John Lennon - 'Working Class Hero' Cover Version

Anyone that has seen us play live in the last couple of years will know we often play a cover of 'Working Class Hero' by John Lennon.

To mark what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday, we have decided to upload our version of this song for this weekend only. This version was recorded live at our album launch show at The Espy in April 2009.

You can listen to the track on our Sounds page, or over at our Myspace or Facebook page. We hope you enjoy it.

We are currently in Perth playing at The One Movement Festival. In addition to our two showcases Damian has been commissioned to paint this mural of John Lennon.

As Night Falls - Film Clip

Hi all,

After a slight delay we are excited to finally be able to share the film clip for our new single 'As Night Falls' with you all.

We wrote 'As Night Falls' specifically for new Australian suspense drama 'BLAME' directed by Michael Henry. BLAME was launched at The Melbourne International Film Festival, and will also be shown at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival. BLAME also features our track 'These Light' which you can hear at the start of the trailer.

Watch the film trailer here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdvrZP3mJBQ

You can download 'As Night Falls' from iTunes now. We hope you enjoy it!

Come down from the mast. Back on land. Getting used to my new legs. Getting used to the flow.

Since we arrived home from touring we have somewhat secluded ourselves. There are many a friend and family member that we wished we could catch up with and spend time with. To do nothing at all with. But somehow time has been more elusive than ever.... More stretched and more etched into the forefront of our consciousness.... And, for now, we cant shake it!

The need to write, the need to create is here and it is now but... It is also a strangely difficult balance with this every day life. (Though I am determined to master it!) So I sit here in my studio and chip away and chip away, sometimes the river flows and sometimes the damn holds strong, but always hoping that soon enough we have something new to unveil to this great big world!

Tonight the river has been flowing. I have been working away at home in my little studio with Damian working on some brand new tracks including an absolutely beautiful song brought to us by him. A song that we call "human condition"! I cant wait till we finish it!

I should get back to it now... Its been a while since I last wrote but there you go. Sometimes it ebbs and sometimes it flows!

Much love from my cold little studio!

XX
N.M

Goodbye England you've been good to us

Sadly, the end of the tour has arrived. At times it seemed like it would never end, in a good way, only to sneak up on us quite suddenly. To see and experience London and the UK in summer has been a treat in itself. The memories of hotel rooms, train journeys and venues will melt into a bit of a blur over time, but we hold on to the memories of great shows, the wonderful people we’ve met, and the amazing places that we’ve visited, however briefly. Our last show was really special, even with Nick breaking two strings mid-set, we managed to get by without resorting to bad new-funk jams, and finish the tour on a high. It's a shame that these things ever have to end, but we look forward to the rest of the year, with a single launch, supporting Powderfinger, and spending time writing for the next album. We can look forward to our next visit to the northern side of the equator, with the knowledge that it will be bigger and better than ever.

Nick Cheek

Watch our tour video here


A big shout out to all of you that made this tour possible and very memorable.
The familiar faces in the crowd that came to support us time and time again (you know who you are! the English, the Spanish, the Australian and the French!) Thank you!
Team Blackchords, Mark, Chrissie, Dust Devil & Sasufi!
Emms PR, Sue Buckler, Eileen, Gavin, Gaz, Jacqui & Harriet
Caroline, Mike, Rachel, Marky, Darren & Sarina (We would be cold & homeless without you!)
OZ Council, Sounds Australia, and Stage Mothers!
And everybody else that has been an integral part of making Blackchords

Much Love

Nick, Damian, Nick & Tristan (Blackchords)

As one adventure ends a new one begins

From a sunny London morning I voyage alone on the train.Away from the blue skies and the angular walls of central London, into countryside of rolling hills, stone mansions covered in chemically charged green climbing ivy and set against a depressingly dense grey sky.

A misty rain, that looks as though it set in forever ago, hangs between the carriage windows and the horizon slightly distorting the scenery and giving me the desire to rug up and to sit by a lit fire. Not today…

I’m on my way to Sheffield, a city I know virtually nothing about, where tonight we will be playing the Forum. I should be travelling alongside the band, but due to a mixture of losing time, road works and a delayed train I am here by myself. I made it to St Pancras Station this morning puffing and panting rudely and frantically pushing my way past people on the escalators, juggling my guitar and rucksack just in time to watch our train slowly pull away from the platform sans the singer…
It’s our last gig outside of London and the beginning of our last week of the U.K tour. It feels as if the end of the tour brings about the end of another chapter. The past 12months has seen us playing many gigs, being on the road and becoming a live band. It has brought us invaluable experience, incredible moments and of course the harsh blows that reality can often dish out. We’ve also been lucky enough to play alongside some great and inspiring musicians and groups including The Church, Tim Rogers, White Rabbits, Dappled Cities, The Wagons, and Jordie Lane.

The return home to Melbourne will be a time to bring out new dimensions. We will be promoting a track “As Night Falls” which was written for “Blame” an Australian feature film which premiers this July. Shortly after we will be taking some time away to begin work on new material for the second Blackchords album. And a very happily accepted invitation to Join Powderfinger and Jet in Powderfinger’s last ever Melbourne show at the end October at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. You can watch our announcement video here.

I know that we have a lot on our plate and a lot ahead of us. The good and the bad, it’s all part of it and I look forward to it.

X
N.M

Late for Rehearsal!

Travelling through the busy London streets in our Tour bus #63 which looks identical to the big red double decker buses they use for public transport!

Sitting upstairs clinging on for dear life at the front while the bus roars full steam ahead into a narrow funnel of traffic which (I am so sure) we wont fit through!

It reminds me that a week ago I saw the aftermath of terrible road accident where they had cut the roof off one of the cars…. Probably, because some bus driver drove at 50MPH into a gap in the traffic that he was never going to fit into!

I take a deep breath and try and focus on something else…. A beautiful field, with angels feeding me gooseberries…. (whatever the fuck they are?)

This wasn’t exactly how imagined this blog to turn out … But hey?

There has been soo much going on in this tour and in a way I haven’t had a chance to(or maybe its that I haven’t let myself) step out of it and think about everything that we are doing… Switching off for a while and bringing myself back into the present. It’ll come in time but not today.

We have spent quite a bit of time, travelling. Either crossing the country or just crossing the city. It’s a time I spend scribbling in my note book, thinking about the next thing to come or watching strange interactions (or lack of) between strangers on the street or in the underground..

Its also a time and space when I usually join the millions and plug myself into an mp3 player to get away.

This tour, as all good tours, has been accompanied by a soundtrack. A hand full of albums that I have been listening to on constant repeat. My new favourite right now would have to be Heligoland by Massive Attack. I was walking through the National Portrait gallery when I first put it on and it blew my mind, took me away and wrapped me in its incredible sound scape. I’ve also had revisit from my old hi school days with the best of blur…. I’d forgotten how much I dug them when I was a gangly teen!

Anyways I wanted to make a mix tape and share it with you all…. But I don’t have a tape recorder and nor do I know anyone who has one…. So as nostalgic as that may be physically make a mix tape…. I wont. Because that would be totally useless!

Instead here is picture of what it would look like

And here is the playlist!

Milly’s U.K Tour Mix Tape 2010

Side A

1 – Song 2 Blur

2 – Bixby Canyon Bridge Death Cab For Cutie

3 – Falling Down The Mountain INXS*

4 – Factory Band of Horses

5 – And The Boys Angus & Julia Stone

6 – Pray for Rain Massive Attack

Side B

7 – 1901 Phoenix

8 – Yeah Yeah Yeah Song The Flaming Lips

9 – Blue Blood Foals*

10 – Young Americans David Bowie

11 – Paradise Circus Massive Attack

12 – Tender Blur

Listen here: UKPlaylist2010

*Sadly not on Spotify!

Its been a whirlwind of a month since coming to the U.K, with some incredible gigs and moments, hauling our equipment up and down Britain’s train lines and cobbled streets. It began with a trip to Brighton and the Great Escape Festival, sharing the stage with some brilliant fellow Australian bands, including Teenagers In Tokyo and Dappled Cities and some incredible international acts most notably White Rabbits who blew our minds.

Following Brighton came our trip to Liverpool for the Sound City festival and a particularly special acoustic showcase in the John Lennon suite at the Hard Days Night Hotel. We couldn’t pass the chance to jump on the white Grand Piano and try out some new tracks and a cover of Lennon’s Working Class Hero.

Last week we traveled to Birmingham to play a show with the epic Rogue States and work on a demo with producer Gavin Monaghan, known for his work with Editors. This is a track we have been playing live since our arrival in the UK. So it was great to finally record it. We are all excited by the results, definitely a creative departure for us, which will be carried forward on to the next album.

This week has started with a bang with our new single ‘Pretty Little Thing’ officially released and picking up airplay across the country. Today we found out the single has been featured on industry newsletter ‘Record of the Day.’ Tomorrow Friday 18th we headline The Barfly in Camden, (It’s after the football don’t worry!) one of the biggest shows of the tour to date and a great place to launch the single. To celebrate and thank everyone for their support we are going to be giving away two FREE digital downloads including ‘Pretty Little Thing’ and previously unreleased track ‘No Complaints’. If you can’t make the show don’t worry from next week we will also be giving these tracks away to our friends on Facebook and Myspace.

The second half of the tour is already looking busy and no doubt there will be many more adventures and stories. We have more shows in London before heading down to Exeter for a gig in late July. We look forward to meeting you.

The adventure continues...

1 year on....

So on the eve of ANZAC day comes the realization that this time last year the band and all associated were working feverishly to bring the Australian release of "Blackchords" to the Gershwin room at the Esplanade Hotel . Today a year later Nick is recording with our past producer Nick Batterham on a song for an upcoming feature film to be premiered in July at the Melbourne International Film Festival. I was sitting there the other night with the piano being recorded in the kitchen, echoing through the house.. feeling privileged to be a part of this experience.

We're all still working feverishly for this band.. and its story has revealed people and moments that burn brightly in our creative minds. It good to know a year after our debut release.. these people and moments are widening to across the world. It is one of the most rewarding things I've experienced, to create with a family of musicians and friends whose talents work together as the sum of an awesome whole.
It's also just 2 weeks to go until we pack our cases and pile onto a plane heading for our next U.K tour. This, none of us can wait for, cause we know it is another stepping stone along the long journey onwards and upwards for the band and another great experience for a life we want to live. We want to celebrate with you all, but knowing that we have limited time left and a pile of things to do so we thought we'd double up a gig on Wednesday May 5 at the workers club in Fitzroy, Victoria with some drinks and a catch up. So if you are free that night come down for one last show!

dimmi

Out of the Wood Work

....And the countdown to the U.K. is on! If I was told this time last year before the album launch that we would be heading over for the second time to europe in a year it would seem the words of fiction. But alas the Great Escape and all the other gigs along the way will be filling our ears, eyes and minds in less than a month. After a short little 2 week break with the band we're back into rehearsals in which enthusiasm is the captain. It seems with every meeting with Milwright lately there is more new material and buzz in the air. Recently we've played some excellent gigs, with a bit more of an acoustic side with Tristan playing the Double Bass. The Grace Darling is an excellent bandroom that everyone in Melbourne should check out.. and the gig there went well with the venue really looking after us. We also played the 'Between the Bays' festival in Mornington to a great crowd, and Earth Hour, at the zoo, saw the lions roaring next to us as we played on the bill with Australian music legend Tim Rogers.

For me the experience of being in London with its History, Creativity and sheer size and diversity put me in a creative place both artistically and musically that I'd always strived and dreamed to get to. To be playing gigs again in the next few months in Camden and Brixton, and also to experience new places like Brighton, Liverpool and Manchester(most of my favourite bands came from there), I'm counting down the days to my ultimate life on the road.

So make sure those of you in the U.K keep in touch and check the gig listing as we'll be adding new U.K dates to it quite often. And those of you in OZ we have been invited to play 1 last show in the first week of may it is still TBA, but we will be post the confirmation on our facebook page in the next couple of days.
Big thanks goes out to Mark and Chrissie as per usual for their hard work in making ideas realities, an everyone else involved in this bands evolution

Exciting stories and moments await

Dimmi

Blackchords needs your help!

Blackchords recently entered Nova radios “I’m with the Band” Competition.

The winner of the competition receives radio play on Australia’s NOVA 100 as well as Publicity and a cash prize. This morning we found out that the Judges have selected us as one of the top 2 bands. This in itself is fantastic news, but now the judging for the grand final is handed across to the public! So we are asking you all for your help by jumping online and voting for us at the Nova 100 website. We also ask you to please spread the word and get friends and family to vote too. You will be automatically put in the draw to win yourself $5,000 AUD just for your troubles!!

To win this competition would mean a whole lot for Blackchords and really help us on our way to being able to create and play music for many moons to come.

Please click below and head to the website to make your vote for Blackchords.It only takes a few seconds and you can do that once a day until March 14th!

Thank you heaps for your support!

XX

N.

Blackchords

Lost on the Pretty Little Coast!

It’s a few days passed the end of our tour and somewhere in the vicinity of 5,000km’s passed the beginning. It may be a common theme that I talk about cramming into the car and driving enormous distances across this vast landscape, but that is perhaps because it is one of the few certainties when it comes to touring. (that and the inevitability that I will leave my wallet behind in a rural town hours from anywhere!)

So it began at 6am on the morning of Thursday January 21. We gathered at my house and proceeded to amaze ourselves at managing to pack the mounds of equipment, backpacks , “driving food” and last but not least, ourselves in to Nick C’s Magna Station Wagon, and began our journey north to Coffs Harbour.

Just passed the halfway mark between Melbourne and Sydney is the only place, we have decided, that is worth stopping at, (other than a quick throw of the Frisbee and a stretch near the Submarine which somehow got washed hundreds of kilometres inland and lodged itself in the small country town of Holbrook) it doesn’t have an obnoxiously huge golden “M” pointing towards greasy, shit food and teenagers working for minimum wage. It is at the somewhat less impressive, (compared with a strangely out of place submarine) Dog on the Tuckerbox and the only place along the way to get something decent to chow down on.

After stopping for our ritual of salad sandwich’s and juice we were back on the road.

By now we had been driving for about 8 hours, and it was at about this time we had the horrible realization, that we weren’t even half way to our first destination yet. Every 2 seconds you begin rearranging yourself. Your legs are cramping, your left buttock goes to sleep, you’re too hot, (the air conditioning comes on) you’re too cold, you don’t know which way your head wants to go, your right buttock goes to sleep…. Etc. Etc.

Anyway 10hours later we made it to Coffs Harbour. And we were still alive. Slightly bent out of shape and delirious, but alive.

The next morning we were able to swim in the ocean before an easy drive to our first gig of the tour at the Miami Tavern on the Gold Coast. It was a night of many firsts, our first ever gig in Queensland, our first gig with the new Blackchords bassist Tristan Courtney, and of course the first gig with Grand Atlantic, and Sierra Fin. It was a good first show to shake out the cobwebs, get to know one another and launch the tour.

Over the next couple of nights we played the Globe theatre, Brisbane, which in my opinion is a damn fine, beautiful old venue in Fortitude Valley. There was a great vibe going on at the globe and we were able to move around on a big stage with ease and test drive our new track “’til the day I die”. The following night the Bon Amici, in Toowoomba. a great alternative venue with a stage that is a “Little” smaller than the globe. It was a good night for some chaos, I tried my hand at being a contortionist, but once I was fully tangled up in the mic lead and 2 guitars I realised no magic was going to allow me to escape!

We were able to spend a few free nights with friends in Byron and Coffs Harbour. Swimming, getting our pasty white Melbourne bodies burnt to a crisp, getting stung by blue bottle jelly fish, sea lice, and god only knows what happened to Damians face. When he woke up abruptly in burning pain and quickly swelling Mick Jagger lips.

5 and a half hours spent in a hospital waiting room to find out that yes he had been bitten by “something” and there was probably nothing we could do about it made sure that we weren’t going to have a leisurely drive back to Sydney for our next show.

It was cutting it fine to say the least. We made it to the Bald Faced Stagg, piled out of the car, quickly got dressed in the rain on the footpath and made it inside with just enough time to get a beer and to get on stage.

The next day we were back in the car heading to Newcastle for our final night in NSW and then the long haul back home to Melbourne.

Its been sometime since playing in Melbourne, something we had definitely missed. A crowd of new faces mixed with some familiar ones came down to show support at the Curtain band room. And despite my amplifier slowly dying on stage, the tour ended with one of the most enjoyable gigs I’ve played for a long time!

Big thanks from Blackchords to all of you that came along to the shows and to Chrissie, Big Tree Artists, Grand Atlantic, Sierra Fin, Danny, Amelia, John, Pete, Mark, Jemma and Roz you guys are ace!!

Click here for Sasufi's official tour pics

X

N.M