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Stephen Cummings
Emotronic

I have too much money invested in sweaters.



Melbourne, Victoria
Australia

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Last Login:  7/13/2009
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   Stephen Cummings: General Info
Member Since12/4/2006
Band Websitehttp://www.lovetown.net
Band MembersImage and video hosting by TinyPic CONTACT INFORMATION THE BUTTERFLY CLUB 204 Bank St, South Melbourne, 3205 VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA TELEPHONE: (03)9690 2000 Stephen's amusing & highly controversial memoir, WILL IT BE FUNNY TOMORROW BILLY is available now at all good book stores. Published by Hardie Grant.

Sydney Morning Herald. 2009.

Undeterred by the threat of becoming persona non grata, Stephen Cummings has produced a page-turner, writes Bernard Zuel. 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.

In short nonfiction Reviews by Sacha Molitorisz. WILL IT BE FUNNY TOMORROW, BILLY? MISADVENTURES IN MUSIC By Stephen Cummings Hardie Grant, 202pp, $29.95 Stephen Cummings is a talented Aussie singer-songwriter who never quite hit the big time with the Sports or as a solo artist. "When I was 'on' I was great yelping, spitting, caressing the microphone - and when I wasn't I was totally inaccessible," he writes. "I could sabotage things at will and without even realising." This memoir is an engaging account of a Jekyll-and-Hyde character unafraid to share his shortcomings. Another part of the appeal is hearing Cummings spill the beans on Michael Gudinski, Joe Camilleri, Billy Joel (the "Billy" of the title) and other pop luminaries. The writing is intelligent, immediate, well-crafted and sparse. At times sentences jump wilfully from one topic to the next - but then what else would you expect from such an erratic man? Over a pop music career that has lasted an improbably long time, he has established his abilities as a performer. And in this great rock'n'roll yarn, Cummings displays a complementary gift forstorytelling.

The one-man band MUSIC.

Robyn Doreian

This Australian pop stalwart has overcome a bleak childhood to do things his own way, writes Robyn Doreian. For someone who's commanded a microphone for almost 40 years, Stephen Cummings's panic at doing interviews is odd. In between radio chats at Melbourne's ABC studios the musician's anxiety is so omnipresent that once seated on a reception chair and ready for Extra's questions, he clutches his designer courier bag as if it were a shield. Forty-five minutes of conversation sees him shift in his seat, emit nervous laughter, drop his face into his hands, and at one point require an urgent bathroom visit. "I am never going to do another interview ever when this is all done," Cummings says. "I am so sick of talking about myself it's so draining." At the height of his pop career during the 1970s and early '80s, Cummings was prominent on the national radar. Whether it was fronting his band the Sports on Countdown where he sang hit singles Who Listens To The Radio? and Boys! (What Did The Detective Say?) or performing their three top-10 albums in Australian pubs, Cummings was often in view. Clues, however, to the musician's unease, can be found in Will It Be Funny Tomorrow Billy?, Cummings's newly published memoir, which he will talk about at the Sydney Writers' Festival this Friday and Saturday (see www.swf.org.au for details). His early life was spent in Yarraville, a western suburb of Melbourne. His father, Max, was a professional chef. He had served in World War II as a general's cook, later fought in the Middle East, then moved to New Guinea where he collapsed with malaria. He was 11 years older than his wife Lorna. The family ran a cafe. Long hours meant Max left the house at 4am and returned at 7.30pm. "I was a latchkey kid before the term was invented," Cummings says. "I wasn't close to my sister, so I'd come home by myself. Mum left food on the stove and instead of personal attention that's what I got. I equated food with love and approval." As a boy, he was chubby, had a passion for music and reading, and spent hours in his bedroom. Max, meanwhile, enjoyed two bottles of beer each evening and loved sport. The two had little contact and barely spoke. For one year, Cummings was sent to an expensive boarding school. "I was fat and a total misfit and outsider," he says. "Boarding school was a brutal place. It was like being in the army, very violent and rough. I remember having my head flushed down the toilet. All of that has an effect on you." When Cummings became a day student, after-school hours were spent window-shopping for guitars. He began seeing local bands at 12, taught himself guitar and wrote and recorded songs on a cassette player. Of that time he writes: "I was a tangle of emotional and sexual neurosis. It was sad, but this neurosis perfectly conditioned me for a career in music." Considering it a step on the road to becoming a musician, Cummings went to art school. He met guitarist Johnny Topper and in 1974 started his first band, The Pelaco Brothers. As the band's tongue-in-cheek parodies gained traction, Cummings's father died of lung cancer. During a hospital visit before his death, Max heard a taped radio show of The Pelaco Brothers performing, but praised their guitarist rather than compliment his son. "My relationship with my father has had an incredible impact on me," he says. "Because a father-son relationship is a fundamental one, I constantly sought his approval and wasted a lot of my life seeking it, which was stupid." The Pelaco Brothers became The Sports. Shyness often saw the sharply dressed Cummings speak little during a show and turn his back on the audience. Finally girls desired him, but after a gig, embarrassed and overwhelmed, he hurried off to his girlfriend. At that time he admits he wasn't good company. He was, after all, a "pop singer with hang-ups". "I was just an intense, neurotic person," he says. "I wanted success and couldn't really say I wanted it and so I was generally angry." By 1979, with an American label with a US top 40 hit, a bungled performance derailed The Sports's big-time chance. But in many ways, Cummings lacked the temperament for international success. "I knew it wasn't for me as you have to tour for years to make it," he says. "To do that I would have had to become an alcoholic or a drug addict because it was so boring. I love playing music but everything else I wasn't rapt in. Everyone who runs it is so horrible and stupid and I can't take it." Cummings disbanded The Sports in 1983. Since then, he's recorded 20 albums and performs regularly. Come 1990, his songwriting earned Cummings an ARIA, but five years earlier, at 32, a midlife crisis had hit. "To keep it at bay I gave up smoking, coffee and sugar and ran along the beach every day," he says. "I also gave up music a couple of times, and have done some courses at university stupid things like film theory that will never lead anywhere. Controlling gestures like that." Anxiety attacks began and Cummings entered lengthy psychoanalysis that pinpointed his lack of male role models when a child as the source of his psychological unease. "For me, psychoanalysis is a good thing because I was so wound up and neurotic and am a much better person for it," he says. "It has made me much calmer. Before I did this book I was feeling quite anxious and so I went and saw someone twice. The process has allowed me to enjoy life more." In his 50s, Cummings has achieved some peace. In inner-city Melbourne he lives with his long-time girlfriend, Kathleen, and son, Dominic, 11. He bonds over life-drawing classes with older son Curtis, 23. He's continued to reinvent himself: from pop star to jingle writer (he co-wrote I Feel Better Now for the Medibank ad), to solo artist and author. But says the process of metamorphosis is at an end. "I have reached the stage where I can't reinvent myself again," he says. "I wrote this book as a sort of exercise but it just reinforced that I don't want to do it again I just don't have anything to say. "Music is what I am naturally good at, but I really like reading, too. If I could get away with it, I'd happily spend every day just lying on the bed, reading and playing a bit of guitar."

Rock'n'roll: it's a blood sport

MEMOIR

Michael Dwyer By turns, scathing and self-deprecating, Stephen Cummings takes us on a wild ride, writes Michael Dwyer. Will It Be Funny Tomorrow, Billy? By Stephen Cummings Hardie Grant, $29.95 THE "kind of music memoir" advertised by Stephen Cummings' first non-fiction book is the kind that names names, bursts bubbles and burns bridges with the recklessness of a man with nothing left to lose. "The past smells like rotten eggs," he declares on the first page. "At this stage of my life, I don't need libel actions but what the hell." The former Sports frontman turned novelist and adult contemporary troubadour is nothing if not fatalistic. The title of this scathingly funny series of flashbacks refers not to a classic high point on his rock'n'roll road, but to the moment it all went wrong - in front of Mick Jagger. Not that he's trying to deflect the blame for anything. Summarily disowned by his father after a poor showing at a junior cricket match, he has assumed every misfortune was his own silly fault since a dog took out a piece of his leg on a school excursion to Alice Springs. Inexplicably mortified, he bandaged the open wound for months without telling a soul. How such a contained and terrified suburban Melbourne youth got hooked on the promise of rock'n'roll is easy to understand. Far more remarkable is how he managed to make his bed between its teeth and emerge only somewhat lacerated: with years of chronic back pain, more years of therapy, and mind chemistry that includes equal parts venom and Valium. Cummings structures his stories, not unlike recent benchmark memoirs by Bob Dylan and Cold Chisel's Don Walker, in discrete episodes that play loose with cause and effect. A chronology exists, from the gleeful anarchy of the Pelaco Brothers to the anxious expectations that drove and destroyed the Sports to diminishing cycles of solo success, but omissions are gaping and diversions in time, space and trains of thought are many. In some chapters his memories are married to personal soundtracks. The long careers of Lou Reed and John Cale, for instance, are a prism for reviewing halcyon days as a Bourke Street cinema usher and film student, random flashes of early bands and share-house trysts, and a post-Sports stint moving scenery at Channel Nine. Other chapters use collaborators or touring partners to illustrate aspects of the pop musician's life. Split Enz's farewell tour of 1984 is a maddening ensemble piece. Cummings' last gasp as a major label act is shadowed by the degeneration of his erstwhile junkie producer, Steve Kilbey. An opportunistic disco assignment with Kylie-wannabe Melissa Tkautz demonstrates much that is false, vacuous and tawdry about soap-star pop. A particularly daring chapter uses Nick Cave's outrageous success as a yardstick for the author's simmering sense of injustice. By turns he confesses huge admiration and crippling jealousy for this "smug, superior and bone-thin" kid whom he nurtured when the Sports were riding high. "It's almost funny," he concludes, but as always, "the joke's on me." Given Cummings' default position of self-deprecation ("in retrospect, I was an idiot"), it's not likely that libel actions will ensue from Cave, Kilbey, Kate Ceberano, Ross Wilson, Robert Forster, Glenn Wheatley, Midnight Oil, Eddie Rayner, Don Walker, Renee Geyer or any other party possibly wounded by his beautifully turned words of steel. His former manager Michael Gudinski might well laugh aloud at being called "an offensive and abusive bear of a man" with "an attention span the size of a bee's dick". The winners of this stupid game, after all, have no need to engage with Cummings' theory that "success has more to do with luck than talent", a viewpoint that frustrated his bandmates and minders no end over the years. Even given plenty of both, his pattern of self-sabotage underscores his basic incompatibility with the pop scene's less attractive prerequisites of bullish self-belief and ambition. Laid bare with a minimum of romance, the game ultimately smells so rotten that retreat looks like a kind of heroism. Cummings still makes good records and performs to devoted fans. He's also found true love, as touchingly declared in a loaded final chapter that manages to tie in several early sexual encounters and a near-death drug experience. Somewhere between the rotten eggs and sour grapes lies a unique path through a fabulous minefield.

Private Gigs: Stephen plays private functions. If he likes the idea and you've got the money. Interested? Contact him via his agent Andrew Walker (andrew at buxtonwalker.com).

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

Influences />

'Out Of Our Heads' - Rolling Stones, Peter Cook, The Move, Henry Miller, Slim Harpo, Incredible String Band, Little Gulliver & the children, Robert Crumb, The Everly Brothers, Ricky Nelson, Aldous Huxley, Angela Carter, The Wild Cherries, Bo Diddley and David Bowie from 1970 to 1974 ONLY.

Sounds Like
Record LabelJAZZHEAD/HEAD
Type of LabelIndie


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   Upcoming Shows ( view all )
Aug 20 2009 9:00P
butterfly club melbourne, Victoria
Aug 21 2009 9:00P
butterfly club Melbourne, Victoria
Aug 22 2009 8:00P
butterfly club Melbourne, Victoria
Aug 27 2009 8:00P
Republic Hobart Live and Deadly Hobart, Tasmania
Aug 29 2009 8:00P
Kingston Arts Centre Moorabbin, Victoria
Aug 30 2009 7:00P
Toff In Town - Melbourne Writers Festival Melbourne, Victoria

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I do benefits for all religions - I'd hate to blow the hereafter on a technicality.   (view more)

Musicians live complicated lives; it’s advisable not to take everything they say too literally.  (view more)

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   About Stephen Cummings


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BELOW ARE MY ONLY SHOWS FOR 2009.

“WILL IT STILL BE FUNNY BILLY” This is a 70minute show, featuring a chapter from my memoir and a dozen songs performed by Billy Miller and myself. What you get is dramatics and great songs in Melbourne’s leading Burlesque Palace – BUTTERFLY CLUB in all its glory. The venue holds no more than 50 people.

August 20 BUTTERFLY CLUB. 9PM

August 21 BUTTERFLY CLUB. 9PM

August 22 BUTTERFLY CLUB. 9PM

BOOK NOW at the Butterfly Club site.

CONTACT INFORMATION THE BUTTERFLY CLUB 204 Bank St, South Melbourne, 3205 VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA TELEPHONE: (03)9690 2000

August 27 THE REPUBLIC BAR – HOBART.

For bookings or further information please email or telephone (03) 6234 6954 STEPHEN'S LAST RIDE TO HOBART. HE WILL BE SUPA SENSITIVE, ROCKING AND AMUSING. LAST CHANCE. MIGHT EVEN READ FROM HIS BOOK!

August 29 THE KINGSTON CITY ARTS CENTRE IN MOORABBIN. THIS IS A FULL BAND & ACOUSTIC SHOW. THIS GIG IS ALREADY SELLING FAST.

Bookings Bookings can be made in person at Kingston Arts Centre between 9.00am and 5.00pm Monday to Friday or 12.00pm to 5.00pm Saturday. Credit card bookings can also be made by phone on 9556 4440.

August 30 ‘THE TOFF IN TOWN’ AS A PART OF THE MELBOURNE WRITER’S FESTIVAL. “WILL IT STILL BE FUNNY BILLY” PERFORMED WITH A FULL LIVE POP GROUP IN A ONE-TIME-ONLY- RECITAL.

Day: Sunday Date: 30/08/2009 Time: 7:00 PM Venue: The Toff in Town Event Name: WILL IT BE FUNNY TOMORROW BILLY? Panelists: Stephen Cummings Chair: Chair's email: Topic: Join Stephen Cummings in a must-see night of neuroses, culture and great music. Cummings has brilliantly adapted a chapter from his memoir Will It Be Funny Tomorrow Billy?, and for one night only at the MWF you can enjoy this weird and wonderful mix of in-your-face performance, pop and soft-core action. The narrative involves a trip across America when for a few weeks The Sports were hot shit. The cast includes: Billy Joel, Michael Gudinski and men wrestling at Niagara Falls. It's obviously a must see/hear/experience.

SEPTEMBER 1 “NOTES” WEDNESDAY NIGHT IN NEWTOWN. SYDNEY.

SEPTEMBER 2 “LIZOTTES” THURSDAY NIGHT IN KILCUNDA. SYDNEY. .

SEPTEMBER 1 “LIZOTTES” FRIDAY NIGHT IN NEWCASTLE. NSW.

SEPTEMBER 1 “THE CLARENDON GUEST HOUSE” SATURDAY NIGHT IN KATOOMBA. .

BLUE MOUNTAINS.

BRISBANE

SEPTEMBER 12 BRISBANE WRITERS FESTIVAL

Saturday 12 September 3:15 - 4:15PM It's All About Me Stephen Cummings in conv. Paul Barclay 8:00 - 10.30PM Chaser Conversation followed by Stephen Cummings sings

STEPHENS' NEW & FINAL ALBUM : “I have too much money invested in sweaters.”

Special Offers

Get Them While They're Hot!

To buy any of the sets listed below just click on the item's button to use PayPal's payment facility - you need a valid credit card but you don't have to be a PayPal member. Worried about buying over the web? Then instead send a cheque (in Australian dollars, made out to Stephen Cummings) or money order to: PO Box 340 - Glenhuntly - Victoria - Australia - 3163.


Happiest Man Alive CD (2008) Image and video hosting by TinyPic You've heard some of the tracks. You've read the blog. Now you can buy the CD - yes NOW! Why wait until the shops stock it in September when you can have it in your mailbox in a couple of days.

Track Listing:

  • Love Is Space And Time
  • Sick Comedian
  • You Know It All By Heart
  • Raymond Chandler and Edward Hopper
  • This Song Can Save You
  • Straight To Your Arms
  • The Ballad Of Henry Miller
  • What A Joy It Is To Dance And Sing
  • Don't You Ever Listen To Me?
  • Oh To Be Loved
$25AU + $5AU P&P

The Australian

Stephen Cummings Happiest Man Alive (Head) Stephen Cummings returns with another album of adult pop songs. This time around Cummings has taken a bare bones approach. Backed by Bill McDonald (Four Hours Sleep) and Billy Miller (The Ferrets), the album thrives on subtle arrangements and fine harmonies. Before you get too settled, it’s not an entirely laid back/cushy affair. Two songs in with ‘Sick Comedian’, Cummings is positively sneering down the microphone. The album, or Cummings’ approach at least, was largely inspired by a set of bootlegged demos that came from a late 1980’s songwriter’s frenzy between Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello. Cummings, quite rightly, found the unadorned tapes far more impressive than their resulting albums … Flowers In The Dirt (McCartney) and Spike (Costello). On Happiest Man Alive, he adopts a similar roughly hewn approach. Twenty albums into his solo career, Cummings offers fans a sonic look over the shoulder. ‘This Song Can Save You’ and ‘Don’t You Ever Listen To Me’ sound like long lost cousins of the material he once recorded with Steve Kilbey in the mid-1990’s. ‘Straight To Your Arms’ could have been on his best solo work, 1988’s Lovetown. Clever with a title, Happiest Man Alive boasts these pearlers, ‘Raymond Chandler And Edward Hopper’ and ‘The Ballad Of Henry Miller’. For fans, this is a welcome addition to an already fine body of work. Four Stars Sean Sennett

The Melbourne Age 3/10/08

Happiest Man Alive

Michael Dwyer, Reviewer

Artist: Stephen Cummings Genre Rock Label Head Records 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. Stephen Cummings Happiest Man Alive (Head Records) Reviewer: Mike Gribble: Adelaide Advertiser ***1/2 ­­­ SHY and retiring, the studio is a release for Stephen Cummings and cathartic joy often becomes the listener's. Here, he proposes an interesting juxtaposition, pitting the serene ambience of his landmark album Falling Swinger and the pent-up, fracturous delivery of The Sports. On Sick Comedian and the venomous spit You Know It All By Heart,his angst is ropeable. Conversely, his gentle narrative Straight to Your Arms is eminently listenable. His concise aural diversity conjures strong imagery made powerful by immaculately recorded vintage guitars. The long journey of surprise continues.

The Age -The Crate Music Chris Johnston

Reckless (1979) The Sports WITHOUT any doubt this is one of the great Melbourne rock'n'roll records, the debut album from the Sports, fronted by Stephen Cummings, backed by the likes of Martin Armiger, Ed Bates and Andrew Pendlebury, with an awesome early rhythm section (Robert Glover and Paul Hitchins) and produced by Joe Camilleri. All these names are very important ones in the songlines of Melbourne music. The Sports started in '77: the year punk broke. This first album is a sheer delight. There's a brace of four songs on it - Boys! (What Did The Detective Say?), Reckless, When You Walk In The Room and I Put The Light On - that, as a continuum, are as strong and energetic and definitely as cool as anything from that time. In fact, I'd hold up Reckless, a new wave ballad if there could be such a thing, as one of the best, if not the best Australian rock song ever written: up there, even, with Flame Trees. Everything about it is perfect, especially that breathless, gorgeous, expectant pause between verses, as Cummings, in the rain and the traffic and the working girls, situated right there in the psychogeography of Melbourne, singing of it and about it and to it, falls deeper for her: "And I see that little girl running towards me/wrapped up against the night... you can laugh all that you like." The Sports had greater triumphs later, but this era, to me, was unbeatable.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic Close-Ups CD (2004). New Book Edition with Ed Nimervoll essay “When I left the Sports, I left the Sports. That was it. I left the songs behind and I never looked back. Now I’ve done 13 solo albums I kinda thought, ‘I wanna bring those songs back into my life’. Elvis Costello does it. Bob Dylan does it. Why am I not doing it?”

Stephen Cummings isn’t being immodest by claiming such distinguished company. Like some of rock’s greatest artists, he’s a writer obsessed with the ongoing redefinition of ageless emotions and scenarios. For nearly 30 years, his work has channelled a restless creative spirit through one of Australia’s most acclaimed and distinctive voices.

Close-Ups is a surprisingly affectionate return to his back catalogue in a spontaneous acoustic setting. By recalling songs he hasn’t played in 25 years and reconsidering some of his finest moments as a solo artist, Stephen Cummings has arguably arrived at his definitive album.

Track Listing:

  • How Come
  • Hell
  • She Set Fire To The House
  • Don't Throw Stones
  • Suspicious Minds
  • Who Listens To The Radio
  • Twist Senorita
  • When Love Comes Back To Haunt You
  • Strangers On A Train
  • The Big Room
  • Walk Softly But Carry A Big Stick
  • Fell From A Great Height
  • Carrying A Torch For You
  • Live, Work And Play
Available for $20AU + $5AU P&P


Space Travel CD - new special price Image and video hosting by TinyPic Stephen has found a box of Space Travel CDs - his 2007 studio album - under some washing in the laundry and is making them available at a must-have price of $15AU + $5AU P&P

Track Listing:

  • Little Girl On A Sofa
  • No Stopping
  • It's Not Me, It's You
  • I Remember
  • Hey Kitty Kitty
  • From The Day I Was Born
  • Who Wants To Buy A Broken Heart?
  • El Duderino
  • Hurry Hurry And Let's Go
  • Going To Turn You Round
  • I Sit And Think Of You

Novels. My two novels are available in a twin-pack only from this site. Add a note with the order if you'd like them signed. Numbers are limited! $30AU + $5AU P&P

Wonderboy (1996)

Image and video hosting by TinyPic 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)

Image and video hosting by TinyPic 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


   Stephen Cummings's Friend Space (Top 4)
Stephen Cummings has 1294 friends.
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Stephen Cummings's Friends Comments
Displaying 25 of 572 comments  ( View All | Add Comment )
Stephanie Forryan





Jul 14 2009 9:10 AM

Hi Stephen,
Thanks so much for drawing my attention to your music - it's wonderful.
Have a good week!
Stephanie
Natalie D-Napoleon





Jul 13 2009 3:52 AM

I am back in Melbourne on Wednesday night for a very special performance with the immortal Victoria Williams.  We are playing The Empress Hotel in Fitzroy.  It starts at 8:00pm.  So come on down and spend an evening with us before Victoria bids Australia a reluctant fare-the-well and heads back home to the beautiful expanse of the Californian desert …
Christian Lamitschka, Journalist for Country Music





Jul 12 2009 6:38 PM

CountryHome Forum, http://groups.myspace.com/CountryHomeMagazine , is one of the biggest Forum for country music in Europe and part of CountryHome, www.countryhome.de , Germany's Premier Online Country Music Magazine.

CountryHome Forum have more than 5,000 members. Each news you submit to CountryHome Forum will released to my weekly Newsletter with more than 50,000 readers.

Please submit your artist news and events to CountryHome Forum to help your artists to get well known better in Europe. If you do not have the time to submit your artist news and events by yourself, please send it me to: Ch.Lamitschka@t-online.de and I will submit them by myself to CountryHome Forum.

I know that many artists from North America don't have their music videos uploaded to German video websites. The most popular websites are MyVideo.de and ClipFish.de. That means your European audience does not have the chance to find them.

I understand that most of you don't speak German and are not able to upload videos because of the language barrier. If you would like me to upload your videos to the German video websites, please let me know.

Thanks

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
SOONERS





Jul 12 2009 5:45 AM

Click to visit SOONERS MySpace
Black Shadow Photography





Jul 4 2009 10:38 AM

July Special on photo shoots - get in quick!



Aunty Lisa





Jun 28 2009 11:07 PM

Hi There
Thanks for the add!!
I've been enjoying your talent for over 30 years now!
wow I feel a little old now...
look forward to seeing you
@ the Sydney show :)
Cheers
Lisa
Schism





Jun 19 2009 12:09 AM

Hey Stephen,

Hope all is awesome down your way.

Keep On RoCKiN,

Rich,
SCHISM.....
Gigantor!





Jun 9 2009 3:34 AM

Hey Stephen!
Saw you on tv last night on the “my first gig” program. Great stuff! It made me realise though, you should upload more music video clips of your solo career onto youtube. They would be good to see! Keep up the good work though, plus, I have heard nothing but good things said about your book!
Anyway, hope all is rocking and I will probably see you at an upcoming gig.
I am pumped because I just finished most of my exams for the semester! woo!
Cheers, Guy
Dog Trumpet





Jun 6 2009 3:07 AM

Hi Steve
Just finished your Funny Tomorrow book. Honestly Steve! A very enjoyable and entertaining glimpse of all these jumbled up times through your inimitable viewfinder. Nice work - great read!
Peter O'D
Pampussycat





Jun 2 2009 3:36 PM

I bought Space Travel and it is a fab CD.
michaela faute de mieux palin





May 18 2009 1:12 AM

Hello Estapan, I'm waiting for Papageno to give a book review before getting your book.
Schism





May 19 2009 6:10 AM

Hey Stephen,

Dropping by to say hi to our great myspace friend. Hope all is fine.

Keep up the great music and "Don't Stop the Blog"

Keep on RoCKiN,

SCHISM.....
gyan





May 24 2009 5:15 AM

we miss you ...hope all is well ...love from the big wet...x
Michael J Peade





May 29 2009 3:25 PM

Hi Stephen,

Just dropping by for a listen.

Hope you have a great weekend, and all is well.

Michael.
Harvey Welsh





May 10 2009 12:57 PM

Hi Stephen,

Hope all is well. Tommorrow comes, another day. But a greater one.

Take care,

Harvey Weslh.
Dimitris Tantanozis





May 9 2009 2:01 PM


thanks for the add
Jess





May 7 2009 9:14 AM

This is probably the best publicity shot I've ever seen! x

franko maddness





May 7 2009 1:26 AM

your greatest asset iz y voice
Lisa Miller





May 5 2009 11:20 AM

Well my Old Friend, I don't recall another comment apart from that flattering one you left. What did you say - were you scathing? Resend it. I enjoy your nasty ones.
All the best with your new book launching.
xL
Lisa Miller





May 1 2009 1:34 PM

Hi S.C, just caught the Reg Mombassa opening in the Nong. Beautiful show. He mentioned you - in a fond way. You're looking a little peaky right now. Do you know that every one get's an alert when you upload a photo to your album? I know youve up loaded about two dozen in the last week-I'd choose any one one of them over this one.This is actually scary-like a death mask.
cheers and love Lisa
[project]transmit





Apr 30 2009 8:05 PM

Hey hey.. check out The Necks on tour in Europe this month....if you're anywhere near any of these places..!..
2/3/4/5-Brussels (with B2B), 6-Amsterdam, 7-Tilburg, 8- Bielefeld, 10- Rome, 12-Ljublijana, 13-Zagreb, 14- Belgrade, 15- Moscow, 16- Berlin, 20- Eberswalder, 21-Halifax, 22- Birmimgham,, 27-London, 28- Bristol, 29-Dunfermline....... Check www.thenecks.com for details...........
DAVID VIRGIN





Apr 30 2009 2:58 PM

Hiya Stephen,, DV



Gigantor!





Apr 30 2009 9:14 AM

Hey there stephen!
That was a good article and exposure you got this morning in the age! it was a good read. I'm looking forward to reading the book, sounds like it will be great. Anyway, i hope it is ALL going to plan, and all the best.
Guy
Barney McAll





Apr 29 2009 2:03 AM

PhotobucketPhotobucket
Photobucket
gyan





Apr 23 2009 11:03 PM

maybe you're right ...who'd trust a doctor with spray on hair and plastic teeth?? rip mitch x
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