the stems

Ten bands Joey saw live in 2019 - or wishes she did and watched online:

1. Bigger Than Jesus (Australia)
2. The Heinous Hounds Blues Band (Australia)
3. The Sick Rose (Italy)
4. The Stems (Australia)
5. Rough n Tumble (Netherlands)
6. Radio Birdman (USA/Australia)
7. The Casanovas (Australia and in expectation of their album launch cos I know it will blow my mind)
8. Jeff Dahl (USA)
9. Sonny Vincent (Testors)
10. The Laissez Fairs (Ireland/USA)

Joey Bedlam was the leader of Melbourne's Doll Squad and will be releasing a new recording in 2020. 

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 Mariani of 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 Wales and Victoria, including an appearance at the prestigious Gum Ball Festival in the Hunter Valley and a Sydney show with returning platinum-selling Canadian act The Sheepdogs.

Datura4 finds Dom Mariani rediscovering the heavy and progressive blues sounds he loved as a teenager - bands like Led Zeppelin, Ten Years After andt 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!

 _{Ash Naylor, Dave Shaw. Dom Mariani and Julian Matthews are The Stems in 2024. Craig MacLean photo @shot.by.mac.}

It’s called anticipation. You’re in a band. You’ve re-convened after a very long lay-off. The line-up’s now well-rehearsed, fed and watered, and it’s the lull before the storm that will be the first day of your 40th anniveresary tour. 

Rock and roll is more waiting than playing. Dom Mariani knows it well. He’s on the line from a hotel in Melbourne where The Stems are poised to undertake their first Australian tour this week in five years (thanks COVID) before taking off on a sweep through Spain and Italy.

Oh no. There’s a brief coughing fit. It's from Dom’s end. 

“You all right?”

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. 

You can leave your message and donation here.

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.

They could have called it the Back By Popular Demand Tour: The Stems made a triumphant return to the live stage in August and September 2024, celebrating their 40th Anniversary with a series of sold-out shows across Australia and Europe and they're back home to do it again in 2025.

The band - featuring original members Dom Mariani, Julian Matthews, and Dave Shaw, along with acclaimed guitarist Ashley Naylor (Even/Paul Kelly/The Church) - are set to hit the road once more with a limited series of shows along the east coast of Australia in April. .

Following the release of their Top 20 single "Falling From The Sky" and live album "The Stems - Official Live Recording" (Cheersquad Records & Tapes), fans can expect to hear some new music from the band in the lead up to their 2025 tour. In the meantime, don't miss out on snapping up tickets for the upcoming shows.

THE STEMS - EAST COAST AUSTRALIAN TOUR APRIL 2025
WEDNESDAY APRIL 23
NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB, Melbourne VIC

THURSDAY APRIL 24
CROWBAR, Sydney NSW

FRIDAY APRIL 25
GUM BALL FESTIVAL, Hunter Valley NSW

SATURDAY APRIL 26
OLD MUSEUM, Brisbane QLD

*Tickets available from the venues or via www.lunalivepresents.com

Legendary garage rockers, The Stems, have announced supports, an extra show and one venue shift on their tour to celebrate 40 years. .

Power-pop rockers The Prize will kick off the national run as support for both the August 24 show at The Corner Hotel in Melbourne and a newly-added date at the Theatre Royal at Castlemaine in August 24.

Adelaide can expect the dark folk-pop of Romana Ashton & The Reeds as support. Acclaimed indie-pop rock outfit Ups And Downs are set for the Brisbane gig, which is now at the Mansfield Tavern.

In Sydney, The Stems will be joined by The New Christs. The Rinehearts have the main support in WA with Fremantle alt-rock four-piece Vancool opening.

The Stems
40^th Anniversary Australian Tour
AUG
+ The Prize
23 - Theatre Royal, Castlemaine. VIC
+ The Prize
24 – Corner Hotel, Melbourne
+ Romana Ashton & The Reeds
25 – The Gov, Adelaide
+ Ups & Downs
30 – Mansfield Tavern, Brisbane
+ New Christs
31 – Manning Bar, Sydney
SEP 
+ The Rhinehearts
+ Vancool
5 – Freo Social, Fremantle
Tickets here

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.

 
_{Murray Bennett photo.}

The Stems
+ New Christs
Manning Bar, Sydney
Saturday, August 30, 2024
Photos: Tony McNamara unless otherwisde credited.

Shows by The Stems are reverential experiences, And for good reason. The band’s membership is scattered over two coasts of Australia and gigs don’t occur often. When they do, you know they're going to be something worth bottling.

What’s the special sauce? It’s Dom Mariani’s timeless pop songs being delivered by top-shelf players who have a chemistry that can only come from most of them playing together for years.

The foundation is Mariani on guitar and vocals, drummer Dave Shaw and bassist Julian Matthews, with a guitar foil of Ash Naylor(this tour) or Davey Lane, who are both ubiquitous and gifted in equal measures.

As far as recordings go, The Stems have not been prolific, with just two full-length studio albums since 1987, so it’s all about the quality and not the length. Their first LP, “At First Sight Violets Are Blue”, was a fully formed pop classic, and the 2007 “follow-up”, “Heads Up”, was substantial in its own right, although is not as well-known.

The Stems have kicked off their 40th anniversary year with a new single ahead of their national tour, a live LP and dates in Europe.

“Falling from the Sky “is the band’s first recording since their 2007 album “Heads Up”. Recorded at Revolver Studios and mixed at Pet Rock studios in Perth, it features original members Dom Mariani, Julian Matthews, Dave Shaw and current guitarist Ashley Naylor (Even, The Church, Paul Kelly). 

Dom: “I’d written the song about five years ago and had always envisaged the Stems doing it if we ever had the opportunity to record it. Lyrically, it’s a commentary on how attitudes change as one gets older and a little more cynical about things with the hope of love as the redeeming theme in the choruses.

“Dave and I initially tracked the song with Dave suggesting the groove and fuzz tone idea.

:It worked great and we sent it across to Jules to add his distinctive bass and backing vocals.

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.

Is Ash Naylor Australia’s busiest musician? With a solo acoustic song “A Blue Sky” presaging his forthcoming solo acoustic album, the Melbourne guitarist will sandwich his current duties with The Church with solo shows in Sydney and Melbourne and a solo band gig in Adelaide.

"A Blue Sky" is the second preview of Naylor’s next solo album, and follows "Donovan Dreams", an ode to the legendary '60s Scottish psychedelic folkster Donovan (of "Mellow Yellow", "Hurdy Gurdy Man" and "Sunshine Superman" fame).