The Whitlams Black Stump Band to bring country to Queenscliff

FRONTED by ARIA award winning artist Tim Freedman, The Whitlams Black Stump Band will roll their way into the Borough for a very special show at the Queenscliff Town Hall next weekend.

The Whitlams’ alt-country offshoot show on August 13, will bring original members Tim Freedman and drummer Terepai Richmond together with an A-team of country musicians that hold 55 Gold Guitars and 10 ARIAs between them.

The new lineup is will include CMAA Producers of the Year – Rod McCormack and Matt Fell as well as Ollie Thorpe who will be on pedal steel to give the band a full country twang.

Freedman is very excited to be bringing the tour down to Victoria and heading to Queenscliff for what will be the second last show of their East Coast Tour after three weeks on the road.

“We are very excited for the beautiful drive down to Queenscliff and can’t wait to play our show at the Town Hall,” Freedman said.

“We have played the Queenscliff Music Festival a couple of times down here and love the area.

“It’ll be our second show in a town hall, and we really love that community and close feeling of that environment, especially for what will be a country sort of spin show.

“We will be rolling into town with three weeks of touring under our belt so we hope we are going to sound like a well-oiled machine by then.

“The band becomes a shining beast, and usually by the third gig, let alone the third week of touring, the band becomes a completely different entity entirely.”

Freedman hatched the idea of doing a country tour whilst completing a regional solo tour in 2021 when he was enlivened by the enthusiasm of audiences in country towns as they emerged from lockdown.

“We are pumped to throw some country swing on some of our old tunes that we have remastered and redesigned,” Freedman said.

“It will oscillate from a campfire banjo version style to rollicking country rock towards the end of the show.”

“I think it’ll be a great cultural experience for all involved.”

The exciting new line up are set to reconstruct The Whitlams’ staples like ‘No Aphrodisiac’, ‘Blow Up the Pokies’ and ‘You Sound Like Louis Burdett’, playing some new originals, while also putting out a batch of surprising Americana from Neil Young to Lyle Lovett to Tom Petty.

The band’s latest single ‘The Day John Sattler Broke His Jaw’ will be a major focus of the Queenscliff show, detailing one of the greatest stories in rugby league when South Sydney’s captain John Sattler had his jaw broken in the third minute of the 1970 Grand Final, and famously told a teammate, “Hold me up, so they don’t know I’m hurt.”

On August 13, the band are set to be joined by special guests in 2022 Golden Guitar nominated artists Felicity Urquhart and Josh Cunningham.

Tickets are now on sale for the show and are selling fast.

Tickets are available at www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=891946&