John Kennedy And The New Originals Album Launch - Live At The Marrickville Bowl
Marrickville Bowling Club (Marrickville, NSW)
Saturday, 18 January 2025 7:30 pm
An enthusiastic young music journalist once described Australian International singer / songwriter John Kennedy as a humble genius. Kennedy is neither a genius nor particularly humble. He is the creator of many classic Australian Indie songs that have found a place in the hearts of Australian indie pop music lovers. Kennedy returns from Spain to promote the new album John Kennedy And The New Originals - Live At The Marrickville Bowl. Central Coast noir country rockers Pete Ross and the Sapphire and Inner West up-and-comers Banana Farm will open proceedings.
John Kennedy And The New Originals played a farewell show at the Marrickville Bowling Club on Saturday 18 May, 2023. Kennedy was leaving Australia to live in Spain for the foreseeable future. The set for the show was a balance of the Urban and Western hits, some covers of Australian indie classics from the recent Raining Treasure albums and songs from the new New Originals album. It presented a kind of retrospective of Kennedy’s Australian indie music career. The capacity crowd on the night was right there with the band. There was a lot of love in the room for Kennedy and the band who had built, lost and rebuilt a small but loyal following over the years.. Kennedy said something to the effect of, "If I knew it was going to be like this, I would have left earlier - and more often!". The night was capped off with a coronation of the king of King Street by an audience member who appeared from the crowd with a wonderful $2 shop plastic crown. Everyone went home after the show with a smile and the memory of a great night out.
And that, should really, have been that. Until, at least, Kennedy was alerted to the fact that Richard Ball, the in-house sound guy at the Bowlo had, unbeknownst to him, recorded the show at the mixing desk. Richard supplied the band with the files and Kennedy and bassist and co-producer Phil Hall had a good listen to this flat mix recording. The flat mixes sounded like flat mixes do - flat. But there was enough there to make them think that maybe they could make something out of it. The drums and bass foundation that Peter Timmerman and Hall had laid down provided a solid base on which the twin lead guitars of Murray Cook and Matt Galvin could be hoisted with Kennedy’s distinctive vocals sitting atop.
John Kennedy started his music career in Brisbane with his first band JFK and the Cuban Crisis. A move to Sydney brought immediate independent success with the first release on Waterfront Records. The band broke up in the mid-'80's and Kennedy went on to pursue a solo career with his band vehicle John Kennedy's Love Gone Wrong. Numerous indie hits including Miracle (in Marrickville), King Street and Big Country followed, but commercial success remained elusive. In 1989, Kennedy chose to travel the world with his guitar, living by the mantra: Have Songs, Will Travel.
After ten years of living, performing and recording in LA, Berlin, Hong Kong, Holland and London, Kennedy returned to Sydney in the 2000's and formed John Kennedy's 68 Comeback Special. With an ever-changing line up of musicians, he continued to release numerous albums before settling with a stable group of bandmates: Love Gone Wrong drummer Peter Timmerman, original Red Wiggle Murray Cook on guitar and Phil Hall formerly of Sardine v, The Dropbears and The Lime Spiders on bass. With this release occasional guest guitarist Matt Galvin became a full time member of the recently renamed band John Kennedy And The New Originals.
What we have here is an unplanned recording of what was to be a farewell show. With the talent and positive energy of the team that has worked with the band over the last few years, they’ve created this album memento of the show for those that were there on the night. It will also serve as an introduction to a new audience when Kennedy starts to build his new career in Spain.
John Kennedy And The New Originals played a farewell show at the Marrickville Bowling Club on Saturday 18 May, 2023. Kennedy was leaving Australia to live in Spain for the foreseeable future. The set for the show was a balance of the Urban and Western hits, some covers of Australian indie classics from the recent Raining Treasure albums and songs from the new New Originals album. It presented a kind of retrospective of Kennedy’s Australian indie music career. The capacity crowd on the night was right there with the band. There was a lot of love in the room for Kennedy and the band who had built, lost and rebuilt a small but loyal following over the years.. Kennedy said something to the effect of, "If I knew it was going to be like this, I would have left earlier - and more often!". The night was capped off with a coronation of the king of King Street by an audience member who appeared from the crowd with a wonderful $2 shop plastic crown. Everyone went home after the show with a smile and the memory of a great night out.
And that, should really, have been that. Until, at least, Kennedy was alerted to the fact that Richard Ball, the in-house sound guy at the Bowlo had, unbeknownst to him, recorded the show at the mixing desk. Richard supplied the band with the files and Kennedy and bassist and co-producer Phil Hall had a good listen to this flat mix recording. The flat mixes sounded like flat mixes do - flat. But there was enough there to make them think that maybe they could make something out of it. The drums and bass foundation that Peter Timmerman and Hall had laid down provided a solid base on which the twin lead guitars of Murray Cook and Matt Galvin could be hoisted with Kennedy’s distinctive vocals sitting atop.
John Kennedy started his music career in Brisbane with his first band JFK and the Cuban Crisis. A move to Sydney brought immediate independent success with the first release on Waterfront Records. The band broke up in the mid-'80's and Kennedy went on to pursue a solo career with his band vehicle John Kennedy's Love Gone Wrong. Numerous indie hits including Miracle (in Marrickville), King Street and Big Country followed, but commercial success remained elusive. In 1989, Kennedy chose to travel the world with his guitar, living by the mantra: Have Songs, Will Travel.
After ten years of living, performing and recording in LA, Berlin, Hong Kong, Holland and London, Kennedy returned to Sydney in the 2000's and formed John Kennedy's 68 Comeback Special. With an ever-changing line up of musicians, he continued to release numerous albums before settling with a stable group of bandmates: Love Gone Wrong drummer Peter Timmerman, original Red Wiggle Murray Cook on guitar and Phil Hall formerly of Sardine v, The Dropbears and The Lime Spiders on bass. With this release occasional guest guitarist Matt Galvin became a full time member of the recently renamed band John Kennedy And The New Originals.
What we have here is an unplanned recording of what was to be a farewell show. With the talent and positive energy of the team that has worked with the band over the last few years, they’ve created this album memento of the show for those that were there on the night. It will also serve as an introduction to a new audience when Kennedy starts to build his new career in Spain.