Hello Just letting you know this is a fan site and the bulk of information I get from Necks newsletters you can also subscribe to and contact the band directly at;

www.thenecks.com

Here's one I received recently.

Much to tell you about!

*T SHIRTS NOW AVAILABLE
*GREAT SUCCESSES WITH FOOD COURT AND EUROPE TOUR
*AUSTRALIAN DATES ANNOUNCED
*NORTH AMERICAN TOUR ANNOUNCED
*TWO NEW BOOKS INCLUDING FEATURES ON THE NECKS

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T SHIRTS NOW AVAILABLE

Just in time for the festive season, The Necks are offering their first-ever range of T shirts. There are eight great designs, to suit every taste. (Actually, probably not.) Fabrics and printing quality are top-notch.

The Necks' T shirts are ONLY available at http://www.thenecks.com/pages/cds.html

(For overseas customers, it's a great time to buy T shirts and albums from The Necks' website. In the last five months, the Australian dollar has dropped 10% against the British pound, 19% against the Euro, 33% against the US dollar, and 41% against the Japanese yen!)

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GREAT SUCCESSES WITH FOOD COURT AND EUROPE TOUR

October/November was a busy period for The Necks, with much to show for it. In early October, we performed a sell-out season of Food Court at the Melbourne International Arts Festival. Food Court is a production by acclaimed theatre company, Back to Back Theatre .., who work with intellectually disabled performers, and The Necks were honoured to work in collaboration with them.

The result was extraordinary theatre, and highly acclaimed. Avi Lipski, writing in Australian Stage Online, said of The Necks' music:

"The audience is transfixed by their hypnotic cacophony of sound", and writing at length of the show itself said:

"I was immensely drawn to what I saw in Food Court: unfamiliar voices, sounds, shapes and colours. I was moved by the ebb and flow of the performers' emotions; transfixed by the ordinariness of their plight. I watched horrified as they inflicted pain onto one another, and felt a stirring deep inside me that harked back to memories of pain I had caused.

"Food Court is dark and often harrowing. It is unsettling, awkward, powerful theatre. I cannot make sense of it in any traditional way: it has altered my perceptions of "good" and "bad". It picked me up, carried me along, and dumped me in the depths of a faraway forest. I found it hard to fall asleep that night."

Martin Ball, in the The Age, cited The Necks' "exquisite musical improvisation" and called the production "A challenging and confronting show that plumbs the depths of human abjection and alienation, yet ultimately affirms a faith in humanity".

Meanwhile, in The Australian, Alison Croggon said "Food Court is a triumph. It's the most emotionally overwhelming theatre I've seen since Ariane Mnouchkine's Le Dernier Caravanserail: a work of devastating honesty and, ultimately, extraordinary beauty that confirms Back to Back as a key player in contemporary theatre."

The great news is Food Court will mount a return Australian season in January, in Geelong. Tickets are on sale now. This is not to be missed! Details are below.

We are also excited to reveal that Food Court has already been confirmed to perform in Europe next year. We will announce details of that soon.

After the Melbourne Festival, it was straight over to Europe for a very successful tour, the high point of which was our performance at the venerable Donaueschingen festival, the the oldest contemporary music festival in the world. We are awaiting full translations of reviews but one newspaper judged our concert the best performance of the entire festival.

Other highlights included our first ever performance in Spain, in Vigo, and a very gratifying run of double bills in France and Switzerland with Pateras/Baxter/Brown; each evening finishing with the two trios combining as a sextet.
 
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AUSTRALIAN DATES ANNOUNCED

Highlights of this next season are the All Tomorrows Parties festivals in Mt Buller, Brisbane and Sydney, and the return season of Food Court at GPAC in Geelong.

JANUARY

Mon 5th to Wed 7th - Melbourne, Corner Hotel ..

Fri 9th - Mt Buller, All Tomorrows Parties ..

Sun 11th - Adelaide, Governor Hindmarsh ..

Mon 12th - Perth, Charles Hotel ..

Thurs 15th - Brisbane, All Tomorrows Parties ..

Sat 17th, Sun 18th - Sydney (Cockatoo Island) - All Tomorrows Parties ..

Wed 28th to Sat 31st - Geelong Performing Arts Centre - Food Court, with Back to Back Theatre ..

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NORTH AMERICAN TOUR ANNOUNCED

The Necks are very excited to be mounting their first ever tour of North America, and what a tour it's turning out to be! Finally we have a chance to repay the loyalty of at least some of our many fans in the USA and Canada.

FEBRUARY

Tue 3rd - Chicago, IL, Chicago Cultural Center (To Be Confirmed)
http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalEntityHomeAction.do?entityName=Cultural+Center&entityNameEnumValue=128

Fri 6th - Detroit, MI, Detroit Museum of Contemporary Art
http://www.mocadetroit.org/

Sat 7th, Sun 8th - Knoxville, TN, Big Ears Festival (Sat 7th The Necks, Sun 8th collaboration by various members with other performers)
www.bigearsfestival.com

Tue 10th - New York, NY, Poisson Rouge
http://lepoissonrouge.com/
http://lepoissonrouge.inticketing.com/evinfo.php?eventid=29876&sid=

Fri 13th - Boston, MA, Institute of Contemporary Art
http://www.icaboston.org/

Sun 15th - Princeton, NY, Princeton University (performance and discussion)
hosted by the Department of Music and Free-Form Mash-Up
http://www.ffmup.org

Tue 17th - Pittsburgh, PA, The Andy Warhol Museum
http://www.warhol.org/

Thu 19th - Los Angeles, CA, REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater)
http://www.redcat.org/

FRi 20th - San Francisco, CA, Swedish American Hall
http://www.swedishamericanhall.com/

Sat 21st - Vancouver, BC, Winterruption Festival, Performance Works
http://www.coastaljazz.ca/index.cfm

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TWO NEW BOOKS INCLUDING FEATURES ON THE NECKS

Recent months have seen the release in Australia of two books on music containing significant analysis of The Necks.

First up was "Sounds of Then, Sounds of Now: Popular Music in Australia" (ACYS Publishing, edited by Shane Homan and Tony Mitchell)  which includes a chapter by highly-regarded writer John Whiteoak on improvised music in Australia, using The Necks as a case study.

Although intended as an educational text, the book has a very readable tone, and would be of great interest to anyone wishing to learn more of the musical environment from which The Necks sprang.

You can buy Sounds of Then, Sounds of Now online at

http://www.readings.com.au/product/9781875236602/sounds-of-then-sounds-of-now-popular-music-in-australlia

or

http://www.coop-bookshop.com.au/bookshop?basket_name=5712638&user_id=1228481775347&_frames_=no&_next_page_=GetSingleBook&_key_=9781875236602


More recently, we've seen the publication of John Shand's "Jazz: The Australian Accent" (UNSW Press) which profiles a selection of innovative Australian jazz and improvised musicians, comes with a companion CD, and features an entire chapter on The Necks.

UNSW Press are offering a 20% discount off the price of the book to Necks' newsletter recipients if you click on

http://www.unswpress.com.au/code13/N10147

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Finally, to all our fans, here's wishing you all the very best for the festive season, and a happy and safe 2009. Thank you for all your inspiring support throughout the year!

The Necks
www.thenecks.com