Darren Hanlon

I’m happy it”s xmas. there’s nothing like a good old ritual to bring folks together. This year went past like a comet. I almost had to avert my eyes to see it.

I started playing intimate shows for Christmas a couple of years ago and now it”s also something I look forward to in December. I rarely play completely solo so it feels equally scary and exhilarating to be alone with no band members to blame mistakes on. This year I’ve decided to take it to some other cities round Australia for the first time, in Adelaide, Perth and Hobart.

Some of the shows will allow underage humans in if accompanied by an adult (please check with the venue first) so i encourage you to bring your family.

I know I’ve been threatening to stop playing and have a break from touring now for some time. I feel like a carpet shop that has a closing down sale and then reopens a month later. I can’t help myself. So who know’s, this time i could actually mean it. Need some time to make up new songs.

So hope to see you at a Christmas show near you. If not, at midnight mass…

Wednesday 12th
Mojo”s, Fremantle
$18 on the door

Sunday 16th,
Grace Emily, Adelaide
$15 presale over the bar, $18 on the night

Tuesday 18th
Toff in the Town, Melbourne
with Pikelet
www.myspace.com/
$15 from Corner Hotel, Polyester Records, Missing Link, Metropolis
$18 on the night
(selling fast)

Wednesday 19th
Backspace Theatre, Hobart
with Pikelet
$15 from Theatre Royal box office
$18 on the night

Friday 21st
Clarendon Guesthouse, Katoomba
with Sui Zhen
www.myspace.com/suizhen
$20 show only, $50 with dinner
tickets from the venue at 02 47821322

Saturday 22nd
the Vanguard, Sydney
tickets from the website: www.thevanguard.com.au
(almost sold out)

Sunday 23rd
the Troubadour, Brisbane
With Sue Ray and friends
www.myspace.com/sueray
$15 from the website: www.troubadour.oztix.com.au
$18 on the night

so sorry i had to cancel my show at the Gallipoli Club on this last tour. it”s the first gig i ever had to cancel. lost my voice completely. spent the day moping around with a packet of butter menthols in my pocket, dreaming of the steel city. promise i’ll be back next year….

Firstly i wanted to thank all the lovely people who came to shows over the past few months on the world tour. I had the best time since sliced bread and hope to be back over again next year.

And now it’s time to travel again on native soil. To start off we”re playing some theatre shows with Sarah Blasko and Kristin Hersh in WA and Tasmania. The details for these are at http://www.sarahblasko.com/.

I apologize to all our friends in the Apple Isle, I know we haven’t done our own show down there for a while but i promise it’ll happen sometime before the next blue moon.

Afterwards we’ll though be doing our own shows in familiar places and some new ones too. Traveling for the first time to Geraldton in WA and performing in some 100 year old stone building. Also The Famous Spiegeltent has invited us to play inside it as part of the Melbourne festival. I realize that the ticket prices are a little higher than usual but I’m told that’s the way it goes with old historical tee-pees so i promise we”ll wear the most expensive clothes we have if that helps.

This tour also marks the first ever show proper in my home town of Gympie.
The show in the Heritage Hall at the Gympie Civic center will be the first time i’ve trodden those boards since reciting “the man from snowy river” for the esteiddfod in highschool. Rumor has it my grandmother has started baking already.

Making up the band on this trip will be Portlands own Cory Gray on piano/trumpet and the wonderful Pikelet on drums who’ll also be supporting with her solo act at most shows. Pikelet and i met for the first time in Europe a few months back and did 2 weeks touring together and had an amazing time. I’m so happy to bring her on the road with us here. This will be the first tour in many years without Bree Van Reyk who’s taking time to concentrate on work with Holly Throsby so we wish her the best with that.

So here”s the official spiel:

DARREN HANLON BACK ON THE ROAD IN SPRINGTIME

With the stamp ink still drying in his passport after an adventure around the globe, Darren Hanlon returns home to play a run of shows on his native soil to make sure Australia hasn’t forgotten him. Over the last three months his journey took him to such exotic locales as Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Italy, UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Finland and the USA. Playing to audiences of anywhere between 10 and 1000 in clubs, book shops, cinemas, churches and even the odd living room, Darren regaled people with his songs and confused them with his thick South East Queensland accent.

“I really needed the adventure”, he confesses, “the shows themselves fell in categories from bizarre to joyous or just plain character building.”

It was also a good time to perform with old friends David Dondero, Don Lennon, Leader and Dear Nora as well as share the stage with musical heros Jeffrey Lewis, Kimya Dawson, Deerhoof and Daniel Johnston.

Throughout the European leg of the tour Darren was joined onstage by Melbourne’s angel-voiced, multi-instrumentalist Pikelet. They had so much fun together the partnership will continue for this Australian tour with Pikelet filling in on drum and vocal duties. Pikelet will also double as the support act for most of the dates, which will be very pleasant.

This will be the last chance to catch Darren before he takes a break next year to work on the follow-up to his most excellent record of 2006, Fingertips and Mountaintops.

DATES AND VENUES

Oct 20
Bootenal Family Tavern, Geraldton
Free!

Oct 27
Jade Monkey, Adelaide
Tickets from CIB on 08 8231 0824 or
www.venuetix.com.au or 08 8225 8888

Oct 28 and 29
The Famous Spiegeltent, Melbourne
http://www.spiegeltent.net/index.php?action=productcatalogue&prodcat_id=1771&prod_id=14237&pageID=4633&sectionID=0

Oct 30
ANU Bar, Canberra
Tickets available from Ticketek – 13 28 49 or www.ticketek.com.au and ANU Union (02) 6125 2446

Oct 31
Factory, Sydney
Tickets available from The Factory website, the Factory Box Office phone number on 9550 3666 and also in person at 130 Enmore Road, Newtown. Website:
http://www.factorytheatre.com.au/events/2007/10/31/darren-hanlon

Nov 1
Galipolli Legion Club, Newcastle
Tickets available from the venue on (02) 49612430

Nov 2
The Top Pub – Uralla
Tickets available from the venue and Black Dot Music Armidale

Nov 3
Bon Amici – Toowoomba
Tickets available from the venue on (07) 46324533

Nov 4
Gympie Civic Centre
Tickets available from Gympie CD Centre (07) 5482 2615

Nov 8
The Globe, Brisbane
Ticket available from OzTix on 1300 762 545 or www.oztix.com.au

Nov 9
Riverstone, Bellingen
Tickets at the door, enquiries Riverstone Shop on (02) 66559099

Dates have gone up for the US tour starting in Athens on the 9th of aug. Of course more will be added over time so please keep checking.

(Just letting you know i’ve picked 2 titles out of the huge list i received. Thanks for all the suggestions! stay tuned for the tunes)

So while all this website stuff is getting sorted out i thought i might set
myself an assignment. It’s been a while since i left school and I miss it
sometimes. people are always offering ideas for songs which never works. I
think I write better to song Titles so this is the competition….
please send
any song title ideas you have to slimsings@hotmail.com along with your name and mailing address.

I’ll choose 2 and write songs for them. if i get them done in time i’ll have
them pressed onto vinyl for the next Australian tour coming up later in the
year.

Of course there”ll be a prize and a ”Song Title” writing credit for
your resume.
Not sure what the prize will be but lets just say its value will
be somewhere between a Porsche and an Iced Vovo.

so the European tour has almost begun and i haven’t told anyone about it yet. so….
here goes. i’ll be traveling to Norway and Estonia for some festivals and then making my way to the UK. i”m sorry that i haven”t had time to look for more shows. if anyone has any ideas please email ”slimsings@hotmail.com.” i have my guitar and banjo and will travel. i’m up for an adventure. when i get to London i’ll be meeting up with a great drummer called Pikelet who’ll be playing with me as well as supporting at some shows. so if you’re around please keep checking the dates page as i’ll keep adding to them over the next few weeks. and US tour dates will go up soon too. man, too much information!

HOPE TO SEE YOU!!!!!

JULY

3rd Bergen, Norway, Summerpop at Garage
with Jeff and Jack Lewis
www.garage.no

6th Egersund Folk festival, Norway
www.egersundvisefestival.no

7th Schilling Ilusa Muusika Festival, Kilingi-Nomme, Estonia
www.schilling.pri.ee

10th Riga, Latvia, Club Depo
www.klubsdepo.lv

18th London, UK, Gramaphone
www.thegramaphone.co.uk

22nd Brighton, UK, Joogleberry Theatre Juuksur www.svenskamusikklubben.se
www.joogleberry.com

27th Hamburg, Germany, Gruener Jaeger
www.gruener-jaeger-stpauli.de

AUGUST

1st SVMK@ Debaser, Slussen, Stockholm Sweden
www.svenskamusikklubben.se

3rd St Petersburg, Russia TBC

4th Tallinn, Estonia, Juuksur

5th Helsinki, Finland, TBC

I just had this interview today and the interviewer informed me that it’s impossible to touch your own elbows together. i tried it and i’m sure it worked, at least on the side bits. anyway….

just wanted to tell you that we’ve planned a little trip around this country of ours that someone a long time ago named ‘Terra Australis’ which was then modified to save ink to ‘Australia’. this trip in particular is to celebrate the release of the single Elbows, which if you look at the history of popular radio hits doesn’t really fit the catchy, instant category. for a start it’s over 5 minutes long. i thought about lying like Phil Collins did with ‘something in the air tonight’ but with the advent of digital technology and with it the CD player time counter i didn’t think i’d get away with it. thankfully our friends at triple j and other community stations have seen fit to play it anyway. I’ve heard it described using adjectives such as charming and poignant but i think when you consider that it’s about a drunk person staring at a beautiful actress it’s also a bit creepy.
Anyway, i’ll be joined on this trip as always with Bree Van Reyk on drums. Cory Gray is also visiting again from Portland to lend his old world piano stylings. Simon Wooldridge is taking a break from editing Rolling Stone magazine to play some bass and drink our rider.
so if you’re in the area, this is where we’ll be:
Wed 6th June Brass Monkey, Cronulla
Tickets from www.brassmonkey.com.au or call (02) 95443844
With Laura Jean

Thurs 7th June Gallipoli Legions Club, Newcastle
Tickets from (02) 49612430
With Laura Jean

Fri 8th June – Factory Theatre, Enmore
Tickets from www.moshtix.com.au or call (02) 92094614
With Laura Jean

Sun 10th June – Livespark @ Powerhouse, Brisbane
Tickets from www.brisbanepowerhouse.org or call Powertix (07) 3358 8600 or in person at the Powertix Box Office at the venue
With Special Guests

Wed 13th June – Ruby”s Lounge, Belgrave
Tickets from over the bar, after 5pm Tue – Sun or call (03) 9754 7445 or through Moshtix link through www.rubyslounge.com.au/gigs
With Laura Jean

Thurs 14th June – East Brunswick Club, East Brunswick
Tiickets from www.eastbrunswickclub.com or call (03) 9388 9794
With Laura Jean

Fri 15th June – Jade Monkey, Adelaide
Tickets from (08) 8232 0950
With Laura Jean

Sat 16th June – Mojos, Fremantle
Tickets from the venue or phone (08)9430 4010 or at Galaxy Entertainment, Jumbo, Planet Music and Mills Records www.moshtix.com.au/Outlets.asp
With Laura Jean

Sun 17th June – Mojos, Fremantle
Tickets from the venue or phone (08)9430 4010 or at or at Galaxy Entertainment, Jumbo, Planet Music and Mills Records www.moshtix.com.au/Outlets.asp
With Laura Jean

Fri 22nd June – Heritage Hotel, Bulli
Tickets from the venue or call (02) 4284 5884
With Special guests

Sat 23rd June – Tilleys Divine Cafe, Canberra
Tickets from www.canberraticketing.com.au or call (02) 62752700

Sun 24th June The Lane, Alice Springs
Tickets from the venue or call (08) 8952 5522

Tuesday 26th July -Live at Peko Park, Tennant Creek
With supports Tableland Drifters and Band Nomadic.

Thurs 28th June – Happy Yess, Darwin
Tickets at the door.
With supports The Bionic Hearts

Hope to see you but if not take care,
Darren