 2 September 2023 

Photos: Vic Zubakin / Look Sharp Photography

Ed Kuepper is a deep thinker.I imagine he puts a lot of time into considering his next detour, which is usually unpredictable and highly creative.

Ed annually tours with a re-invention of something from his past. Tonight, he’ll show off  this year’s model - and add another chapter to his almost five-decade-long career.

The post lockdown tours of 2021- 22 with The Dirty Three’s Jim White were notable for re-invention. Those shows were dark and adventurous, exploring some obscure tracks and well as better-known Laughing Clowns material. The performances were all about atmosphere, and full of light and shade.

Prior to that, we had The Aints! tours, with Ed re-staking his claim to his roots in proto-punk, while giving a nod to Crazy Horse. 

_{Ed Kuepper. Photo by Richard Sharman of Blackshadow Photography.} 

Posted October 29, 2008:  If the thought of re-convening the classic mid-'70s Saints line-up presents more problems than formulating a lasting Middle Eastern peace plan, the organisers of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival series must be among international diplomacy's canniest operators.

The improbable becomes reality in January 2009 when ATP establishes an Australian beachhead, with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds curating and the Saints a feature act.

Yes, you read right. The Saints. Not any old Saints or even The Aints. The Kuepper-Bailey Saints, fercrissake, will be part of a varied and eclectic line-up over three locations and four days.

The forever prolific Ed Kuepper is celebrating 45 years as a recording artist with three retrospective releases spanning a large chunk of his post-Saints musical output.

“Ed Kuepper - Singles ’86 ‘ ’96” will compile every solo A side from that period on vinyl and CDs, the latter format featuring a bonus disc of B sides and obscurities. Surprisingly, it’s Kuepper’s first collection of 45s and CD singles.

“Golden Days // When Giants Walked the Earth” will be a vinyl collection of Kuepper’s immediate post-Saints band, Laughing Clowns, who pushed the boundaries not just of conventional music but of the post-punk world. The classic “Eternally Yours” is included, as are the equally worthy “Everything That Flies”, “Holy Joe” and more.  

“The Aints! Live at The Bowlo” will be a vinyl version of the 2018 show by Kuepper’s Saints-inspired The Aints!only previously available in digital format.

Saints co-founder and leader of the Laughing Clowns and The Aints!, Ed Kuepper, is teaming with Jim White, the brilliant drummer of renowned instrumentalists Dirty Three and revered '80s-90s post-punks Venom P Stinger, for an Australian tour in May, June and July.

The pair will reprise classics from Kuepper's stellar 45-year career in a multi-state tour that includes a stop-off at the Sydney Opera House.

The shows will coincide with a trio of retrospective releasesfrom Kuepper covering his solo years, Laughing Clowns and The Aints! All titles will be released in limited amounts, on coloured vinyl, and with select CD issues also.

Ed Kuepper and Jim White
MAY
25 - Castlemaine, Bridge Hotel
26 - Melbourne Rising, Comedy Theatre
28 - Meeniyan Town Hall
29 - Macedon Hotel
JUNE
4 - Cairns, Tanks Arts Centre
5 - Sunshine Coast, Imperial Hotel
6 - Gold Coast, Miami Marketta
10 - Newcastle, Lizottes
11 - Wyong The Arthouse
12 - Blue Mountains Theatre
13 - Sydney Opera Houuse Studio (matinee and evening shows)
6 - Eltham Hotel (SOLD OUT)
17 - Brisbane, Triffid
24 - Canberra, The Street
27 - Adelaide, The Gov
JULY
3 - Fremantle Social Club
All shows on-sale now via edkuepper.com

_{Anna White photo}

Two of the hardest working men in Australian show business, Ed Kuepper and Jim White, return for a short series of duo shows this summer.

Kuepper has just completed a run of residency shows with his new instrumental project Asteroid Ekosystem and drummer White is taking a brief pause from international touring with Bill Callahan, Xylouris White and Marisa Anderson.

The pair will continue their journey of exploration via Kuepper’s extensive catalogue and a studio release by the pair looms in 2023.  Acoustic troubadour Darren Cross will open all shows which are on sale now via feelpresents.com

ED KUEPPER & JIM WHITE
FEBRUARY 2023
Thu Feb 2 Murwillumbah, The Regent
Fri Feb 3 Coffs Harbour, The Jetty
Sat Feb 4 Brisbane, The Outpost
Wed Feb 8 Sydney, The Great Club
Thu Feb 9 Cronulla, Brass Monkey
Fri Feb 10 Melbourne, Brunswick Ballroom

Ex-Saints and Laughing Clowns trailblazer Ed Kuepper's 50th (!) album “Lost Cities” is on its way and available for pre-order.

“Lost Cities'' will be released on December 20 on CD only and we reckon it would be the ideal Xmas gift. You can place your order with Ed's own Prince Melon Records webmaster James Last here.

Copies purchased before the official release date will be personally signed by Ed and cover artist Judi Dransfield Kuepper.

The album features nine new songs recorded in August following the successful Nostalgia for the New Australian mini-tour by Ed. Titles are ''Pavane'', ''Friends with the Leader'', "Free passage to Mars'' ''[It's] Never too Late'', ''The Ruins'', ''Fever Dream'', ''What can I leave you'', ''Some said....'' ''Queen of the Vale [that's V.A.L.E]''.

Saints and Laughing Clowns elder statesman Ed Kuepper is backing an extensive re-issue campaign of his solo back catalogue with a series of Australian shows under the moniker, “The Exploding World of Ed Kuepper".

Kuepper will be joined by the all;-star band of Mark Dawson on drums, ex-Sunnyboys bassist Peter Oxley,  pianist Alister Spence and brass maestro Eamon Dilworth for a run through seven states and territories. 

The Exploding Universe will tackle the best of “Electrical Storm” and “Honey Steel’s Gold”, the iconic Kuepper solo records being re-issued in re-mastered form in all formats right now by Remote Control label. All shows are fully seated and on sale now.

Four decades after the release of his first record, the iconic Australian classic ''(I'm) Stranded'' by The Saints, Ed Kuepper returns with an album that may well be considered a high point in his lengthy and uncompromising career.

Recorded over three days in August at Gasworks Studio, Brisbane ''Lost Cities'' is Kuepper's 50th release (excluding compilations) and is on his own Prince Melon Records label. It is Ed’s first entirely solo and electric release, a format Herr Kuepper likes to refer to as Solo Orchestral.

To those who witnessed Ed Kuepper’s live shows last year in which he first aired this new crop of songs, we were set afloat in a dimly-set world and intimate setting. 

Ed was sitting on his throne; his approach was self-absorbed, ambient and ethereal, yet focused. With the odd Scotch on the rocks being downed, Kuepper was in fine form.

 
Take a look at the photo. There they are. The original Saints, outside their Brisbane share house, Club 76. Now a posh real estate agent's rather scrappy-looking digs, the house still stands. 

Queensland does have a heritage register: the Saints' Petrie Terrace share house should surely be on the list, but it's not. Queenslanders, make it happen!

It's mid-winter in Adelaide, and I'm reflecting on the passage of time. As I get off the bus, I pass the new and improved Her Majesty's Theatre on the corner of Pitt Street and Grote, adjacent to the shop I worked in for a year nearly 30 years ago. A few doors up Grote, toward Victoria Square, was the one building I worked in periodically over 22 years, The Antique Market, run by Dean Donovan and his wife, Kathy.

Quite an awkwardly-designed building, after Dean sold all the stock in 2018, it was sold, remodelled and occupied for a few years, then finally emptied and demolished; today a huge hotel or somesuch is heading upwards with a great deal of clamour, gusto and grunt. 

_{The Aints in full flight: Peter Oxley, Paul Larsen and Ed Kuepper, with Alastair Spence obscrured. Mandy Tzaras photo.}

You knew something special was up in Adelaide tonight because as you approached The Gov, heading determinedly back to the carpark was a small group of lone pushing-toward-pensioner men, each clutching the same record: “The Aints Live at The Sarah Sands 1991”. There can’t be too many left of this, they only made 300; get yours at the gig; two LPs, $50.

Now then.

Ever hear of Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman? Good. Now you have. 

The first comic came out, it must’ve been 30 years ago. I had a T-shirt, gave it to Bob, who has cherished that damn thing for about 25 years now. I did my heart good to see Bob bouncing around tonight in that tattered t-shirt. “I thought I told you to SHUT UP!” Fleming bellows from the shirt. It perfectly matches the night.

By the time you read this, Ed Kuepper and his new favourite band The Aints will be ensconced in Phil Punch’s Sydney studio, recording their new album.

“The Church of Simultaneous Existence” was previewed on the recent runs of Aints shows across Australia, and will consist mostly of old songs intended for a fourth album by the early (definitive) version of the Kuepper-Bailey Saints.

The Aints lineup is Peter Oxley (bass), Paul Larsen (drums) and Alister Spence (keys) with Kuepper on vocals and guitar, backed by a three-piece horn section. The photo at right of Peter Oxley in the studio yesteday is courtesy of Feelpresents. 

Last Friday night at Sydney's Marrickville Bowling Club, The Aints played a bracket of the album songs in their entirety. They backed up that blistering show with an appearance the following night at the Gumball festival in the Hunter Valley..

Did we say recording “a new album” (singular)? The Aints are also recording a new Ed Kuepper album - with strings.

It’s the same “electric trio” configuration that appeared with Ed and the Nonsemble Strings at Leftys Old Time Musical Hall in Brisbane in December 2017.

No release dates have been announced for either album but mixing sessions have been scheduled, so watch this space.

Controversy? Hallowed be thy name in show business. The Saints ’73-‘78 tickets are moving faster than Ed Kuepper’sdownstroke with shows in Brisbane, Melbourne and Castlemaine selling out and two extra gigs added.

Brisbane sold out in one day which prompted the addition of another show. Melbourne has an extra date and capacity at Castlemaine was increased to meet demand before the House Full sign went up. 

Supports have been confirmed and include relative new kids on the block Chimers, Parsnip and Alien Nosejob alongside veterans Kim Salmon & The Surrealists.

Meantime pre-orders for the deluxe 4-LP box set version of (I’m) Stranded (due this November) can be made here. 

“Second Winter” feels almost like a concept album. Those are familiar with Kuepper’s work since his solo debut of “Electrical Storm” of 1985 will find it all like a passage between the past and the shadows of previous melodies and phrases. It's rather haunting.

Even the cover of the record has captured the ambience of the front of his first solo album (also made with long term collaborator, drummer Mark Dawson.) This shot shows four identified figures leaving an entrance of a stone building.

Alternative title: "He Gets by With Some Help From His Friends".

Producer-guitarist Bruce "Cub" Callaway assembled a stellar cast for this, his 2013 return to recording after a lay-off, and it shows.

John Hoey (Died Pretty), Warwick Gilbert (Radio Birdman), Paul Larsen (Celibate Rifles), Clyde Bramley (Hoodoo Gurus) and Julie Mostyn Gilbert (Flaming Hands) all played roles. Lesser-knowns Ian Johnson, Louis Callaway and Harry Rothenfluh also contributed drums.

The Saints ’73-‘78
Kim Salmon and The Surrealists
Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Friday 22 November, 2024

Words: THE BARMAN
Photos: MURRAY BENNETT

Polarising was the Word of the Night. You could have argued that there was no way Mark Arm would successfully replace the late Chris Bailey in a reconstituted version of the Saintsand if you did, you probably didn’t go to the show anyway.

It’s a truth that Arm’s yowl is as far removed from the patented snarl of Bailey as Brisbane is from Seattle. If you didn’t take Arm at his word that he wasn’t trying to fill the original singer’s shoes, you were never going to dig this show. He clearly isn’t Bailey and didn’t try to be.

It wouldn’t feel normal in Australia if it wasn’t raining Ed Kuepper shows. Already announced as the Melbourne headliners for this year’s Reclink Community Cup at Melbourne’s Victoria Park on June 24, Kuepper's new favourite band The Aints! are playing an additional show at Geelong’s Barwon Club Hotel the night before.

Joining Kuepper in The Aints! are Sunnyboys bassist Peter Oxley, Paul Larsen (drummer for both The Celibate Rifles and The New Christs) plus solo jazz performers Alister Spence (keyboards), Eamon Dilworth (trumpet) and an additional brass section. Tickets for The Aints! play The Saints with special guests Ausmuteants are on-sale here.

For more than 40 years, Ed Kuepper has been creating music. Over that time, he's claimed a place as one of the most progressive and critically acclaimed singer-songwriters and guitar players to emerge from Australia.

Ed has been (mostly) in the shadows of the mainstream and has always forged his own path.

No-one sounds like Ed Kuepper.

I was about 12 when “I’m Stranded” blared from my television set. With a mouthfull of Milo and with my school bag thrown on the sofa, I raced over and turned the volume up of the old National 18-inch colour “telly”. I was blown away by the sound and the image.  It was the afternoon show ABC ‘s Flashez that I recall and an interview followed with people who seemed like street urchins. It was explosive.   These blokes – The Saints - were the real deal.

Here's news to make it This Perfect Day or send you down a One Way Street...

The Saintsare reforming with Mudhoney's Mark Arm up front for a six-date Australian tour in November.
 
Arm, founding Saints members guitarist Ed Kuepperand drummer Ivor Hay will be joined by bassist Peter Oxley of Sunnyboys and former The Birthday Party/Bad Seeds member Mick Harveyon guitar.

The dates will be in celebration of a vinyl box set release of the 1977 classic debut album "(I’m) Stranded" on In The Red. The sets will be largely drawn from it, "Eternally Yours" (1978) and "Prehistoric Sounds" (1978). 

Wed Nov 13 Hindly St. Music Hall, Adelaide, SA
Fri Nov 15 Theatre Royal, Castlemaine, VIC
Sat Nov 16 Northcote Theatre, Melbourne, VIC
Wed Nov 20 Freo Social, Fremantle, WA
Fri Nov 22 Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW
Sat Nov 23 Princess Theatre, Brisbane QLD SOLD OUT
SUN Nov 24 Princess Theatre, Brisbane QLD 
Tickets via feelpresents.com

Enmore Theatre, Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Restraint is not often a by-word around these parts but let’s at least try to keep some perspective. A visit to Australia by Television seemed unlikely, if not an absurd proposition, just a few years ago. The band was scarcely active, Richard Lloyd having had long flown the coop, and Tom Verlaine had let a label issue two mothballed solo records that were barely promoted. It seemed if the TV hadn’t been turned off it was in storage and in danger of being forgotten.