THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO
CAME TO THE TOTE LAST WEEKEND
TO HELP RAISE MONEY FOR
THE CAMBODIAN KIDS FOUNDATION
A sincere thank you to everyone who braved the wild wintery weather last weekend and made it down to the Tote for a fine evening of music with Nick Barker, James McCann, Dead River Deeps and myself & Michael Barclay. Money raised went to the Cambodian Kids Foundation, a wonderful bunch of people who are tirelessly raising money to help build better conditions and educational facilities in Cambodia. You can find out about more at www.cambodiankidsfoundation.com. Below is a letter of thanks from Synoeun, one of the teenagers living in Phnom Penh to say thank you for the benefit gig..

Dear Bands,

Today I am very excited to write this message to Generous Music Band. I've heard that you are going to play music to do fundraising to support Cambodian kids like us. I am very appreciated to see you all are working very hard to save us. I know that you want to see something can change our life and our future.

I have met a lot of trouble in my family and my study. I use to stop school, work in factory and used to be a cake seller on the street when I was young. It was the time to have lunch but no any money in my parents' pocket and no food to eat.. I was very hungry, very sad and very painful. I work very hard but still have not enough food to eat sometime.

I don't know how excited am I to get to know you all. Your heart is very big and it's full by love and kindness. There are many thing has been changing step by step because of you. Cambodian kids will a get a brilliant future because of their hard working and yours.

I would like to say thank you so much for your volunteering and support. We can go to school, have food and stay in a better place. We will use our knowledge and skill to help our self and the other to improve. I will keep doing my best to study and work. I do believe that you will see something new about Cambodian kids in the shortly future. It's Awesome. Thanks so much, Synoeun

MICK THOMAS & MICHAEL BARCLAY
HIT THE ROAD ON AN ACOUSTIC TOUR
AROUND THE COUNTRY IN AUGUST

After the success of their recent European shows together, Mick Thomas and Michael Barclay will be trekking off around the country at the end of July through until early September playing some more acoustic shows armed with guitar and cajon.. The tour will kick off in Victoria with some coastal shows in Anglesea, Portarlington and Deans Marsh before heading over to South Australia for a show at the much loved Grace Emily Hotel and then off around the SA coast to Cowell, Tumby Bay and Coffin Bay. Then it's back to Victoria for shows in Rye, Warburton and a special Tote Collingwood show for the Cambodian Kids Foundation. Then back on the road up to NSW, ACT and finally Queensland for the Redland Spring Festival.

See the tour page for all the gig dates and ticket information.

REVIEW FOR SPIN! SPIN! SPIN!

"Thank you. Thank you Mick Thomas for an album of fun and joy; music and lyrics to put smiles on faces. Thomas, frontman to Weddings, Parties, Anything, takes a truckload of ordinary experiences (at least ordinary to a travelling troubadour) and turns them into some of the finest pop-rock going around right now. Some tracks veer towards rockabilly, there's happy pop and rock plus room for a dark bushranger ballad among an eclectic mix. The result is an album for today and tomorrow. There are guitars, piano, violin, harp, horns and accordian filling out a fulsome sound; there are dry lines and observations filling out lyrics. Thomas sells his cool Buick to keep his woman, sleeps on strangers' floors to save money after a show, gets cynical about politicians. All this, and much more, done with humour and insight. In Driving Rain, he shelters in a Queensland motel with a pizza and cask of red wine: a banquet in cardboard to end up the day. On the title track Spin, "She looked straight into the camera concealed a tooth of solid gold/sung her paean to the homeless, to the helpless, to the old". Sometimes Thomas's vocals sound stretched, a little rusty, especially when dueting with the sweet power of Felicity Urquhart on As You Lay Sleeping, one of many highlights. But that could be part of the charm of one of the most mature, most satisfying, Australian rock albums in a while."
Bruce McMahon
Brisbane Courier Mail, June 2009

copyright 2009 Mick Thomas / website design FIN GRAPHICS