THURSDAY 23rd -    Trivia from 7:00pm in BJ’s Turntables Restaurant

FRIDAY 24th -     6.00pm - meat & vegie raffles + bar snacks
Chill out with your buddies after work, and maybe score a meat or vegie tray to take home!
                                    8.30pm -  Tamworth pop/rock band - The O Trio

This popular trio from Tamworth will be back to entertain us with a whole stack of new originals. Check them out on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/The0Trio?sk=app_178091127385

SATURDAY 25th 

-     8.30pm - Brisbane funk/soul band – His Merry Men

These guys were so amazing last time they played, we had to get them back!  Born of Funk and Soul, His Merry Men are now too hot to be contained by just one genre. The band contemporise a classic, ol’school sound with influences from Surf Rock, Electronica and Hip Hop. Regardless of genre, His Merry Men bring a fat, 9-piece sound and dance party attitude to every gig. They sport suave outfits, face melting dance moves and a dynamite 4-piece horn section, the ‘Hell Yeah Horns’.  Check out their webpage at: http://www.hismerrymen.com

* ATTENTION MEMBERS*

Dont forget about the AGM Meeting on the 29th

BJ’s Turntables is open from 6pm Thursday – Saturday

Club Opens 4:30 – Late Thursday – Saturday

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

WEDNESDAY, 29 FEBRUARY 2012

6.00PM

Friday 30th September

$5 Entry

Finally local legends Bound For Trouble return to The Armidale Club. Bound For Trouble consists of four members. Saul John Cafarella – Drums, Lucas Chané Cafarella – Guitar, Adam Julius Cafarella – Bass and Lawrence Daniel Vincent Tafra – Guitar & Vocals. “Bound For Trouble” arrange an eclectic selection of music from artists such as Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa, Rage Against The Machine, Tim Buckley, & many more.
So if you like live music and are looking for a good time on Friday, come down to The Armidale Club for the musical styling of “Bound For Trouble”.

Thursday 21st September

DeeJay Gosper has been performing for 20 years. She has a reputation as Australia’s Queen of the blues harp and songstress with an engaging and spirited stage presence.

After spending 2007 to 2008 recovering from breast cancer, DJ is“performing with a passion that knows no tomorrow.” (Bill Arnett, the Folkus Room, Canberra).

Gosper says “Before cancer I was a part-time musician with dreams of becoming full time. My career was just beginning to take flight when I was diagnosed. While the illness, surgery and treatment, has set back my career, it has also fired me up to live my dreams. I am now a full-time Musician, and as tough as it is I’m loving every minute of it!”

Her professional musical career began in 1995 fronting The Dynamic Lifters as singer, harmonica and keyboard player (she studied Classical and modern piano for 11 years). This band exposed DeeJay to a range of music, from original songs to obscure Folk songs to Pub-rock and Blues-rock covers and helped her to begin her journey toward finding her own sound.

As member of renowned vocal trio The Blues Cowgirls from 2002 – 2005, DeeJay played at various Australian Blues and Folk festivals. The independent release of ‘Ask Any Woman’ was awarded “Best CD of the Year” by Canberra Roots Music.

She formed KarismaKatz (now called The DeeJay Gosper Band) in 2004.

DeeJay’s harmonica, vocal and songwriting talents have been recognised over the years through various awards from the Canberra Blues Society including Best Blues Album “Hot Flush Blues”.

Her distinctive harmonica style has developed over the years. Influences have included Sonny Terry, Jim Conway and Charlie Musselwhite. These days she doesn’t try to sound like anyone else. She just plays!

While DeeJay gains most recognition through her Blues / Roots music, she enjoys branching into mainstream Jazz (originals and covers).

Her vocal style has been influenced by many of the great Jazz and Blues singers including Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Dinah Washington, Ma Rainey, Carmen McRae and Barbara Morrison. Lyricists, Nick Cave and Sixto Rodriguez have been influential in her writing style.

DeeJay has shared the stage with Fiona Boyes, Dutch Tilders, Jim Conway, Damon Davies, Damian Coen, Dave O’Neill, Kate Meehan, Jan Preston, Glen Terry and the USA’s Eugene Hideaway-Bridges and Austin Walking Cane.

DeeJay regularly tours Australia, wowing audiences with her chops and charm!

Blues Awards
2005: The independent release of The Blues Cowgirls CD ‘Ask Any Woman’ was awarded Best CD of the Year by Canberra Roots Music.

2007: Canberra Blues Society Blues Awards: Best Vocalist, Best Instrumentalist and Best Song (Burn Baby Burn, co-written with Christo Carlsen).

2009: With a record number of entrants in 2009, DJ again scooped the Canberra Blues Society Blues Awards this time winning Female Blues Vocalist, Blues Song “Baby Rose” (co-written with Lynnie Gosper) and Best Blues Album “Hot Flush Blues”.

Saturday 24th September

videoplayback

Free Entry

It’s going to be a disco duck night of explosive hits from the disco era of the 70s! So get out your spandex, flares, jumpsuits, platforms, slip into your slacks and blame it on the boogie for a night of solid gold dancing to stars on 45!!

Saturday 3rd September 2011

Together we can really make a difference………

Featuring the amazing  -  ‘ Bez Imena’ with Steve Tafra, Dave Carr, Sarah Thorneycroft & Jess Stocker

Balkan and Middle Eastern music to warm your heart & lift your spirits!

Middle Eastern fancy dress theme!!

Cover charge: $10 – all money raised goes to Malalai Joya to assist her carry on her humanitarian projects for Afghan women.

Friday 2nd September

The BopCatz are Carol Elder (potent vocals), Steve Thorneycroft (archival guitars), Sarah Thorneycroft (humming bass) and Steve Harris (righteous drums), and they have been speaking with Elvis, Carlos and the Bandidos, The Shadows, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, The Stray Cats and Imelda May, and are bringing the wild word of hip bop song to a room near you. Combining many years experience as performing musicians, The BopCatz respect tradition but also prize innovation, channelling the spirit of the originals and pioneers, but also seeking out the new flavours and forms – a dash of swamp gothic, mudcountry blues and voodoo groove.

Thursday 1st September 2011

Sometimes a name finds the band. That’s certainly been the case with Holland. The melodic Australian four-piece inherited the title, as though a birthright. As the group readied for their entry into the big league, they adopted a new guise which evidently had been with them all along.

Fatis Valour was cast-off for the new title Holland, the maiden name of the group’s charismatic vocalist Jarryd Klapper. “It’s always been a part of my life,” comments the eye-catching singer. “I’ve not been to Holland, but in a way it’s where I come from.”

Holland is led by Jarryd and its talismanic lead guitarist Shane “Shano” Graham. The band’s co-founders are well supported by a rhythm section which comprises James Taylor (bass) and Javed Sterritt (drums). The four bandmates call Brisbane home, but all have a strong connection with the Gold Coast. Now, with a major label album release and a debut single in the works, the group is riding on the crest of a wave quite like none have experienced before.

It’s been a lucky tide of events which has brought the band to this point. Back in 2006, an early incarnation of the band known as Fatis Valour released a self-funded EP. “That EP was us finding our feet, our style,” recalls Jarryd. It wasn’t an overwhelming commercial success, but it did enough to catch the ears of a Sony Music Australia-signed artist, who brought the record to the label’s A&R team. Sony Music’s executives liked what he heard, and they signed the band to a recording contract. Later, a management arrangement fell into place with Billy Blue Music.

Following a year of writing and fine-tuning, the band shipped Stateside to record their debut effort with feted producer Nick DiDia at the helm. DiDia’s track history reads like a chronicle of contemporary rock music. The American producer has worked on multiple albums for the likes of U.S. superstars Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Rage Against The Machine, Bruce Springsteen and Train. DiDia has a healthy association with Australian artists, having sat behind the desk for many of Powderfinger’s best-sellers and worked on albums for the Living End and Katie Noonan, among others.

Holland hunkered-down for a touch over a month in Atlanta, cutting their debut in the Southern Tracks Recording Studios. It was time well spent, and it was spent well-away from the band’s comfort zone. “Over the years Nick has mastered the art of bringing out the best in someone,” says Shane. “He’s very disarming and he knows exactly what he wants. Nick had a very collaborative approach to the record. He’s not like one of these guys who come in and want to prove something. He just nurtures the process.” On a casual listen, the album is a littered with pop numbers. There’s drama and tenderness in equal measure, with touches that will remind some of Coldplay and early Kings of Leon. Closer inspection reveals a set rich with warm melodies, and a depth that should strike a chord in the colder months. DiDia truly captures the urgency of Jarryd’s vocals and the subtle tones of his piano-play.

“There’s a beauty in these songs, and they’re all an honest representation of our original ideas,” says Jarryd. “I keep the melody and lyrics honest, and the guys then come in and build on that and keep it really simple.” Jarryd has a penchant for penning his works late at night. “When I’m writing, I don’t think about the fact that a lot of people will be listening to it. I imagine one person lying in bed, like I was when I was a kid. Listening to a song and rewinding the tape to play it again.”

Album highlights include the catchy, bass-heavy “Without You,” and “What You Mean To Me,” a piece which neatly showcases each musician’s set of skills.

The lead single is “No Control”. The track, with its atmospheric, up-lifting chorus, forms the backbone of the band’s dreamy live set. “That song is for everyone,” explains Jarryd. “Who hasn’t gone to bed in the middle of an argument and you end up kicking yourself for not solving it? The song is about learning from your mistakes, and dealing with it.”

As the band members enter a bright new stage of their careers, the glow of the spotlight isn’t phasing them. They’re ready, insists Shane, but they’re not going to sweat over what happens next. “We’ve been pretty calm about the whole thing. We’re secure in what we do.” And what would Shane be doing if he wasn’t a member of Holland? “There is no other thing I’d be doing,” he says with a smile. “When we formed this band, in so many ways it gave me a sense of freedom. I’d found an outlet. It’s quite an amazing thing.”

Family played its part in bringing the band together. Holland’s founding members met at a festival in 2006. Jarryd was on stage, and Shane was catching the action. Midway through the first song, Shane’s wife leaned-in and nudged her partner. “If you start a band with that guy,” she said, “I’ll follow you around the world.” Shane laughs when he recalls the talent-scouting skills of his wife. “Great vocalists are just so hard to find. Especially someone who has an amazing concept of melody, and movement in melody. Jarryd just has so much natural ability to write great melodies.”

Indeed, Jarryd is classically trained on trumpet, but his skills extend to the guitar and piano, all of which feature on the album.

Shane, however, was a late bloomer. Though a life-long music fan, he didn’t realise he had the gift for the guitar until much later than his contemporaries. So late, he admits he “nearly missed the boat”. Shane didn’t pick up a guitar until his mid-20s. “It was like the biggest light bulb went off,” he admits. “I was so in awe of the people who made music that I never thought I’d be able to do it. I respected the art way too much, even from a young age.”

Shane recalls listening over and over to a tape as a six-year-old. He’d sneak out to play the tape in the family car, many years before he’d learned to drive it. Years went by, and that tape’s influence formed a strong part of what Holland is today. Though the name of that album was long-forgotten. As it turns out, the tape which inspired a young Shane was a legendary early 70s recording by the Beach Boys. The album was called “Holland”.

If ever a name had belonged to a band.

Saturday 27th August 2011

Bonfires In Silver City is the stunning new album from acclaimed Australian songwriter Lucie Thorne. Steeped in that striking spaciousness and sensuality for which Thorne’s work has become so renowned, Bonfires In Silver City encompasses a remarkable breadth of feeling and flavour. From the shimmering, wide-open beauty of Big News to the groove of Till The Season; from the surging swell of Great Wave to the perfectly matched duet (and co-write) with soul-treasure Jo Jo Smith on Sweet Turnaround, Bonfires In Silver City is an arrestingly assured collection from one of our finest song-poets.

Most of these songs were written whilst on the road, over the past two years of almost constant touring (throughout Australia and Europe) since the release of her last album, Black Across The Field. Evocative songs brewed over this nomadic time, during which Thorne has only occasionally retreated back to that sweet old country cottage by the Tantawangalo Creek (on the far south coast of NSW) that she still calls home.

But the sound of Bonfires In Silver City has grown largely out of the musical empathy and camaraderie Thorne has developed over this period with legendary drummer Hamish Stuart. Produced by Thorne in close collaboration with Stuart, most of the album was tracked live in Sydney’s Megaphon Studio over three days in April 2011, and shining at its centre is their remarkable duet sound. Expansive, playful, loose and real. This foundation is augmented by sublime performances from some of their favourite players, including Dave Symes (bass), Chris Abrahams (piano and organ) and Carl Dewhurst (guitar), alongside some more adventurous guitar work and soundscape creations by Thorne herself, adding texture and an expanded tonal palette just where it’s required and not a note more.

“I’ve never spent such a long time thinking about the record I wanted to make, and yet such a short amount of time actually making it” says Thorne. “And for me it feels really clearly like the best work I’ve done”.

Lauded for her unique voice, poetic lyricism, and tender-to-gutsy electric guitar playing, in Bonfires In Silver City Thorne further hones her “gift for melody… and thoughtful, intelligent lyrics that, as with Joni Mitchell, leave you pondering shades of meaning” ( The Australian) as she creates “exquisite miniatures of distilled emotion” ( The Canberra Times).

Thorne’s last album, Black Across The Field (2009) garnered acclaim from leading critics, including being awarded ‘Best Roots Album of 2009’ by The Sydney Morning Herald, was short listed for the prestigious Australian Music Prize, and earned her a place as one of Australia’s most distinctive contemporary songwriters. Bonfires in Silver City is an exciting development from this remarkable musician who has clearly hit her stride.

“Bonfires In Silver City reveals a subtlety and craft that eclipses Thorne’s prior work.” (Martin Jones, Rhythms Magazine, August 2011)

“I’ve been listening to three great female artists in the last month; the first two, Gillian Welch and Emmylou Harris require little introduction to most, their bodies of work substantial, their standing already verging on legendary. The third is a name lesser known, but her album Bonfires in Silver City is undoubtedly the best of all three. Lucie Thorne is one of our own, and with this album she makes a firm statement that she is one of our finest. World-class.”
(Chris Peken, Alternative Media Group, August 2011)

Friday 26th August 2011

Time to relieve your favourite songs from yesteryear. Leo’s can enjoy their time in the zodiac spotlight as A Hot August Night makes a very special appearance at the Club.

It’s all about those songs that make you get up and dance and remember days gone by. From Creedence to Neil Diamond, this night will truly be one to remember.