AUSSIE COMEDY GREATS UNITE FOR PRETTY SONGS SUNG BY HILARIOUS MEN

Steven Gates met Paul McDermott 20 years ago at the 1999 ARIA Awards. Paul (Doug Anthony All Stars) was hosting the event alongside Bob Downe, while Steven was entertaining the audience heavyweights with his band Tripod during the ad-breaks.

The self-described “music nerd”, better known as ‘Gatesy’, says although it was the worst gig he’s ever done, it’s the night he was first acquainted with Paul.

“We (Tripod) were quite new at the time. We were very young, very green, and we were invited to entertain the music industry to essentially keep the vibe alive,” says Gatesy.

“We were filming live to tape… it was hell – the worst gig we can say we ever did.”

Having both performed as part of comedic trios, Gatesy and Paul developed a solid friendship long before deciding to take the stage as a duo.

“It was only five years ago we talked about singing together. A friend of ours was putting together the Ballarat Cabaret Festival. She wanted this show for the festival, so we used the songs we had up our sleeve to make it happen,” says Gatesy.

A one-off gig in 2017 saw the pair go on to entertain sold out crowds at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Despite being completely unalike to one another, Gatesy says he and Paul share a yin and yang kind of partnership.

“It’s kind of hard. He (Paul) lives in Sydney, I live in Melbourne. We put songs together over Skype and send each other recordings and tapes. In the rare moments we are together, we lock things down,” says Gatesy.

“We’ve really come to terms with each other in how we work. The interesting thing about a duo is if you disagree, you don’t have that third member to vote something in – it’s really fascinating.

“I love the dynamic Tripod have created over the last 23 years; that’s kind of home, but it’s nice to have a little fling… a little love affair with Paul.”

Gatesy and Paul’s inaugural show, Go Solo, will form part of their act at this year’s Queenscliff Music Festival.

The duo recently released a single titled ‘Stone Crows’ under their new recording name, Bloody Lovelies.

Stone Crows is a poignant ballad that pays homage to Gatesy and Paul’s mutual friend Nerija Zemkalnis who died in 2008.

“It’s (QMF show) going to be bits and pieces of everything really. I like a lot of the moments in the Go Solo show. We’ve only got an hour in Queenscliff and about 20 pieces we can put together depending on how we feel. There’s still more to come. Paul’s constantly generating songs,” he says.

Catch Paul McDermott and Gatesy at this year’s QMF (November 22-24). For more information, visit qmf.net.au.