Archives pour la catégorie Laughing Clowns

Australian band formed by Ed Kuepper (79-84) reformed in 2009 at ATP

Australia, bands promotion, Ed Kuepper, Europe, Laughing Clowns, phone interview, The Saints

Podcast 106 Ed Kuepper and Chris Bailey : two interviews for a duo tour 2010 (part 2) and Happy May 1st !!

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Here the Part 2 of the interview with Ed Kuepper about his projects 2010 and a spontaneous chat I recorded with Chris Bailey just a week before his flight to Australia to join Ed for a duo tour where they will peform together some old songs from their solo albums and hopefully after 30 years they will co-write some new material !!

 
Chris Bailey Live in 2008 (pic Karena Hoyer); Ed Kuepper Live in Melbourne in 2009 (pic : Carbie Warbie)

I started the podcast with « Closer (but disguised) » a song from Ed’s new released Live DVD recorded during the Honey Steel’s Gold’s Australian tour with his solo band The Kowalski Collective in 2008; for info his new Live DVD with Laughing Clowns recorded at Tivoli in Brisbane in 2009 is available now too, both are wonderful !! You can directly order them at www.princemelonrecords.com !!
Then I played 2 songs from Ed’s and Chris’ respective solos albums.
From Ed : « How Would you Plead » (Frontierland in 96) and « Sleepy Head » (Sirene Machine in 93), both on the compilation « The Magic Mile ».
From Chris : « Edgar Allan Poe » (Demons in 91) and « Queen of The Hour » (Encore in 96).
I finished with a song co-written by Chris and Ed during The Saints’ first era : « Messin’ with The Kid » but performed differently solo by Ed « Messin’ Part 2 » Live in Mebourne in 2001 (Prince Melon Bootlegs Series Volume 2).
Happy May 1st to everybody, hoping that day will bring luck to Ed’s and Chris new duo !!

Australia, bands promotion, Ed Kuepper, Laughing Clowns, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, phone interview, The Saints

Podcast 105 Chris Bailey and Ed Kuepper touring Australia in duo in May 2010 and Prince Melon Records new bootlegs and website : Interview with Ed Kuepper Part 1

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In this new interview with Ed Kuepper recorded in April 2010 he announces us some great news I was expecting for years : first of all he will start again a new artistic collaboration with his friend and long time partner in music (both formed The Saints) : Chris Bailey !! They are touring Australia in duo in May with performing 9 shows in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne (precise dates below) to develop their experience as a residency style ! Maybe they will record a new album together with some incredible great new songs and will tour Europe after that ? it’s my best wish !!

 
Ed Kuepper with Laughing Clowns in Melbourne in 2009 (Pic Mende Joveski); the poster for the duo tour in May made by Judi Kuepper!!).

The second thing is that Ed at last decided to open a new website at www.princemelonrecords.com for his own label Prince Melon Records and sell the boodlegs he produced himself for a very attractive cheap prices (2 big beers in Australia, 4 small ones in France!!!) just to avoid you to waste your time with releasing in bad conditons your own bootlegs…:)
Check it and you will find 3 new live recordings N°4, 5 and 8 with Honey Steel’s Gold live in Melbourne at The Forum in 2009, some duos, solos and trios recorded in Australia between 2000 and 2008 and Laughing Clowns Live in Sydney at The Basement in 2009 !
Two DVD are expecting in the next days with Ed Kuepper and his solo band The Kowalski Collective performing Honey Steel’s Gold in Brisbane at Tivoli in 2008 and Laughing Clowns performing their first reunion show in 2009 in Brisbane at GoMa !! All in limited edition so hurry up !

 
Prince Melon Records bootlegs N°4 and 5 (covers made by Judi Kuepper).

You will find as well a few Jean-Lee and The Yellow Dog, Ed Kuepper’s last solo album and Cruel but Fair with all songs from Laughing Clowns ! You can subscribe to his blog to be informed for more !! Welcome to Ed among the bloggers’ wonderful world !!

I illustrated this interview Part 1 with playing « Too Many Clues » Live in Brisbane, unreleased but offered by Ed when he launched his label on myspace, then all the songs are coming from The Prince Melon Bootleg Series N°4 and 5 « Baby Well I, Electrical Storm, The Way I Made You Feel, Friday’s Blue Cheer and King of Vice ».

Here the dates of the duo tour in May with Chris and Ed (don’t miss them if you’re lucky enough to live in Aystralia !!) :
12 mai 2010 20:00 The Vanguard Sydney, New South Wales
13 mai 2010 20:00 The Troubadour Brisbane, Queensland
16 mai 2010 20:00 Bennetts Lane Melbourne, Victoria
19 mai 2010 20:00 The Vanguard Sydney, New South Wales
20 mai 2010 20:00 The Troubadour Brisbane, Queensland
23 mai 2010 20:00 Bennetts Lane Melbourne, Victoria
26 mai 2010 20:00 The Vanguard Sydney, New South Wales
27 mai 2010 20:00 The Troubadour Brisbane, Queensland
30 mai 2010 20:00 Bennetts Lane Melbourne, Victoria

Australia, bands promotion, Ed Kuepper, Laughing Clowns, special events or news

March 1st 2010 : 5th Anniversary for the blog Meltingpod !!

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I never could imagine March 1st 2005 with launching this blog for publishing my podcasts I will keep it alive during 5 years long…so many moments of true happiness meeting more and more interesting and passionating musicians but so many moments of despair and frustration working hard for free and doing a lot of sacrifices in my private life…many times I thought it will be my last interview or I will find a way to record and edit it faster but until now I never couldn’t change anything to my way of work…so what to say except Happy Birthday to Meltingpod !!! like if it would refer to another entity independant from me but stuck to me…:)


done from the background of a 30 years old poster announcing a show with Laughing Clowns, Birthday Party and Go-Beetweens (thanks to Laughing Clowns site).

By the way a new Live album from Laughing Clowns recorded at The Basement in Sydney last year is available on the PRINCE MELON RECORDS NEW WEBSITE !!! (launched like me March 1st !! Congratulations !!) : you can order it with closed eyes, it’s simply wonderful and the quality is perfect…believe me !! The N°4, 5, and 6 should be released this month…stay connected !

Australia, bands promotion, Ed Kuepper, Laughing Clowns, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Laughing Clowns Live shows with Dirty Three in January 2010 and with The Birthday Party in November 1980 : a nice family story !!

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Laughing Clowns are performing the next days of January 2010 in Australia (21/22th Melbourne, 25th Brisbane, 26th Sydney) with Dirty Three but in the waiting to get some live pics I would like to share with you today a friendly message I got a few weeks ago from an Australian journalist : Adrian Cunningham, who was at a show at The Paris Theatre in Sydney in November 1980 with Laughing Clowns sharing the bill with The Birthday Party (later Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds) and Go-Betweens !!!
Adrian sent me a few live pics he took during that show as well as a very interesting report about that creative family of Australian musicians : an obvious interesting report when you will read such a sentence in his text : « the Clowns were my favourites – and before them the Saints, so Ed is number one living national treasure »…!!!
I invited you (with his agreement) to read now his whole message to me :

« Hi Annie, Your enthusiasm is truly infectious. Yes, the photos (while pretty bad from a technical quality point of view) are pretty interesting historically. The Paris Theatre concert in Sydney is now legendary and I am pretty sure that there was no one else there with a camera that night. Sadly, these four photos are the only ones I took.

 
 
Ed Kuepper – Laughing Clowns; Nick Cave and Tracey Pew (now deceased) – Birthday Party; Ben Wallace-Crabbe (bass – now deceased) and Jeffrey (drums – sporting a very fetching pencil moustache!) – Laughing Clowns; Rowland S Howard (deceased December 30th 2009) and Nick Cave – Birthday Party – Paris Theater November 1980

That concert at The Paris Theatre was the best gig I ever saw and was the Clowns’ last gig as a ‘big band’ with Bob, Dan, Ben and Peter Doyle on trumpet. They were playing with the Birthday Party (their first gig back in Sydney after moving to England) and the Go-Betweens (their first gig in Sydney after moving down from Brisbane). The Go-Betweens were nervous as all get out – I recall Lindy Morrison looking like she wanted to hide behind the curtains at the back of the stage. The Theatre was only half full – unbelievable for such a lineup – I had got there hours early to ensure my ticket and had crept in through the stage door to listen to the soundchecks without anyone noticing. The Birthday Party and the Clowns really respected each other and wanted to impress each other, so both bands soared into the stratoshpere that night… Continuer la lecture de Laughing Clowns Live shows with Dirty Three in January 2010 and with The Birthday Party in November 1980 : a nice family story !! →

Australia, bands promotion, Ed Kuepper, Laughing Clowns, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, phone interview, The Saints

#96 The Laughing Clowns in 2009 Part 2 : Interview with Jeffrey Wegener the drummer who played also with the Saints and the Birthday Party (Nick Cave’s band before the Bad Seeds) !!

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The Laughing Clowns part 2 and a 50 mn long show with Jeffrey Wegener the drummer at last on Meltingpod !! We started when Jeffrey met Chris Bailey and Ed Kuepper at school in the 70’s, his first show with Kid Galahad and the Eternals aka The Saints, the first meeting with Ed back from London to found the Laughing Clowns in 78/79 and then we entered more in the details of the music and his work with Ed.


Ed in Dresden June 2009, Jeffrey at Mt Buller January 2009 (thanks to Justin for this nice pic !)

I played a lot of songs’ excerpts from their 3 albums compilation Cruel But Fair (Lucky Days, Ghost of an Ideal Wife, Holy Joe, Song Of Joy, Time No Hit But Missed) and The Laughing Clowns’ last album recorded Live at GoMa in Brisbane last January and produced by Ed’s own label Prince Melon Records (Bully in the Town, Come One Come All and Eternally yours) !!
The current line-up is : Ed Kuepper (guitar vocals) Jeffrey Wegener (drums) Louise Elliott (sax flute)) Leslie Millar (upright bass) and Alister Spencer (keyboards).


Ed and Jeffrey in Australia 2008 (pic from the greensea); Ed in Dresden with the Bad Seeds 2009

We closed the show with some of Jeffrey’s memories when he played with Nick Cave and his band the Birthday Party in 84 and the last performance at ATP in January 2009 in Australia which reunited the Laughing Clowns, The Saints and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds the same days in Sydney !

Meltingpod Connections :
Happy to be blogged by the famous Australian « Barman » !!

Australia, bands promotion, Ed Kuepper, Laughing Clowns

#94 The Laughing Clowns in 2009 : Interview with Ed Kuepper (part 2) and Eternally yours Live at GoMA in Brisbane Australia (mp3 pro quality !)

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The Laughing Clowns, Ed Kuepper‘s second band after The Saints, reformed last January at All Tomorrow’s parties festival, after a 25 years long break !! In that interview Ed speaks about this exciting experience to play again with Louise Elliott (saxophone) Jeffrey Wegener (drums) Leslie Millar (upright bass); Alister Spencer joined them at the keyboards.


Ed Kuepper and Jeffrey Wegener at GoMA 2009 (Thanks Justin for the pics)

Ed formed that band in Sydney in 1979 and after producing many albums and performing with different line-ups the band spit up in 1984. We spoke about the writing song process and their projects for the future.
I illustrate Ed’s talk with many songs from the compilation « Cruel but Fair » : Diabolic creature, Ghost beat, That’s the way it goes, Stinking to High Heaven, Winter’s way + some surprises like Jeffrey’s and the King of disco’s short appearances !

  
Ed Kuepper, Louise Elliott and Leslie « Biff » Millar (Justin‘s great pics)

I close the show with Eternally yours recorded Live at GoMa (Gallery of Modern Art) in Brisbane after the ATP tour last January in Australia : Ed sent me that special file to play it on Meltingpod, Enjoy !! A Live album and a DVD recorded during that whole performance should be released by Prince Melon Records very soon.
If you’re Australian, don’t miss their next shows : in Melbourne May 1st, in Sydney May 2sd and 3rd !!!