Category: Entertainment

FORMER Albany resident Rose Bishop has well and truly made the big time in comedy, performing in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for the past two years and now, she’s bringing the show back home.

The Breast of the Fest is a female-only line-up of comedians coming to the Albany Entertainment Centre on February 8.

Bishop and a group of friends put the show together in 2018 “just for an excuse” to do a show in the Comedy Festival and have since roped in names like Celia Pacquola and Claire Hooper to headline.

Bishop said she stumbled into comedy as a career purely by chance while living in Melbourne.

“I made a new friend at a party and she’d just started doing stand-up, so I started tagging along to her gigs for moral support and just out of curiosity and realised that there are heaps of places in Melbourne to just try it out and sometimes be bad at it,” she said.

“I’ve always had pretty bad stage fright, but I also love a challenge, so I just gave it a bash and started doing open mic spots.

“I was 31 the first time I got on stage, which is pretty late compared to most comedians, but I’m glad I didn’t start when I was younger because I’m much more resilient these days.

“Performing can be pretty brutal at times.”

Despite still dealing with the odd spat of stage fright, Bishop said she abso- lutely loves what she does.

“I’ve always been a writer in some form or other, and I’ve always been impatient, and the thing I really love about stand-up is that you can have a vague idea on the tram in the morning, write it into dot points on your lunch break, then get up at an open mic night after work and riff around the idea and expand on the bits people are laughing at and boom – you’ve written a joke,” she said.

“It’s so immediate.

“The comedy scene is just so fun.

“I mean, it’s an excuse to hang around in bars with your mates on weeknights, laughing heaps.

“What’s not to love?”

While she’s home, Bishop will make some much-needed visits to favourite people and places.

“My most important stop in Albany is always and forever Gull Rock beach,” she said.

“We’ve been going there as a family since I was tiny, and it’s probably my favourite place on earth.

“I’m also always stoked to catch up with my friend Shannon who I went to ASHS with and who’s moved back to Albany now and is always down for a wine and a good long chat; love you, Shanners.”

Bishop encouraged fellow Albanians to come along to the February 8 show and give the February 7 open mic night at Six Degrees a chance.

“We’d love to see heaps of friendly faces at our show,” she said.

“We’re used to performing in dingy Melbourne pubs so it’s all very exciting and fancy and we’re going to try very hard not to disgrace ourselves.”

Tickets to The Breast of the Fest are on sale now via albanyentertainment.com.au and people keen on the Six Degrees open mic night can register on the event’s Facebook page.

NEARLY a quarter of a new fiction book released this month was written by a group of Albany and Denmark authors.

Once: A selection of short short stories was published on January 18 and features stories written by Matt Beamish, Yann Toussaint, Ellie Fisher, Mark Hackleton, Rachel Isaacson, Izzy Mead and Bronwyn Jones.

The book was created by Perth-based Night Parrot Press who put the call out to authors last year to submit their flash fiction, micro fiction and hybrid fiction.

These genres constrain the author to writing no more than 500 words – to give you an idea, this news story is just under 300 words.

There will be a celebration at Six Degrees tonight from 5-7pm to commemorate the launch of the book, as well as a Flash Fiction Workshop on Saturday, February 1.

Night Parrot Press editors and publishers Laura Keenan and Linda Martin will teach people how to write big stories in less than 500 words.

“We feel a particular affinity for Albany; there’s such a talented pool of writers there, and a very supportive and enthusiastic literary community,” Keenan said.

“There is already so much great fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction that comes out of Albany and now it’s really exciting to be able to work with another genre – flash fiction.

“Flash fiction continues to gain momentum in WA and the rest of Australia, but it’s still a relatively new form, so we’re hoping to share its charms and challenges through workshops like these and future publications and readings.”

The Flash Fiction Workshop will be held at UWA Albany from 9.30am to noon and is a ticketed event.

Interested people can book online at nightparrotpress.com

 

CHART-TOPPING musicians are headlining the upcoming Days of Summer concert at Denmark’s Castelli Estate.

Jebediah, British India, Gyroscope, Bodyjar and Dallas Crane will make the trip down south on February 29 to kickstart the Labour Day long weekend.

Gates open at 4pm so prepare yourself for a big night of dancing, singing and rocking out.

Jebediah consists of lead guitarist Chris Daymond, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Kevin Mitchell, bassist Vanessa Thornton and drummer Brett Mitchell.

The band returned from its 2005 hiatus in 2010 to release their fifth studio album, which charted in the ARIA’s top 10.

British India continues the alternative rock vibe with their high energy, melodic danceable rhythms.

The four-piece has released six albums and has reached the top five in the ARIA album charts as well as having eight songs listed in Triple J’s Hottest 100.

Multiple WA Music Industry Award winner Daniel Sanders heads Gyroscope, a group also familiar with Triple J’s Hottest 100.

The Perth band formed in 1997 as Gyroscope Sunday and has since released four studio albums.

Victorian band Bodyjar will bring the pop punk to the party with some of their latest and greatest.

Like Jebediah, they took a short hiatus from 2009-2012 and slammed back onto the music scene with an album and corresponding tour.

Alternative rock group Dallas Crane wraps up the line-up for the 2020 Days of Summer concert.

They won big at the Australian Live Music Awards, taking out Best Live Band, and their critically-acclaimed, highest charting single Sit on My Knee with Jimmy Barnes was in the top 40 in 2005.

Tickets to the February 29 show are available now through Ticketmaster.

FOR those lucky listeners tuned into our radio station Gold MX on Tuesday morning, there was a surprise live performance from Albany’s own The Waifs singer Vikki Thorn.

The band – comprised of Thorn, sister Donna Simpson and Josh Cunningham – is in town for a concert on Saturday at the Albany Entertainment Centre.

Gold MX listeners were treated to Thorn’s singing and guitar playing of Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door and a new composition she has been working on.

The Bob Dylan classic was the first song she ever learned to play.

“Donna borrowed a book from the ASHS school library for a couple of years, it was Bob Dylan’s song book,” Thorn reminisced with Gold MX broadcaster Sam Haell.

“She left it laying around so I picked it up and that was the first song I learned.

“Then about three years ago, we came to Albany for a gig and a friend of ours had the book!

“And it was still stamped with the ASHS school library stamp.”

But the real bookend to this story, Thorn says, is the fact that The Waifs got to tour with Dylan himself.

“We had 30 dates through America and on the last night, he got us up to sing Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door with him,” she said.

“I had this incredible moment onstage … Bob Dylan’s right next to us and I had this moment of remembering how I picked up the guitar and played those chords and it all came rushing back to me and I thought, here I am, standing next to Bob Dylan. It was very, very cool.”

FOUR Albany artists have set up camp at a local tourist attraction to display their latest collection of watercolour and acrylic paintings.

Collective Mix features the work of Zoe Butler, Ros Jenke, Margaret Dowdell and Julie Fletcher and ranges from still life to flora and fauna and landscapes.

Fletcher and Butler said the exhibition, installed at Albany’s Historic Whaling Station ahead of a Saturday afternoon opening, included all of the artists’ favourites.

“We’ve been learning about how important friends are to the creative process,” Butler said.

“We all help each other, support each other and learn from each other.

“It’s been really good.”

Fletcher said the exhibition predominantly had small-sized artworks for sale, so as to be more convenient to tourists, taking up less room in their luggage.

It’s free to enter the exhibition once it opens at 2pm on January 11 and it will remain open daily from 9am to 5pm until it closes on February 9.

IN A sad moment for the Albany music scene, the final Wignalls Vintage Music Festival will be held tomorrow after 24 years of memorable events.

Hosting large events over such a period of time is an exhausting process, and 2020 sees the retirement of organisers Rob and Claire Wignall with the last vintage music festival.

Rob said this makes the festival very special for anybody that has been here before.

“With more than 62,000 people attending over the years creating many memories, relationships, marriages and fun, come along for the last hoorah,” he said.

“Those people that met their girlfriend at the show who is now their wife and mother of their children, re-visit the event.

“After 24 years of events, we have selected these special memorable acts by popular demand, with sell-out shows in 2011 and 2015.

“The prestige of this famous festival continues to be far-reaching with 2020 bringing to Albany a rare performance of headline acts back by popular demand – The Blues Brothers Revue, Ash Grunwald and the Vibrolators – who will create music and history for the 19^th Wignalls Vintage Music Festival in the grounds of Wignalls Winery at Albany.”

The Blues Brothers are here to celebrate 40 years since the release of the famous Blues Brothers film.

Grunwald is playing in Albany to release his much-anticipated international tour, yet another coup for the event and possibly the last time the Great Southern will see him with his booming popularity.

Ticket holders are welcomed onsite from 4.30pm to kick back and relax with a picnic basket and blanket in the gardens while listening to great musical talent.

Although car parking is available on-site, free public transport will be available to return to Albany’s CBD from 10.30pm.

Full bar and food facilities will be available for all patrons. Children are welcome but must be accompanied by a guardian or parent.

Tickets are $75.00 +bf via www.vintageblues.com.au or if available at the gate on the day.

Photo ID is essential for entry into licensed areas.

For more information, visit www.vintageblues.com.au