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The Castanet Club
OriginNewcastle, Australia
Genres
Years active1982–1991
Labels
Past members

The Castanet Club was an Australian cabaret collective from Newcastle Australia which spawned several well known media personalities.

History

The Castanet Club (colloquially known as the Castanets) began playing at the Clarendon Hotel in Newcastle in 1982. They soon gathered a following and played venues all around Newcastle before adopting the premises of an ex disco adjoining the Clarendon Hotel. The venue was decorated by the group along with local artist Michael Bell in Bell's "acid-trip circus aesthetic" and itself became known as the Castanet Club, having the name across the front of the building. The Castanets played here and invited guest artists to perform, some of whom joined the group. At one stage, Tiny Tim played the venue sharing the stage with the band. Supplementing the performances here, audiences joined the band for mobile performance known as Swinging Safari World Tours run on rented buses involving musical acts and live events around Newcastle. As the Castanet Club grew more successful, they toured nationally, including a sell-out season at the 1984 Adelaide Festival where they won the "Best of the Fringe" award against approximately 300 other performers from around the country.[1] About 1985 the band permanently relocated to Sydney where they enjoyed runs at the Sydney Trade Union Club's cabaret space "The Gap"[2] and popular comedy venue, the Harold Park Hotel, they adopted a theatrical mode, performing seasons at Belvoir Street Theatre as well as reviving the bus-based mobile Safari shows.

The Castanet Club went on to play London and the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, where audiences and critics responded well: "They were an hilarious kaleidoscope of colour, music, movement, satire and goodwill."[3] This period is semi-fictionalised in the 1990 Neil Armfield movie, The Castanet Club featuring live concert footage.

The Castanet Club played their final show in 1991.

In 2021 the Newcastle Museum hosted a retrospective exhibition The Castanet Club: An Exhibition You Can Dance To! featuring footage, photographs, props, costumes and other Castanets' paraphernalia, including the iconic sign from over their Newcastle venue. Film-maker Chit Chat von Lupin created an instalment of his Stories of Our Town film series entitled Stories of Our Town: The Castanet Club Story to coincide with the exhibition.

Mitglieder

And so it was with The Castanet Club. Newcastle was the proving ground and before long a successful Comedy-Cabaret-Big-Band had crystallized around the nine core players: Stephen Abbott aka Johnny Goodman, the-MC, Glenn Butcher, doing lead vocals as the incomparable lounge lizard Lance Norton Angela Moore, as Betty B-Plate & Shirley Purvis, Russell Cheek, as Tron Wexler& Barnsey's roadie Doug "Gargoyle" Ormerod, Warren Coleman as Bowling Man and the sexually repressed Pastor Noel Anderson, Rodney Cambridge on drums, Penny Biggins, better known as Doris Crawley on accordion, Kathy Bluff, the Kid Kalamai on violin, Maynard as, well, just Maynard and that was enough thank you very much, and Peter Mahony as Urman Erstwhile up the back.

    • Stephen Abbott ... Johnny Goodman
    • Penny Biggins ... Doris Crawley on accordion
    • Kathy Bluff ... the Kid Kalamai/Kid Paganini on violin
    • Glenn Butcher ... Lance Norton
    • Rodney Cambridge ... on drums
    • Russell Cheek ... Tron Wexler& Barnsey's roadie Doug "Gargoyle" Ormerod
    • Warren Coleman ... Bowling Man, Pastor Noel Anderson
  • Peter Mahony ... Urman Erstwhile on bass
    • Maynard ... Maynard F# Crabbes on Trombone
    • Angela Moore ... Betty B-Plate & Shirley Purvis

Surging talents: Castanet Club c1987

    • Steve Abbott
  • Jacqueline Amidy ... Nastassja Bassi
    • Penny Biggins
    • Kathy Bluff
    • Glenn Butcher
    • Rodney Cambridge
    • Russell Cheek
    • Warren Coleman
    • Maynard
    • Angela Moore
  • Mikey Robins ... Elvie
  • Jodi Shields (manager?)
  • Kylie Thomas

Sometimes

  • Tony Squires
  • Greg Doyle

It launched entertainment careers for several of its players: as well as Maynard there was Mikey Robbins, Steve Abbott (aka the Sandman), Glen Butcher and Play School presenter Angela Moore[4] (aka Shirley Purvis) – often under outrageous pseudonyms such as "Major Bum Sore and the Rough Riders"[5]


Two members, Warren Coleman and Russell Cheek, each separately won the television quiz show Sale of the Century.[6][7][8]

Discography

List of albums, with selected chart positions
Titel Album details Peak chart
positions
AUS
[9]
The Castanet Club[10]
  • Released: October 1986
  • Format: LP, Cassette
  • Label: Giddy Records (CASTO 12)
 -

Sources

This is a list of sources to be reviewed for content and will not be part of the wiki page at all.

https://www.roninfilms.com.au/feature/2790/castanet-club.html
https://hunterlivinghistories.com/2021/10/19/castanet-club/
https://newcastleweekly.com.au/the-castanet-club-back-together-again/
https://newcastlelive.com.au/the-story-of-the-castanet-club/
https://newcastleweekly.com.au/gallery-the-castanet-club-celebrated-in-film/
https://www.smh.com.au/culture/comedy/young-in-love-and-from-newcastle-i-took-her-to-see-the-castanet-club-20210701-p5862d.html
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=170551
https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/7321624/lights-up-again-on-newcastles-legendary-castanet-club/
https://newcastlelive.com.au/castanet-club-exhibition-newcastle-museum/
https://www.discogs.com/release/14060676-Castanet-Club-Castanet-Club
http://www.newcastlebandsdatabase.com.au/bands/CastanetClub.htm
https://newcastlemuseum.com.au/Exhibitions/Past-Exhibitions/Archives/2021/The-Castanet-Club-an-exhibition-you-can-dance-to
https://whatson.newcastle.nsw.gov.au/event/the-castanet-club-an-exhibition-you-can-dance-to
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/132154059?searchTerm=castanet%20club
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/230428545?searchTerm=castanet%20club
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/262129585?searchTerm=castanet%20club
https://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/special-collections/guide-papers-larry-buttrose-mss-006 | title=Guide to the Papers of Larry Buttrose [MSS 006]

References

  1. ^ Lazarevic, Jade (July 4, 2009). "Freeze Frame: The Castanet Club, Clarendon Hotel, 1986". The Newcastle Herald. Fairfax. p. Weekender page 7. Retrieved May 21, 2014.
  2. ^ "Guide to the Papers of Larry Buttrose [MSS 006]". UNSW Canberra. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  3. ^ ""The Castanet Club" review at Ronin Films". Retrieved May 31, 2014.
  4. ^ Kermond, Clare (September 2, 2004). "Straight role for a change". The Age. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
  5. ^ Watson, Chad (June 15, 2002). "His sporting life". The Newcastle Herald. Fairfax. Retrieved May 21, 2014.
  6. ^ "Castanet Club". Newcastle Bands Database. Retrieved June 22, 2014.
  7. ^ "The Brains Trust: Russell Cheek". Einstein Factor. Retrieved June 22, 2014.
  8. ^ "Cast and Crew". Brady World. Retrieved June 22, 2014.
  9. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 15. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  10. ^ {cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/release/14060676-Castanet-Club-Castanet-Club}


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