To coincide with The Stems’ 30th anniversary tour celebrating the release of their 1987 debut LP "At First Sight Violets are Blue", Citadel Records is re-issuing the long deleted album as a limited digipak edition CD on November 3.

The album has been digitally re-mastered and includes three bonus tracks. A vinyl reissue will see light of day early next year.

Originally released through Mushroom Records' off-shoot White Label, the album was first pressed in mid-1987. The title track and subsequent singles “For Always” and “Sad Girl” gained mainstream airplay – a big call for an underground band back then. The Stems influenced a host of new local bands playing '60s garage rock and roll.

The reconstituted Lime Spiders will play their one and only Australian show this year at Marrickville Bowling Club in Sydney on December 2.

Mick Blood is leading a fresh line-up of the band before playing the Purple Weekend Festival in Leon, Spain, which runs from December 6-9. Other bands on that bill include the Allniters, Frowning Clouds and Nikki Corvette. 

Sydney supports for the Spiders’ return (being billed as “Summer of Love Revisited”) are The On and Ons and The Amazing Woolloomoolosers. Tickets will be available through Oztix later this week. Mick Blood is being joined in the Lime Spiders by Dave Sparks (guitar),  Andrew Nunns (drums) and Phil Hall (bass).

How many rock and roll tours have you heard about where the people booking the run are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts for a band they’ve never met? That’s the unlikely scenario behind the Australian East Coast visit by Perth’s The Bible Bashers.

Brisbane’s endearing gutter punks HITS andJames Doyle from Raygun Mortlock are the benevolent bookers getting right behind The Bible Bashers' tour starting in Queensland tonight. 

HITS and The Bible  Bashers will meet for the first time at Stones Corner Hotel In Brisbane ,and the pairing will continue all weekend with shows at Curummbin Creek Tavern on the Gold Coast (Saturday) and Condong Bowls Club in NSW (Sunday). 

Gigs in Newcastle and Sydney follow with a finale at The Record Crate in Sydney on October 1.

You can have a listen to The Bible Bashers on Bandcamp and, if so inclined, see them in person at one of their shows. They also hang out on Facebook.

Turn up early as all the supports are behind this tour, too.

Bible Bashers East Coast Tour
Stones Corner Hotel, Brisbane with HITS - Sept 22
Currumbin Creek Tavern, Gold Coast with HITS - Sept 23
Condong Bowls Club, Condong with HITS - Sept 24
Lass O'Gowrie Hotel, Wickham with The Grounds - Sept 27
The Union Hotel, Newtown with Thee Evil Twin - Sept 28
Time & Tide Hotel, Dee Why with The Mis-Made - Sept 29
Frankies Pizza, Sydney with Mumbofish + Marvel - Sept 30
The Record Crate, Glebe, NSW - Oct 1

If you remember the halcyon days of Sydney’s exploding live music scene in the 1980s, you need to make a beeline for Marrickville Bowling Club in the city's inner-west on Saturday night. 

The Conspirators were in the thick of it back then, an archetypal garage band formed by five then young Sydney music fans who were sick of paying to get into gigs. 

They became something of a fixture, growing a following and issuing a single and an EP before going on to other bands including The Sweet Ride, Psychotic Turnbuckles and Sheek the Shayk. 

With their last show 30 years ago, The Conspirators are reforming for one gig only. They’ll be joined by The Stukas - punk rock veterans - and rejuvenated mods, The Smart Folk. Special guest DJ will be Steven Danno, spinning his collection of prime ‘60s punk and ‘80s Detroit rock.

The Conspirators are doing a special re-issue CD of their back catalogue (plus a new song) for sale on the nightm and have had T-shirts printed for this auspicious occasion. Tickets available on the door or cheaper in advance here.

Grong Grong, Lubricated Goat and King Snake Roost guitarist Charlie Tolnay has passed away in Adelaide after a brief and unexpected illness. The news was posted on the Grong Grong Facebook page last night.

Tolnay was an original member of the band, formed by his half brother Michael Farkas in 1983. The band expired with the near death of Farkas in 1984 and reformed in 2009. More details when they come to hand.

After almost a decade of hanging around the fringes of the Australian music business, Leadfinger are making their first trip to Europe to play a run of gigs this October.

The tour kicks off in Paris before zig zaging across France with support from locals Asphalt Touregs, who feature former Fixed Up singer/guitarist Francois Lebas.

After a layover in Switzerland to play Geneva and a spot of recording in southern Spain, the tour ends with a couple of gigs in Barcelona and Madrid with fellow Aussies, James McCann and the New Vindictives.

Leadfinger is one the best underground rock’n’roll bands in Australia right now.

Since forming in 2007, they have released five albums through various labels, including Spain’s Bang! Records and Australia's Citadel Records.

The most recent Leadfinger album, "Friday Night Heroes” - out through Conquest of Noise Records - was met with high praise as their best yet.