November 2009

ROUGH RED NEWSLETTER

Rough Red makes its return to the Australian festival circuit, with the band confirmed to play the Illawarra Folk Festival, on January 14 to 17, 2010. We will put more details on the web site as soon as our playing times are confirmed.
Steve Tyson is playing a solo set, featuring songs from his debut solo album which he is currently recording, at Brisbane Unplugged at the Muddy Farmer Hotel, cnr Annerley and Ipswich Rds, Annerley in Brisbane, on Thursday December 3rd. Steve will be on stage at 8pm.

 

JULY 1st 2009


ROUGH RED’s TRIUMPHANT RETURN : NEXT SHOW ANNOUNCED

The first Rough Red gig in almost seven years, at The Music Kafe in West End, Brisbane a couple of weeks ago, was an absolute blast. The band was in seriously good form, and it was if they had never stopped performing. A great crowd enjoyed two sets from the rejuvenated Reds, who wheeled out all the old favourites including radio hits “Long Train Running” and “Living in Australia”, and put a new spin on a few old songs.

So we are pleased to announce the next show, back at The Music Kafe, on Saturday July 18.

The show will kick off at 6pm, with an acoustic set featuring solo performances from three of the Reds – John Fegan, Peter Harvey, and Steve Tyson. John will perform a few songs from his solo record “Fox Tales” which has been receiving solid support for the past twelve months. Peter Harvey has recently released his first solo album “Shanghai Ply” which has been getting airplay in Melbourne and Sydney, and he will perform a few songs from that record.
Steve Tyson is currently in the studio making his first solo album, so the first set will conclude with a handful of new songs from that project.

Rough Red will take the stage at around 7.15pm, and will play a couple of sets.
At around 9.30, twentysevens – the blues/roots trio featuring Steve, plus bass player John (JB) Barr and Dave (Mashy) Parnell, both from Rough Red—will be on stage for a few sets.

So we hope you can make it along to this second Rough Red and friends extravaganza on SATURDAY JULY 18, at THE MUSIC KAFE, 185 BOUNDARY ST, WEST END, BRISBANE.

 

11 May 2009

The Reds are back!

One of Australia’s favourite folk-rock bands from the 90’s and early 2000’s, Rough Red is reforming after a seven year hiatus to play some select shows.
The band’s first show will be on Sunday June 21st at The Music Kafe in West End, Brisbane. Start time will be 4pm, and the show will kick off with The Acme Tune Co, which features our good friends Ian Shawsmith on guitar, one of Brisbane's finest vocalists Michael Hoad, and Dave Parnell from Rough Red moonlighting on drums. Rough Red will hit the stage after that, and the band will be in a take-no-prisoners mood after being absent from the live circuit for so long!

The night will finish up with a couple of sets from twentysevens, the blues/roots trio featuring Reds' members Steve Tyson, John (JB) Barr and, in his third stint for the day, Dave (Mash) Parnell. Approximate show times will be 4pm Acme Tune Co, 6pm Rough Red, 8.30pm twentysevens.
Check out youtube.com/user/roughredmusic to see film clips of Rough Red’s five radio hits in Australia, songs that also took the band to festival performances in Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, France, Ireland, Switzerland, France, Estonia, and Holland during their hey-day.

The Reds look forward to catching up with many old friends at their first gig.

 

24th October 2007

Since Rough Red laid down their arms after a screamer of a European Tour that ended in Neuremberg Square in front of 20,000 people, Fegan was without a gig. No longer could he content himself with driving the women of foreign countries into a sexual frenzy with his Barry Manilow moves and artfully hidden cucumber, he had to actually learn to be a musician or find himself a team at the Booradabin Bowls Club. So two years of intensive guitar tuition with Simon Gardner and a boxful of introspective songs later; he’s back. The songs are stories from adventures on the road, never one to accept crappy pop song lyrics and one reasonable hook repeated over and over again to appease the drunk’s chorus in karaoke clubs, they are slices of life, probably poems if the truth be known. Some are dark and inward looking, some plaintive, grainy studies of man’s darker side and many just observances of people’s reactions to interesting times; I even get to say things to my father I couldn’t have said when he was among us. There are places of dark beauty and moments of spectacular colour; the ‘wolf note’ on Danielle’s 1780 cello, the manic gypsy abandon of Dave Lee’s violin, Lee Matthew’s sliding double bass, Tyso’s masterful grungy guitar, Sammy and Michael’s amazing backing vocals, Sal’s guidance, JB and Harv’s little dashes of inspiration and the masterful manipulation of Napoleon Mascha on the knob thingies. Like a gigantic Christmas cake made from an old recipe by a committee of master chef’s it is a layered panoply of talents and interpretations whose proof is in the listening. When you find yourself surrounded by such inspiration it is difficult not to push yourself and turn out something you believe is worthwhile but then again you’ll be the best judge of that.

www.foxtrax.com.au