Hey there Offtopics friends and welcome to the first newsletter of 2025!

A confession has to be made, dear reader. I’ve been a little reluctant to put pen to paper (or fingertip to keyboard in the more accurately contemporary sense). Why is that, you might ask? Well… the truth is I, in my guise as the chronicler of this newsletter, have been quite happily in a state of indolence over the Christmas and early January break. Part of that is to do with happy exhaustion post album launch. I’ll indulge in a little bit of a recap later, but suffice it to say, the success of the event earned us all some quiet reflection time.As a result, I’ve been so blissfully inactive that it’s only just occurred to me that the same cannot be said for The Offtopics!

Unbeknownst to me, they’ve been quietly labouring away on a variety of projects for 2025 which is already shaping up to be an intriguing year. So, without any further forbearance, let’s dive right in…

First Gig for 2025

You’ll have to wait until March for this, but what a gig it’ll be! The Offtopics will be playing two massive sets of fun, funny, dancey music at the Lorne Bowls Club. The bowlo, as it’s known was taken over recently by Polash’s dear friends Anna and Simon from In The Skies Art and Music. This gig has been years in the making and everyone’s super excited to make it happen with the full seven-piece band. Readers of this newsletter will know that Polash has an extended relationship with Lorne via his father and the McIldowie family but you might not know that Offtopics tenorist, Richmond Giles Esq also has an Otway connection as his parents live in Anglesea. To add to the fun, we’ve got the notorious Darius Kedros mixing us at this one, so you can expect some of the extended sonic shenanigans he mixed into our album live. We’re also welcoming a new horn player to her first show with us that night. This is a must attend, bucket list event for all of us. Get on down!
Get your tickets at the link below and there’s a Facebook event here if that’s your jam.

Trybooking Tickets: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1343592