N/A
Strange Tenants were the 'Godfathers of Australian Ska', emerging in the 1980s in the wake of UK two-tone ska bands like The Specials but producing their own original political ska songs unlike most other Australian ska bands. Thirty-six years later they're still around and still political.
Four different women, each with a well-hidden secret they are coaxed, tricked or forced into revealing... sometimes it's better to omit the truth.
Brothers Mic and Jim Conway have been making music together since their school days, when they formed the Jellybean Jug Band, which later morphed into the wildly popular Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band. In the early 1970s, Captain Matchbox became a phenomenon, delighting audiences with lively performances of Fats Waller classics like My Canary Has Circles Under His Eyes and quirky originals such as Wangaratta Wahine and Fernando’s Hideaway. Mic’s passion for vaudeville and creating instruments from anything at hand has driven his work across countless bands over the last 40 years, blending performance, circus, and humour. Jim, a blues purist, found his voice in Captain Matchbox as a harmonica player, becoming one of Australia’s foremost blues harp players.
With a career that spans over four decades and across the globe, Jamaican singer Pat Powell (Patou) is one of Australia’s most accomplished yet hidden vocal talents. He is the artist that everyone wants to work with – the singer’s singer who sings with 15 bands, including the ARIA award-winning Melbourne Ska Orchestra. Born in the UK to Jamaican parents, Pat left the racism of the UK as soon as he could, although he ‘stupidly’ found his way to Australia with its own racism issues. Father to four children from different mothers with varying ethnic backgrounds, Pat’s children all identify differently and discuss racism and where identity comes from.
