Mick Thomas

MICK THOMAS & THE SURE THING ENQUIRIES & BOOKINGS: The Office Of Sure Things

WEDDINGS, PARTIES, ANYTHING ESPY GIG
CANCELLED DUE TO PUB LICENCING BUNGLE
Shock! Horror! - and damn it all. The rumours are true - the WPA show at the Esplanade Hotel, St Kilda on the 30th of November has officially been cancelled. The Liquor Licensing Board has decided to decline the pub a permit to set up a big stage out in the street (despite full support from the council, the police and local residents). There was talk of it being moved inside but as we have all stated, the Weddings' boots were only ever going to be dusted off for very special occasions and nobody saw this as being a particularly good idea. So who knows when it is going to happen again.. you'd have to at least figure after something like this debacle then it's always a possibility so we'll all just have to sit back and judge each offer on it's particular merits as they come along. Enough said - I hope it doesn't sound to flippant to anybody who had their heart set on the 30th of November but we've still got a tour to do and an album to make, songs to write and plays to produce. There's music to be made, one way or another! CHONK ON (regardless). Mick Thomas on behalf of the Weds.

MICK THOMAS & THE SURE THING
COME THUNDERING BACK TO THE FUTURE!
Ground control to Major Thomas - BACK TO THE FUTURE it is indeed as the Sure Things (or parts thereof) hit the road this October, November and December and get back to playing some new stuff - of course sprinkled with liberal doses of the back catalogue (before and after 1998!). The studio has been rocking lately as we are getting mighty close to finishing an actual album. It is due out on Liberation sometime in the first half of 2009 and at this stage the working title is Casino Trousers/ My Next CD. Anyway - the big news is that this tour will be sponsored by DIG Radio which is the ABC radio digital arm. We will be putting regular blogs on their website as well as a couple of sneaky preview rough mixes from the new album so check it out very soon at www.abc.net.au/dig/.
We have a warm up Sure Thing show this Thursday night (Oct 23rd) at Wellers Restaurant out in the beautiful hills of Eltham and a fun gig out at the dusty old St Arnaud race track this Saturday (Oct 25th).
See tour page for all the new gig details...

THREE WISE MONKEYS WRAP THINGS
UP IN VICTORIA THIS WEEKEND AND THE NEXT...
The Three Wise Monkeys Tour is wrapping up after a couple of months of some fun shows around the place. For those who haven't been to a show, they feature Sarah Carroll (of ex Git fame), Van Walker (talented singer /songwriter who has just released his fantastic debut album The Celestial Railroad on Croxton Records) and Mick Thomas (trying out some new songs after the time-warp of the recent WPA tour).

The three monkeys have three shows left in Victoria so make sure you get along and catch one if you're in the area. This Friday night sees them heading down to Geelong to play at The Studio, then on Sunday night they will grace the stage at The Drunken Poet in West Melbourne (free entry for this one) and then the final show will be at the Palais Theatre in Hepburn Springs on Saturday 18th October. See the venues for ticket information (The Drunken Poet show is free entry).

WPA TOUR MERCH ON SALE
PARIS SNAPS UP ONE OF THE LAST WPA TSHIRTS
We finally have some WPA merch up on the site, sorry for the slowness in getting these leftover tour items up. Just added are a bunch of Weddings, Parties, Anything tour T-Shirts in mens and womens sizes and WPA Footy Scarves in Carlton, Geelong, Melbourne, West Coast, Fremantle, Brisbane and Essendon only. There is also a one-off South Sydney Rabbitos scarf in there too.

Tshirts are going for the very special winter bargain basement price of $25 and WPA footy scarves are $10 plus postage and handling. To purchase online using Paypal, see the WPA page. There will also be some 2008 WPA Hawiain Shirts up on this page very soon. Still available are DVDs, the live CD recording of the Wednesday 16th of April Corner Hotel show from New Found Frequency, and a limited number of Donkey Serenade and Garage Sale Cds.

THE SURE THING HEAD BACK TO THE STUDIO
It's full steam ahead for The Sure Thing who have spent the last couple of weeks hard at work in the studio with a bunch of band tracks that have been taking shape nicely. It's a mixed lot of songs - some re-worked old tunes and some brand newies. One Mick wrote with John Schoefield (of Paul Kelly's Messengers) wasn't a week old when it was recorded as a duet with Tim Rogers. There's a new one with Tiffany Urquhart, a version of She Works that Ron Hawkins has donated some vocals to as well as a couple of oldies re-done with Paul Kelly coming in to lend a hand. As it stands with the extras from the Paddock Buddy sessions, they are up to about 25 songs so far. Mick's also been hard at work on a soundtrack for one of the Message Stick documentaries commissioned by SBS, the couple of episodes worked on about indigenous photographer Ricky Maynard. They are beautiful pieces of film and the soundtrack features a fine lot of violin courtesy of Jen Anderson. On the live show front there are a few things in the book for the whole band later in the year but before that happens there's a quick solo run for Mick with Sarah Carroll and Van Walker this month (see above poster).

LOVE IN BRIGHT LANDSCAPES
SHACKLETON GET BEHIND THE TRIFFIDS DOCO
Mick Thomas and his all-star part time Sunday afternoon band, Shackleton (Mick, Anna Burley of The Killjoys and Chris Altmann of The Vandas) will be performing a very special show at the Corner Hotel in Richmond on Sunday June 22nd as part of a fund raiser to raise money for the production of an upcoming documentary on late Australian singer/songwriter David McComb (1962-1999), best known for his work with legendary 80s band, The Triffids. Also on the bill are The Mimeset with Sean Whelan, Charles Jenkins, Diving Bell, The Blackeyed Susans Trio and the night will be MCd by RRR's Jonnie Von Goes. Loads of great music, a very good cause and some amazing prizes to be auctioned (including an adventure holiday for two to the stunning Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea, music DVD and CD packs, Meredith Music Festival tickets, St Jerome's Laneway Festival tickets, Crumpler bags and heaps more). It all kicks off at 6pm and for tickets and further details, contact The Corner Hotel Box Office.
For more information on The Triffids, visit The Triffids website.

MICK THOMAS & THE SURE THING
WELCOMES BACK MICHAEL BARF BARCLAY..
For those who may have noticed Michael Barclay behind the drums again with The Sure Thing recently (and how could you not), this is largely due to the fact that Al Barden has decided to take some time off and concentrate on being a dad to the beautiful Bea Barden. It is with sadness that we say goodbye to Al but also with many great memories of laughs, tears, endless tours and mighty fine shows with Al behind the kit. We welcome back Barf with open arms and look forward to the next year of Sure Thing gigs up and down and around the country now that the 2008 WPA beast has finally been put to bed.

Please note, for those wanting to contact Sure Thing Management for any gig or general enquiries, we would like to formally announce that Carmel Nunan is no longer in the directors chair.. for all enquiries at present, please email The Office Of Sure Things.

NEW WEDDINGS, PARTIES, ANYTHING DVD..
"Weddings, Parties, Anything began life in Melbourne in late 1983 finishing up at the end of 1998. In those fifteen years they traveled the globe, developing a huge loyal following of fans through the high energy live performances and regular releases. In the later part of their career, live shows would sell out in hours and single night shows became week long residencies. The band hung up their boots knowing they'd had a great run.

Coaxed back together in 2005 for a charity event, the band soon realized that the magic and the fun was still there, so when a performance at the 2006 Queenscliff Festival was mooted, it seemed like a good idea to do the show and get it on film as there had never been a DVD of the band. The result is a fantastic record of the Weddos in their element thrilling a large crowd with yet another frenetic live performance featuring all their old favourites. Add to this a complete collection of all the WPA film clips and the rare short film Roaring Days, and this is the definitive Weddings Parties Anything release."

Madman Entertainment / Nov 2007

The WPA DVD is available for purchase at Mick's live shows or online now, see the WPA Page...

BILLY BRAGG A SURE THING..
Mick and the Sure Thing are on board for the east coast leg of the 2008 Australian Billy Bragg tour in January. The shows are The Great Northern in Byron Bay Tuesday 22nd Jan, The Metro in Sydney Saturday 26th Jan, and Wednesday 30th and Thursday 31st of Jan at the Prince Of Wales Hotel in St Kilda. The tour is presented by RRR and tickets go on sale on Monday 10th December at Polyester Records, Readings St Kilda, the Prince Of Wales and Ticketmaster Phone: 136100 & online at www.ticketmaster.com.au.