Cummings looks terrific for a 54-year-old musician with over twenty albums to his credit. Once upon a time Cummings seemed nervous, these days he gives a good impression of someone who enjoys his life. Presumably, that’s what the album title is about. A part of Cummings legend has always been his indifference to fame. Stephen Cummings is a cult artist and his cult is becoming bigger as the kids check him out: "I don’t think I know anyone on earth that I really consider understands me whatsoever, apart from my girlfriend.” What sets Stephen Cummings apart from the rest of the singer songwriters is a kind of self-demystification. Cummings comments on Happiest Man Alive: " I think it’s the best record yet. We recorded it all live in the studio in two days, and then mixed it in a day. There’s hand claps, Gibson guitars, literary illusion, songs about fucking and great artists and how modern society is all about forgetting."
The songs cannot be faulted: close your eyes as the band play these lovely majestic, nay classic pop songs. Laughter, like sex and eating is an absolutely universal human phenomenon. Happiest Man Alive captures this perfectly.
Stephen Cummings unveils Happiest Man Alive at The George Fairfax Theatre at The Arts Centre Complex on August 16th. This promises to be great show. Cummings performs two sets. The first features Happiest Man Alive in the order it has been recorded. The second set is classic only including favourites hasn’t performed before. With a band that includes bassist Bill McDonald, guitarists Billy & Eddie Miller and mystery guests. Happiest Man Alive is an album and a show not to be missed. Cummings has finished his third book, Mister Transistor, a memoir, containing fifteen 5000-word essays about music and his life, for Hardie-Grant. The book pulls no punches and will be released early next year. He has also composed the music for the feature documentary, Not Quite Hollywood, which opens the Melbourne Film Festival soon and has commercial release in late August, as well as distribution in America and Europe.
Special Offer - Until the end of July
Live In The Big Room DVD together with Space Travel - my latest studio album - available at the must-have price of $35 plus $5 P&P for the two items. As above, just click on the button below to use PayPal's payment facility. Or alternatively, send a cheque (made out to Stephen Cummings) or money order to:
PO Box 340
Glenhuntly
Victoria
Australia
3163
Stephen plays private functions. If he likes the idea and you've got the money. Interested? Contact him via this website or his agent Andrew Walker (andrew at buxtonwalker.com).
Influences
The Move, Henry Miller, W.H. Auden, Robert Crumb, Porter Wagoner, Aldous Huxley, Angela Carter, The Loved Ones, Bo Diddley and David Bowie from 1970 to 1974 ONLY.
Sounds Like
songs that have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.
Got a credit card? Like reading? Good eyesight? My two novels are available in a twin-pack only from this site. Numbers are limited! To buy, just click on the button below to use PayPal's payment facility. Or alternatively, send a cheque (made out to Stephen Cummings) or money order to:
PO Box 340 - Glenhuntly - Victoria - Australia - 3163
The books costs $30 AU plus another $5 AU for postage & packing (and signature if required).
Wonderboy (1996)
In the middle of the night the spirits are scheming. Somewhere between dream and sleep Charles Mann and his son Max find themselves thrust into a land where angels can shake off demons, miracles challenge logic, and the beautiful Caitlin gives lessons in the art of living well.
As Charles wrestles with ghosts past and present, new love and old on an odyssey to unravel the truth about his own father, ten-year-old Max discovers that the real stuff of life is the experience itself.
'Wonderboy' is a captivating journey into the extraordinary possibilities of everyday life.
"Wonderboy is a clever first novel with promise of more to come" The Canberra Times
Stay Away From Lightning Girl (1999)
Once upon a time Robert Moore, lead singer with the legendary Honeys, was front page news. Then, when the band couldn't cut it in America, he faded into the kind of celebrity people recognise but can't put a name to. And now, having just been struck by a bolt of lightning meant for someone else, he's plain old dead.
But if he can explain his life to Maigret, the Lucky-Strike smoking, whisky-drinking divine umpire of the afterlife...if he can explain about lightning girl and her sexy drugged up sister, about love and failure and hurt and fear, and about a talking dog called Biscuit...if only he can tell the story of a heart in conflict with itself, he might just be allowed to return to the sweet melancholy that is life.
Bittersweet, tender and funny, Stephen's second novel is a whimsical tale about the mysteries of the human soul.
"a gentle tale of love that's hard to resist" Sun Herald
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
“...in a year rich in fine albums from singer-songwriters as diverse as Bob Dylan, Ron Sexsmith and Lucinda Williams, this is one of the finest.” -Larry Schwratz, The Sunday Age SPACE TRAVEL
“by Iain Shedden - The Australian, 25 August 2007
ONE wee detail that isn't mentioned on •he cover of Stephen Cummings's first DVD is that the lovely Forum Theatre in Melbourne where the live performance takes place -- and where the singer used to watch Viking movies when he was wagging school, he tells us -- is occupied only by him, two fellow musicians and the technical crew. Did he forget to invite the public? Perhaps he did ask and they stayed home to watch RockWiz. No, it must be because the grand old theatre suits Cummings's melancholic, delicately textured love songs. This is a great show -- well recorded, too -- from one of Melbourne's most consistent songwriters, but it's perverse that his ungainly, endearing storytelling between songs is directed only at, as he says, the cosmos. With bassist Bill McDonald and guitarist Billy Miller he traverses his career from Sports frontman in the late 1970s (Don't Throw Stones, Who Listens to the Radio?) through to newer solo material such as Little Girl on a Sofa and I Need You Tonight. Cummings is in fine voice and the three musos blend exquisitely on the 20 songs. They deserve a round of applause.
Cummings's 13th solo album, Space Travel, features the aforementioned 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 poetic licence there, perhaps.
“Space Travel
by Michael Dwyer - The Age, 31 August 2007
As a career musician, Stephen Cummings gave up linear progress years ago. His last four or five albums have just sort of appeared. Songs accumulated under his sofa cushions and fingernails, while his circling writer's mind played tricks with past, present and fiction. Space Travel is strewn with dreamlike flashback and stocktaking songs. "This happened years ago," he confides at the end of Little Girl On A Sofa - the girl whose face, we're encouraged to imagine, adorns the album cover. Cummings also appears as his '70s self on the back: the smouldering Sports singer in a floral shirt and a backstage smirk that suggests that he thinks he's going to live forever. He gently mocks that delusion in I Remember, From The Day I Was Born and Hurry, Hurry And Let's Go, powerful songs of self-evaluation that strive for meaning with the sad-eyed humour of middle age - and the same unique, oddly impulsive phrasing of his youth. Stylistically he makes spirited visits to Tennessee and Tijuana but ringing and lilting acoustic pop ballads remain Cummings' anchor as his mind wanders on through space.>“Some Background.
Formed the ledgendary 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.
Pinko, Was at a wedding at Airlee Beach this arvo having difficulty socialising and then, Pinko, you will scream, but who listen's to the radio? came on sandwiched by Chisel. Anyways, took photos of the stereo speakers that were playing your song and the wedding crew. I was as proud as punch! Going on a nice cruise Sat. Sayonara for now!
Thanks for including me Stephen. Caught your show up here in the Hunter Valley for Day in the Green. Rekindled my admoration and been a fan ever since. The DVD with the two Bills is amazing and powerful. Look forward to more shows in Sydney and hopefully Newcastle. Thanks again, take care and hope to share a drink some day. Shane
hi Stephen, Thanks for your destroy comments on the Wild Cherries! I reckon Dan Robinson has one of the best soul voices around. HE should be a household name!!! Wished I could have seen those great bands in the mid-late 60s. Definitely born in the wrong time. I had to suffice with AC/DC, Skyhooks and some band called the Sports (with Red guesting on guitar!) in Canberra in the late 70s. (insert winky face here) Nicx
Thanks for being our friend!... Hope your well...Just to let you know ..you can join out mailing list for tour updates and news....head to our website at www. angusandjuliastone. com love from the stones crew xx
Not Marco no. I swing between an Aboriginal and Greek but it's really a very secret and sensitive business. I don't think you're cut out for it. Hey, you made the EG top something or other of Aust rock n roll albums - well done! Holidays....nearly.......over................ xL
'This song can save you' is a killer track and now I'm no.2! This has turned out to be a wonderful day in every way. Hope you're erotic novel is reaching it's climax, Pinko AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH - Jane
New York is so great . Steamy. Barney and I hit the studio on Monday with bass and drums. Had a little 4th July party with him and his fam last night. Dont wanna leave. Hopefully Paris will delight. XX
