TSL To Support INXS

Local pop-punk heroes, The Short List have been hand picked by legendary Australian rock group, INXS to open their show at the annual Sucrogen 400 Series in Townsville on Saturday night.

The band scored the spot after submitting a demo to competition run by local commercial radio station HotFM alongside bands from Cairns through Mackay for a chance to support rockers, INXS. The boys were ecstatic upon news of their win.

"To support INXS is such a massive opportunity. They're a legendary band, we are all definitely excited to meet them and have the chance to perform before them," says frontman, Daniel Chigwidden.

INXS will play their first Australian gig since 2007 this weekend in Townsville, fronted by none other than controversial frontman JD Fortune.

The Short List will hit the stage at 6pm, with INXS penned to play at 6:45pm at Stage Area to the western side of the Civic Theatre.

The concert is free for Saturday Event ticket holders, however, tickets to the event are still available through Ticketek.

Changes to Splendour Lineup

Only weeks out from the event, unforeseen circumstances have led to the withdrawal of two bands on the 2010 Splendour In The Grass lineup. Due to recording schedules, British act The Ting Tings have had to pull out of the festival. Management released a statement confirming; “Due to the rescheduling of the next Tings Tings album to later in 2010 the band sadly have decided to delay their Australian tour and this of course means they will not be able to play Splendour in 2010.” Replacing The Ting Tings will be formally Unearthed winners, Art vs. Science. Locally grown indie darlings, The Middle East, have also been forced to cancel their appearance at the festival. The band have withdrawn their appearance due to an extended recording schedule. Replacing them will be indie songstress Sally Seltmann, previously known as New Buffalo.

Two Door Cinema Club

It doesn't seem like your typical Irish, Celtic ensemble when you initially stumble upon this electropop trio. But then again, whats the use of living in the past, drenched in tradition, when you can soar like an eagle, and make music thats both catchy, and charismatic? So, their name derives from the obvious; a local cinema in which seemed to stick like glue, and become the tag that divinely intervened the three band members. Two Door Cinema Club evolved from your typical medium of uploading material onto networking phenomena Myspace, and with a constant growing interest, the band members came to a halt with their university studies to immerse their selves into the live art of music. By 2009, the band was well on their way to a more recognisable image, and recording commenced, with their debut album following suite. Tourist History was released in the earlier months of 2010 here in Australia with a tour shortly to follow when Alex Trimble, Kev Baird, Sam Halliday head down under for whats sure to be an extravagant string of shows for the Irish musicians, and a spot on the bill for Splendour In The Grass toward the end of July. With a thirst for "anything quirky", heres hoping the band feasts their fangs into some Australiana when they're down under, and become regular visitors! You can catch Two Door Cinema Club at Splendour In The Grass at Woodford on July 31 and their sideshows at Sydney and Melbourne.

words by Nic Horton

Roller Derby - A Short History

Words by Le-Anne Johnson

Pics Supplied

Roller skating has always been a popular pastime in the United States of America, and endurance races were particularly popular in the early 20th century. Held on both flat and banked tracks, these races were coined 'derby' events by the press, meaning multi-race events with multiple participants. Promoter Leo Seltzer and sports writer Damon Runyon are credited with modifying these endurance competitions during the 1930s by emphasizing and maximizing the physical contact and teamwork between skaters and making it part of the game, effectively creating the spectacle known as roller derby.

During the 1940s and 1950s, roller derby's popularity exploded across the United States, attracting tens of thousands of spectators to live bouts, as well as television and radio coverage. This popularity continued throughout the 1960s under several different guises and within several separate leagues across the country. As time went on, roller derby became increasingly scripted and staged, its popularity declining in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The sport effectively died out with the collapse of most operating leagues due to poor revenue and lack of public interest.

Fast forward to Austin, Texas, 2001: a new revival of roller derby emerged, establishing a focus on athleticism, community, sisterhood and sassiness. As word spread, all-women roller derby leagues, founded from a grass-roots, skater-owned-skater-run philosophy began to emerge across America and, soon after, all over the world.

By 2006, roller derby had gone global and diversified. Currently there are just over 500 amateur all-female, co-ed or male leagues skating flat-track and/or banked track roller derby in 15 countries around the world, with over 20 leagues in Australia alone. With over 20,000 participants worldwide, roller derby is the fastest-growing female-focused amateur sport in the world.

The roller derby resurgence spread to Australia a few years ago, and today there are over 25 flat-track roller derby leagues in Australia, with more starting up all the time, due largely to the DIY community attitude roller derby fosters. While each league runs completely independently, most flat-track roller derby leagues adhere to WFTDA regulations and we define ourselves as being part of a global derby family.

Here's some info about a newly-formed league on the Sunshine Coast, the Coastal Assassins Roller Derby, right from the league's founding member, Cecilia Morton:

Okay, so a few of us gal pals on the Sunshine Coast wanted to play derby. When we found out there was no league I looked into how to start one, we made a commitment and it has snowballed from there. With some help from various leagues we formed in April with about 12 skaters in our first training session. Now two-and-a-half months on we regularly get around 20 at a session and have about 30 registered league members.

Fishnets and having an alter-ego are great draw cards to roller derby, but also having a tough, positive extreme sport that women can excel at is a really positive thing. And the camaraderie is unbeatable.

We are busy building up the skills needed to be bout-ready and don't actually have teams in our league yet. We aim to be bouting at some point next year, can't wait!

Roller derby really seems to be taking off in Australia and I would love to see it spread to an international playing field. Cheering on an Aussie team would be amazing!

If there are any people in the Sunshine Coast area that want to don some skates and join in the mayhem then send an email to coastal.assassins@y7mail.com and Bloody Fiasco, our Fresh Meat Officer, will get back to you with some info.

With scary names such as these: Buzza, Slam Von Carnage, Bloody Fiasco, Heavy Petal, Veronica Dodge, Pink Vengence, Gansta O'Derby, Gnrl Grievance, Dr Roadkill, Quiet Riot, Billy Machete, Bella Donna Deadly, Rusty Vixen, Karmina X Bones, Lady Savage, Hippy Hellraiser, Dirty Torque, Bandsaw Betty, Senorita Smash and Dee Dee Dainja, why wouldn't you join up?

So ladies over the age of 18 years, if you need an outlet for your pent-up anger (and let's face it, we all have some) why not try roller derby?! What you need as a beginner is skates, a helmet and protective gear - start-up is expensive but protection is important!

Check out Skate Australia for your local league listings.

Cooking with Kristy: Banoffee Pie

Words by Kristy Jones

Ingredients

• 250g packet of biscuits (eg, milk arrowroot)
• 115g butter
• 400g can of condensed milk or Nestle caramel, pre-made
• 2 bananas
• 300ml bottle cream or canned cream
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut
• Chocolate
• Ice cream

Method

Boil the condensed milk can in a deep saucepan of boiling water for 2-3 hours, to caramelize. Warning: the can must be covered with water the entire time, to caramelize evenly and to prevent the can from busting out everywhere.

Thoroughly cool the caramel for a while.

Crush the biscuits with a rolling pin or in a food processor and transfer to a large bowl.

Shake the bowl and crush any large pieces that rise to the top.

Add the coconut.

Melt the butter and mix with the biscuits until all crumbs are coated.

Empty into a cake tin and press against the sides and bottom of the tin with the outer surface of a clean glass.

Refrigerate while you whip the cream thickly.

When the biscuit base has set, pour the caramel over the base, spreading it evenly.

Slice the banana over the top of the caramel.

With a star nozzle, pipe the whipped cream over the bananas.

Finally, garnish the dessert by sprinkling chocolate over the cream.

Refrigerate until you're ready to serve.

Five Minutes With: The Amity Affliction

On the eve of their North Queensland tour, Anna-Marie Harding caught up with The Amity Affliction's guitarist (and former member of The Getaway Plan), Clint Splattering.

First off, congratulations on your new album, Youngbloods. The album was released on the 18th of June, how has it been going so far?

It's been really good. We just found out it had debuted at number 6 on the ARIA charts, which is the highest we've ever reached, so it's amazing news. Other than that we've been rehearsing for our album tour.

How did you come up with the name for the album Youngbloods?

We were just brainstorming a bunch of names and none of them seemed to sound right to fit the album, so we branched out to a few friends and managed to get one that everyone agreed on.

While on the topic of names, is it true that the band's name is inspired by The Amityville Horror?

I'm not too sure about it as I wasn't in the band when the name came up, but I think the word "Amity" is more related to it's meaning of "friendship" than the movie.

Your national Youngbloods tour kicks off in Adelaide on 2 July, is there any town in particular that you're looking forward to playing at?

I'm really excited to play my hometown of Melbourne, but I'm super excited for Sydney as we're playing the Roundhouse. It's one of my favourite venues to play and always has a good vibe.

Are you looking forward to playing in Townsville on 18 July?

Yeah, it should be good. I've only played there once, but it was good to get out there, as most kids hadn't had the opportunity to see us play before.

American band Misery Singles will be one of the bands supporting you on this tour. Previously you supported them in their sold-out headline run in 2009 - how does it feel to have the tables turned?

It definitely feels weird. Misery Singles are one of my all-time favourite bands, so it's crazy to think that they're supporting us. We're all great friends, though, so when we tour with them anywhere else, I'm sure the tables will turn again.

The band was formed in 2002, what were some of your musical influences?

My main influences were bands like U2 and Tool. Their use of effects and nice delays inspired me to take my guitar playing in a different direction.

What were the first albums you bought?

First ones I can remember are Smash by The Offspring and Dude Ranch by Blink 182.

How did you meet and consequently form the band?

I wasn't in the band when they began, but I met the guys when my old band The Getaway Plan did one of our first tours with them. Ever since then we've been great friends and one thing led to another and now I'm playing for them!

Do you think your music has evolved or changed much since you began?

Lots! To a lot of people it probably all sounds the same, but I think the songwriting has improved heaps and the new album hopefully displays that.

With your second album just being released are you starting to enjoy more notoriety?

Haha, I have no idea what this means. Is this saying we're known for being bad? If so, no.

What do you guys do for fun or to relax?

Mainly just hang out and drink, every chance we have off tour is kind of a race in an attempt to catch up with our friends that aren't on the road with us.

Do you have any favourite or interesting stories from touring?

I've only done a couple of shows with Amity, but I'm sure something is bound to happen on the Youngbloods tour.

Favourite song of all time?

With or Without You by U2.

Any favourite movies?

I love Requiem for a Dream, Detroit Rock City and Jurassic Park. All have amazing soundtracks as well.

What are some of your pet peeves?

Hmmm, I don't really have any. I really hate unexpected loud noises, though....

How do you cope with being in such close quarters and spending so much time together while touring?

I think I cope pretty well. I definitely hang more with a select few people but generally we all get along well, and have our own ways of escaping it all from time to time.

What's the lady scene like with the band right now?

Haha, it's good. We all have girlfriends besides two, but I'm not sure how interested they are at the moment. Everybody's minds seem to be just on getting ready for the tour, then we'll see what happens.

What are the band's future plans?

We just want to tour as much as possible. Hopefully we can get back overseas and try to crack some other markets. Other than that we'll just try and enjoy the ride.

The Amity Affliction will perform at the Townsville PCYC on Sunday, 18 July from 7.00pm.