The Spookies, Australia’s weird and wonderful black-clad choristers have embarked on another biennial blast round Britain.
Following triumphant UK tours in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015, they have whisked themselves away from the eucalyptus-infused Blue Mountains for a whistle-stop run of nearly 30 performances in England, Scotland and Wales – a veritable bounty of big summer festivals, wondrous workshops, and even a top secret Mystery Gig!
Opening at Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre, there will be first time appearances at WOMAD, Ely Folk Festival and London’s King’s Place, welcome returns to Warwick, Wickham and Sidmouth festivals and performances at iconic venues including Liverpool Philharmonic, Sage, Gateshead and Cardiff’s St David’s Hall. The tour initiates for the 7th of July to the end of August and their famous “open to all” workshops will be on offer at Bury Met, WOMAD, Theatre Royal, Margate, Wickham and Sidmouth Festivals.
Compellingly comic they may be but make no mistake, this is a finely-honed class act. Not only can they sing like angels; they also maintain an unflinching, side-splitting grandeur amidst the mayhem.
“Do see them live – it all makes perfect sense then …or does it?! Certainly once seen they are never forgotten! Beautiful singing; very sharp and witty lyrics.”
- Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2
Hotfoot from their most ambitious Australian tour to date, the mighty 15-strong line-up’s UK show will run the bizarre gamut of surfing, gluttony, tools, mastodons, Bee Gees, body parts and how to scare off hostile neighbouring tribes – songs from their album The Spooky Man in History and the back catalogue but also from their snug latest CD Warm - an unadulterated album of shiver-down-the-spine Georgian songs.
In their 17 th year and with five studio albums to their name this is an act that totally warrants the term ‘unique’. Describing themselves as “equal parts monk, Visigoth and village idiot” they are not afraid to send up the stereotypical male to side-splitting effect.
The Spookies were formed by Melbourne-based Taberner in Sydney in 2001 and could rightly be said to have almost singlehandedly redefined the world of men’s singing. With a sound variously described as “sexy, powerful, impossibly gentle and sad but unmistakably male” their repertoire ranges from Georgian drinking songs to whisper perfect ballads and a string of improbable original hits like Don’t Stand Between a Man and his Tool and Stop Scratching It. Spooky veterans know well their hilarious, elephantine retreatments of classics like Earth, Wind & Fire’s Boogie Wonderland and the funniest version of Abba’s Dancing Queen you are likely to witness.
“A tsunami of Georgian male voice polyphony” - The Scotsman
For further details visit the spooky men website
