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fabels

  • belle trio soaring

    Belle Phoenix with Jeffery Wegener and Ken Gormly
    + Fabels
    Thursday, 4 September 2025
    Lazy Thinking, Dulwich Hill, NSW

    WORDS: Ed Garland
    PICTURES: Keith Claringbold

    With her elfin appearance and cat’s eyes, Belle Phoenix, is part musical performer and part Factory girl, and surely would fitted into Andy Warhol’s Bohemian scene of 1966. Her sweet vocal has held her in good stead as a backing singer on other people’s albums, but she’s steadily built an impressive body of work with her own material.

    Belle Phoenix’s music would work as a soundtracks to European movies (indeed, she did live in Europe for a time with Finland a home base.) It has hints of the spoken word spirit that pervaded the San Francisco of 1958 when alcohol-fuelled beat poetry nights were all the rage, long before anyone had an inkling of the Summer of Love that was lay ahead.  Yet, Belle can also sing like the angels and produce pure soprano bliss amidst her swamp darkness.

  • deb nankervis 2025Attending 80 gigs this year might seem a lot but imagine if I hadn’t cancelled a further 80 due to perpetual bronchitis and various bouts of flu. Thankfully, no Covid this time. Clearly four was enough.

    I generally enjoy all music events so picking a Top Ten was quite a feat. If I’ve liked a band enough to see them more than once, I’ve included those gigs.

    No. 1 - Bart Willoughby, No Fixed Address on two occasions
    One at The Tote on Jan 3, and again at Yabun festival Jan 26. Their distinctive Aus/reggae rock has moved me since we came back to Melbourne from London in 1979. When my son Vyvyan’s godfather, Louis McManus, sadly passed away in 2004, NFA’s drummer and lead vocalist, Bart Willoughby, stepped up to the plate, his friend and mine being Maxine Briggs, his godmother.

    I never tire of hearing Bart’s anthem “We have Survived”, beautifully delivered on a sunny Sydney afternoon at the Yabun Festival in Victoria Park, “Music to a Beat”.

  • edwin garland 2023

    I have been making lists and, damn, it has been a huge year of music for me; so many records and so many gigs.  I cannot think of a year so jam-packed.  I could have made a Top Ten list by August this year. Best that I don’t count these off or it could be limiting.

    1. Loud Hailers at the Hollywood Hotel, Surry Hills, NSW
    Ben Fink     is one of the most tasteful and sonically powerful guitarists in town, evoking Blind Lemon Jeffersonand Jimmy Page. Then there’s drummer Jordon. And vocalist Christa Hughes,who mixes it up, referencing everyone from Nina Simone to Lydia Lunch to a deranged Lisa Minnelli. Confrontational and soulful. Their gigs at the Hollywood set the place on fire. The Sydney inner city band to catch in 2024.

    2. Fabels at the Hollywood
    Ben Alyward and Hiske Weijers have been making music together for 13 years and have developed a cult following both in the inner city and Europe.  It’s a creative, surreal form of shoegaze with a huge palette of influences. They sit in their own space and avoid the pub rock tradition, forging their own identity and sound.

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The Living Eye


Right eye

Tumbleed & The New Christs 
JAN
16 - The Marlin, Ulladulla, NSW
+ Cool Jumper
17 - Avalon Beach RSL,
Avalon, NSW 

"King Street Crawl
Summer Edition"
- Jan 25
Too many venues to mention 
in Newtown, NSW

Mach Pelican
“A Secret Session”
Single Launch
+ Loose Lips + Elvis II
The Last Chance Bar, Melbourne
- Jan 31
Tickets

Peter Black solo tour
FEB
5 - Society City - Wollongong, NSW
Details
7 - Velvet Fog Records - Katoomba, NSW
Details
13 - The Cave Inn, Brisbane, QLD
Tickets
14 - Vinnies Dive Bar, Gold Coast, QLD (Matinee Show)
Tickets
19 - Medusa Bar, Geelong, VIC
Tickets
20 - Town Hall Hotel, Melbourne (two sets) 
Details
21 - Shedshaker Brewing Company, Castlemaine, VIC
Details
27 - Hopsters Brewery - Sydney
Details
28 - Flow Bar - Old Bar, NSW  
Details
MAR
1 - Hiss and Crackle Records, Newcastle, NSW
Details 

Dave Favours & The Roadside Ashes
Service Station Chcken Tour
JAN
17 – MoshPit Bar, Sydney, NSW
+ Bahne Super-Flex + Sam Shinazzi
18 – The Junkyard, Maitland, NSW
+ Tim Easton (USA)
20 – The Tamworth Hotel, Tamsworth, NSW
“The Tops Day Out” festival
30 – Link & Pin, Woy Woy, NSW
+ The Dunhill Blues
31 – The Oak Tighes Hill,Newcastle, NSW
+ Crank Williams and Patsy Decline
FEB
27 – The Main Bar, Ballarat, VIC
28 – Union Hotel, Brunswick, VIC
MAR
1 – Bendigo Hotel, Brunswick, VIC

The Gnomes
Dive! Dive! Dive!
Rock ‘n’ Roll Dive Bar Tour
JAN
16 - The Lansdowne, Sydney
+ Marilyn Maria + Aria Nova
17 - Dicey's, Wollongong
+ Kryver + Jordan Kenny + Harold & The Bishops
18 - Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
w/ Viagra Boys
23 - The Gem, Collingwood (8pm)
+ W.O.M.B.A.T. + Sargent Baker
30 - Last Chance Rock'n'roll Bar, Melbourne (8pm)
+ Winsky + Riviera
31 - Trash Cult, Bendigo (7pm)
+ Clydesdale
FEB
14 - Shotkickers, Thornbury (8pm)
+ Public House + Special Guests
20 - The Tote Front Bar, Collingwood (6pm)
+ Champ Ruby
21 - Kindred Bandroom, Footscray (8pm)
+ Stimpies + special guests

The Sugar Beats 
+ Plastic Section
Golden Barley, Enmore
- Feb 20

TsuShiMaMiRe (JP)
Australian Tour
FEB
19 - Shotkickers, Melbourne, VIC
20 – Trash Cult, Bendigo, VIC
22– Young St Tavern, Frankston, VIC
27 - Shadows, Canberra, ACT
28 – Moshpit, Sydney, NSW

The Jackets (CH)
Australian Tour
FEB
25 – Shotkickers, Thornbury, VIC
+ Plastic Section + Burning Effigy +  Special Secret Guest
26 - Vineyard, St Kilda, VIC
(Door sales only)
27 – Mixtape Bar & Brewing, Marrickville,
Sydney, NSW
(moved from Marrickville Bowlo)
+ The Strike-Outs + pocketwatch
28 - The Bendi, Collingwood, VIC
MAR
1 -– Trash Cult, Bendigo, VIC (arvo show)
+ Grinding Eyes, + The Damos
2  – The Last Chance, Melbourne, VIC
Tickets
Tickets

Cosmic Psychos
"I Really Like Beer Tour"
JAN
1 — Edge Hill Tavern, Cairns, QLD
2 — Dalrymple Hotel, Townsville, QLD
3 — Magnums, Airlie Beach, QLD
4 — Metropolitan Hotel, Mackay, QLD
7  — Harvey Road Tavern, Gladstone, QLD
8  — Grand Hotel, Childers, QLD
9 — Mo’s Desert Clubhouse, Gold Coast, QLD
10 — Seaview Tavern, Woolgoolga, NSW
11 — Bellingen Brewery, Bellingen, NSW
14  — Moonshiners Honky Tonk Bar, Tamworth, NSW
15 — Finnian's Tavern, Port Macquarie, NSW
16 — Avalon RSL, Avalon, NSW
17 — The Marlin, Ulladulla, NSW
18 — Beer Deluxe, Albury NSW
22 — Tanswells Hotel, Beechworth, VIC
23 — Sooki Lounge, Belgrave, VIC
24 — Westonport Hotel, San Remo, VIC
25 — Social Club, Balnarring, VIC
26  — Volta, Ballarat, VIC
29  — Whalers Hotel, Warrnambool, VIC
30 — Torquay Hotel, Torquay, VIC
31  — Riverview Hotel, Tarwin Lower, VIC
FEB
12  — Royal Oak, Launceston, TAS
13 — Forth Pub, Devonport, TAS
14  — Altar, Hobart, TAS

 

 

 

Fresh Reviews

Latest Comments

Stuart Spencer posted a comment in Humble Jim and his Family Dog deliver a classic
Great album, took a couple of listens but love it. Looking forward to the gigs
What the heck .... !!!
I used to be part of the Sydney music scene Blondies The Cleaners, IDIOT/SAVANT & the innersoles
Jeff posted a comment in Four against the world: 20 years of RUST
You guys should really do some research on these guys’ backgrounds. Speaking of tattoos, did Gary sh...
Been a mate of Dave’s since high school days, He always was and still is “ The sharpest tool in the ...

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