June 2011: Farewells and Hellos

Loz here... (deep breath)

Well guys, I guess it's time to break the news on one of the worst-kept secrets going around. Tom Cruise is gay. Closer to home, I have the bittersweet task of announcing that after 8 years of singing with Suade, our good buddies Roy and Een have decided to move on - Een to focus on his flower arranging, and Roy because he is pregnant.

These two guys have put in an amazing amount of heart, soul and hard work to build Suade into what it is today. 8 years is a pretty significant time in our young(ish) lives and I guess in a lot of ways we've grown up together and learned a heck of a lot in the process. The departure of these two irreplaceable friends left the rest of us with a tough choice: should we wrap this band up for good, and get our social lives back, or fight to rebuild Suade again?

Chris, Robbly and I had a good hard think about it, and decided that we all felt the best was still ahead of us on this journey. Suade is busier than it's ever been, we're earning more and more opportunities both in Australia and abroad - in fact, this accelerating schedule was the major factor in Roy and Een's decision. So with so much ahead of us, we decided to retool and move forward. And these are our new tools:

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Luke and Sava. Click to inspect them more closely.

Meet Luke Stevenson and Sava Djukic, our new countertenor and bass. Luke is a music nerd of the highest order, a jazz-obsessed, pitch-perfect, falsetto-singing oddity in skinny pants that accentuate his twig-thin legs. Sava is a six foot four, rugby-playing, gym rat music teacher with infectious enthusiasm, big energy and an even more tightly packed scrotum than Roy's. Put them in the same room and they seem like the perfect metaphor for the odd combination of talents that make up Suade.

For the last four months these two guys have been working their butts off to get up to speed with the Suade show - hence why we've been quiet of late - and we're proud to say the new lineup just completed a very successful short tour of Korea last week. Luke and Sava have earned their stripes, and we're confident that with the new energy they're injecting into the group, we're ready to take this thing further than we've ever gone before.

Click through to read personal messages from Roy, Een, Luke and Sava about the changeover.

At times of upheaval like this, it's important to party, and party hard - and that's just what we plan to do. We thought it would be fitting to throw a Goodbye/Hello show to give Roy and Een a chance to go out on a few big notes, and introduce you guys to Sava and Lukey.

Farewell-o show

So I guess this is it. A farewell-hello show - it's your last chance to catch Roy and Een on stage with us and share what will probably be a fairly emotional night, followed by what will likely be some fairly heavy drinking.

We've chosen the Revolt arts space in Kensington, close to the Melbourne city centre, for the show. It's an amazing venue with a great team. A bit hard to find, but well worth your while, it's an old converted woolshed with a history as long as your arm and a pretty amazing future ahead of it.

The details:

Farewell-o show: end of an era
Friday, July 1st, 8pm
Revolt, 12 Elizabeth St, Kensington
http://www.revoltproductions.com

More details in the Suade events calendar.

This is a big one, folks. We'd love to see you there. You can't book tickets just yet, but that'll come online soon. Stick it in your diary and we'll let you know as soon as bookings open.

Other shows in June/July

We've been doing a lot of shows out of town and internationally lately, and we're aware some of our Melbourne peeps are starting to feel a bit neglected... So we're hitting Melbourne with a vengeance in June/July... Here's what's coming up, click through for full details:

Sunday 19th June
Vocal Australia: Get Vocal: Lazy Sunday (with our buddies Blue Notion and the Nymphs)
Penny Black, Brunswick

Wednesday, 22 June
Vocal Australia: Get Vocal: Winter Harmony Showcase (with Harambee, DeCaf, Bacchanae, The Candy Stripes and the Vocal Agents)
Bella Union, Trades Hall, Melbourne

Saturday 9 July
Suade live at the Treble Clef cafe/lounge - a strictly limited $90 per head dinner in this fantastic venue out at Chirnside Park. 6 tables of 10 maximum, so be quick!
Treble Clef cafe/lounge, Chirnside Park

Tuesday 19 July
Melbourne Cabaret Festival: Opening night gala
South Melbourne Town Hall

Fri/Sat/Sun 22/23/24 July
Suade: For Adults Only - fans of 'Never seen my face before' and 'Underpants' will enjoy this show - we're doing all the borderline and dodgy material we can't get away with when we're representing Australia or entertaining corporate clients. Part of the Melbourne Cabaret Festival.
South Melbourne Town Hall

Sat 30th July
Suade live @ Firbank Grammar - three 30-minute sets and there's rumours of a man-meat auction at this annual fundraiser event.
Centre for Creative Arts, Firbank Grammar, Brighton

Sunday 31st July
Afternoon show as part of the Glen Eira City Council Winter Music Series.
Glen Eira Town Hall, Caulfield

Click on the dates for full information and booking details, all these shows are now on sale!

Sorry to drop such a bomb on you, with a bit of luck we'll be able to perform more regularly around town and around Australia in the next 12 months.

All the best

Loz
...and the Suade lads (old and new)

ps. if anyone wants to write Een or Roy directly, you can get them at een@suade.net and roy@suade.net.