Biggest Little Choir Fundraiser with Ilona Harker
Mullumbimby Uniting Church | Thursday 26 July | 6pm | $10 ticket or $25 with dinner
The Biggest Little Town Choir has been raising their voices for eight years in Mullumbimby. It’s a long way from Papua New Guinea, where they have been invited to share songs with the people of Korogu on the Sepik River.
They will be accompanied by documentary filmmaker Jimmy Malecki, who will record their stay in PNG and document a valuable cultural exchange. They will perform at Korogu and other villages along the river, participate in the Crocodile Festival, visit schools and cultural sites, and learn much about our neighbours as they share the lives of our Sepik hosts for two weeks.
The difference between our lives and those of the villagers is enormous. The vast majority of Papua New Guineans are subsistence farmers. By all accounts the women have a pretty tough time – are still regarded as the possessions of their husbands and are the beasts of burden who collect the firewood, tend the vegetable gardens, bear the children, mind the pigs etc, etc.
Life expectancy in rural areas is low – under 60 years of age. Infant mortality is high as is maternal death around childbirth. Literacy and attendance at school are also low. Education and health facilities are limited in rural areas.
To contribute to the people who are hosting the dozen or so people going to PNG, direct aid will be given in the form of exercise books and pencils for school-age children, and towels, kitchen knives, and basic medications such as analgesics for the adults. Although it is only a three-hour flight from Australia, PNG is not a mass tourist destination so is expensive. The choir members will finance all their own transport and expenses but need help to provide these donated goods and to buy food to share with hosts.
You can help by having a great night’s entertainment. Stars Ilona Harker and her gal pal Mae Wilde like to keep their public careers very separate, so how have The Biggest Little Town Choir managed to coax them onto the same stage on the same night? Mae Wilde is just back from Caracas, where she’s been intercepting violence in the world’s most dangerous city. Ilona Harker Music is heading into deep dark lush country where her voodoo consumes you. This is the first and only time the two have appeared together on the same program, and it’s for a good cause! The choir perform and provide backing led by Peter Lehner.
Tix at the door. www.facebook.com
Susie Scurry
Brunswick Picture House | Saturday 14 July | 7pm | $5–20
Susie Scurry is a singer/songwriter from Melbourne. Her style and sound have been described by the press as ‘nostalgic, dreamy folk’ that lies ‘somewhere between the jazz club and the barnyard’. She is back from England with a lush new six-track, with the gorgeous first single The Elvis Hour. It is an homage to the iconic legend and the lonely existence of The King of rock’n’roll.
Beach Sounds
Park Lane Theatre, Lennox Head | July 14 |4–10.30pm | $20 |
Seventeen-year-old music lover Ben Luke from Lennox Head has a passion for music and he’s not sitting around waiting for someone to give him experience; he’s creating his own events. At just 15 he started his own business Lennox Groove. He kicked this up a gear last year by booking and putting on the first Beach Sounds Music Festival.
The success of the festival saw Lennox Head get on the bookers’ map and early this year Ben started a monthly indie night at the Lennox Hotel. Bands that have played so far include White Blanks, Voiid, Fight Ibis, and this Friday BUGS headline, with Born Lion taking top spot in June.
The Beach Sounds Music Fest 2018 has just announced its lineup and it is a huge event for little Lennox Head this Saturday.
The Pretty Littles headline the show with Eliza and the Delusionals and VOIID as main supports. The other bands personally selected by Ben show that he has a great ear for top emerging indie acts, and includes Concrete Surfers, Crum, Garage Sale, SOOK, Viral Eyes, No Parade and Ben’s own band MIND.
Including your own band on a lineup is always a bit of a risky move but Ben’s band MIND has hit the scene hard with its fourth ever live gig being a support for The Smith Street Band in front of a crowd of 300 at Crowbar Brisbane.
Local indie band WHARVES, who are co-promoters of Beach Sounds, have joined forces with Feed Music to put on the High School Hero comp, which will bring another top high school band to open the festival.
Beach Sounds is on the same weekend as the prestigious Skullcandy Grom Open, which is one of the world’s top U-18 surfing competitions.
Tix are on Eventbrite. All-ages youth event.
Valiant Charger
The Court House Hotel, Mullumbimby | Friday 13 July | 8pm | $5
Valiant Charger is fully tuned up and coming out of the garage to bring its unique, original show to the northern rivers.
Born out of the base of Chincogan, Mullumbimby’s own, this eclectic group is pulling back the covers on all the great songs you had forgotten you loved.
This raw, highly skilled PunkPopOzRock live show is one not to be missed. It’s REM, Oils, B52s, Bowie, and INXS as you have never seen them.
A five-piece powerhouse, they have made it $5 to get in, so all can come, commune and dance around their faves!
PLTS at the Brewery
Byron Brewery | Sat 14 July | 9pm | FREE
PLTS are an indie rock band from Byron Bay who have worked with producer JP Fung (Birds of Tokyo, Art vs Science) and Nick Didia (Powderfinger, Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen) to produce their take on energetic indie rock. They have quickly cemented their rock status through powerful anthem songwriting. Weaving warm melodies over strong and stirring guitar lines, PLTS are converting new friends and fans around the country with their nostalgic anthems. Catch them at their hometown gig at the Byron Brewery on Saturday in support of the release of their first single Maelstrom.
Praise, Protest & Purpose: The Workshop
St Kevin’s Hall, Bangalow | Wed 18 July |
Eric Dozier is the former musical director for the world-famous Harlem Gospel Choir and the co-founder and director of arts and education for One Human Family Music Workshops, Inc, an organisation devoted to eradicating discrimination by ‘Uniting the world one song at a time’.
He is also a cultural activist, musician and gospel-music educator committed to carrying forward the traditions of African American sacred song. His work stems from a deep belief that music is much more than entertainment, it is a social force, a means, and modality for social change.
Through his interactive workshops, lectures, and performances, Eric continues to embody his commitment to spirited, informed, and creative conversation around the divisive issues that threaten undermine the fellowship of the human family.
African American gospel composer, director, teacher, and activist Eric Dozier will deliver a one-night workshop at St Kevin’s Hall, Bangalow on Wednesday 18 July. Bookings: Jennifer Richardson –[email protected].
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