Ladies and Gentlemen it’s time; introducing The Exploding Universe of Ed Kuepper, the first live band experience of Ed Kuepper’s solo material since 2009. Featuring Ed’s legendary sparring partner Mark Dawson on drums, Sunnyboys bassist Peter Oxley plus celebrated pianist Alister Spence and brass maestro Eamon Dilworth, The Exploding Universe will tackle the best of Kuepper’s brand new vinyl reissues Electrical Storm and the classic Honey Steel’s Gold this September.
THE EXPLODING UNIVERSE OF ED KUEPPER
SEPTEMBER
Fri 1st: Wyong, Arthouse
Sat 2nd: Blue Mountains Theatre
Wed 6th: Melbourne, National Theatre
Fri 8th: Queenscliff Town Hall
Sat 9th: Meeniyan Town Hall
Wed 13th: Fremantle, Freo Social
Fri 15th: Adelaide, The Gov
Sat 16th: Hobart, Theatre Royal
Wed 20th: Canberra, The Street Theatre
Thu 21st: Sydney, City Recital Hall
Thu 28th: Brisbane, Princess Theatre
Fri 29: Gold Coast, Twin Towns
Sat 30: Sunshine Coast, Imperial Hotel
The reissues are the result of a deal Kuepper has struck with Melbourne based Remote Control records who have licensed the rights to all his post-Saints catalogue; Laughing Clowns, The Aints, 15 + studio solo albums and more which will see a select run of limited-edition vinyl plus Kuepper’s long overdue catalogue addition to the digital realm.
“Friends, as you know, I’ve been full of happy announcements recently but announcing the shows I’ll be doing with this bunch of nifty musical dudes is one of my happiest. We’re going to be delving [as they say in rehearsals] into both the Honey Steel’s Gold and Electrical Storm albums, including some of the deeper cuts hardly heard since back in the day. We’re also going to be hammering thru a fine selection of the many chart topping hits that have become associated with me.” – Ed Kuepper
Electrical Storm of course, was Kuepper’s first solo outing having spent the previous ten years spearheading two of Australia’s most pioneering and productive bands; The Saints and Laughing Clowns.
But with success largely eluding both those outfits Kuepper was resigned to retirement. Recently married though, and on his honeymoon he took an acoustic guitar and surprised even himself writing an album’s worth of material including some of his most enduring tracks ‘Electrical Storm’, ‘Car Headlights’ and ‘Master Of Twin Servants’.
It was the beginning of a whole new phase for Kuepper that saw him become a leading drawcard across Australia’s burgeoning pub-scene of the 1980s and taking him ultimately to 1992’s ARIA-award winning Honey Steel’s Gold, an album that peaked at no.28 on the mainstream charts and which features his most well-known solo tracks ‘Everything I’ve Got (Belongs to You)’ and ‘The Way I Made You Feel’. In 2010 Honey Steel’s Gold was even listed at no.50 in the book 100 Best Australian Albums joining an earlier work (I’m) Stranded by The Saints.
Kuepper has said of the new reissues: “Both titles have been remastered from the original analogue tapes by the very experienced and very good Don Bartley. This is the first time either title has had a remaster since their initial release. So in the case of Electrical Storm that’s almost 40 years and for Honey Steel’s Gold 30 years. Both titles have been mastered using the most up to date technology and prepared for all formats; vinyl, CD and streaming. They are the best ever sounding versions of both albums.”
But the time of the Exploding Universe of Ed Kuepper is now. Joined by some of Australia’s most creative musicians the Exploding Universe aims to both recreate and expand on the original forms and presents something totally unique. As the title says, it is The Exploding Universe of Ed Kuepper.