MICK THOMAS & THE SURE THING ENQUIRIES & BOOKINGS: The Office Of Sure Things



WPA NEWS October 2009...

WEDDINGS, PARTIES, ANYTHING
PLAY GRAND FINAL EVE
FRIDAY 25th SEPTEMBER
AT BILLBOARD, MELBOURNE
A top night was had by all this Grand Final Eve at Billboard with good buddies Nick Barker, Mark Seymour and even a surprise visit from Mr James Reyne making it all the more memorable. Thanks to all who made the trek into the city to help make it such a fun night, especially those who travelled from interstate and overseas! We plan to make this an annual one night only WPA event so see you all next year for Grand Final Eve Mark II.. Posters and Tshirts from the night will be up for sale very soon..

Chonk On.. Mick, Wally, Irish, Jen, Paul and Barclay.



HANDFUL OF WOMEN'S WPA TOUR TSHIRTS & MEN'S HAWAIIAN SHIRTS LEFT...

There are a limited number of WPA Tour T Shirts left in women's white (medium and large only). Also just added are a bunch of handsome Hawaiian WPA Shirts in four different designs (crikey Dave!!!) in small and medium sizes only (large & xtra large have sold out). They are available online now by clicking on the image below and following the Paypal links.

DVDs are also available online, as well as a handful of WPA footy scarves and original Donkey Serenade and Garage Sale CDs (see below).


    
    


LAST WPA FOOTY SCARVES ON SALE NOW...

We have a handful of WPA footy scarves left in West Coast, Fremantle and Brisbane colours only (which is the order of the boxes below). To purchase a scarf through our secure online service, click on the team colours you want and it will take you through to the PayPal links...



THE WEDDINGS, PARTIES, ANYTHING DVD IS HERE!!
If you would like to order one online, you can pick one up through PayPal by clicking on the 'add to cart' link below and we will have it hurtling to your door within a couple of days. It features live footage from last year's WPA show at the Queenscliff Festival, a short film 'Roaring Days' plus the complete collection of WPA film-clips with bad haircuts and optional commentary from Mick and Wally.

The WPA DVD is also available through Madman, in the shops and at all of Mick's upcoming live shows. Madman reliably inform us that their DVDs are able to be played in all zones but this has turned out to be all zone NTSC - not PAL which a lot of North America seems to be. If you have bought one and you can't get it to work, please contact us and we will sort it out for you. Thanks.

THE WPA TRAIN COMES TO A HAULT
AFTER A HUGE MONTH OF SELL OUT SHOWS
Well, there it was. A huge month of shows around the country with our good buddy Ron Hawkins in tow as well as a bunch of very fine bands in each state helping us out and boy did we have a blast. Thanks to everyone who came out and saw a show, it was great to see so many familiar faces (and some new ones) and to catch up with a load of people we hadn't seen for years. And fitting to be able to finish up the Australian leg of the tour with five huge sweaty nights in Richmond, the traditional home of WPA. We'd like to say a big thank you to the amazing Danny Rogers and Leesa Ellem for pulling this monster together with such professionalism and grace and to all the tireless behind the scenes workers, Katie, Stacey, Bubbsy... it's been a pleasure and we couldn't have done it without you. And of course to anyone who came to a show.. chonk on indeed. The last gig in London with The Go Set was a blast too.. great to play over that side of the world again and thanks to all who got on a plane / cab / tube and made it along. And a huge thanks to Nigel & Marianne for making it happen.

RON HAWKINS HEADS BACK TO TORONTO
LEAVING BEHIND A BUNCH OF NEW FRIENDS..
Ron Hawkins (Canada) has finally had one of his fine records (Chemical Sounds) released in Australia and has just completed a month-long Australian tour as very special guest on the WPA reunion jaunt. Ron has spent much of his career fronting Lowest Of The Low, a fine, passionate, lyrical rock band from Toronto who released two incredible albums in the 90's and have since been inducted into the Canadian Rock'n' Roll Hall Of Fame. WPA fans will no doubt recognize Ron's song, Rosy & Grey, a long-time WPA cover fave. He managed to win over Australian crowds where-ever he went playing some blinder shows both solo and with the help of WPA as his backing band. WPA and Ron go back a long way and the band were very excited to have him along to help out on such a big, emotional, whirl-wind of a tour.
For those who forgot to pick one up at a show, the Australian release of Ron Hawkins' fantastic new album, Chemical Sounds is available online through the Croxton Records Website.

WPA DVD CLIPS UP ON YOU TUBE
There are four clips up on YouTube of WPA live at the 2007 Queenscliff Festival which feature in the brand new DVD 'A Long Time Between Drinks', out now through Madman. Check them out here...

Wide Open Road    Father's Day    Monday's Experts    A Tale They Won't Believe



WPA RARITIES STILL AVAILABLE:

DONKEY SERENADE
We still have copies of Donkey Serenade available on CD and cassette (Yes!! Cassette!! - for all you folk still driving around in your Datsuns who haven't gotten around to upgrading the original tape deck..)
DONKEY SERENADE was released independantly in 1996 and has 9 tracks: Where The Highway Meets The Cane / In A City, Girl / Grey Skies (over Collingwood) / Rosy & Grey / Wide Open Road / Nothing Left To Say / A Long Time Between Drinks / If You Gotta Go / In Your Memory

CDs are $15 (plus $5 postage & handling)
Cassettes are $5 (plus $5 postage & handling)

These are available by sending a cheque or money order to:
Michael Thomas, PO Box 1238, Nth Fitzroy, 3068, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
and CDs are available online through Paypal..


GARAGE SALE
(DISC 2 THAT CAME WITH RIVERESQUE)
GARAGE SALE was a bonus CD that basically covered all the songs that were recorded for Riveresque that didn't make it onto the album. It was recorded in 1997 and it has 9 big tracks: Rolling On Home / When Your Travelling Days Are Done / Reason To Believe / Don't Need Much (alt. version) / Cheap Brandy & Foundation / Garage Sale / Sweet Thames Flow Softly / September's Gone / From The Heart

CDs are $15 (plus $5 postage & handling)

These are available by sending a cheque or money order to:
Michael Thomas, PO Box 1238, North Fitzroy, 3068, VIC, AUSTRALIA
or online through Paypal...


AWAY AWAY / WPA & The Sure Thing at Queenscliff, September, 2006:

Rehearsing with the Weddings again somehow seemed to bring a lot of stuff into focus for me. It made me incredibly glad that I am in a position to get around and create a whole new repetoire while at the same time being glad for all the stuff gone before. The warm-up show on Wednesday at the Northcote Social Club was a hell of a show and it was good to see so many people made the trip from interstate. It turned into a fine night and it was great to have the mighty Re-mains put in a rocking set to open the show. All of Eva Collado's fine custom poster prints were sold and I'd advise anyone interested in this sort of custom art to get in early at the Christmas shows as the designs she has done for the Sure Things are equally as stunning. Thank you also to all the people on the guest list who donated money to the ASRC on the night. $600 was raised!
CLICK HERE to read the thank you letter from the ASRC.

Queenscliff was a huge weekend and it was really important that it started well with a fine Sure Things show on the Friday night. It was paradoxical that in some ways the Sure Things were probably a lot more comfortable as an on-stage unit than the Weddings in that we have been touring pretty hard the past month. The Weddings hit the stage in front of a packed main tent on the Saturday night and it was all clear sailing and funny to note just how much a film crew swarming all over the stage (ten cameras!) can up the excitement level for the performers. The main idea of filming is to give the band something to put with all their collected videos for a WPA DVD which is shaping up for a 2007 release. After listening back to the rough mixes I'd have to say we picked a cracker of a show to film/record. We are wrapt to announce Madman Pictures have taken on the project so stay posted for DVD developments.

Cheers, Mick T, on behalf of the Weds



For all information regarding anything WPA,
please email us at The Office Of Sure Things /WPA