The Spooky Men’s Chorale
Essaying magnificence and foolishness by equal degree, the Spooky Men’s Chorale has come to singlehandedly re-genre-ify male singing in the early part of this millennium. Assembled for the first time by Stephen in August 2001 for “This was nearly my life” in Sydney, this genial rabble has gone on to conquer the Australian festival circuit, the inner sanctums of the ABC, and the UK (9 times) with a uniquely compelling holy trinity of bottomless stupidity, pointless beauty, and the eternal search for the ultimate boofchord.
The journey has not only taken them through some of the most wonderful ancient Georgian harmonies, but also through a dizzying cavalcade of ridiculous re-imaginings of songs as we know them, and am increasingly intriguing catalogue of songs that both mock and celebrate the male experience The Spooks have released seven CDs and their adventures have taken them to the UK (9 times), as well as Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Ireland and New Zealand. Try as they might, they have failed to dinosaur-ify themselves and remain both musically and socially on the cutting edge of the thinking man’s post-modern socio-politico-musico-ology.
Performance Highlights
Over 800 gigs since 2001 to a total audience of in excess of 330,000
UNITED KINGDOM
WOMAD UK 2017
Cambridge Festival 2011 2022
Liverpool Philharmonic Hall 2013 2015 2017 2022
King’s Place London 2017 2019 2022
Union Chapel London 2009 2011 2013
Shrewsbury Festival 2006 2009 2015
Towersey Village Festival x 7 2006-2019
Broadstairs Folk Week 2006 2011 2015 2022
Village Pump Folk Festival 2007 2013 2015
Wickham Festival x 7 2007-2022
Sidmouth Folk Week x 8 2007-2022
Warwick Festival 2007 2009 2011 2017
Rhythmtree Festival 2019
Camp Bestival 2015
Gate to Southwell Festival 2022
Queens Hall Edinburgh 2022
St David’s Hall Cardiff 2015 2017 2019
AUSTRALIA
Melbourne Recital Centre 2017 2019
City Recital Hall, Sydney, 2017
The Seymour Centre, Sydney, 2019
Woodford Folk Festival x 5 2004-19
WOMADelaide 2016
National Folk Festival x 10 2004-2019
Sydney Festival 2017
The Princess Theatre, Brisbane, 2018
Adelaide Town Hall 2017
Brisbane Old Museum 2017
Blue Mountains Music Festival x 9 2005-2019
Festival of Voices, Tasmania x 4 2010-19
Cygnet Folk Festival x 5 2006-2019
Port Fairy Folk Festival 2007
Guest appearances
ABC TV Spicks and Specks, The New Inventors, The Collectors, The Mix
ABC Radio The Music Show, Weekends with Simon Marnie
Channel 10, Studio TEN
OTHER INTERNATIONAL
Rudolstadt Festival, Germany, 2019
Malmö Music Festival, Sweden 2014
Tønder Festival, Denmark 2013 2014
WOMAD NZ, 2018
Otago Festival, New Zealand 2012
Farmleigh Affair, Dublin, Ireland 2007