Memories of Lonely Planet's Last Blastoff Charity Gig July 1, 2011

Flip Video is never going to give you a rock event experience- the picture is impossibly grainy, it is hand held and shaky, and the sound is awful - with a bizarre bias to recording the laughter and clinking glasses around you over the 100dB+ of stage generated music.

It is really just to give you a glimpse of the ghost of a concert past, something to excite the synapses of your own memory and fire them off. Or to imagine the possibilities.

Photographs are much better records from this type of event - here you get the artist telling a story, seeing things that others didn't, and enabling anyone to hear those stories (in the ultimate of ironies) with their eyes and imagination, even though it is primarily a story of deafening walls of sound.

Luckily photographs can be deafening to your senses as well.

Share them round!

Update on gig: Speed Orange and Slabotomy raised over $2800 for the Peter Mac Foundation in memory of our friend and colleague Richard Samson. A record 300 people were at the charity gig, filling the John Curtin Bandroom to the brim.

The Flip video collection:

Walk this Way: http://youtu.be/0W-v2dmEYCA

Hate to Say I told you So: http://youtu.be/_3Pp-zn1vV8

Debaser: http://youtu.be/IPRxCXvGHmc

All these things that I have done: http://youtu.be/bnQmhviok38

Sweet Dreams & 7 Nations: http://youtu.be/FOP5ZWV0F_Y

The Writings on the Wall: http://youtu.be/lojAw5wFTE4

Bad Romance: http://youtu.be/jPTyOo9jSpk

Proud Mary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clbjOdFFfXk

Paranoid: http://youtu.be/HbwKONhshos

My hero: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoOYXKAhQ8s

Zombie: http://youtu.be/i6LDi04lWl8


Mark Broadhead's Photographs are here on Facebook.


James Pierce's Magic Leica Photographs:

Lonely Planet Band - This Lovely Planet Gig, July 1, 2011

When you live in Melbourne, Winter brings cold mornings, long nights and an infinite amount of AFL football on your TV screen. But it brings good things too - and the annual Winter Charity gig for the Lonely Planet band and friends Speed Orange is a very good thing.

This season our charity is the Peter Mac Cancer Research foundation - in honour of their care for our friend and colleague Richard Samson, a tireless band supporter who lost his battle with cancer early in 2011. There'll be a little bit of Pixies just for him.

We'll also be saying goodbye to some long-time band members who have left the company amidst the move of our website business to London:

Vivek Wagle, Website editor, the former band manager, a lead guitarist, arranger and singer of punk and power-rock alike is heading back the USA with the band member he married Janet B.A small part of Vivek will remain with us in Australia, as he has left his beautiful 1984 BC Rich Mockingbird in mine and Noah's care.

Dave Burnett, singer and guitarist, unequalled fan of the Beatles and all things British in music is seeking new shores in Melbourne to practise his content technology wizardry. His heartfelt version of London Calling when the BBCW bought us is still talked about today.

Songstress Katie Marcar (my favourite was her brilliant job on The Grates 19-20-20) is going to practice her web-mastery somewhere in Melbourne. Her harmonies are going to be missed, but she has whipped up some magic to go out on.

Tony Jackson, lead singer, composer and musician for both Lonely Planet TV and his amazing band Speed Orange will be practising his creative crafts in Australia somewhere - Melbourne hopes to keep him!

Ryan Sweeney, who regularly opened for Slabotomy with his band Roostar will be missed by LP and the Slabotomy crew for his powerful lyrics, great guitar riffs and that harmonica.



Maureen Wheeler, our patron and founder of the original LP band has of course gone beyond the Lonely Planet - we missed the chance to honour her and Tony when they sold their shares, so this gig is for them too. A little something special to toast them is planned (clue: see the gig name).

And of course, I'm taking my Stratocaster and busking for work somewhere in Melbourne too.

Slabotomy, as the outworking of a very creative community of musicians at Lonely Planet, has a special Dr Who quality, in that it has regenerated many times over the last 2 decades, but this is definitely the last show with this lineup.

Expect fireworks. 4 sets from 8pm to midnight.

That amazing poster is the work of David, Bruce, Will and the team at R+R in New Zealand, who have once again given their genius to our cause and made something extra special for the last blast-off gig.