The Gin Club hit the touring trail - June 2011
» The Gin Club June tour dates - April 28, 2011
» The Gin Club - Notes Live, NSW - November 21, 2009
» The Gin Club - Curtin Bandroom, The, VIC - November 13, 2009
» Idols, Footy and Junk: The Gin Club - December 7, 2009
» The Gin Club - Pirates of the red desert - March 31, 2006
» Gin Gin Cheree - Limelight Lounge, VIC - March 8, 2007
The Gin Club is set to hit the touring trail again. The eleven piece country folk rock band will be touring the country, kicking off in Adelaide on 10 June 2011.
The Gin Club came to existence in 2005, when Ben Salter gathered together a group of musicians who, though delving into their own solo projects, started to collaborate and write music together to create this unique and diverse sounding band.
"I started The Gin Club with The Wu Tang Clan in mind. I like the idea that though the rappers in The Wu Tang Clan were working on their own side projects, they came together as a collective to make the band."
The band now has seven full time members that live all around the world from Stockholm to Melbourne. This globe spanning band has a unique way of functioning. Due to location difficulties rehearsal is pretty much unfeasible, transforming their show into professional jamming sessions with any available band members, creating a dynamic and unpredictable element to their live performances. Ben states, "I gave up trying to organise rehearsal because it just became too impossible."
When writing albums, The Gin Club takes two weeks to rehearse and record with everyone bringing their music to the table. Ben states that The Gin Club has a loose sound, which acts as a template, making it easier for the seven different songwriters to create an album that sounds cohesive. Their band works well together due to the lack of ego and the firm friendship base created amongst the members. Because all of the songwriters are in their own different bands, each member brings a little personal touch to each album. Salter's main band is The Giants of Science, a band created in his youth, which is decible extending grunge rock. Ben admits this sound has a way of sneaking into his folk music, adding a slight hint of heavy set guitars into The Gin Club's country folk style.
The Gin Club will be touring with the songs from their album Death Wish (2010). I asked Ben what the song that moved him the most on their latest album was. He divulged that the song "Milli Vanilli" stood out for him. The song was written by Bridget Lewis and penned before the Brisbane floods, but seemed to eerily foreshadow the story of the astounding environmental event that occurred in early 2011.
The Gin Club, orginially hailing from Brisbane, banded together to do support gigs to raise money for their flooded home town with some of the band member's homes being affected by the floods.
The Gin Club will be on tour in early June, kicking off in Adelaide and jumping around the East Coast of Australia. Be sure to catch them when you get the chance.
