Ok, we have the confirmed schedules for the two March festivals, details as follows…
Echuca Moama Celtic Festival, 16-18 March
Friday: 5.30-8.30pm, Star Bar, High St
Saturday: 10.30am-12.30pm, Port of Echuca, Murray Esplanade
Saturday: 8.30pm-10.30pm, Echuca Brewery, High St
Sunday: 2-4pm, Echuca Hotel, High St
Yackandandah Folk Festival, 23-25 March
Saturday: 2.30pm, Star Hotel
Saturday: 10.00pm, Holcim Marquee
Sunday: 3pm, Concert Stadium
See ya there!
Well folks, we promised you a new album in October. Then put that back to November. Then January. A tragically inconvenient alignment of the stars and planets has scuppered most of our plans, and as such the new album remains resolutely unreleased. February could be the go, March now possibly more likely.
However, in an effort to make up for our general tardiness, we’ve just uploaded the song “Winter in my Blood” from the album to our Soundcloud page – where it is available as a free download. We’ve a video clip to accompany the song which is nearing completion (really!) too, and this version is an edited version of the song made specifically to accompany the clip (the full version will be included on the album).
So without further ado… click this pic below to listen/download the brand new Zeptepi song “Winter in my Blood”!
Happy New Year folks!
We have a new album in the can – it’s now finished, we’re just waiting on mastering and pressing now. It’s currently still untitled – we’ve really got to get onto that – and will feature 12 tracks including 3 traditional folk tunes, 2 covers and 7 brand new Zeptepi originals.
Lots of shows coming up early in the year, especially for the acoustic trio, then we’re very pleased to announce we’ll be appearing at the following three folk festivals come Autumn…
16-18 March – Echuca Celtic Festival
23-25 March – Yackandandah Folk Festival
27-29 April – Koroit Irish Festival
See ya soon!
Well 2011 has certainly been our busiest year to date. We’ve played nearly 50 shows and driven God only knows how many miles around Victoria. Just the one show left this year – we’re back at the Centre of the Universe (aka Radio Springs Hotel in Lyonville) to play a trio show on December 17th. We’ve played 9 shows there this year, and they’ve all been great fun. Landlord Ken is by some distance the best proprietor we’ve ever come across – which isn’t to put down anyone else, it’s just that Ken is a bloody legend. The relaxed atmosphere of playing at Radio Springs is conducive to having a great auld time… we play for 4 hours each show in the corner of the bar to entertain the restaurant patrons, which means a chance to try out new stuff and play songs we wouldn’t/couldn’t normally play under the Zeptepi banner. If you haven’t had a chance yet to check it out, we would urge you to do so – the food is wonderful, and the hotel just oozes character and charm. We’ve another 5 shows to play there between now and March, so plenty of opportunity to make the journey up there!
We’ve spent the latter half of the year putting together album no.4. Pretty much done now, just a few songs left to mix, tentatively planning a January release. It’s predominantly an acoustic affair, but the whole band does appear on there in some shape or form. Don’t take this as an indication that we’re softening up though… the full electric band is alive and well and aiming to record another album in winter 2012! An acoustic album just felt… right. And it will feature our best songs yet. Also on the horizon is a new video clip for one of the new tracks. We had a fantastic time filming this with director Moe Hammoud in Batesford (nr Geelong) back in October. This will be the first time we’ve done a video with a narrative plot (of sorts) rather than just straight performance. Eep!
So many other highlights for 2011. We kicked off the year with a flood-ravaged trip to Adelaide, the Tasmania tour in March was amazing fun and the reception at the recent Beechworth Celtic Festival blew us away. Apollo Bay Festival was brilliant, and the Mt Beauty Festival was… interesting. A huge thank you to all the people who have watched us, danced to us and bought cds throughout the year. And a special thanks to our loyal crew, especially official Queen of Merchandise Katrina for always being there to look after cd sales and deal with bizarre requests from punters, and to Jamie for the millions of photos and videos he’s taken – not to mention all the driving.
Lots to come early in 2012… we’re heading back to Adelaide, taking in Lorne and Kaniva on the way, on Australia Day weekend. And we’ll be making our first appearance at the Echuca Celtic Festival over the St Patrick’s Day weekend in March. We’re aiming to play as many shows as possible between now and June, before taking a break for some more recording, as mentioned above. In the meantime, have a great Xmas and New Year!
First festival of the season this weekend! We’re delighted to be making our first appearance at Victoria’s Beechworth Celtic Festival. Playing times as follows:
Friday 4th – Hibernian Hotel – 9pm
Saturday 5th – Tanswells Hotel – 3.45pm
Saturday 5th – Memorial Hall – 8pm
Sunday 6th – Memorial Hall – 11am (!)
Hayley will also be doing her “Violin for Children” workshop on Saturday morning at the Town Hall (11am).
The band is taking to the road again, warming up for a busy summer with a few Spring dates in Victoria…
Oct 22 – Bruthen Inn Hotel, Bruthen
Oct 23 – Riverview Hotel, Lower Tarwin (acoustic trio)
Nov 4,5,6 – Beechworth Celtic Festival, Beechworth (4 full band shows over the weekend)
Nov 12 – Elphinstone Hotel Gateway to the Goldfields Festival, Elphinstone
Nov 20 – Radio Springs Hotel, Lyonville (acoustic trio)
Full details of times etc on the ’shows’ page of this site. See ya out there!
A few other bits of assorted news…
* excited to announce that we’ll be playing the Echuca Celtic Festival 16-18 March next year
* album #4 is well under way, mixing has begun! hope to get it released in November with a bit of luck
* we’re filming another video clip in October, for ‘Winter in my Blood’
More news soon… things are getting very busy 
We’ve uploaded a couple of video clips from our most recent acoustic performance at the lovely Radio Springs Hotel in Lyonville. You can check them out on the video tab of this website. Here’s our version of Ewan MacColl’s “School Days”….
Loads of new photos online today. We have slideshow of the best live pics of 2011 so far, and another made up of assorted on the road pics. Check them out on the photos page of this very site!
Phil, Hayley and Carlos have started working on the next Zeptepi release – this time we’re recording an acoustic album built around the banjo/fiddle/guitar. We decided to record this way as we’re doing an increasing number of live shows in this format… it seems to make sense to record something in this manner as well. We have a wealth of material ready to record, and a full band album is in the works too, probably for 2012.
Songs up for inclusion include live favorites Girls of Old Maui and King of the Balladeers, as well as some brand new numbers such as I Stand Enthralled and Winter in my Blood. With a following wind we’ll be hoping to release this around October time. Stay tuned!
Hi folks. As promised, freed up from the regular routine of gigging and rehearsing, we’ve managed to cobble together a home movie featuring live and behind the scenes footage of our tour to Tasmania in March. Enjoy!
We’ve had a hectic time this last 12 months. We’ve released our third album, done loads of gigs, travelled to Canberra, South Australia, Tasmania and all over Victoria, and made lots of new friends along the way. We’ve been stuck in floods, driven through fields, been very drunk, played to crowds of 10 and crowds of 1000, smoked too much, had tents flooded out, had banjo players marooned in Tasmania for weeks on end, and eaten far too much crap food. And it’s pretty much all been fantastic fun. And now it’s over. Sob.
Our show on the 28th May in Gunbower (Vic) was the last full band show for a while. We’ll be taking a well-earned break to (hopefully…) record another album, much of which is already written. CC Thornley will be off to the USA for a few months, but if all goes to plan we’ll be back on the road playing some festivals in October/November time. We’re also looking at the exciting possibility of recording a live DVD before the year is out. There will probably be a few little acoustic shows in the meantime, so keep your eye on the gig guide. We’ve also got a MASSIVE backlog of photos and video footage to work through, so we should now have time to actually start editing and posting some stuff.
But back to Gunbower. What a night! Something brilliant about playing shows to folk out in the country. You’re always treated wonderfully – free food, free beer, often free accommodation too, as was the case this weekend. Plus decent fees for your performances. We certainly earned our money this time – playing a one hour acoustic set, followed by two 75 minute full band sets! But the best thing about these shows is the audiences. They ALWAYS go crazy, always dance until they drop, and are so appreciative of the fact that you’ve bothered to drive so far to play a gig for them. It’s just so rewarding to play for these people. Long may it continue. Over the next year we’ll be doing our best to get out and play as many rural Victorian shows as we possibly can. And a special thanks to the lovely Krys and Kim from Cat in the Hat Management for making the night possible, and proving that – unbelievably – booking agents can be professional, generous and decent people.
A final word – CC, Hayley and I played an acoustic show at the Radio Springs Hotel in Lyonville on the way back from Gunbower. Owner Ken is a fantastic bloke, he’s had us play there plenty of times this year already and it’s always an absolute pleasure. It’s hard work – we play for four hours a time – but there is no nicer location to do this. If you want a great meal in a pub overflowing with character and friendliness, you owe it to yourself to get out to Radio Springs.
Phil x
Radio Springs Hotel:
Sunday 22nd May sees us play at the Victorian Fair Trade Festival at Melbourne’s Queen Vic Market. This event runs 10am – 4pm, and is aimed at promoting and raising awareness of Fair Trade and Ethical Business in Australia. Ironically we’re doing it for nothing.
Anyway, we’ll be playing a set at 2pm, so come along and say hello! No entry fee, no age restrictions. Location is at the City-end of the market. Lots of market stalls, an art exhibition and a kids corner for crafts and such like.
The last of the long weekend festival trips is over for the season, following the trip to Victoria’s Mt Beauty this weekend just gone. Another successful foray out of Melbourne – plenty of cds and t-shirts sold (thanks to our ever wonderful Queen of Merchandise, aka Katrina), lots of great shows and lots of new friends along the way. Highlights include the sometimes breathtaking scenery around Mt Beauty and Tawonga, the willingness of the Hotel Bogong to keep serving us alcohol, young Matilda’s dancing, Hayley locking the hotel room keys in her room, the post gig sing-a-long at the Hotel on Saturday night, Hayley locking the car keys in her bag in the car (how do you even do that?), the ever-friendly local crowds and volunteers and plenty more. Lowlights include the Festival trying to charge $70 a head for admission to our gigs for our 3 strong crew of merch-girl/roadie/photographer, the Hotel coffee machine exploding and three days of almost exclusively crap food. But as always the good far outweighs the bad, and hopefully we can look forward to many more trips like this come spring time when the festivals start all over again.
And a special thank you to the wonderful Andie Fitzpatrick for filling in so ably for our absent bass player Frank. Andie did a mighty fine job, fitted in a treat and was a pleasure to play with. Thanks Andie
Less than two weeks away! Best dust the tents down. We’re playing 3 sets at the Apollo Bay Music Festival…
Saturday 9th April – Bowls Club – 2:45pm to 3:30pm
Saturday 9th April – ABC Sessions Bar – 9:45pm to 10:30pm
Sunday 10th April – Bowls Club – 4:30pm to 5:15pm
Woo-hoo!
As you may have noticed, we has a new website today. We’ve expanded on the previous version and added a heap of content, including Phil’s thoughts on all the recordings we’ve done over the years (see the ‘Music’ tab on the menu). We especially recommend the ‘Store’ page 
What can we say? We had an awesome time on our brief tour to Tassie. A special thanks to Lee Slaughter, who organised the Westbury Festival and went out of his way beyond the call of duty to make sure we were always looked after and never short of beer and food! But everybody in Westbury made us feel so very welcome, and the audiences were brilliant at all the shows. Rumour has it we’ll be back next year, we certainly hope so.
The Launceston and Hobart shows were great fun too. But as we’ve said before, every time we get out of Melbourne people seem to appreciate us so much more. We sold a record amount of merchandise too… I think we sold more t-shirts in Tasmania than we’ve sold in total up until now. Anyway, some photos and video footage will follow at some point in the next few weeks!
Very excited to be off to Tasmania for the first time next week for a five date tour built around Westbury’s St Patricks Festival, starting on St Patricks day!
Details as follows:
Thu 17 Irish Murphy’s, Launceston (9.30pm)
Fri 18 Westbury St Patricks Festival (9pm)
Sat 19 Westbury St Patricks Festival (2.40pm)
Sat 19 Westbury St Patricks Festival (9.20pm)
Sun 20 Republic Bar, Hobart (9pm, also features solo set from CC Thornley)
Suspect this tour may feature some pretty major hangovers…
Hey folks, we recently recorded a couple of demos, trying out some things for the next album. You can hear the tracks on our Soundcloud page, click on these links:
Enjoy!
Next full band show is March 5th in the home of Zeptepi HQ – Melbourne’s Western suburbs. We’re playing the Seddon Festival, onstage at 5.30pm. No admission charge, nice friendly little village festival. Fun for all the family!
Two shows coming up this weekend, gonna be a busy 48 hours.. mostly spent driving!
We’re back in Adelaide for the first time since 2006, with a show at the Wheatsheaf in Thebarton on Saturday 15th – see the live page for full details. What has been nice about this trip so far has been the support and enthusiasm for it that we’ve had from the Adelaide scene itself… Rip It Up magazine placed a nice little article about us on their website last month, and there is a Zeptepi interview in this weeks print version of the mag. There will also be an interview live-to-air tonight at 10.45pm Melbourne time on Three D radio – you can stream live via their website here. If only we could get this sort of support in our own city!
After a quick kip we’ll be back on the road and heading to Barongarook, near Cape Otway on the Victorian south coast. We’re very happy to be part of the showcase launch for April’s Apollo Bay Festival, taking place at the Otway Estate Winery. Full details can be found on the live page of this site. We’re last act of the afternoon, playing at 5.20pm.
One last thing – some video footage from the Maldon Folk Festival now online on our youtube page… check it out here. Two unreleased new songs available to see: The King of the Balladeers and Dead Men Tell No Tales.