News - 27s

JULY 7 2010

As you have probably noticed, there hasn't been a lot of activity on the twentysevens front for a while. This is partly due to the fact we are all living in different cities these days, but also to the fact that we are pretty involved in our new projects. The three of us have been pretty active in Rough Red, playing festivals in Australia and in Scandinavia. Plus Steve and Dave have been particularly busy recording Steve's solo album, and doing acoustic gigs as a duo.

Both these projects are going to keep us busy for a while, with Steve's album due out later this year. After that, we intend to start work on a new Rough Red album. However, we can assure you that the twentysevens do have plans for another project sometime down the track ... just not sure when we'll get to it! In the meantime, to check out our other projects, have a look at www.stevetyson.com.au and www.roughred.com

INSPIRE is a great little intimate bar in Brisbane's West End, at 71 Vulture Street. I'm about half way through recording my solo album, and it is progressing well, so I'll be playing the new songs plus a handful of acoustic versions of twentysevens' songs at the gig. My great mate and longtime sidekick Dave "Mashy" Parnell will be joining me onstage. Mashy is co-producing the new record, and will be playing his new Triple O guitar which be built himself, as well as percussion.

If you are at a loose end on Friday night, drop in and have a drink and a catch-up.

March 1,2010

STEVE TYSON SOLO GIG
Steve is performing an acoustic set at FOCO NUEVO, a world/roots/folk club, held once a month in Brisbane, this Friday night March 5th. The venue for Foco Nuevo is Souths Leagues Club, Davies Park, Cnr Jane St and Montague Rd, West End.
The club is a concept established by Sue Monk and Lachlan Hurse, whose Cuban/folk band Jumping Fences will also be performing. Singer-songwriter Rose Wintergreen-Arthur will be the third act on the night.
Steve will be joined onstage by longtime sidekick Dave Parnell, on percussion and acoustic guitar, and they will be playing new songs from Steve’s forthcoming solo album. Gig time is 8pm.
For more information about the gig and Foco Nuevo, have a look at www.foconuevo.org.au

JANUARY 19, 2010

GREETINGS from TWENTYSEVENS & ROUGH RED
Welcome to the New Year, and our first newsletter for 2010. We – as in Rough Red – are just back from playing the Illawarra Folk Festival over the past few days, where we had a great return to the festival circuit. Three good shows, great audiences, and much catching up with old friends.
We have three very different gigs coming up over the next few weeks....

AUSTRALIA DAY, Tuesday January 26th
Rough Red plays at this celebration of Australia Day, at the “Aussie Arvo”, Pine Rivers Park, on Gympie Rd, Strathpine, just north of Brisbane. The Reds will be onstage for a set at 5.50pm.

STEVE TYSON SOLO GIG, Friday February 19th
Steve continues to do a handful of solo acoustic shows, playing mainly new songs from the solo album he is in the process of recording. The venue is Inspire Gallery & Bar, a great new little intimate club, at 71 Vulture St, West End, in Brisbane, kicking off at 7.30pm. “Solo” is not strictly true – Steve will be joined onstage by long-time sidekick, Dave “Mash” Parnell playing percussion and acoustic guitar.

TWENTYSEVENS and friends, Saturday February 20th
Steve straps the electric back on, and joins JB and Mashy for the first twentysevens gig for the year, back at the Music Kafe, 185 Boundary St, West End. The band will be onstage at 10pm, preceded by our good friends Cutting Water at 7pm, and Acme Tune Co at 8pm.

December 4th 2009

ROUGH RED at the Illawarra Folk FestivalRough 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 www.illawarrafolkclub.org.au Rough 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.

Twentysevens and friends return to The Music Kafe in Brisbane’s West End, on Saturday November 21st.

Cutting Water, a new act featuring Ian (Sal) Shawsmith on guitar and talented singer/guitarist Dave Young, make their debut at 7pm.

Our good friends Acme Tune Co, featuring one of finest voices in the country in Michael Hoad, will follow with a couple of sets at 8pm.

Twentysevens will be on stage at 10pm – at that time of night, the band will be in a “let’s party” frame of mind, ready to deliver a few sets of hard-edged blues and roots.

The Music Kafe is located in the heart of the music/bar precinct of West End, at 158 Boundary Street. We hope you can make it down.

When twentysevens returned to Australia after the Status Quo tour, a review in the UK of the band’s first two records, said the following ….

“ twentysevens are happy to brew up some mid-paced boogie, and they do it very well. But then they also credit a turntablist, indulge in some politicising, ask questions of God, and stir up a funk worthy of the finer jam bands…… one part Widespread Panic, one part Santana, one part Stephen Stills … at times, they even conjure up memories of the late, lamented Tea Party.”

On Sunday afternoon November 1st, the band plays a new venue, Lock’n’Load, located in cosmopolitan West End, their favourite part of Brisbane. Lock’n’Load is a venue that is more groove than rock, and at this gig, the band will re-explore some of those elements that the UK reviewer saw in their earlier songs.

Most certainly, twentysevens will be in a “jam” frame of mind, and you may just see a side of their music you haven’t witnessed before. There will certainly be some tunes you haven’t heard for a while.

Lock’n’Load is a very cool vibe on a Sunday. Gig time is 3pm to 6pm, and the address is 142 Boundary St, West End. Hope to see you there..

JULY 13th 2009

ROUGH RED’s TRIUMPHANT RETURN : NEXT SHOW ANNOUNCED WITH TWENTYSEVENS

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 --- the original folk-rock group which includes twentysevens’ members Steve Tyson, John Barr and Dave Parnell --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 will be on stage for a few sets.
So we hope you can make it along to this second Rough Red, twentysevens, and friends extravaganza on SATURDAY JULY 18, at THE MUSIC KAFE, 185 BOUNDARY ST, WEST END, BRISBANE.

MAY 26th 2009

As you may know from reading our bio or viewing the “Keeping Up With the Quo” documentary, Steve Tyson, John Barr and Dave Parnell from the twentysevens played together for over a decade in a band called ROUGH RED.
Well, 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, 185 Boundary St, West End, Brisbane.
As well as the lads from the twentysevens, Rough Red includes one of Australia’s great story-telling frontmen in John Fegan, and accordion player Peter Harvey, a hugely talented songwriter in his own right. It was this great combination of talent that propelled the Reds onto the European festival circuit during their hey-day.
The show kicks off at 4pm, with special guests The Acme Tune Company – featuring one of Brisbane’s finest singers Michael Hoad, guitarist Ian Shawsmith, and twentysevens/Rough Red’s Dave Parnell moonlighting on drums.
Rough Red will hit the stage after that, around 6pm, 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, on stage around 8.30.
Check out HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/user/roughredmusic" www.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.
The Reds look forward to catching up with many old friends at their first gig in many years, and the twentysevens hope to see you there also.
By the way, if you are so inclined, besides finding out about what the twentysevens are up to via their official web site http://www.twentysevens.com, you can also check out our myspace site at http://www.myspace.com/twentysevensmusic and become one of our “friends”.
Hope to see you on Sunday June 21.

April 7 2009
TWENTYSEVENS at THE JOYNT

twentysevens continue their return to the live circuit with a gig at one of Brisbane’s premier roots music venues, The Joynt, 48 Montague Rd South Brisbane, on Sunday May 24th.
The venue was the scene of twentysevens’ CD/DVD launch late last year, and the lads are happy to be gracing the stage there again. If you missed the show at The Music Kafe last week, we kicked some serious arse. It was very obvious, apparently, that we were ecstatic about being on stage again.
The Joynt gig will be a late afternoon / early evening time slot, with a 4pm kick-off.
For those of you who are locals, we hope to see you there. For those of you we have met in the UK, Germany, Norway or wherever else we have been, well ...... airfares are pretty cheap at the moment!

March 26, 2009
TWENTYSEVENS at THE MUSIC KAFE

After a six month break, twentysevens return to the scene of their early regular gig, The Music Kafe (formerly Satchmo’s) on Saturday 4th April.

Steve has been living in Paris sitting in cafes writing songs, JB has been moving into a new abode, and Mashy has been moonlighting in The Acme Tune Company, so they collectively thought it was time to get back to business and get the show on the road again. After all, you can only re-charge your batteries for so long.

The Music Kafe is at 185 Boundary St, West End, Brisbane, and gig time is 8.30. twentysevens will be playing the whole night – none of this easing back into stuff – nothing like a 4 hour gig to blow out the cobwebs.

JANUARY 5th 2009

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our friends. We hope the dreaded GFC hasn’t affected you too much, and we hope you remain healthy, happy and wise during 2009.
Thank you to all of you who bought the SEX POLITICS & RELIGION album and DVD – we hope you are enjoying it.

twentysevens is taking a bit of a break from gigging at the moment as we deal with a few collective family health issues, but we are already thinking about new projects. After a bit of a dry spell, some new songs are starting to flow, so we will be certain to be spending some time in the studio in the near future.

In the meantime, if you are looking for something new to listen to, we can recommend two solo albums from our good friends and former Rough Red bandmates John Fegan and Peter Harvey.

Both of these albums are available on the Red Music label (through MGM in Australia) or via the web site www.roughred.com (go to the Red Music section).

Red Music is proud to announce the Australian release of the new album from twentysevens, SEX POLITICS & RELIGION. The package will also include the long awaited documentary KEEPING (UP WITH) THE STATUS QUO, which the band filmed whilst on tour with the Brit rock legends on their 31 date 2006 UK Winter Tour.
twentysevens will launch the album and doco at gigs in Melbourne and Byron Bay during October. More Australian tour dates will be announced soon.
The CD/DVD is available online now, and can also be found in most good record shops in Australia.

twentysevens brand new record SEX POLITICS and RELIGION is now available online. The album contains 14 new tracks, all new originals plus a very different version of Status Quo’s first ever hit “Pictures of Matchstick Men”

Says the band about the album….
“.. this record was a joy to make. We are now a band who has been out there playing for a few years, and we have found out what sort of band we want to be. As we have always said, the direction will always come from the songs, and we never set out to write a song saying it has to sound like a certain thing. But just naturally from playing gigs, the electric guitar has come to the forefront, and the acoustic has taken a back seat. We are, quite simply, a rock and roll band. The groove thing is still a big part of how we play, and that is very evident on this record. Our lifetime influences are still evident, and we do venture into some lo-fi territory, but that is simply a reflection of whatever works for the song. Lyrically we still make a few comments on things we feel strongly about, but we are probably having a bit more fun in that area as well.”

The album will be available at gigs on the UK / Europe tour, and online now. It will be released in Australia in October.

APRIL 29 2008

twentysevens is excited to announce details of the band’s “Sex Politics & Religion” UK, Germany & Norway Summer Tour.
The tour kicks off in London on June 26, and includes 5 dates in the UK, including the legendary Cavern Club in Liverpool on July 3.
Then the band heads across for 4 dates in Germany, followed by gigs in Norway. Check out the GIG section for the full tour schedule.
The tour is dubbed the “SEX POLITICS & RELIGION” tour, in support of twentysevens’ new album, which will be initially available online from mid June and of course at gigs on the tour. The album will be released in Australia in September.

Aussie rock act twentysevens so impressed Status Quo when they played together down under that the veteran British band personally invited them to support them on their UK Winter tour. Now twentysevens are back with their own headline UK dates – as true fans of the British scene they could not resist playing The Cavern - and a new album “Sex, Politics & Religion”. Later in the year the band will release a DVD documentary about their time on the road with Britain’s favourite band.

“Sex, Politics & Religion” contains includes 13 new originals, plus - after being inspired watching Quo 31 times on the 06 tour! - they do a very different version of “Pictures of Matchstick Men”.The album has been described as “full of hard-edged blues & groove flavours”, and will be available at the live shows and also at www.twentysevens.com from 16 June. The DVD about life with Quo is coming soon and is certain to be of huge interest to Quo fans, not least because most of them seem to be in the film!

Thursday June 26 :
The Dublin Castle,
94 Parkway Camden, 0207 485 1773, from £5

Saturday June 28
The Retreat,
42 Church St Bocking, Braintree www.theretreatbocking.co.uk , 01376 554923, £10

Tuesday July 1
The Brook
Portswood Rd, Portswood, Southampton www.the-brook.com, 023 80555366

twentysevens’ diverse and eclectic style is formed from a fusion of blues, funky jazz, and flourishes from a variety of stringed instruments and rock guitars. The band is made up of guitarist Steve Tyson, bassist John Barr, and drummer Dave Parnell. Guided by a host of influences but treading a path of their own, the band’s name alludes to rock icons like Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Jeff Buckley who all died at the age of 27.

After being shown the ropes by Quo last time around, this time twentysevens are on their own – come and join them!

For information or to request interviews contact Chris Hewlett at Fifth Element on 0207 372 2128 or chris@fifthelement.biz

12 March 2008

twentysevens are currently working away on two projects.
They have been in and out of the studio in recent weeks, in between local gigs, recording their new album. Beds for 15 or so tracks are down, and the lads are aiming to have the record finished by mid-year. Guitarist Steve Tyson reports that the album “is by far the most cohesive bunch of songs we’ve written. Whilst it generally rocks, there are some lo-fi things that have emerged as well”. The record will include about six tracks that the band has been playing live in recent months, plus several new pieces that have come about in the studio.

The second project is the completion of the long-awaited documentary that the band shot whilst on tour with Status Quo on the 2006 UK Winter tour. The doco is having final bits and pieces added by film-maker Matthew Parnell, and the band is waiting on approval from Quo’s management. It is a fascinating insight into how a virtually unknown band from Australia were invited to tour with one of the biggest bands in the world, and plugged into the Quo touring machine. Twentysevens are hopeful that the documentary will be available for release by the mid-year also.

NEW twentysevens EP “DIPLOMATIC”

twentysevens has just returned from a 6 week tour of the UK, supporting rock legends STATUS QUO. The band got to open for Quo in famous venues such as Wembley Arena, Manchester MEN, Birmingham NEC, and the Cambridge Corn Exchange, just to mention a few (check out TOUR SUMMARY)
twentysevens produced a special edition EP for the tour, which is now available in Australia on the Red Music label, distributed by MGM, or right here via our STORE. The new EP, entitled “Diplomatic”, includes two versions of the band’s single “Dancing Like a Diplomat” (from last year’s debut album “Songs From The Middle Ages”) as well as 6 new tracks. This track, an anthemic, tongue-in-cheek pseudo rap with a satirical view of the world’s problems, has enjoyed extensive airplay around the country, and was a favourite with the UK crowds. The six new songs – an eclectic mix of guitar-driven grunge meets blues meets groove --reflect a tougher approach from the band, a product of gigging extensively throughout the east coast in 2006, including support slots for FOREIGNER on their Australian tour, and STATUS QUO on the Gold Coast (where the seeds were sown for the UK support offer).
Check out the GUESTBOOK to read first hand reaction to the band’s performances on the Quo tour.

May 29 2006

twentysevens to tour UK as support for STATUS QUO
twentysevens has been invited by legendary British rock group Status Quo to be their special guests for their UK tour later this year. The 30 date tour kicks off mid November in Cambridge, and finishes at the Bournemouth BIC on December 23rd.
The tour covers the length of breadth of the UK, including Scotland and Wales, with shows at some of the world’s best venues, including Wembley Arena and Manchester Arena.
STATUS QUO invited twentysevens to join them on the tour following the band’s support gig at Twin Towns a few weeks ago. Needless to say, the lads are ecstatic at being offered the opportunity to tour with one of the world’s most famous bands, in their biggest market.

11th March 2006

twentysevens score support gig for Status Quo

Fresh on the back of being added as opening act for the Australian tour of Foreigner and The Choirboys, twentysevens has also scored the support gig for true rock and roll legends Status Quo at Twin Towns, on the Tweed Coast.
Status Quo is touring Australia with Deep Purple during late April/early May, but will be performing a one-off concert on their own on Saturday May 6th at Twin Towns, now with twentysevens as the support act.

3rd March 2006

twentysevens announced as support for FOREIGNER Australian tour
The band has just been announced as the opening act for the forthcoming tour of Australia by legendary rock band FOREIGNER, and Australian favourites The Choirboys.
Foreigner are playing two concerts in Melbourne and Sydney only. The Melbourne show is at the Palais Theatre is on Wednesday 17th May, followed by Sydney on Friday 19th May at the State Theatre.
The twentysevens lads are obviously pretty happy about doing a support slot for an international act in Australia’s biggest cities tour and getting the opportunity to perform before thousands of punters. Interest in the band’s debut album “Songs From the Middle Ages” has been strong to date, and the band is looking forward to showcasing some of the songs from the record to new audiences.
Tickets for the Foreigner tour go on sale on Monday 6th March.