Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour

Subject: Spooky Men;s Chorale UK tour
From: GUEST,A Fan
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 03:12 AM

The Spookys have asked their fans to let the Poms know about their tour in August. I'm amazed nobody has yet posted about this. I have nothing to do with them, i just think they're worth a look at. And there are 15 of them on tour. So they need a bit of help to subsidize the tour.

Anyway, the Spookys are a hilarious and unique Aussie phenomenon, and their publicity blurb is below. As you can see they have a website which will underline their wacky personality.

Enjoy Britain !

T H E S P O O K Y M E N 'S C H O R A L E U K T O U R 2 0 0 6

"We are the Spooky Men
We dream of mastodons
Practice mysterious handshakes
And we can grow beards, if we want to..."

Genial buffoonery and immaculate, testosterone drenched vocals define the Spooky Men's Chorale,
a ruthless bunch of larrikins based in the Blue Mountains of NSW, whose stated ambition is to
make women cry, small children quail, and insurance salesmen vaguely aware that somewhere,
there is a whole world they've never experienced.

With a sound as warm and grainy as a slab of teak, the Spooky men give equally loving attention
to ancient Georgian table songs, tawdry anthems like Don't Stand Between a Man and his Tool,
and any other vaudevillian trash they can lay their hands on.

The repertoire is largely inspired by the pointless grandeur of everyday maleness, in the shower,
in the shed and after breakfast. Stage presence is imposing, black and pointlessly exuberant,
with a cunning taste in hats. Their studied deadpan is no act: like most blokes, they've only got
the faintest idea of what's going on...

Whilst they are apt to reduce audiences to chortling, gurgling, and in some cases, involuntary
snorting, the Spooky men are not entirely a comedy act. They are also partial to pin drop
renditions of love ballads that will send you reaching for your beloved so you can
gently nuzzle them with your facial hair.

These magnificent boofopaths have been the undoubted underground hit of the
2005 Australian festival circuit. If you miss out, don't say you weren't told...

"Sheer musical excellence... like the ghosts of choristers long gone..."
John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald
"Astounding and outstanding... I admire them immensely..."
Roy Bailey, MBE

w w w . s p o o k y m e n . c o m


T O U R D A T E S
See www.spookymen.com.au for further details of gigs as they are finalised
12 august
Hereford Three Choirs Festival Fringe, 7.30pm (see www.hereford3choirsfringe.org.uk)
14 august
Broadstairs Folk Week workshop, 3pm (see www.broadstairsfolkweek.org.uk)
15 august
Broadstairs Folk Week (see www.broadstairsfolkweek.org.uk)
16 august
Lochside Theatre, Castle Douglas, Dumfries (email [e-mail])
17 - 20 august
Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Spiegeltent (La Gayola) 7pm
(see www.edfringe.com)
20 august
Edinburgh AMC St. Brides, 10:45pm (see www.edfringe.com)
22 august
Warkworth Memorial Hall, Northumberland, workshop and gig,
(email [e-mail])
23 august
Hebden Bridge Trades Club, workshop and gig (email [e-mail])
24 august
Huddersfield, workshop and gig (email [e-mail])
25-27 august
Towersey Village Folk Festival (see www.towerseyfestival.com)
28 august
Shrewsbury Folk Festival (see www.bridgnorthfolkfest.co.uk)
29 august
Ludlow, Clee St Margaret's Village Hall, workshop and gig (email [e-mail])
31 august
Cambridge (email [e-mail])
1 september
Derby Assembly Rooms (see www.assemblyrooms-derby.co.uk)
2 september
Ipswich, all day workshop and evening gig ([e-mail] -
www.sharedvoices.org.uk)
3 september
Bush Hall, Shepherd's Bush, London (see www.bushhallmusic.co.uk)

Please note all gigs are in the evening unless otherwise stated. For further information or media contact,
email [e-mail] or [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Spooky Men;s Chorale UK tour
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 11:24 AM

you're in for a treat! Steven Taberner is the best choirmaster in Oz & the Spookies are the best. This is not a community choir where anyone can join - only the best are invited, & they have been over-filling venues at festivals for the past few years.

They are wonderful singers & superb showmen. A show by the Spookies appeals to eyes & ears! Don't miss them

Spooky men
check out their reviews here

sandra

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: freda underhill
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 10:53 AM

This seedy bunch of reprobates have crawled out of the finest holes -they emit spine-curdling prisms of sound. Take rescue remedy - while your body vibrates with the pleasurable sounds of spooky men, make sure you have a friend to take you home..

unuusual, noice..

f.u.

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Bruce from Bathurst
Date: 02 Jul 06 - 04:45 AM

Praise be! They're leaving the country at last.

Many of these disturbing (and disturbed) Spooky Men live between Bathurst and Sydney and every time I drive to the big city I risk being "spooked" en route.

I can travel safely for a couple of months.

Bruce

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Jul 06 - 06:04 AM

tut, tut, tut, what kind of review is that!! no one will want to see them now & they will come back early!

sandra

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 02 Jul 06 - 06:14 AM

Too spooky for me.

eric

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Bruce from Bathurst
Date: 02 Jul 06 - 08:30 AM

Oh no, please don't send them home early. As Sandra knows, this lot are top shelf stuff and you 'above the Equator' people should have your turn!

All the Spooky Men are lovely, warm, caring, sensitive, real Aussie blokes. Apparently, they are now on a mission to spread their message of love and appreciation of alternative masculine physical beauty and personal hardware with a fortunate sub-stratum of northern hemisphere folkdome. You have been warned. (and I don't mean "that" Warne!)

If you have the opportunity to see the Spooky Men in action, you won't be disappointed. You might be confused or slightly perturbed, but you won't be disappointed.

Bruce

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: JennyO
Date: 02 Jul 06 - 09:33 AM

...and wait till you see their BIG TOOLS!!

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Amos
Date: 02 Jul 06 - 12:13 PM

boofopaths?

wot the hell is a boofopath?


A

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: GUEST,Tony
Date: 05 Jul 06 - 05:09 PM

Good to see that we're exciting controversy and confusion amongst the Mudcatters. 'Boofopaths'? Well, think 'boofy' (sort of big, lumbering, dim-witted), then think pathologically boofy. That's us to a t.

Tony
A Spooky Man

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Jul 06 - 10:19 AM

Spookies are very boofy!

---

Messages from multiple threads combined. Messages below are from a new thread.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Spooky Men's Chorale
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 15 Jul 06 - 02:04 PM

I've received e-mails from Margaret Walters and Miguel Heatwole saying that the Spooky Men's Chorale will be touring the UK soon. Any info about where in UK when?

Kitty

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jul 06 - 06:43 PM

They're booked for Towersey. Not heard 'em in the flesh, but hey sound darned good.

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale
From: vectis
Date: 16 Jul 06 - 05:29 PM

They are at Broadstairs. They are doing a workshop about singing like a bloke, so I'm told.

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Jul 06 - 05:48 AM

as I said before, they are wonderful - don't miss them.

Led by the best choirmaster in Oz, they're an invitation-only choir of excellent singers.

And they have a great stage presence, too, also good marketing skills! They will be noticed & talked about, & will consequently sing to standing-room only venues! Check out their website which I posted on the other thread.

sandra

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 12:26 AM

Hey Kitty,

You can find our tour details at http://www.spookymen.com.au/spookyUKtour.html

Come and say hello if you get to one of our gigs, and please spread the gospel of spook the length and breadth of the land.

cheers

Tony

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 02:32 PM

Joe - I did search for SMC before starting my thread, and for some reason only came up with a post from last year, not the thread started earlier this month!

Tony - I have seen your list of bookings and am disappointed to find that they aren't in places I'm likely to get to. Hopefully I'm wrong!

Kitty

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: JennieG
Date: 21 Jul 06 - 11:28 PM

Saw the Spookies on Sydney ABC-TV last night!

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: freda underhill
Date: 22 Jul 06 - 11:18 AM

Spotted a couple of spookies at the Loaded Dog folk club tonight....brrr.... They looked very .. strange.

Spooky Men
We are the Spooky Men
We dream of Mastodons
Practice mysterious handshakes
and we can grow beards...
if we want to

I believe they have recently been practising the ancient art of hypnotising wombats. This mystical practise is an initiation ritual amongst young (and, er, middle aged) men of the Blue Mountains, nsw, a very spooky place. For a man to hypnotise a wombat is a significant act, symbolic as it entails exerting charismatic mind energy over an inert and avuncular mass of apathetic wombat. something similar to the effect that the spookies are having over much of middle australia.

GOOOO SPOOOOKIES!

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: freda underhill
Date: 22 Jul 06 - 11:22 AM

spoooky.. enter if you dare..

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: freda underhill
Date: 22 Jul 06 - 11:24 AM

oops, try this one... sssshhhhhh... spooky men about....

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: freda underhill
Date: 28 Jul 06 - 08:25 PM

only a couple of weeks to go - pommies, polish your butterfly nets and scrub up your bovver boots - you are about to be truuly spooooked!

f.u.

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: freda underhill
Date: 26 Aug 06 - 10:12 AM

upcoming spookgigs...

25-27 august
Towersey Village Folk Festival, Oxfordshire (see www.towerseyfestival.com)

28 august
Shrewsbury Folk Festival (afternoon) (see www.bridgnorthfolkfest.co.uk)

29 august
Ludlow, Clee St Margaret's Village Hall, workshop and gig (email [e-mail])

31 august
Cambridge, St Lukes Church, Victoria Road, 8.00pm, £7/£5 (email [e-mail])

1 september
Derby Guildhall Theatre, Market Place, Derby, 8.00pm, £12/ £10 (see www.assemblyrooms-derby.co.uk)

2 september
Ipswich, all day workshop and evening concert (email [e-mail] -www.sharedvoices.org.uk)

3 september
Bush Hall, 310 Uxbridge Road, Shepherd's Bush, London W12, 7.30pm, £10, Bookings through www.ticketweb.com, phone [phone], or see www.bushhallmusic.co.uk.

For further information or media contact, email [e-mail]


have they been sighted yet?

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: GUEST,Frug
Date: 26 Aug 06 - 05:47 PM

Caught the Spookies at Broadstairs.................did the workshop and loved it and the concert afterwards.......................great stuff.

Frank

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 27 Aug 06 - 12:40 PM

I paid a brief visit to the Three Horseshoes barn at Towersey today, and enjoyed the even briefer visit (and song) from a couple of Spookies - thanks guys!

Kitty

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Sep 06 - 03:44 AM

Just saw them in Cambridge last night - brilliant! The Swedish folk song just has to be experienced :)

There are still tickets available for 3rd Sept in London...

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Sep 06 - 07:23 PM

Saw them tonight on their last gig of the tour... bloody brilliant!

If the Spooky Man who guested above looks in again - I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to make the young 'un fall off the stage....

If you missed them, you are a very silly person. If you saw them, you're probably even sillier!

LTS

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Sep 06 - 07:12 AM

tell us more, Liz

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: GUEST,Pickle
Date: 04 Sep 06 - 08:44 AM

My boyfriend Alex saw the Spooky men in Cambridge after seeing them at Shrewsbury Folk Festival. The lead singer spotted him and came across to have a natter..

heres a pic...

http://www.birtwisle.com/shrewsbury/Image085.jpg

Would highly recommend them, as they are brilliant!
Pickle
:o)

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: GUEST,merek n dary
Date: 04 Sep 06 - 08:15 PM

Saw them at Shrewsbury. Fantastic!!!

If they are touring next year, sombody put me in touch with them for Banbury (If we can afford it)

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: GUEST,merek n dary
Date: 04 Sep 06 - 08:19 PM

p.s. dary bought their CD and has been singing "We are the Spooky Men" non stop ever since! - Merek

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: GUEST,Alex
Date: 05 Sep 06 - 06:17 AM

Yikes Pickle, that is a scaryman standing next to a spookyman!

As Pickle mentioned, after seeing them at Shrewsbury I jumped in the car on Thursday and drove 265 miles to catch them in Cambridge with a few of my mastodonesque chums...

If I wasn't about to move house I would probably have gone to the performance in Shepherds Bush too.

Absolutely brilliant. CD is fantastic too.

Very much hope they make it back to Blighty again.

Alex

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 02:58 PM

There's a good review of the Spooky Men's performance at the Town Hall Castle Douglas in today's edition of the Independent newspaper. I haven't managed to find it online yet though.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 04:06 PM

Saw them at Warwick -fantastic!!! They also sang in the beer tent until 4:00am in the morning -very spooky but we loved them!!!

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Marje
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 04:46 PM

I saw them here in Devon last week - a great evening out, and thoroughly recommended. They're going to be at Sidmouth, so look out for them there.

Marje

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: freda underhill
Date: 24 May 09 - 06:48 AM

The Spookies are baaaack! And are coming to a venue near you Brits,from July 17 - September 6.

who are they? as described by the Irish Times, they are ...an unlikely 10-strong legion of Antipodeans, populated, it seemed, by the motley scions of a Kazakh goat herder, a Cuban revolutionary, Audie Murphy, Abraham Lincoln, Hill Street Blues' Mick (aka Animal), a
Nebraskan woodcutter, Roberto Benigni - and Biggles. Evidently schooled in the Stanislavski method, the Spooky Men championed the power of pointless grandeur, and tickled their rapt audience with such life-enhancing gems as Am I Not Pretty Enough?, Don't Stand Between a Man and His Tool and the mother of all protest songs, Stop Scratching It, You're Only Making It Worse. High camp, epic folly: probably the best programming choice of the entire summer festival circuit.

They'll be at Brampton, The Sage Gateshead,Oxford,The Stables Wavendon Milton Keynes, Warwick Folk Festival,Cambridge, Newman Hall, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol,Bexhill,Stokes Bay Festival, Sidmouth Folk Week, Clee St Margarets,Thropton - Croketdale,Durham,Castle Douglas,
Stranraer, Edinburgh, Towersey Village Festival, Shrewsbury Folk Festival, London, Abergavenny, Caernafon

...and more to be announced shortly!

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: My guru always said
Date: 24 May 09 - 04:42 PM

Luckily these guys are full of energy, they'll need loads of it for the tour! They're a Must-See, don't miss them!!

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Weasel
Date: 24 May 09 - 05:01 PM

Are they coming anywhere near Manchester?

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: freda underhill
Date: 26 May 09 - 08:46 AM

waesel, they'll be posting more venues as they organise them, so check in every now and then to see!

freda

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: r.padgett
Date: 27 May 09 - 04:31 AM

Yea saw em at Warwick ff the other year!
A must see!

Ray

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Mrs_Annie
Date: 27 May 09 - 05:31 AM

John from Cloudstreet is going to be with them for the first part of the tour :)

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Dave Earl
Date: 27 May 09 - 06:24 AM

I am not going to be able to escape from these guys.

I'll be at Warwick, Sidmouth and Towersey

Dave

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Tangledwood
Date: 27 May 09 - 07:14 PM

They ran a singing workshop,"How to sing like a bloke", at the National Folk Festival in Canberra this year. If they do the same at any of your events don't miss it! There's nothing quite like leaving the venue and walking into a crowded festival singing "get out of my way, I've very important things to do" in four part harmony. :)

Subject: RE: Spooky Men's Chorale UK tour
From: Pistachio
Date: 28 May 09 - 06:56 PM

Spoooookey and brilliantly funny. I remember them from their Warwick gig in 07 and hope to meet them in the beer tent again this year. Hx