Far North Queensland’s best loved banana picker (turned full-time guitar picker) 8 Ball Aitken has just released his third album, ‘REBEL WITH A CAUSE’, which is available now through MGM Distribution, recorded on vintage analogue equipment and produced by legendary roots music producer Garth Porter (ex-Sherbet). The red-headed Queenslander’s first single ‘COWBOY MOVIE’ (from album ‘REBEL WITH A CAUSE’) has received radio airplay right around Australia, Japan, USA and Europe. The music video of his new single, ‘CYCLONE COUNTRY’, depicts 8 Ball’s experience of working through a cyclone during his time on the banana plantation. Produced by Queensland’s Jason Millhouse, the video is currently featured on the internet website YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/8ballaitken
8 Ball Aitken is authentic -- a real-deal Aussie character who rattles the roof, stomps the planks, and gets his audiences whooping and hollering along in a frenzy of pure exuberance. He plays a sizzling hot Queensland blend of original blues, roots, and alt.country. 8 Ball’s material is real music about the real Australia in the 21st century, written and performed by a young Aussie who is proud to perform in his own Australian accent. His new album features a fresh serve of contemporary honk, stomp, Aussie swamp tunes, ready to rock, roots music with balls.
8 Ball will be touring Australia throughout 2008 in support of ‘Rebel With A Cause’, playing a wide range of festivals, clubs, pubs and special events. Highlights of his Australian touring so far include the East Coast Blues & Roots Festival in Byron Bay, the Australian National Blues Festival in Goulburn, Coastfest, Peats Ridge Festival, the Woodford Folk Festival, the Tamworth Country Music Festival, the Gympie Muster as well as the Melbourne & Adelaide Fringe Festivals to name a few.
8 Ball has just returned from his third tour of Fiji, where he worked with the Australian government as a cultural ambassador for the “See Australia In A Different Light” promotion last month. He performed at the Australian High Commission and the Oceania Centre for the Arts, as well as gigs all around the island of Viti Levu, where he was featured in a full-page story in the national newspaper, and in prime-time airplay on Fiji’s most popular radio station. He’s also just returned from touring Japan for the fourth time, appearing at the popular Rokko Sun Music Festival. En route to Japan, he played a string of dates in Singapore, the UK (including a gig at the Cavern Club, made famous by the Beatles, and a live appearance on the BBC), Poland, and Finland. 8 Ball’s most recent USA tour included performances in Nashville, Los Angeles and New York City. “The Americans just loved my Aussie accent,” 8 Ball notes. “They couldn’t get enough of it. But some of them thought I was from England!”
Coming from a farming community in Far North Queensland, 8 Ball Aitken is the oldest son of an impoverished family of twelve children. 8 Ball spent his adolescence on a banana plantation, living in a rough tobacco shed with resident rats, bats, snakes, and spiders as his sleeping companions. He started work as a farm labourer aged fifteen, doing back-breakingly hard work on the mango and banana plantations of the Atherton Tablelands, a man's work for a boy's pay. He had to help support his family with these wages.
When 8 Ball was nineteen years old, a radical conversation altered his life path. “I used to work on a farm all week, then party all weekend,” he explains. “An Aboriginal elder from Townsville was visiting my town, and we were talking on Sunday morning after he had been watching me play guitar all weekend. He sat me down and told me off sternly – ‘I will be really disappointed if I visit next year and see you still here drinking and smoking, just wasting your talent and your life away,” explains the ex-farm worker, recalling his labouring in the Atherton Tablelands fruit plantations as a young teenager. He packed his bags, grabbed his guitar, and hitch-hiked south to the Big Smoke of Brisbane. “This was a ‘time stands still’, life-changing experience”, adds 8 Ball. “From that point on, I have stayed true, and followed my dream of making music and taking it out to the people”.
8 Ball Aitken is currently available for interviews. Contact Phoenix Movement Records / management on phone: +61 (0) 408 075 959 or email: bird@phoenixmovement.com
Rocko Sun Music (JAPAN) - 2008
Gympie Muster – 2005, 2008
East Coast Blues & Roots Festival (Byron Bay) – 2007
Mud Bulls & Music 2008
Brisbane Festival 2008
Blues At Bridgetown 2008
Australian National Blues Festival (Goulburn) – 2007
Grass Roots Music Festival, Brisbane - 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
Big Sound 2008
Q-Song Awards 2008
Greenfest 2008
Thuringowa River Festival (Townsville) - 2007
Tamworth Country Music Festival - 2007, 2008
Suma Beach Festival (JAPAN) – 2007
Yagubi World Music Festival (Hervey Bay) – 2007
Beenleigh Jamboree – 2007
Roots By The River – 2005, 2006, 2007
Woodford Folk Festival - 2002, 2005, 2006
Peats Ridge Festival (Sydney) - 2006
Brisbane Blues Festival – 2003, 2004, 2006
Sunshine Coast Blues Festival - 2005, 2006
Earthbeat Festival (Mildura) - 2006
Coastfest (Sydney) – 2006
Groove and Grape Festival (Brisbane) - 2006
Adelaide Fringe Festival – 2006
Melbourne Fringe Festival – 2006
Blues on Broadbeach - 2006
Mackay Festival of the Arts - 2005, 2006
Valley Fiesta (Brisbane) - 2005
Hey there "8 Ball" Joely finally gave me the signed copy of your album that you gave him to give to me when he was was up there in QLD. Thanks mate! I can't stop listening to it...love it specially "cyclone country". It was great to catch up with you at Tamworth earlier this year! You're really kickin arse! 8 ball. Can't wait to see you next January..
Hi 8 Ball's Friends! Please check my 3-song CD out. The songs are on my site. You can purchase them along with a CD sleeve via email for a $5.00 (Australian) minimum donation. You'll receive it before you're asked to donate. Write to me via message if you're interested. Cheers! ~Pete
Eight Ball just wishing you all the best for next Tuesday at the Q Music Awards playing at the beautiful Tivoli Theatre will be a buzz and all the best in the Blues and Roots section .... Boots and all or not at all.
Thanks for the add. The next time when you come to Japan, pls let me know. I would love to do a shooting and review your show for smashingmag.com I run.
Ah, so...you're playing Japan 2nite? FANTASTIC! I'm sure you guys are having a BLAST!!! Thinking of you and wishing you all the best EVERYWHERE your Music takes you! CJx
