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live at the marrickville bowl

  • jfk marrickville bowl lgeLive at The Marrickville Bowl. - John Kennedy  and the New Originals(I-94 Bar Records)

    Lately, I have been thinking about the Australian movie “Death in Brunswick”, a bona fide classic and a brilliant black comedy. It features a kitchen from hell in a decrepit nightclub, populated by the dodgiest of characters. The smell of rat poison and mouse shit, and there’s a cockroach invasion that resembles an army removing food scraps. 

    Now, I once worked one night as a kitchen hand at the notorious Kardomah Café (aka "The Dark Coma") when I was living in Kings Cross. The kitchen was not as horrifying as the one as in the movie, but I did feel like the Sam Neil character, channeling Dostoyevsky as I chopped onions, prepared soggy fries and tried to cut over-ripe tomatoes to sit forlornly atop nondescript cheeseburgers. 

  • jfk spain 

    Urban and western troubadour John Kennedy kicks off his Australian run to promote “Live At The Marrickville Bowl” (I-94 Bar Records) this weekend.

    Now living in Spain, Kennedy will play band gigs with his all-star The New Originals and solo/duo shows, hitting New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

    First cab off the rank is an in-store thjis Saturday afternoon at Egg Records in Newtown - fittingly, just off King Street, which is a location Kennedy has immortalised in "The King of King Street". Most of The New Originals will join him. Full dates and ticket links after the fold. 

  • jfk marrickville bowl lgeThe next release on I-94 Bar Records will be “Live at The Marrickville Bowl” by John Kennedy and The New Originals on November 15.

    The album captures the farewell gig by urban and western troubadour Kennedy and his all-star band, performed under the Copperart ceiling of the beloved Marrickville Bowling Club in Sydney’s inner-west in May 2022.

    Kennedy upped stakes and relocated to Spain shortly after the sold-out show, unaware that in-house soundman Richard Ball had captured the gig on hard drive. A post-show listen by bassist Phil Hall (ex-Dropbears, Sardine v and Lime Spiders) confirmed that something special had been recorded. He and Kennedy oversaw some minor polishing before Melbourne’s Ernie O sprinkled his mastering magic dust.

    Kennedy’s band, The New Originals was Hall, Murray Cook (Wiggles, Soul Movers) and Matt Galvin (Barbarellas, Scruffs, Happy Hate Me Nots) on guitars and longtime drummer Pete Timmerman.   

    Kennedy will support CD’s release with a string of homecoming gigs with The New Originals and also in solo mode in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne in December and January.