New York hardcore outfit Madball are heading to Australia again in March and joining them on the road will be Boston’s Death Before Dishonor. Madball is a New York-based band that originated back in the late 1980s, as a side-project of the legendary New York hardcore outfit Agnostic Front (where Agnostic Front's front man Roger Miret would let his younger brother, Freddy "Madball" Cricien take the microphone on lead vocals during Agnostic Front shows).

As the song goes ‘western stars light up the sky’ and the sky will be alight on February 2nd when a talented posse of cowboys, cowgirls and cowpunks assemble at the Troubadour. The show is Western Stars, the first in what will become a series of rockin’ country gigs for cool cats.

Very special guests at the inaugural gig will be Brisbane alt-country veterans Disgraceland. The group formed in 1992, christened themselves with a utterly cool band name, played many a gig, released the cd 'The Thundering Skies of Disgraceland' and thus scored a 4-star review in Rolling Stone. When their drummer Michael Hiron walked his last mile on this here Earth in 2001, the band lay low with heavy hearts until 2006 when they reignited their musical flame and thankfully returned to the stage.

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes is a punk rock cover band that formed in 1995 and they are touring Australia this month. Drawn together by a mutual love of 1960s and 1970s music, the Gimme Gimmes work exclusively as a cover band. They have covered show tunes, sixties classics and R&B greats, and most recently Love Their Country, where the Gimmes take a wrecking ball to songs originally done by Cash, Garth Brooks, The Dixie Chicks, Willie Nelson, Dolly, Kenny Rogers, Hank Sr., and more.. The band is named after a children's book of the same name by Gerald G. Jampolsky and Diane V. Cirincione.

Intermediate Rockabilly Dance Workshop - Sunday 24th February

The workshop will be a 2 hour session which is designed to improve your dancing as well as learning new dance moves.. The workshop will be structured to accommodate couples who want to improve their dancing together, but also for all of our single students who may wish to take advantage of this workshop. Couples who attend are therefore welcome to stay together, without rotating as we would have done in the weekly classes. We do need however, to ensure that our numbers aren't too lop sided (male to female) so we would like those interested to register their intention to attend. We have had a number of enquiries already.

Beginners Rockabilly Workshop - Sunday 10th February

Ever been in a pub or club listening to Country, Hillbilly, Rockabilly or Jump Blues music and seen couples doing a great cool dance style. Chances are they will be dancing Rockabilly to this type of music. The dance suits itself to so many music styles, so if you want to learn Rockabilly or get back into the dance, here is your chance.

This workshop is designed for brand new beginners who would like to learn this very cool dance style or dancers who would like to refresh the basics. This would be a great opportunity for ladies to learn the lead part so they can have a dance with other ladies while the guys are holding up the bar. Please note we have extended this workshop by one hour to cover the full beginners course material.

The first big gig for 2008 is the Twilight Hot Rod Show & Rockabilly Rumble at Souths Leagues Club in West End. The show will be held late in the afternoon on the Sunday of the Australia Day long weekend (so you’ll have all day Monday to recover).

The Hot Rod Show will assemble on the side of the oval at Souths in full view of the clubhouse. There’ll be cold beers and live music happening inside the clubhouse, which directly looks out over the hot rod parking. Souths have also opened a new dining area in the front gardens of the clubhouse (the river side) and we’ll be holding a bbq there during the hot rod show.