2024 is off writing new songs with a view to being back out the following year.
After 54 live shows on the Dentures Out Tour in 2022, 2023 saw a further 42 performances. Links below to live clips from the midst of a 5 week, 20 date tour of Australia and New Zealand. Half of Letter from America and the whole of Sunshine on Leith from the second of two nights in the legendary Melbourne Athenaeum Theatre. An art and cultural hub the city’s oldest cultural institution, opened in 1886 with the premiere of the world’s first full-length feature film, The History of the Kelly Gang. Mark Twain lectured there in 1895.
The Athenaeum’s library also provided many Melburnians with access to a hand-picked collection of books and reading material. In the 65 years between the State Library of Victoria putting an end to book borrowing in 1939 and the opening of public libraries in the CBD, the Athenaeum Library was the only place where you could borrow a book in the city centre. It has a 30,000-strong collection. The building continues promoting and developing local and international music, visual arts, literature, science and theatre. The helmeted statue of Athena, goddess of wisdom, reason and the arts, is a fitting mascot.
And what an atmosphere the theatre generates, quite memorable nights for all on the tour and a joy to perform on such an esteemed and historic stage. There is an exceptional poignancy when Letter from America is sung over 10,500 miles away from Scotland. On Sunshine On Leith, outside of the Australasian tour, fans will always have seen Zac Ware playing the pedal steel, coinciding in some shows with Erika Nockalls on violin, here Zac improvises beautifully with a slide on electric guitar. And a big hand to Stevie Christie on keyboards, Garry John Kane on bass and Clive Jenner on drums accompanying Craig and Charlie.
Slainte!
