The Beasts – the band populated by the surviving members of the Beasts Of Bourbon - will perform two very special shows in Melbourne and Sydney this August to celebrate 40 years since the original band’s foundation.

Tex Perkins, Kim Salmon (guitar), Charlie Owen (guitar), Boris Sujdovic (bass) will be joined by drummer James Baker, fresh from the last-ever Victims show in Perth.

Friday, 11 August – Factory Theatre, Sydney
(Tickets)

Sunday, 13 August – Croxton Bandroom, Melbourne (Tickets)

Tex Perkins takes up the story:

Forty years ago, I was a skinny 18-year-old kid living in Darlinghurst in Sydney having the time of his life - playing gigs, taking and drinking everything within arm’s reach!

Constantly meeting and bonding with people in other bands who would turn out to be lifelong friends.

When my band up and left me in the dead of night by the side of the road with a month long residency, it was those friends that were there to help me pick things up and start again.

Spencer Jones and Boris Sujdovic were there when we decided to call it the Beasts of Bourbon. James Baker, who would occasionally feed me, soon found his way to his rightful place at the drum kit.

Kim Salmon, friend and mentor, and singer of my favourite band in the world (The Scientists) completed the early ‘classic line-up’.

At first, we played a few songs of mine and a lot of covers.   Alice Cooper, The Stooges, The New York Dolls and Creedence were among the go to songs we all knew well but never had the chance to play live before. It was a free for all, fuck it, let it fly kind of thing!

A few months later we spent six hours in a studio and recorded our first album 'The Axeman’s Jazz'.

As I said this all happened 40 years ago this year, so we felt obliged to acknowledge and celebrate this marker in time.

Obviously, our fallen comrade Spencer Jones will not be with us, but long-time Beast Charlie Owen will help us chase that feeling one more time.