Beloved Offtopics friends,

I’m still waiting for one of you to write in with a suggested demonym for those of you who live in that place Mailchimp unromantically calls “The Offtopics Mailing List”. I can’t keep referring to you as “Offtopics Friends” forever. It feels like such a placeholder…

And while we’re at it – what should we call this newsletter? I’m leaning towards calling it “Hot Topics”… though admittedly, that name DOES put me in mind of The Hot Gossip dancers that boggled my juvenile mind during re-runs of the Kenny Everett Show on the ABC back in the day. Ah… memories… But before I let myself get mugged down memory lane, best not to go… ahem… off topic and move on to the hot topics (Ah ha!) of this newsletter.

We’ve got a couple of shows to announce, two Offtopics shows, a plug for Linc’s forthcoming album launch, more docos at Sunday School of Rock and a sad farewell to one of The Offtopics’ management team.

Let’s get on with it!

The Offtopics at Shotkickers – Friday 13 June

We’re bringing our punch-drunk funk, unsteady rocksteady and slapstick soul to a last-minute surprise show at Shotkickers on the spoooookiest night of the year – Friday 13 June!

Shotkickers has been rapidly rising over the last couple of years as the IT venue for Melbourne’s independent band scene in the north. They’ve shown their dedication to live music by investing in a top quality sound and light system which means you can both SEE and HEAR your favourite bands achieve sonic clarity without being so loud they deafen you. Shotkickers was on our radar as a possible venue for our album launch but we couldn’t quite accommodate each other’s dates. So when there was a surprise cancellation we thought, “let’s do it!” It’s a pretty short lead time to the gig though – so we’ll need your help filling the room!

This is our FIRST Melbourne show since last November’s album launch. Bring your dancing crocs for what promises to be a very special night with the full 7-piece band with support from Ngiyampaa man PIRRITU.

Polash met Brett Lee aka Pirritu at a music management workshop a few years ago. He has an interesting story and writes sweet, soulful tunes in a singer-songwriter vein. He can also rock a killer jumper. Pirritu will be an excellent warm up for all the bombast and silliness to follow.

Some of that silliness includes a guest appearance by our old friend Madeleine Clare to duet on Mr Tonight. Don’t miss the delicious awkwardness that occurs when she and Polash gaze deeply into each other’s eyes. It’s magic!

Click here for TICKETS

And there’s a Facebook event here if that’s your jam.

The Offtopics lounge about at BaBs Friday 25 July

It’s a while away yet but we’re planning a different sort of gig to the big extravaganzas we’ve been producing lately. For a free-entry show at BaBs (aka The Brunswick Artists Bar) we’re reverting to a tight 5 piece R&B group for a night of deep soul, reggae and roots mixed in with our original songs. BaBs is a tiny place. It’s a bit like playing in your lounge room so make sure you come wearing your comfiest tracky pants. Linc won’t be joining us for this one. He’s snowed under with other commitments that include a trip to Canada with Kutcha Edwards and his own album launch. (More about that next). Filling in on traps for him will be ex-Frente! and current Marcel Borrack TD Band drummer Al Barden.

Come have a mulled wine and see The Offtopics attempt things they wouldn’t normally do in a smaller, tighter line-up.

Sunday School of Rock

Sunday School of Rock has been pootling along happily at The Henkel Street Cinema. Enthusiastic lovers of concert films and music documentaries have been gathering on the second Sunday of the Month. Numbers ebb and flow but so far there seems to be a core group of movie goers finding the curatorial choices intriguing enough that they come to every session. Last months’ installment of Miss Nikki and the Tiger Girls is followed by Mozart’s Sister this month thereby continuing the theme of girl power and women kicking against the pricks… and stretching the definition of “rock” in the process.

The July installment is Kneecap the movie which expands the ongoing theme of resistance to include de-colonisation. The movie’s also meant to be frickin’ hilarious so that’s not to missed either. “Mozart’s Sister” is on Sunday 8th of June and “Kneecap” is on Sunday 13 July.

There’ll be an announcement about what’s on at Sunday School of Rock for the second half the year in the coming weeks. Polash is yet to program it, but rest assured it’ll be as weird, wonderful, thought provoking and fascinating as what’s been on to date.

The Deans of Vinyl

Most of you will know about Linc’s band The Deans of Soul but did you know that they’re launching, as Linc puts it, “their first vinyl release”? Presumably he’s referring to a 12 inch record with music on it and not a jacket, or a couch or reconditioned seat covers for a 1976 Datsun 120Y… It’s quite probable that, IF it is indeed a record, then it’ll showcase some of the songs they recorded over the last year like this one:

They’ve cleverly linked themselves to the Northcote Social Club’s 20th anniversary celebrations and they’ve lined up Indigenous artists Candice Lorae and our friend Pirritu to open for them so it should be quite the soiree.

When is this launch of a vinyl record (or couch or jacket) you may ask? It’s on Saturday 26 July. I expect I’ll see you there.

Press here for tickets!

Vale Mash

Finally, a bit of sad news:

Some of you already knew but here it is made official in the Hot Topics Newsletter. In late March the band’s assistant band manager, studio captain and deputy bookings coordinator passed away. We’re not sure, but we think she was almost 16.

This photo was taken just a couple of weeks before she took sudden turn for the worse, losing the ability to eat or drink. Here she is “helping” to load the car before our show at the Lorne Bowls Club. She was a real people dog and would even come to the occasional gig. One that springs to mind was the one at the Cross Street Hall where she disappeared and I ended up having to drag her out of the men’s toilets.

She was a firm believer in the fundamental goodness of humans. She came into our family when she followed my ex-brother in-law home. She was a young pup, lost on the mean streets of South Kingsville. Her microchip was scanned and her erstwhile owners declared the unthinkable – they didn’t want her! So she joined a family who already had a dog named “Bangers” and thus she became “Mash”. I never learned her original name.

Her new family moved to Macedon and she became a country dog. Then that family moved somewhere she couldn’t follow. They moved to Thailand while Mash remained with another young family in Macedon though she’d occasionally get some town time with us in Brunswick. This arrangement became more or less permanent during the dark times of the Pandemic. She kept us sane. Pretty much every day she did something funny, or unusual, or annoying that gave us something to talk about so we didn’t retreat into ourselves. She found half a kebab under a bush by the footy oval and so became a devotee of “The Kebab Fairy” praying every day at the magic kebab bush for the next few years.

Her legend spread through the neighborhood. Her people skills were renowned and I suspected (with some justification) that she was quite a bit more popular than me. The vet nurses at the Essendon Veterinary Clinic called her “our queen” when featuring her in their social media posts. When I stopped in for a beer at The Foreigner Brewing Company I found this sitting on the taps – awaiting my arrival some days after her passing.

Her portrait now hangs permanently on the wall at Foreigner as a mark of her popularity amongst the regulars.

After her death I got a song stuck in my head. You might have expected it to be something like Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens’ “I Love My Dog” but with the unpredictability of grief it was something else entirely. I found myself playing the Irish standard “Raglan Road” over and over again. The song was adapted from a poem by Patrick Kavanagh first published in 1946 as “Dark Haired Miriam Ran Away”. It was one of several poems inspired by the unrequited love (she liked him as a friend) Kavanagh felt for the much younger Dr Hilda Moriarty. Decades later Kavanagh met Luke Kelly of The Dubliners and the poem was set to the tune of an Irish Language song “Fainne Gael an Lae” from the mid 19th Century. In another odd coincidence, a line from the poem, “along the enchanted way”, had been co-opted by William Blacker for the title of his memoir about Romania. Former Offtopic keys man, Mark Bretherton had insisted I read the book before our 2023 trip to Romania citing it as one of Prince (as he was then) Charles’ favourite books. The book I could take or leave… probably the latter. I was definitely more into the song.

In the immediate post-Mash period I mostly played the version I knew which was from the “Irish Heartbeat” album by Van Morrison and The Chieftans.

But I also obsessively sought out other versions of the song including those by The Dubliners, Sinead O’Connor, Mark Knopfler and even the version by Ed Sheeran which I won’t bother linking because frankly, it’s crap.

I worked out the chords and transcribed the lyrics. I’d pick up a guitar and bellow out the words at random moments in between whatever jobs I was doing.

And bit by bit and by such and such grief did indeed become “a falling leaf at the dawning of the day.”

While in her high energy younger days she was sometimes the “Monster” Mash, in her golden years she grew into our “Sweet Potato”.

Vale.