26 • B.ENTERTAINED www.bendigoweekly.com.au Bendigo Weekly – Friday, April 1, 2011

THERE are ballsy live de-buts.

Then there’s entertain-ing almost 20,000 Sydney dance fans on Bondi Beach for New Year’s Eve. No big-gie.

But as you’d expect, Canberra dance duo The Aston Shu� e aced the ini-tiation.

“Being in front of that many people was pretty cra-zy, nerve wracking, a whole mixture of emotions,” The Shu� e’s Vance Musgrove (above right) said.

“You have to put those (negative) voices out of your head. Just try and do it, but not think about it.”

Easier said than done. Most performers pop their musical cherry in a front bar somewhere, � ghting for at-tention with a poorly placed television set.

But the evolution from DJ set to live performance for electronic coupling Mus-grove and Mikah Freeman could not be ignored.

Perhaps they had noth-ing to fear anyway. They were the people’s champion after all; named Australia’s number one track spinners according to a 2010 inthe-mix DJ poll.

Nevertheless, they were slightly envious of musicians who make their debuts on much smaller stages.

“On some levels we kind of wished we had,” he laughed.

“The nerves were ridicu-lous. It took us about 45 minutes to come back down to earth.

“We could relax, then re-

alise how stressful the expe-rience actually was.”

The Aston Shu� e are still slightly edgy; their de-but album was dropped on March 15, and their shows now come with the kind of lofty expectation that goes with being judged the best in the business.

Years before, Musgrove had been raised amongst the “smaller but no less vi-brant” dance culture of Can-berra, drip–fed on the likes of Sasha, John Digweed and Armand Van Helden – the man he would eventually share the bill on that last night of 2010.

He met his co-conspir-ator, Mikah (pronounced like the British popstar), in a Canberra record store, and they bonded over their love of dance and “partying all over the city”.

The pair began spinning discs seriously in 2006; their name created from the most legible mash up of the two Canberra suburbs they were living in – Ainslie and Weston – and “shu� e” be-ing “inherently dancey” by design.

It also came from their original idea to start up a record label, which didn’t exactly � y.

“The shu� e part of it was wanting to have a label that wasn’t called some-thing records, or something recordings, because every label has that and we found that boring,” he said.

Hitting number one with a bullet caught both o� guard.

“It was something we thoroughly felt we didn’t deserve but you can’t really hand these kinds of awards back,” an almost apologetic Musgrove said.

“It was certainly some-thing we never expected, it

was a bit of a shock,.” At the same time, it was

merely another box checked on the never ending road to relevance, for Musgrove.

“You don’t set about these things without goals but the goals aren’t ‘I wanna achieve number one’,” he said.

“The goals are ‘I want to stay relevant’. The goals are a little bit more oblique than achieving a particular accolade.

“The thing on our radar was always about putting our heads down.”

For 18 months they did just that, creating debut LP Seventeen Past Midnight.

“The goal of the last 18 months has been to get this album � nished,” he said.

“It was a long process, with a lot of soul searching and it did our heads in. It was a rewarding experience but we’re thankful it’s over.”

Fans have already had a sample of the goods; Your Love, released last October, was a hit, and exposed The Shu� e’s penchant for the much maligned vococoder.

“They’re great, they’re also great in the sense you can use it as a writing tool,” he said.

“You can jam on vocal ideas without being the greatest singer in the world.”

The Shu� e are about to embark on a national tour. And with Musgrove now a Sydneysider, and Freeman still based in Canberra, it’s a chance to not only enter-tain, but spend some QT away from the DJ booth.

“The friendship is one of the key elements, it’s tied it all together,” he said.

The Aston Shu� e play Groovin The Moo in Ben-digo on April 30.

ONE Bendigo band is feel-ing pretty groovy right now.

The Bride Stripped Back got the best possible news on Wednesday arvo when they got the o¥ cial call up for Groovin The Moo 2011.

Leader singer Natalie Korinfsky (right) and the rest of the band have been on cloud nine ever since.

“They saw us as one of Bendigo’s hardest working bands and were impressed by the songs, so that was what got us the slot,” she said.

“I’m absolutely stoked,

it’s incredible, I can’t believe we get to play in front of our home town at one of the country’s biggest festivals.

“I told the rest of the guys and they didn’t believe me.”

Only one band could be selected from Triple J’s Unearthed competition, as part of a four local band as-sault to represent Bendigo at the festival on April 30, and The Bride got the choc-olates.

It rounds o� a stellar 12 months for the group, who recorded their debut album, Chaos and The Calm, on the back of a $30,000 Victorian Arts Grant, which has sold over 500 copies to date.

They’ve also received airplay on Triple J with their

tune, The Fire, and earned a glowing review of their album in respected street press, Inpress Magazine.

Congrats to Natalie, Josh DeAraugo, Lauren Jen-nings, Michael Lowe and Rob Parsons, you’ve done Bendigo proud. Only ques-tion is: which band is next?

alise how stressful the expe- was a bit of a shock,.”

shuffleastonentertained

ben cameron

Friday, April 1

Long Gully Neighbourhood Centre’s National Youth Week Event. 4.30pm to 8pm at the multi purpose facilities, Long Gully Oval behind BP service station.Entertainment including The Palmer Bros, Bendigo hip hop Kollective, massive gra� ti mural painting, sausage sizzle. Family friendly event. Contact 54421164.

Lions Club of Heathcote’s 2010 Harold Baigent Memorial Art Exhibition. 7pm at the Heathcote Senior Citizens and Guide Halls, High Street, Heathcote. Contact Caroline 54434600 or Chris 54397654.

Saturday, April 2

Sebastian Progress Association’s Family Drive-In Night. Commencing at dusk at Sebastian Recreation Reserve . Look for signs on Bendigo -Pyramid Road , Sebastian. Movies shown Tangled and Toy Story 3, gates open at 6pm, movie begins at dusk. Catering provided by Raywood C.F.A. and Sebastian Fishing Club. $10 per  car. Contact Jan 54 361221 or Pat 54 361287.

Zonta Club of Bendigo’s Gala Garden Expo. 1.30pm – 4.00pm at the Vision Australia Day Centre Bendigo, McIvor Highway(enter from Thompson Ave). Tickets $10 includes Devonshire Tea.

Sunday, April 3

The Grinners Rock Covers Band. 2pm to 5pm at The Bridge Hotel Playing classic hits from 60s to today’s Top 40. No cover charge.

Caledonian Art, Craft & Produce Market. 9am-1pm at the corner of Water and Thompson Streets, Ballarat. High quality hand made/home grown products. Contact 0420528729 or caledonian.psacpmarket@yahoo.com.au.

Girton Bendigo Home Tours. From 1pm. Tickets can be purchased at the Bendigo Visitor Centre in person or by calling 1800 813 153. You can also go to www.girtonbendigohometours.org.au . Contact Jill from Girton Grammar Parents’ and Friends’ Association on 0438 414 911.

Monday, April 4

Morning Co� ee Party in support of Bendigo Health Care Group Palliative Care Auxiliary. From 10 am at the Uniting Church Hall, Chum Street, Golden Square. Trading Table, Ra¥ e & Lucky Door. Contact 54 434 600.

Tuesday, April 5

Blumes’ Winter Fashions. 1.30pm at Kangaroo Flat Uniting Church, High Street (opposite ALDI). Admission $5 which includes Devonshire Tea & Lucky Door. Proceeds to Kangaroo Flat Uniting Care Outreach

Thursday, April 7

The Bendigo Branch of the Uncle Bobs Club. Newmarket Hotel, Bendigo from 1.30pm. Main meeting before the Royal Children Hospital Good Friday Appeal.

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Friday, April 1, 2011 – Bendigo Weekly www.bendigoweekly.com.au B.ENTERTAINED • 27

A VERY exciting time is upon us. Tonight marks the open-ing of the 2011 Castlemaine State Festival, just down the road with plenty to do, see, hear, with many of our re-gion’s artists involved.

Martin Paten – in his sec-ond year as Festival Director – aims the program squarely at the local populace.

This year’s ten-day pro-gram includes 800 artists across all artforms, with just over a third of the works pro-duced by locals.

Paten kicks o� the Festival tonight with a street parade and � esta which encourages public particpation alongside a myriad of performers, pro-fessional dancers, “streets-weepers, cyclists and school crossing attendants” among them.

Pageant and Pandemo-nium, which starts in Mostyn Street at 7pm, will feature Jaara Jarra elders, break dancers and over 150 Central

Victorian dancers with mem-bers of the public invited to spontaneously dance too. It’s all scored by ‘Rocco Grimaldi and his Pandemonium Band. Sounds wild.

As an ardent admirer of Ed Roth, the patron saint of Hot Rod Art, and equally impressed by Castlemaine’s proclamation as being “Street Rod Centre of of Australia”, one of the events I’m most ex-cited about is Car-Cophany.

Car-Cophany will feature Castlemaine’s famous motor-heads, who will play their car horns, stereos and more in orchestrated musical unison in the wee gorge of Vaughan Springs.

This ‘‘wall of sound’ will be arranged by composer Michael Timmis over “three distinct movements.”

The groaning, droning, crunching cacophany will bounce around the Springs’ natural amphitheatre on April 3 and 8. Brian Eno eat your heart out.

Pressing Issues, this year’s Castlemaine Visual Arts Bi-ennal, will also feature over 60 Central Victorian artists, galleries and studios, plus

many others from interstate, overseas, Melbourne, and im-pressive works by Indigenous artists from the Northern Ter-ritory and WA.

The Biennial includes � ve exhibitions curated by Heide’s Jason Smith, curator Samantha Comte and Austra-lian printmaker Martin King.

The exhibition of Press-ing Issues includes a couple of my favorite locals; the po-etic etchings of David Frazer (also holding wood engrav-ing workshops at his Castle-maine studio), and work by painter/print-maker Kim Bar-ter, whose images are at once whimsical and intense, some-times haunting.

But lest I get too provin-cial – some big names from out of town include famous South African animator Wil-liam Kentridge, whose work will be part of The Artist Rooms site-speci� c instal-lation series inside Castle-maine’s Continuing Educa-tion Building.

Also progressive Austra-lian contemporary music trio Golden Fur who use carving knives as instruments.

Another show I’m excited about is Saltbush, an Italian-Australian co-production where the audience explores the lives of two young Ab-original friends as they cross Australia on foot, through interactive media and perfor-mance.

It sounds like the perfect event for kids – big and small.

Castlemaine State Festival, April 1-10, Bendigo Box O� ce at The Capital, View Street, 5434 6100.

megan spencer

ELISABETH Holdsworth came to Australia as a child, and worked most of her life in the public service. In 2007, her essay, For Those Who Come After, won the ABR-Calibre Prize. In that essay, she described the di� culty she had turning her family memoir into a book, until she decided to

� ctionalise the story. That story, which mirrors much of the author’s life, has now been published by Picador.

Those Who Come After is about Australian Juliana Stolburg, the last of an aristocratic Dutch family whose castle in the Netherlands was commandeered by the Nazis during the war. Following a tragic accident in which her mother dies, Juliana must confront her own rebellion against the strictures of family history – a rebellion which involved a remarkable man.

While the story parallels her own life, it is � ction, but Ms Holdsworth says, no less “real” for that. “Storytelling is real life,” she says. “That’s how we negotiate life.

“Of course I changed things, a novel gives you the freedom to do that. This wasn’t so much about the wish to avoid giving o� ence, rather to allow the characters to speak for themselves, to not saddle them with authorial judgements.”For Ms Holdsworth, as for her character Juliana, storytelling is an attempt “to make sense of the things that happened in the past”.

The full interview with Elizabeth Holdsworth is at bendigoweekly.com.au/book-club

Those Who Come AfterElisabeth HoldsworthPicador

pick of the week

BendigoWeeklyBOOK CLUBthis week’s top 10

1. Sing You HomeJodi Picoult

2. BataviaPeter Fitzsimons

3. Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals Jamie Oliver

4. Wise Man’s Fear Bk 2Kingkiller Chronicle Patrick Rothfuss

5. Letters & Numbers 2SBS

6. Letters & Numbers 1SBS

7. Letters & Numbers 3SBS

8. Only Time Will Tell Je� rey Archer9. Those in Peril

Wilbur Smith10. The Happiest Refugee

Anh Do

Supplied by Dymocks Bendigo

castlemaine festival

BROOKLYN based DJ AC Slater is not only multi-skilled with vinyl in hand, but benevolent.

The man formally known as Aaron Clevenger with the Saved By The Bell inspired moniker, likes to travel light.

So being a serial hoarder of music by na-ture, when moving out of his last apartment, he felt compelled to leave a nice surprise for the next ten-ant.

And it wasn’t small.“I used to have a tonne

of CDs and vinyl but over the years I’ve minimised my collecting,” he said.

“When I left my last apartment I left about 500 records.

“I would have made the person moving in pret-ty happy. Especially if they like drum and bass.”

For a DJ entrenched in hip hop and old skool rave, Slater has eclectic taste.

“I’m a music fan in gen-eral but I also love rhythm and blues, indie rock, even a little jazz and bluegrass,” he said.

“I’m all over the place.”Just don’t call him a

connoisseur. “A lot of people have in

their heads their top tens

of tracks of whatever,” he said.

“I don’t really organise things like that. I couldn’t tell you my favourite al-bum, my tastes change with the time.

“I’m bad with names and titles. I know the mu-sic, but when it comes to cataloguing things in my head, it doesn’t work for me.”

Which makes his art of remixing the songs of oth-ers all the more admirable.

But what does he prefer? Creating his own tracks, or giving others a subtle tweak?

“I really like both. Re-mixing is like a little bit more relaxed because all the parts are ready to rear-range, you kind of make it your own,” he said.

“It’s like playing around and experimenting. But making your own tune is more satisfying, a little bit more of a struggle.

“You have to make ev-erything up from scratch.”

It was a remix howev-er, of Moby’s Turn The Mu-sic Up, that got him both noticed by, and praise from, the chrome-domed electro extraordinare.

“I had a blast doing it and the reaction was great,” he said.

“Moby actually called it one of his top 10 songs of the last decade.

“He’s a really intelli-gent cool laid-back dude.”

Slater’s varied taste in

music style is re§ ected in the town he lives. Brook-lyn, New York.

“Basically in Brooklyn, there’s an outlet for every-thing,” he said.

“Any genre you’re in-terested in, you can do some research and � nd an outlet for it. Whether it’s disco, hip hop or whatever, you can � nd it here.”

Slater’s penchant for old school got him started in the industry.

“I made a lot of mix tapes when I was younger,” he said.

“Then I met my cous-in’s friend who was a DJ. I saw him DJ and I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

“I had no idea where to start so I made it up as I went along.”

The path led him to his � rst ever rave, which was a life-changing experience.

“I thought it was going to be like a concert, but I got there and it was crazy,” he said.

“I was like ‘What the hell is this?’ I was obsessed after that. I thought ‘I want to play here’.”

Slater will next play Bendigo later this month, his third visit to our shores in just over a year.

“I’ve heard great things about the crowds there, it’s meant to be even crazi-er than the cities,” he said.

AC Slater plays Groovin The Moo on April 30.

slaterslaterslaterac

ben cameron

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