Radio Birdman is embarking on a short, sharp Australian tour with Citadel label-mates The Stems in tow. The five-date run will include Spanish band Los Chicos as guests on three gigs.
Tickets are on sale via venue websites.
Radio Birdman + The Stems OCT 25 – Factory Theatre, Sydney + The LangLangs 26 – The Gov, Adelaide + Sunday Reeds NOV 1 – The Triffid, Brisbane + Los Chicos 2 – Coolangatta Hotel + Los Chicos 4 – Croxton Ballroom, Melbourne + Los Chicos
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.
Internationally acclaimed West Australian boogie masters Datura4are set to tour the east coast of Australia for the first time in six years on the success of their fifth album, “Neanderthal Jam”.
Datura4 is fronted by Dom Marianiof legendary Oz garage rockers The Stems, With plans to tour Europe in the latter part of 2023, the April tour will be their first time back since 2017.
The band will play four shows across New South WalesandVictoria,including an appearance at the prestigious Gum Ball Festivalin the Hunter Valley and a Sydney show with returning platinum-selling Canadian act The Sheepdogs.
Datura4 finds Dom Marianirediscovering the heavy and progressive blues sounds he loved as a teenager - bands like Led Zeppelin, Ten Years Afterandt he Groundhogs, Aus bands like Carson, Masters Apprentices, Chain, Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs and Perth locals Bakery.
Dom has even added an authentic ‘70s blues-rocker to his band – keyboard player Bob Patient is a one-time member of heavy prog rockers Fatty Lumpkin, a later day member of Matt Taylor's Chain and more recently a sideman of Perth’s internationally revered slide guitarist Dave Hole.
APRIL Friday 21- Great Club Sydney (w/ The Sheepdogs) - Tix Saturday 22 -, Gumball Festival - Tix Sunday 23- Barwon Club Geelong - Tix Monday 24- Cherry Melbourne (special guests - The Gas Babies) - Tix
Look out honey, we're using technology: Episode 35 of "Drunk and Disorderly" is live. Play it through your browser, through the Mixclud app, share it, whatever. Spread the Rock Action!
Friends of the late Richard Lane (The Painkillers, ex-The Stems,The On and Ons, Rosebuds and The Chevelles) have rallied to raise money for his family with a fund-raiser now active on Go Fund Me.
Tributes are pouring into the page for the talented musician from Fremantle who passed away the weekend before last.
The founding member of The Stems ran a local music school and was heavily involved with his community. He is survived by his wife Cathy and daughter Penny.
West Coast Highway Cosmic - Datura4 (Alive Natural Sound)
From the opening title track, Datura4 roars into life like a modern-day Steppenwolf. They’re all Hammond organ, vintage synths and a rock band, intent on making a statement.
Datura4 employ a massive wall of sound that departs from Dom Mariani's preferred '60s space into late '60s-early '70s, Deep Purple shtick - without the overindulgence of Ritchie Blackmore. Datura4 still displays its garage roots, but is a blend of Arizona desert rock a la early Alice Cooper... albeit updated with modern sounds.
The Stems: Four-fiths of the 2017 touring version. That'd be Dom Mariani, Ash naylor, Dave Shaw and Julian Matthews
Is it really 30 years since The Stems released their classic debut album "At First Sight Violets are Blue"? It is and to mark the occasion, The Stems are embarking on an Australian tour in November.
Original members Dom Mariani, Julian Matthews and Dave Shaw will be joined by Ashley Naylor (Even / RocKwiz OrKestra) and Davey Lane (You Am I) to perform the album in full.
The Stems, Perth's most popular and iconic 80s garage rock band, celebrated the 30th anniversary of the release of their classic debut album "At First Sight Violets are Blue" with a successful all Australian capital cities tour in November 2017. To coincide with the tour, "At First Sight Violets are Blue" was reissued as a limited edition tour CD.
The tour garnered enough interest in Europe for Spain’s Fuzzville Festival to make an offer for them to appear at the festival. More shows naturally followed and the band are now set to embark for a three week European tour over April/May which will cover Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden and the UK.
The UK leg includes a show at London's historic 100 Club.
Australian underground elder statesman and co-founder of The Stems, Richard Lane, has passed away in Fremantle. An announcement has been made via The Stems’ Facebook page.
Richard had lately been a member of The Painkillers, the hard-rocking garage outfit formed by James Baker, and rehearsed with them last Saturday.
Richard and Dom Mariani formed The Stems in 1983 and went on to have a fruitful if tumultuous musical partnership. Lane was a driving musical force behind the band’s early garage sound, epitomised on their early singles. He also played guitar and keyboards on the debut album “At First Sight Violets Are Blue” and the 2007 reformation record, “Heads Up”.
The band dissolved in 1987 but has reformed a couple of times. Richard was not a part of the line-up that was reconstituted in 2013.
Richard spent time living in Perth and Sydney. He formed a small record label, Idaho Records, in Perth in the 1990s and played in a number of other important bands including The Chevelles, The Rosebuds and The On and Ons.
Richard founded Penny Lane’s Music Workshop in Fremantle in 2003 as a community-based outlet to teach music. He is survived by second wife Cathy and daughter Penny.
Ten bands Joey saw live in 2019 - or wishes she did and watched online:
Radio Birdman is embarking on a short, sharp Australian tour with Citadel label-mates The Stems in tow. The five-date run will include Spanish band Los Chicos as guests on three gigs.
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.
Internationally acclaimed West Australian boogie masters Datura4are set to tour the east coast of Australia for the first time in six years on the success of their fifth album, “Neanderthal Jam”.
Friends of the late Richard Lane (The Painkillers, ex-The Stems, The On and Ons, Rosebuds and The Chevelles) have rallied to raise money for his family with a fund-raiser now active on Go Fund Me.
West Coast Highway Cosmic - Datura4 (Alive Natural Sound) 
The Stems: Four-fiths of the 2017 touring version. That'd be Dom Mariani, Ash naylor, Dave Shaw and Julian Matthews
Australian underground elder statesman and co-founder of The Stems, Richard Lane, has passed away in Fremantle. An announcement has been made via The Stems’ Facebook page.