Musik på MySpace

Stephen Cummings
Glam

LIKES: IRONING. DISLIKES: EVERYTHING ELSE.



Melbourne, Victoria
Australien

Profilvisningar:  87269




Senast inloggad:  2009-11-25
Visa mina: Bilder | Videos

   Kontakta Stephen Cummings

 MySpace-URL: 

   Stephen Cummings: Allmän info
Medlem sedan2006-12-04
Bandets webbplats:http://www.lovetown.net
BandmedlemmarImage and video hosting by TinyPic

The Age: Reviews SHAUN CARNEY Tickety Boo Stephen Cummings (Head Records) Rating: 4/5 STEPHEN Cummings' recent recorded output is proof you're never too old to learn new ways. Three years ago and into his fourth decade as a vocalist and songwriter, he applied himself for the first time to the guitar, getting virtuoso friends such as Jeff Burstin to help develop his technique. It revolutionised Cummings' musical approach, as evidenced by the complex, unpredictable melodic structures that ran through last year's Happiest Man Alive. Cummings' greater facility as an instrumentalist has also liberated his voice. On Tickety Boo, Cummings variously belts, croons, croaks and free associates; the occasionally mannered, restrained style employed in the past is nowhere to be found and producer Billy Miller regularly applies studio treatments to the vocals as well. Cummings inhabits a wide variety of personae in these songs: there's the distracted, sardonic stoner finding himself at a party on Great Stereo; the exasperated cultural critic on the high-volume Bob Hope: The Death of Vaudeville & Television. Cummings sounds undaunted and full of humour here, like a man with little to lose. <

GO TO THE LOVETOWN SITE http://www.lovetown.net. TO BUY STEPHEN'S BOOKS AND MUSIC USING PAY PAL. Or send a cheque or money order to PO BOX 340. Glenhuntly, Melbourne, Victoria 3165. CD'S ARE $25 & $5 FOR POSTAGE AND novels are $20 & $5 postage. MEMOIR IS $35 & postage.Image and video hosting by TinyPicImage and video hosting by TinyPic Image and video hosting by TinyPic
STEPHEN performs Live In-store December 5 @ 5pm @ PURE POP RECORDS IN ST KILDA. THEY HAVE A GREAT GARDEN BAR. IT'S FREE! NEW ALBUM AND BOOK FOR SALE ON THE DAY. NOT TO BE MISSED. GET THEIR EARLY.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

JACK KEROUAC - FORTY YEARS SINCE HE STOPPED THE MACHINE.

NOT PASSING THROUGH! Image and video hosting by TinyPic

What the papers have said:

“Alongside Nick Cave and Tim Rogers, I would nominate Stephen Cummings. He is easily one of our great storytellers, capable of creating lives in miniature.”
-Bernard Zuel, The Sydney Morning Herald

“Apart from Paul Kelly, no other Australian solo artist has managed to sustain a recording and performing career at such a high level of artistry for as long as Stephen Cummings.”
-Shaun Carney, The Age

“Debonair, romantic and sensitive, Cummings owns a voice that allows vulnerable yearning qualities as much space as an authoritative voice of experience.”
-Lauren Zoric, Rolling Stone

“STEPHEN CUMMINGS, who just may have Australian pop's finest male vocal chords. His voice is full of echoes of early Elvis, rockabilly/honky-tonk & Chicago blues, but as expressed through a definitely post-modern, literate Melburnian state of mind.”
by Lucky Oceans ABC Radio National, 7 February 2003

“STEPHEN CUMMINGS is a master of poignant detail, the oblique image that captures a state of rapture. It was evident on his band the Sport's debut album, Reckless, in 1978. In the intervening years his language has become more direct and acute. That he hasn't been acknowledged as one of the great lyricists of the time is still a mystery. Perhaps it speaks more to that fact that his songs explore the contradictions and the subtleties of relationships rather than paint generic pictures and glib platitudes.”
by Toby Creswell - HQ, Dec-Jan 2001-2, issue 86


Some Background.

• Formed the legendary rockabilly band, The Pelaco Brothers in 1974 • Started The Sports in 1976. Recorded the Fair Game EP and received rave reviews in NME - the first Australian independent release to do so

• The Sports signed with Mushroom and Stiff in the UK

• Toured with Graham Parker, Elvis Costello, the Buzzcocks and Blondie

• Scored a Top 40 hit in the US with 'Who Listens to the Radio?'

• Signed with Arista in the US

• Disbanded The Sports and started his solo career in 1983. First solo hit, Gymnasium

• ARIA Award for Best Adult Contemporary album in 1990

• Recorded 15 solo albums

Influenser

Traffic/Mister Fantasy, 'Out Of Our Heads' - Rolling Stones, Mott The Hoople, Peter Cook, The Move, Henry Miller, Slim Harpo, Incredible String Band, Robert Crumb, The Everly Brothers, Ricky Nelson, Aldous Huxley, Angela Carter, The Wild Cherries, Purple Hearts, Bo Diddley and David Bowie from 1970 to 1974 ONLY.

Låter som
SkivbolagJAZZHEAD/HEAD
Typ av bolagMajor


Hämta Flash nu!

För att kunna lyssna på eller visa den här filen måste du uppdatera din Flash-version.



   Kommande konserter ( visa alla )
05 dec 2009 17:00
PURE POP RECORDS - ST KILDA MELBOURNE, Victoria

Stephen Cummings: Senaste bloggpost  [Prenumerera på den här bloggen]

WE ARE THE CATS THAT CANNOT WALK ALONE.  (visa mer)

This Sounds pretty Camp  (visa mer)

I am a veritable bag-of-wind today.  (visa mer)

you are growing drowsy and have an uncontrollable urge to fal  (visa mer)

the day the Berlin Wall came down.   (visa mer)

[Visa alla bloggposter]

   Om Stephen Cummings


Myspace Editor
Pimp MySpace

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

So this is how it ends. Stephen Cummings has been playing music for nearly 40 years, written a couple of novels, done some journalism, helped flog Medibank ("I feel better now" - he does every time the royalty cheque comes in, thank you) and, with the Sports and his solo career, has racked up enough crucial musical moments to fill a classic-hits radio station playlist. This month he publishes Will It Be Funny Tomorrow, Billy?, an often hilarious if occasionally uncomfortable memoir with sex and drugs, bad behaviour and really, really bad behaviour, unfettered opinions and brutal honesty. It's not so much "tell all" as "Oh my God, did he really say that about (insert name of famous musician/manager/TV personality/parent) in print?". So, Stephen Cummings, are you happy with the notion that you may never work in this business again? "Well, the industry part of it has never been that helpful to me. They've just sort of taken," he says after an initial splutter. "I don't really see people from the music industry, frankly. I don't go out much. They don't enter my life very often so I've got little to lose." Well they, or their lawyers, may be entering his life more frequently in the near future. "They [the publisher and its lawyers] have taken a hell of a lot out of the book," he says more confidently. "Everything that's left in there, well, you know, you've got to be able to take a joke. "Are they going to sue me? I have nothing. If they sue me I'll have to get a [benefit] concert going I guess," he laughs. "I might get the Oils to reform for it." As long as the Oils haven't read the chapter about them. "Well, that's just stating facts." This is true. In fact, most of the book is just stating facts. It's just that a lot of these facts aren't the kind of things that people normally say outside private bitching sessions in their homes. Cummings roars with laughter at this. "I say I make no moral thing on this, I'm just stating a fact. So I think that's all right. But it's the most unlikely people who are the ones who will sue you. Other people, like Michael Gudinski, he has a thick hide and hopefully can take a joke. And I say good things about him, too." This is the Michael Gudinski who has been one of the most powerful men in the Australian music industry for 30 years with a record label, touring company, publishing, and Kylie Minogue. He released albums from Cummings's band the Sports and briefly managed them. He also is variously described in the book as "an offensive and abusive bear of a man", the Moriarty to Cummings's Holmes, having "an attention span the size of a bee's dick", "all about power" and someone who "totally screwed us financially" as well as a lover of music, a passionate man and the only person who made the Sports money. In one of the funniest parts of the book, Cummings describes in detail how tempted he was to throw Gudinski over Niagara Falls during an uncomfortable and unhappy American tour made all the more uncomfortable and unhappy by Cummings being a complete prat. The story culminates in this exchange. "He caught himself on the rail. Then he barked: 'You'll get a big fat f---ing surprise if you try to push me over Niagara Falls.' I shrugged my shoulders. 'Well, I gave it my best shot. But you're too f---ing fat."' In truth, there isn't really that much in here which could be actionable, except maybe for those who find reports of their hardly secret drug use a touch worrying. "But I don't think someone like Steve Kilbey would take offence at that. It happened," Cummings says, oblivious to the fact I hadn't mentioned a name, let alone the founding singer-songwriter of the Church who produced an early Cummings solo album. "Steve Kilbey is a straight-up person, like him or hate him. I also say he is a very nice person and I admire him. It's just that having your producer nod off while you're singing for a couple of hours, and gradually slump on to the recording desk is, you know, a bit demoralising." The thing to remember for anyone who's crossed paths with Cummings and is tempted to go to the index to look up any scurrilous references (a waste of time, by the way, as there is no index) is that whatever Cummings may say about others, he says much worse about himself. In this book, the usually private Stephen Cummings is broken down into little pieces and stomped on - the fat kid with no confidence, the snotty young star, the insecure narcissist, the destructive paranoid, "a pop singer with hang-ups"- by the now very public Stephen Cummings. "I could have been more brutal [about myself] than that," Cummings says. "But I thought, 'No, I have to go to school and face the parents of my youngest child's friends and they may think I'm really weird'." Stephen Cummings weird? Heaven forbid. Image and video hosting by TinyPic



AVAILABLE AS A DOWNLOAD FROM THE USUAL PLACES! ALSO!!! NOW 100 COPIES ONLY IN A LOVELY CD PACK. ALL AVAILABLE FROM NEXT WEDNESDAY. PAY PAL DETAILS UP OVER THE WEEKEND. It was a hot warm afternoon, the sky was full of yellows and blazing reds and I had driven for three days in an RV through floods and the like to get to Byron Bay for the Easter Festival. It was magical - one 73 minute set in the big tent before Steve Earle. Shane O’Mara contrived a wall of sound from one guitar and though I was scared to death, I hung on for the ride. Everything was darker and heavier than you thought. Let me state for the record, that when we arrived at the end of the set we were both exhausted. The audience danced madly. They looked like listless pink flamingoes. Our buddy Adam Rhodes recorded it. This music is live and raw and emotional. We don’t have a problem with that. Never. Stephen

Happiest Man Alive by Michael Dwyer - The Age, 3 October 2008 3.5 stars The juxtaposition of effusive title and overcast cover provides a sardonic entree to Stephen Cummings' umpteenth album. The juxtaposition of effusive title and overcast cover provides a sardonic entree to Stephen Cummings' umpteenth album of acoustic philosophising but the keynote feels more like sanguine acceptance than sarcasm. "Like it or not, this is the world that we live in," he sings on the way to the mellow chorus mantra that Love is Space and Time. It's a world of spooky swings and bumpy roundabouts; fond notes to fallen heroes (Raymond Chandler, Edward Hopper, Henry Miller) and only the occasional grumpy outburst at the TV. Sure, Sick Comedian, a howl of indignation at declining standards of politics, media and economic integrity, is one of the album's most potent and lingering tracks - and he's only warming up for the bilious snarl of You Know It All By Heart. But Straight to Your Arms is one of the most vulnerable and contented of his career and the meditative clarity of This Song Can Save You and What A Joy It Is to Dance and Sing is without apparent irony. "Am I thinking a little too much?" he wonders on the haunting penultimate track. On balance, it's probably just the right amount.



>/a> Good sport has space for endless love Space Travel: 4.5 stars
 by Iain Shedden - The Australian, 25 August 2007 Space Travel, features Little Girl on a Sofa, a gentle, nostalgic love song with Beach Boys harmonies, alongside 10 others that plunder gospel and soul (I Remember), swampy rock'n'roll (Hey Kitty Kitty!) and acoustic folk (It's Not Me, It's You!). The strings, strum and repetitive cycle of No Stopping echo the Blue Nile, but the song is no less impressive for that. Indeed, everything here has a spring in its step, augmented by Cummings's regular collaborators McDonald and Miller, the Luscombe brothers and Shane O'Mara. Clearly he's loving it, even if, as he says on Who Wants to Buy a Broken Heart?, "falling in love, that's not for me". A bit of poetics. He deserves a round of applause.


Love-O-Meter/a> 4 stars by Shaun Carney - eg, The Age, 14 October 2005/a> More than 30 years after forming his first band, the Pelaco Brothers, and after 11 solo albums of original material, the challenge for a performer with the sort of career longevity that Stephen Cummings enjoys is to maintain the element of surprise. Beginning with the funky, urban-sounding Senso in 1983, Cummings has toured through lush pop, wide-screen soundscapes (courtesy of Steve Kilbey), raw acoustic balladry and guitar rock. His previous album of new songs was Firecracker in 2003, a boisterous collection of Ricky Nelson-style rockabilly pieces unlike anything he had done before. For Love-O-Meter, Cummings has taken another sharp turn, putting together a song suite - let's not call it a concept album - that tracks the break-up of a relationship and attempts of a heartsick man to rekindle the flame. It's dramatically different to Firecracker, resembling in places a mid-1960s beat group, in others exploring a mildly psychedelic sensibility. Cummings' vocalising is different too; it's often raspy and aggressive as he drives home the pop hooks and, along with producer Shane O'Mara, he hasn't been afraid to apply studio treatments and multi-tracking to his voice. In some respects, Love-O-Meter bundles up Cummings' stylistic tics. The jazzy, clubby element of his writing comes to the fore on the central song, the pained, dreamy Once Upon a Time We Were Mad For Each Other. It seems fitting that Cummings, whose natural shyness always precluded him from forcefully promoting his writing abilities, cites his favorite Beatle as George Harrison; there's a spot-on Harrison tribute, Punch Drunk, here. Perhaps the most important aspect of the album is that, courtesy of its narrative form, it takes Cummings out of himself. For years he struggled with the tension caused by his tendency to write autobiographical songs, something that's left him emotionally exposed and occasionally mired in a quiet-ballad cul-de-sac. Perhaps it was the experience of revisiting his older material for his Liberation Blue series album Close-Ups that's let him loosen up enough to inhabit a character for a full album as he does here. All told, it's quite adventurous and one of his strongest albums BOOKS FOR SALE.

JON CASMIR: SMH: Rock star writes novel..It's not exactly the kind of thought that makes you want to rush out to the bookstore but, like life, Wonderboy has a rather splendid habit of confounding expectations. Despite Cummings's other career - for 20 years he has been one of Australian pop's most lustrous voices - Wonderboy, his first novel, is not vanity publishing. It's not a half-hearted foray by a mind overly convinced of its own artistry. It's not the usual slim volume of awkward poetry that lyricists present us with. It's not a cocaine-snorting, groupie-shagging, rear-seat-of-the-limo rock memoir. And in a shocking divergence from recent Australian literary tradition, it's not an example of the Urban Brutalist school of writing. It's not, to paraphrase Ben Elton: "Hi, I'm at this inner-city dive watching kiddies do heroin because that's what this novel is all about...Shock!" With Wonderboy, Cummings has actually set out to conjure a novel from his imagination. You know, like writers used to. He has set out to explore words and meanings. His novel is a journey of discovery, the story of a grown man trying to grow up. And the good news is that it's not half bad.



STAY AWAY FROM LIGHTNING GIRL. review by Matt Condon - SundayLife! magazine (Sun Herald supplement) 1999 This second novel from the acclaimed singer/songwriter and former lead singer with The Sports opens with a delightfully simplistic premise and remains endearing throughout. Robert Moore is a former rock star whose band The Honeys has failed to crack the big-time in the US. As the novel opens, he is already dead, having been struck by lightning. He is suddenly having a conversation with Maigret, his official umpire in the hereafter and there is talk Robert may be relegated to the Dull Zone. This is a gentle tale of love that's hard to resist and probably superior to his first book, Wonderboy.

   Stephen Cummings: mötesplats för vänner (Topp 10)
Stephen Cummings har 1414 vänner.
 Slim Harpo 


 EELS 


 Curtis Mayfield 


 John Prine 


 the mercurials 


 Raphael Saadiq 


 Dave Graney 


 Feist 


 Essendon Airport 


 Four Hours Sleep 





Stephen Cummings: Vänners kommentarer
Visar 25 av 555 kommentarer  ( Visa alla | Lägg till kommentar )
sylent running

sylent running



25 nov 2009 00:46

BLUE HOUR:


MISTER D’s MUSIC & ART

MISTER D’s MUSIC & ART



14 nov 2009 04:53

hi. .. dont worry- be happy..   this  :-)  is better than :-(
-say hello to Jim Pavlidis for me- all the best-Mark D.
Ruby Jane

Ruby Jane



11 nov 2009 20:00

Ruby Jane and Mark O'Connor: Virtuosos of the American Fiddle: http://www.poptech.org/blog/mark_oconnor_and_ruby_jane_smith_virtuosos_of_american_fiddle

Ruby Jane Article in New York Times!!
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/26/who-do-these-guys-think-they-are/
AND
Check out the new pictures and video! Let me know what you think!
Ruby Jane
the mercurials

the mercurials



07 nov 2009 22:19

Happy City!
Ross McLennan

Ross McLennan



02 nov 2009 09:03

hi stephen. is that a recent photo? you look more like a drawing of a cat, than i remember.
ross
David Hosking

David Hosking



01 nov 2009 00:25

If NASA, Iran and North Korea believe in "launches", you should to. They jump and shout for joy (high 5's all around in NASA) when one of their little babies makes it safely off the ground. Cheers, Stephen.
Craig Fraser

Craig Fraser



27 okt 2009 23:56

Hey, How's it going?

I have'nt jeard from you in ages :), I hope everything is going well.

Thanks heaps for all your support!

-Craig!
The Criterion Band

The Criterion Band



27 okt 2009 04:41

Hi Stephen Cummings, check out our new track "Long Legs"
David Hosking

David Hosking



26 okt 2009 02:23

David Hosking is launching his new album at the Thornbury Theatre with very special guests The Killjoys. Friday 6th November. Hope you can come.
www.thethornburytheatre.com
Angie Hart

Angie Hart



22 okt 2009 02:15

Hi all Angie Hart and Frente fans!

Angie releases her second solo album 'Eat My Shadow' in Australia tomorrow! 

We have a very special deal for you all, JB Hi-Fi are offering a SIGNED, TWO DISC edition of Angie's album.

The first disc contains the full 12 track album, the second disc contains a 5 track EP of Angie covering some of her favourite songs, including tracks by The Smiths, Australian Crawl, Laura Veirs and others.

On top of that we're offering a beautiful Angie Hart tea-towel (dishcloth to you Americans!) as part of the deal. Be quick!





 
Angie is touring Australia in November (with dates in USA and Asia in 2010)

Please visit www.myspace.com/angiehart for further details...


the mercurials

the mercurials



20 okt 2009 11:26

Stephen we appreciate how good your song are... we've just uploaded our version of 'How Come' to our page... check it out! Hope to see you at our instore at Basement Discs this Friday lunchtime.
The Mercurials xxx
Sal

Sally Taverner



14 okt 2009 09:39

So sad to hear your are only doing Private Gigs. Think you are a gem and the most beautiful lyricist. Have caught many shows in the past. Thank you for your music Stephen. Sally.
The Ern Malley Affair

The Ern Malley Affair



07 okt 2009 08:18

Hey Stephen.
Just finished reading Will it be Funny Tomorrow Billy?  I was at that gig at Cloudland with the Go-Betweens and Madness (The Swingers were also supposed to be on the bill).  I was fourteen and small.  The only thing I saw all night was you leaping around the stage.  It was a great performance.  I wrote a song about it.
Cheers
Ern
gyan

gyan



06 okt 2009 08:50

i'd love to buy a copy of your memoirs but am i blind or what ...i can't spy a pay pal button for the life of me ....H E L P .... i guess i could order thru the bookshop but they don't have your DNA on the envelope ....extra i know ....hope you're goodly love to you and yours g xxx
Drew Master Jay

Drew Master Jay



03 okt 2009 08:51

Hey there Steve.  I saw you in the Broadway Shopping Centre a few months ago while I was working.  You walked by and I said "Hi"....you smiled back and said "Hi" too......It made my day.  I have been a fan since the "Sports" days when my cover bands would try to emulate your sound.....very hard.....anyhow, if you get a chance I would love you to visit my page and leave a comment.  That would make my day too.  Regards, Drew.
Rebecca Barnard

Rebecca Barnard



30 sep 2009 15:36

Barney and I driving around Manhattan listening to Heart for Heart in car . So lovely He's got all your stuff on ipod . x
KATHEMATICS

KATHEMATICS



27 sep 2009 04:27

KATHEMATICS SINGLE LAUNCH FRIDAY OCTOBER 16 @ THE ESPY BASEMENT
....
Allison & Glenn

Glenn Inglis



20 sep 2009 07:58

Just finished reading your new book
dont care what the critics may say
I  @#$%^&  loved it
so many memories of some of all that stuff
many Sports gigs helping loading the truck
touring on the Enz / Sports run
and visiting many of the solo shows

keep on being Steven

all the best of health and happyness to you

G
Christian Lamitschka, Journalist for Country Music

Christian Lamitschka



17 sep 2009 14:07

Today I like to inform you, that you can read and watch interviews with your favorit country stars in Enlgish, German and French at http://www.CountryHome.de/Interviews .

Warm regards

Christian

Editor & Journalist for Country Music
Christian Lamitschka
An der Pfingstweide 28
61118 Bad Vilbel
Germany
Phone: ++49 6101 544613
Mobil: ++49 171 6903352
Ch.Lamitschka@t-online.de
Info@CountryMusic-Magazin.de
www.MySpace.com/ChristianLamitschka
Barbara

Barbara



17 sep 2009 09:43

thanks
great sounds
love an success
B
Dr. Mexico

Dr. Mexico



16 sep 2009 00:55

NOW HERE SHE COMES - magnificent
Monty Sparrow

Monty Sparrow



10 sep 2009 11:58

I once spent an hour talking about Died Pretty while in a Gijon bar......we then drove our overpriced van back to the hotel....yay
Tetanus Rig

Tetanus Rig



07 sep 2009 04:15






MISTER D’s MUSIC & ART

MISTER D’s MUSIC & ART



06 sep 2009 04:32

I am Craig Fraser- come over and check out my page


 



INDIANA PHOENIX

INDIANA PHOENIX



01 sep 2009 09:09

Hi Guys and Gals
We have 15 songs in the musicoz awards and could do with some help. The voting banner is on our myspace page!
cheers from Brian.
Lägg till kommentar


©2003-2009 MySpace.com. Med ensamrätt.