We are very excited to announce we are performing at the National Folk Festival, held over the Easter weekend in Canberra. The National is Australia's premier folk festival, and we are delighted to be back there next April.

We have a new section here on the web site, John Fegan's blog, where the Reds frontman will write in his unique style interesting stories and events that we have encountered in our many travels. The first blog is a fascinating story about Harry's Farm, the topic of one of our much-loved songs. Enjoy ...

Hey folks, the band is running the gauntlet with Qantas again this week, going down to play the Music At The Creek Festival, at Major's Creek, near Braidwood, about an hour and a half from Canberra. The festival runs from Friday 11 November to Sunday 13 November. From all reports, it's a great festival in a beautiful setting. Unfortunately, drummer Dave Parnell can't make it, so we have asked our good friend and outstanding Canberra-based musician Trev Dunham to sit in with us. The Reds will play three sets, opening proceedings on Friday night, playing the party set om Saturday night, and then again on Sunday afternoon. Steve Tyson is also playing a solo show in the Church on Saturday early evening. More details are at www.musicatthecreek.com

Hi folks, the band heads off tomorrow morning (Qantas permitting) to play the Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival, a few hours outside of Sydney. The Reds will be performing four shows over the three days of the festival, a couple of afternoon sets where we will get in a bit of story-telling and play some laid-back stuff, and a couple of late night party sets. More details at www.kangaroovalleyfolkfestival.com.au

Hi folks, we are really pleased to be able to tell you that the entire Red Music catalogue is now available on i tunes. So you can now download songs from Steve Tyson's solo album TEMPLE DOG, John Fegan's solo album FOXTALES, Peter Harvey's solo album SHANGHAI PLY, or any song from the ROUGH RED albums, or anything from the TWENTYSEVENS records. As you would know, you can download entire albums, or you can just buy individual songs. Happy shopping..!

Hi folks, well the Reds are going through a comparatively busy phase. The gig at the BUg last week in Brisbane was the first time the band has played together in its full line-up in Brisbane for two years. It was a fun night at a great venue. The band is back in action this coming Sunday August 7th, at the Redlands Folk Club, in Capalaba. The folk club is a terrfific concert venue, and kicks off at 2pm with some blackboard sets, before Rough Red takes the stage at 4pm. This will be a stripped back acoustic show, featuring four of the Reds -- John Fegan, Peter Harvey, Dave Parnell, and Steve Tyson. Hope you can make it down to Redlands for this one.
Then on Friday September 2, we will be doing another show in the acoustic 4-piece format, at the Shorncliffe Yacht Club, on Brisbane's northside. The night will also feature some short solo sets from the solo albums of John Fegan, Peter Harvey, and Steve Tyson (with Dave Parnell), before the Reds take to the stage.Coming up in October, the band will be playing at the Kangaroo Valley Folk Festuval in NSW. More on that later .....

ROUGH RED at the Illawarra Folk Festival Rough Red will be performing at the Illawarra Folk Festival, which is held from January 14th through to 17th 2010, at the Bulli Showgrounds, Slacky Flat. Illawarra is a couple of hours south of Sydney, and this is one of Australia's great folk festivals. The Reds are very happy to be back on the Australian festival circuit.
The band will be playing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, go to the GIG section for full details, or go to the festival web site HYPERLINK "http://www.illawarrafolkclub.org.au" www.illawarrafolkclub.org.auRough Red will also be playing a show on Australia Day back in Queensland, at the Pine Rivers Aussie Arvo, Pine Rivers Park, Strathpine. The date, of course, is January 26, and the band will be onstage at 5.30pm.As this will be the last newsletter from Rough Red and the twentysevens for 2009, we would like to wish all our friends a Merry Christmas and safe, prosperous new year.

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

twentysevens is the new band featuring former Rough Red members guitarist Steve Tyson, bass player John Barr, and drummer Dave Parnell. The three piece has just released its debut album SONGS FROM THE MIDDLE AGES, on the Red Music label. The album marks a clear change in musical direction for the guys, with early reports from the band's first few gigs describing the new songs as groove-based roots music?.

Recorded in Steve's Red Engine studio, SONGS FROM THE MIDDLE AGES features 13 new original songs written by all three members, plus a couple of interesting covers. twentysevens is now gigging in and around the Brisbane area, before formally launching the album in the near future. You can hear samples of tracks from the record (and buy it, of course!) in the STORE section. For more information about the band, upcoming gigs etc, have a look at www.twentysevens.com In other news, Reds front man John Fegan has entered Red Engine Studio to record his debut solo album, which all the members of Rough Red will contribute to over the next few months. In the meantime, twentysevens look forward to seeing you at a gig sometime soon. 19 October 2005 As you are probably aware, Rough Red has been in hiatus for the past year. After almost ten years of gigs, tours and albums together, the individual members have been working on different projects.

Steve Tyson, John Barr and Dave Parnell have been writing many new and different songs together, working and creating in Steve's new studio, and are poised to release a brand new album as a brand new 3 piece band very soon. Keep your eye on the web site for details. Lead singer John Fegan has been working on a solo act, refining his great art of story-telling, and is about to go into Steve's studio to record some new songs and release a solo record in the not-too-distant future.

Peter Harvey continues to write great songs, and his backlog of material will undoubtedly see him coming up with a new project soon. As always, we appreciate your interest in all things Rough Red, and we hope to see you at a gig for one of our new projects soon