Saturday, November 26, 2011

Series Nine - Episode 9



The Jezabels had only just touched down back in Australia when this episode was recorded in early October. Hayley Mary and James Black and Jon had had a lot of chat on the email about choice of duet before settling on the Kylie/Nick song, which is appropriate because tomorrow night Kylie is inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame. Julia prepared Hayley's ABBA questions personally!






LINKS

Hayley Mary: Endless Summer
Jon Stevens: Testify

The Jezabels website
Jon Stevens website

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

New Releases


The RocKwiz Christmas Album will be available on November 25th on iTunes and on CD. It's a great collection of songs form the 2007 and 2009 Christmas shows at The Palais in St Kilda.






Pre order from the CD from here
Pre order from Tunes here






Track listing for the CD is below...

The Christmas Album Has Arrived!

It's been a busy month at RocKwiz HQ with script read-throughs and final arrangements all coming together for the Christmas Tour, but all stopped today when a very special box was delivered containing copies of the vinyl version of the RocKwiz Christmas Album. Naturally Brian was very excited about it and could't wait to take it out of the shrink-wrap and inspect our first ever vinyl release!



Pre-order the vinyl record here


Saturday, November 19, 2011

Series Nine - Episode 8


David Bridie has been on our wish-list for a long time and the opportunity to pair him with Leah Flanagan was too good to miss so  they joined us for this episode.




Rockhampton duo Busby Marou performed as our Fan's Choice, our special guests. Brian is the fan, and it's his choice.




LINKS

Leah Flanagan: September Song
David Bridie: Great Expectations
Duet: Shipbuilding

Busby Marou: Underlying Message


As always the RocKwiz Orkestra provided sublime backing for all four songs, with Peter Luscombe featuring prominently on backing vocals.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

RocKwiz Top 20 playlist

Just for old time's sake, here are the 20 most played clips from the old SBS RocKwiz website, 
and for your convenience, we've linked them to the same clips in the new SBS VOD player. 

1   Patience Hodgson and Broderick Smith cover 

2   Jess Cornelius and Mike Rudd cover
Roy Orbison's CRYING

3   Holiday Sidewinder and Andrew Stockdale cover 
Stevie Nicks and Don Henley's LEATHER AND LACE

4   Tina Arena and Jeff Martin cover 
Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush's DON'T GIVE UP

5   Sarah Blasko and Dan Crannich cover 
Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris's HEART'S ON FIRE

6   Rockwiz Ep 100 Special - Dan Sultan and Ella Hooper cover 

7   Dash and Will and Kav Temperly cover 
Tom Petty's  I WON'T BACK DOWN

8   Kram and Elana Stone cover 
Fleetwood Mac's MONDAY MORNING 

9   Dan Sultan and Ella Hooper cover 
Graham Parker's HOLD BACK THE NIGHT

10   Jack Ladder and Loene Carmen cover 
Suzi Quatro's STUMBLIN' IN

11   Vanessa Amorosi and Ashley Naylor cover 
The Rolling Stones  GET OFF MY CLOUD

12   Billy Miller and Stephanie Dosen  
cover Len Barry's 1-2-3 
  
13   Liz Stringer and Dan Wilson cover 
Alison Krauss and Robert Plant's KILLING THE BLUES 

14   Chrissy Amphlett and Chris Cheney cover 
The Rolling Stones' STRAY CAT BLUES

15   Suzannah Espie and Brian Cadd cover 
The Rolling Stones' OUT OF TIME

16   Christmas Special 09 - Tex Perkins and Paris Wells cover 
Elvis Presley's BLUE CHRISTMAS 

17   Max Merritt and Catherine Britt cover 
Max Meritt's SLIPPIN' AWAY

18   Kate Miller-Heidke and Paul Dempsey cover 
George Michael's CARELESS WHISPER

19   Serena Ryder and Lior cover 
Neil Young's HEART OF GOLD on iTunes

20   Christmas Special 09 - Adalita covers 
The Pretenders 2000 MILES

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Series Nine - Episode 7

Always a pleasure to have the coolest daddy in the country on RocKwiz. Ross Wilson really is a legend and has been inducted twice into the ARIA Hall Of Fame in 1989 and 2006 (for his work with Daddy Cool. Shellie Morris is a member of the Black Arm Band and is a stunning singer. There was the normal amount of to and fro between them with duet suggestions before they finally settled on one of the most covered songs in the history of modern music. Louie Louis was written in 1955 and is ranked at #55 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time.
LINKS 
Shellie Morris: Swept Away
Ross Wilson: Chemistry

Ross Wilson's Website
Ross  with Waleed Aly on The Late Session

Shellie Morris's Website
A profile of Shellie from SBS



Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Series Nine - Episode 6

Kimbra first came to our attention late last year and we knew immediately that she was one to watch, so when we started to book artists for this series she was very near the top of the list. Who to put her with was going to be fun and we started making a list of likely candidates and checking their availability. As we got closer to the record date of 16/8, Gotye's song "Somebody That I Used To Know", featuring Kimbra, started to become a massive hit so we naturally tried to get Wally but just couldn't make the dates work. We'd also been listening to Ben Salter and trying to find a place for him on the show as Brian and Julia had worked with him during their Queensland Country Comfort shows earlier in the year. Chance and fate ensured that the stars aligned and Ben and Kimbra were confirmed. The choice of the Supergrass song Moving as the duet was Kimbra's and the resulting performance is one of the highlights of the series.


LINKS
Ben Salter: The Coward
Duet: Moving

Kimbra's website
Ben Salter's website

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Series Nine - Episode 5

The Wolfgramm Sisters, Eliza, Talei and Kelly, have been a part of the RocKwiz Family since they first joined us for the 2007 Christmas Special. Talei joined Tim Rogers for a great version of The Small Faces Tin Soldier as a Fan's Choice on an episode in Series 5 but for this episode the quite pregnant Talei joined visiting American singer, songwriter, author, and poet former Felice Brother, Simone Felice, who had previously been booked as a guest but was unable to join us because he was having heart surgery!

LINKS

Talei Wolfgramm: King 
Simone Felice: Radio Song

Simon Felice Website
The Wolfgramm Sisters Website