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(PB​:​096) - Mick Thomas presents​:​Vandemonian Lags - New Songs From the Prison Without Walls

by Popboomerang

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about

Mick Thomas presents: Vandemonian Lags - New Songs From the Prison Without Walls


Popboomerang Records are very proud to release the new double album from Mick Thomas called Vandemonian Lags: New Songs of Transportation from the Prison Without Walls

The 19 song album features songs written by Mick Thomas and a host of other Australian luminaries such as Ben Salter (Gin Club), Darren Hanlon, Jeff Lang Van Walker, Liz Stringer and Adam Gibson (the Aerial Maps) and many more who all appear as vocalists on the album along with iconic Aussie artists and acts such as The Spazzys, Tim Rogers, Glen Richards, The Wolfgramm Sisters, Weddings Parties Anything and many more.

The album is thematically a dark and at times humorous snapshot of Tasmania’s convict past turned into song.

The project is being backed by Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in Hobart for their Dark Mofo mid-winter festival. Check out Also check out: www.founders-storylines.com


Some background to the album and project:

“Only the names have been changed…..

Six of the nineteen song titles that comprise this album contain the name of a character. At one stage it might have been more. As the stories came through, as we pored over the lives, be they miserable or triumphant, of the people sent to the Tasmanian gulag not so far back, they often just became known and defined by the simple two word name of the principal protagonist. Thus a story of civic distinction and war time heroism would be simply ‘Keith Eltham’. Or a tale of generational adversity and heartache would be simply Emphraim Quamby.

Sometimes the names became integral part of the songs themselves such as that of the Doghertys of Western Tasmania where the name is one of the focal points of the narrative. The family’s insistence on an idiosyncratic pronunciation is one of the actual defining elements of their history and therefore the song. Considering Selfs is also a case where the name of the character provides the song title in an indispensable way. Jane Gilligan provided the rhythm for the phrasing and meter of that song as did Ikey Mo and Martha Hayes.

But in many cases the names meant little in themselves and were little more than a simple form of classification and distinction – as you would hope names pretty much work in a practical sense throughout a modern egalitarian society. So really it’s not the names themselves that define the characters but the lives they enjoyed and endured. It was their access to the rewards of a new society that would become the focal point of their adopted land, where their traditional birthrights as paupers or pillars of the community hopefully meant less than it had – and thankfully for so many, nothing at all. “

Mick Thomas - May 2013

credits

released July 12, 2013

and the songwriters:

Disc 1

1) The Vandemonian Lag (M Thomas)
2) Martha Hayes (M Thomas)
3) The Pongo (M Thomas)
4) Sex Hospital (B Salter)
5) A Long Long Way (M Thomas/Rory McLeod)
6) The Book Thief (D Hanlon)
7) Two Grandfathers (M Thomas)
8) Wildest DreamsOf Samuel (D Hanlon/Shelley Short/ M Thomas)
9) Van Diemen's Land (Trad – arrangement Jeff Lang)

Disc 2

1) Can You See Across The Sea (A Gibson/M Thomas)
2) Jane Gilligan on the Town (M Thomas )
3) Cruel Desperate Man (M Thomas/H Hookey)
4) Anne Meyers (from the original broadside ballad, music and adaption Van Walker)
5) The Godforsaken Voyage (P Odgers)
6) For The Life Of Him (M Thomas)
7) The Convict's Girl and the Canton Man (Van Walker/Liz Stringer)
8) Ikey Mo (M Thomas)
9) It’s Docherty (B Salter)
10) Considering Selfs (M Thomas)

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about

Popboomerang Australia

Australian music label founded by Scott Thurling and releasing its first CD in 2002 with over 80 recordings to date.

Specialising in melodic pop, jangle, folk and rock and predominantly working with Australian bands with the aim to building their careers locally & internationally.

Artists include Skipping Girl Vinegar, Georgia Fields, The Aerial Maps, Celadore, Bon Scotts, Tamas Wells & Tim Reid
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