Australian Stories In Song

Michael Fix and Mark Cryle join forces, creating a unique musical perspective on Australian history. People and events are bought to life in song; whether singing of the Aboriginal fast bowler Eddie Gilbert or the doughty St Patrick Day's protesters confronting police batons in Brisbane in 1948, or Ronald Ryan, the last hanged man in Australia. When Mark sings about visiting Sideshow Alley at the Brisbane Ekka as a child and a Dad, every word rings true without any cloying sentimentality.

Both Mark and Michael are multi-instrumentalists and seasoned performers, and both are passionate about keeping Australia’s chequered history alive - the good, the bad and the ugly - revealed through a catalogue of important original songs.

The result is a powerful insight into the thoughts and feelings of the people involved, as well as a unique and fresh understanding of the events themselves.

Venue Format
Theatre, Hall, Black Box Venue, Outdoor
Technical Rating
D, The production can be modified to suit most venues
Touring Party
3
Considerations

For unmanaged venues, the touring party will travel with all necessary technical production and crew. It is possible to present in many and varied community spaces including community halls, festivals and theatres.

Red Chair is a Queensland-based performing arts and event management company recognised nationally as a major producing and touring body for culturally diverse works. Red Chair was the winner of the 2014 Premier's Cultural Diversity Award - Small Business.

Company Website
redchair.com.au

Unique Selling Point

Michael Fix and Mark Cryle have been wowing audiences in New South Wales and South East Queensland with their Timelines concerts. These two seasoned performers interweave high quality original songwriting with superb musicianship. Moreover, they tap into a rich Australian tradition of story-telling – but in this case, all the stories are true! People and events are bought to life in song – whether it be tales of the Aboriginal fast bowler Eddie Gilbert, the larrikin gangs of early twentieth century Sydney or growing up in the shadow of Port Kembla’s foreboding copper smelting stack.

Marketing Materials

Marketing kit including marketing copy, print material, digital assets, images and promo footage.

Community Engagement

Songwriting Workshop with Mark Cryle: Can you teach someone to write songs? How do we create melodies and words that will stay in people’s heads? Can you learn that? Maybe you can, maybe not. What Mark can do is to help demystify the process. In this workshop Mark will play a few songs and discuss some basic ground rules in relation to song structure and lyric creation. There are techniques that he and other songwriters use to craft their work. Mark will also suggest paths to exploring your own creativity.

Fingerstyle Guitar Workshop with Michael Fix: Learn the fine art of fingerstyle guitar and explore the mechanics of arranging popular tunes in a variety of styles for solo guitar. Michael has one rule: "there are no rules!" and this idea is reinforced by demonstrating thought-provoking ideas, tips and tricks. Michael presents his workshops in a breezy, humorous style, answering questions and addressing issues with personal anecdotes. As Michael explains at the beginning of each session: "we are here because we all have one thing in common - we all love the guitar! There are no secrets here - I'm happy to show you anything you wish to know about."