Commencing in September, Kickstart will be playing monthly gigs at the mighty Shark’s Football Club at Southport. Come along for your regular dose of 70s, 80s & 90s rock with the added incentive of some great Aussie Rock from the 70s and 80s as well (or should that be also?) No matter because what really matters is having a great night out listening and dancing to a great range of music from the 70s to the present (you don’t really want to be stuck in the 50s and 60s forever do you?). The best thing about all this is that it’s completely live, yep that’s right, no pre-recorded backings, no midi-files, no heavenly choirs, just the band rocking out and yes even the mistakes are live as they happen although the band tries to keep them to an absolute minimum.

Come along and enjoy the Oz Rock Tribute show that will definitely bring back a truck load of back seat memories to all you baby boomers and maybe a few of generation ‘x’ as well. Some of the iconic Aussie artists paid tribute to include - Midnight Oil, Cold Chisel, The Divinyls, Hunters and Collectors, The Sunny Boys (remember them?), The Choir Boys, and a heap of others. We even toss in a few Kiwi songs just to keep the mob from across the dutch happy. You’ll be happy too because this is not a tribute show that you would normally shelve out $20-$30 of your hard-earned for … no siree, it’s just a part of our regular performance so it’s definitely a  win/win situation.  

Saturday 19th September is when it all kicks off or Kickstarts if you will … so do yourself the ultimate favour and be at Southport Sharks on 19th September 2009 and then after that on a monthly basis. Check out the website gig guide for all the details.

The band’s first real chance to road test the Oz Rock Tribute and what a response from the big crowd at Twin Towns! The tribute features some of the iconic Aussie bands and artists of the seventies and eighties including Cold Chisel, Australian Crawl, Choirboys, The Divinyls, Hunters and Collectors, Midnight Oil, Rick Springfield.

Featuring it on the Friday and Saturday nights the hour long set was a big winner with punters at this fantastic venue and calls for more went on for some time after the final number … we would have done a few more too but to put it colloquially we were stuffed and just had to take a break.  

Check out the gig guide for when and where we’ll be featuring the tribute set again because it’s definitely a must see for all true lovers of a great era in Aussie rock music.

A great many people when asked what do they see flying high above Parliament House in our Nation’s Capital have been known to answer - “pigeons?”  We in Kickstart know very well that it’s the mighty Australian flag and just to show how proud we all are of it and what it represents have put together a fantastic Aussie rock tribute package featuring some of the greatest bands ever to rock the land under the Southern Cross.

The Oz tribute set is about an hour or so in length and is accompanied by some stunning visuals which will make you absolutely long for the days of ‘football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars’. Some of the iconic bands from the vintage Oz Rock era of the 70s through to the early 90s which are covered in the set include - Men At Work, Cold Chisel, Aussie Crawl, Midnight Oil, Goanna, Inxs, the Choirboys, the Divinyls as well as individuals like Rick Springfield and Barnsey to name but a few.

The tribute set will be commencing in July at selected venues so make sure you check out the ‘gig guide’ on the website to see when and where it’s on. As well as the fantastic music and visuals the band also has some fabulously fantastic giveaways to hand out during the set.

KICKSTART - Rock from the 70s to the present and now featuring an all Aussie Rock Tribute set.

… stubby/can holders. Yep that’s right, KICKSTART are presently giving away absolutely free of charge at selected gigs, these magnificent stubby/can holders displaying the band’s logo and website details (see photo below). How does one go about obtaining one of these ‘must have’ items which would be a very welcome addition to any bar or liquor cabinet? Firstly, you have to be at a venue where we’re playing and where we’ve actually remembered to bring them along to the gig; secondly it helps if you’re over 183 cm tall (6feet if you’re still living in the sixties) and can take a high catch, as the favoured delivery method by the band to the crowd of this unique little item is the hand grenade toss. If you’re vertically challenged and the only thing you’ve caught lately is a cold then don’t despair because there is another way of obtaining one of these great little coolers - just come up to the band (preferably during a break) and ask if you can have one and if we’ve got any left then we’ll give you one … too easy! Only one cooler per person and stocks are limited so be quick before they all go … before they all go to the band and others who can’t seem to keep there hands off them! A truly remarkable piece of workmanship went into the making of these holders and the good part is that it was all done here in Oz.  The company that produced these promotional stubby/drink holders for KICKSTART can be found at the following link  www.promoedge.com.au   These guys gave us excellent service with fast turn around and all at a very competitive price.

                          Please note: Stubby not included in giveaway

Who’s that bunch of guys surrounding legendary Kickstart keyboard player Chris C? … yep, you guessed right, it’s mighty Kiwi rockers Dragon (also legendary). Kickstart were the support act for what proved to be a sensational performance by the Kiwi/Oz legends at Twin Towns Services Club on Thursday 23rd October 2008.

A sensational night was had at Logan Diggers for our final gig there for the year. All the usual suspects were there, as well as quite a few we haven’t seen before and from all reports everyone had a great night … although we didn’t hear a lot of whoopin’ and hollerin’ coming from the pokie area so maybe that should read - all the people who came over for a listen and dance to the band had a great night. Great to see our old mate Mal and his wife with friends having a good time … at least we think they were having a good time See you all back at Diggers in the new year!

www.myspace.com/kickstartcoversband

Another fantastic night at our favourite venue, the Grand Hotel Labrador. This place absolutely rocks and never lets us down thanks to the best bunch of punters you’d ever want to play to or play with for that matter (musically speaking of course). We don’t even have to ask the crowd to join in some of the numbers now because they just do it automatically and it sounds absolutely sensational! The all new one level stage was also a bonus and made life a lot easier. We’re back there in early November and then twice in December, so life is good and we wouldn’t be dead for quids. A big thanks to Ray for doing some damn fine tweaking and other stuff. See you all back there on the 2nd.

Wow! What a fantastic five nights the band had at Twin Towns Services Club at Tweed Heads. This magnificent club which was built back in the seventies and eighties essentially through the kind donations of thousands of Queensland punters (the pokie variety) is truly a fantastic venue. The first two nights (Wednesday and Thursday) were fairly laid back although the punters got into the music right from the first set and didn’t stop until the last. Friday night was an absolute kicker with the band supporting Joe Camilleri and the Black Sorrows (a definite case of deja vu). Joe was so suitably impressed with the band that he passed a message on to management to pass on to the band that he was suitably impressed. Thanks Joe, and you guys weren’t too bad either! After the highs of Friday night everyone thought Saturday night would be fairly quiet … no siree bob with the crowd again kicking-in right from the first set and refusing to believe at the end of the night that they did in fact have homes to go to. Sunday night came and we were told by a very reliable source that it would be a low key type night and in fact we might even finish early - no way was that ever going to happen with the crowd playing up a treat and then calling for more at the end. We would have done an encore or two but after 5 nights and roughly 15 hours of playing music we thought it time to bring down the curtain on a great week. A special thanks goes out to Craig the resident soundie at Twinnies who looked after us a treat. Hopefully the band will be back there again real soon.

It doesn’t get any bigger than playing at the home of Queensland rugby league, the famous cauldron, now Suncorp Stadium. The band was honoured to be asked to provide some of the pre-match entertainment for the Broncos v Manly game .. and what a bonus to be asked to play on the day that was the Bronco’s twentieth anniversary! The whole day was a buzz from start to finish .. only a win by the mighty Broncs could have made it any better! It’s an amazing experience to be a part of a well-oiled machine that runs smack on time, all very ably coordinated by Brian McGrath, the Operations Manager for the Broncos. Walking out through the tunnel onto the mobile stage at 2pm in the middle of the ground to what was about a half capacity crowd by that time - just under about 15,000 - was an experience not to be missed. All the apprehension and nerves that had been mounting during the week and while we were waiting to go on just disappeared. Our 5 songs went like lightning and all seemed to be appreciated by the crowd even though they were no doubt busy finding seats, buying eats and generally getting settled. The cheers and claps at the end were greatly appreciated. As were the beers and sandwiches that were provided for us in the Players Room. Thanks to the sound guys from Norwest who made us feel very at home and weren’t intimidating in the least, and a huge thanks to Brian for the opportunity and for looking after us so well.