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House of Gary currently has the following documentaries in production:
SIX FT HICK - SEMINAL URGES
"In retrospect ... I reckon we were shit for the first three years, but for the next seven we were white heat f**king genius!"
Geoff Corbett
Now hitting their thirteenth year as a band, Sixfthick have somehow skirted and slipped beneath the 'when we get big' barrier. Even though the mainstream's never heard of them, they've got cred to burn where it counts: with their peers and their diehard fans. Rock n Roll here isn't a ticket to ride, its a lifeblood. This is just how the Hicks like it, and they wouldn't have it any other way.
Having been raised on a chicken farm in the shadow of the Big Pineapple on Queensland’s north coast, (which may go some way towards understanding their oeuvre), Geoff and Ben Corbett sought their artistic chops deep in Bjelke-Peterson territory. Dabbling in punk and performance art during the 80s in Queensland meant tapping a fecund seam of anti-establishment fervour – the kind that remains flaccid and toothless until finding itself eyeballing active Police State oppression. In 1995, the brothers write and perform their death-country musical Country Style Livers at Metro Arts Theatre in Brisbane. Following sell-out shows over three weeks solid, the boys realise they might be onto something, promptly scraping up the afterbirth and breathing life into the perpetual motion ‘cane-swamp Rockabilly Punk’ machine that becomes known as Sixfthick.
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The next thirteen years sees them touring incessantly. Indeed, compulsively. Recordings dribble forth (two EPs over 5 years, their first LP came in 2000), though commercial success doesn’t. While for some bands this issue is the make-or-break factor; the glimmer on the horizon that justifies any amount of tweaking (of sound, of image; of direction), for the Hicks - perhaps through resignation, perhaps through sheer pragmatism - focus is locked myopically on the performance. And their performances soon become legendary. Word of their live antics spread the length of the eastern seaboard. Blood, semen, fire, alcohol, sex, raw energy: the intensity of each gig seemingly only determined by how heavy the hangovers are. Through upwards of 500 shows, spread throughout upwards of 50 tours, they have plenty of time to sculpt their credentials, one beer-soaked venue at a time. The litany of support-ing and support-ed acts over that time bisects a respectable cross-section of recent Australian musical history.
Rocket from the Crypt; The 5,6,7,8s; Guitar Wolf; New York Dolls; Nashville Pussy; Link Wray(RIP); Mr Quintron; Fugazi; Boss Hog; The White Stripes (they actually played support for us, and were'nt too bad either); Unsane; Jesus Lizard; Hellacopters; The D4; Reverend Horton Heat; Supersuckers; Southern Culture On The Skids; Phantom Surfers; Immortal Lee County Killers; New Bomb Turks; Jon Spencer Blues Explosion; Andre Williams; Zoo Bombs; Royal Crown Revue and great Australian Rock n Roll bands like Beasts of Bourbon, Cosmic Psychos , X , The Johnnys, The Powdermonkeys , The Onyas and Asteroid B612 to name just a few...
Having toured Australia to the hilt; broken stuff, spilt blood and gotten drunk in every venue worth the effort, the band decide to follow up on their 2007 European tour where they took in Den Haag, Paris, Berlin and Spain, laid down some wax in a boutique French studio, and won over small but wiry cadres of Rockabilly punk fans. To again map the scungy beer-soaked venues of the continent, and build on a surprisingly well-informed Continental crowd who would have almost certainly spread word of the madness from Nambour.
For further information on this band please click through to the website: http://www.myspace.com/sixfthick
and to watch their music video 'Beat Myself' and live Performance of 'Smoking in Bed'
PRODUCER: Karina Averlon-Thomas DIRECTOR: Marty Moynihan WRITER: Conan Fitzpatrick
Funded by: ABC TV, Screen Australia & PFTC
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