Michael Turner Presents Spikey & Friends
Gig Seeker Pro

Michael Turner Presents Spikey & Friends

Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia | SELF

Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia | SELF
Band Rock Children's Music

Calendar

Music

Press


"SPIKEY AT NIGHT"

Spikey by Night is a wildly ecstatic free-form rock and roll band channelling Link Wray through sneaky, sinuous surf-jazz grooves. With ex-members hailing from such acts as The Whitlams, Ed Kuepper, Wild Pumpkins At Midnight and the New Christs, the band itself is a three-piece with in-house burlesque acrobatics.

Spikey, on guitar and vocals, is Michael Turner, an Aria award winning singer/songwriter who has toured Europe and Australia with such bands as Wild Pumpkins and Midnight and more recently North Coast retro surf-folksters The Durga Babies. His unique guitar twang, inspired by Link Wray, defines the band’s purple sonic signature.Thierry Fossemale, an undisputed sensei of the double bass, has played with the likes of The Whitlams and more top shelf jazz combos than he cares to remember. Nick Fisher on drums used to interpret Ed Kuepper’s unique music and controlled the percussive earthquake of rock and roll legends The New Christs before embarking on less torrential projects.

In-house acrobatics are performed by Susy Strange, aka Suzy Leigh, a hugely internationally experienced acrobat and circus performer who has turned heads across the world and trains aspiring circus runaways at schools around NSW’s north coast. While the band performs live, Suzy performs risqué abominations and racy assignations with hula hoops, whips and her one-woman rock and roll circus.

The band, whip-lean and curious, has an original repertoire of songs gleaned from Turner’s back-catalogue, with a new album looming and an inexhaustible trove of hooks and grooves to draw on in their hypnotic live shows.

As their day jobs, they perform children’s shows under the monicker Spikey And Friends, having just produced In My Backyard, Turner’s 2nd children’s album.
- MICK DALEY / THE REMAINS


"SHORT CD REVIEW"

Short CD Review
 
The latest generation of kids growing up are the last chance for the bushland creatures of Australia – relentless growth and population surges on the delicate coastal ecosystems could spell extinction for the few koalas, echidnas and other flora and fauna in our endangered bush.

What better way to educate these kids than with an album, beautifully recorded by highly seasoned musicians, incorporating song, dance and simple lessons about the animals living in the kids own backyards?

In My Backyard takes kids on a joyful romp through their local bushland, meeting all the neighbourhood creatures on the way, with a soundtrack that could have been composed by the Beatles, played by 50’s surf-guitar legend Link Wray, and sung by Elvis Costello.

Informed by Bundjalung elder Old Man Bray, kids sing and dance their way through 20 songs recorded by Spikey and Friends, who between them have played with The Whitlams, Ed Keupper, Wild Pumpkins at Midnight and the New Christs. These musicians, parents themselves, are admirably equipped to entertain and inform kids, and In My Backyard  does so with impeccable taste.

Recorded at a highly regarded north coast studio, the album is full of beautiful music, kids voices and simple lessons about the bush and its cuddly inhabitants. In My Backyard is a must-listen for kids and parents, who will be dancing and singing as enthusiastically as their kids.
- MICK DALEY / THE REMAINS


"PRESS RELEASE SPIKEY & FRIENDS 'IN MY BACKYARD'"

In My Backyard is an exciting kids album released by Spikey and
Friends, Byron Bay’s top pop-rock performers. Based around the
bush land of Byron Bay, it takes the kids on an adventure through
their own backyards, where friendly bush land creatures introduce
them to the magic of music and nature.

Spikey the echidna sings the kids through meetings with all his bush
land friends and through them the kids learn simple lessons about the
animal’s biology’s and habits. With great respect but a great sense of
fun, the kids meet Old Man Bray, an elder of the Bundjalung people,
who shows them around the country his people have looked after for
millennia.

It’s a brilliant way or teaching about the country and the animals, just
as the indigenous people have always done it, mixing lessons with
music and fun, so the kids are too involved to realize that they’re
actually taking in a great deal of knowledge about the place they live
in.

The album was recorded in the hills behind Byron Bay at Christian
Pyle’s highly regarded Goonengerry studio, with the best musicians in
the area.

Spikey and Friends are a band of experienced musicians and
performers whose exciting music will captivate your kids attention
while they romp with the bush land creatures. You’ll love the music
too; it’s jazz-inflected grooving rock and roll with the guitar twang of
Link Wray and the sinuous beauty of great pop rock.

Spikey is Michael Turner, an Aria award winning singer/songwriter
who has toured Europe and Australia with such bands as Wild
Pumpkins at Midnight and more recently North Coast retro surffolksters
The Durga Babies & Dan Rumour & The Drift. He has
released a previous kid’s record; Peaceful Stars, Days & Dreams, a
beautiful album recorded in Mumbai, India with under-privileged
rural children. He also co-produced Kangaroo Club, an album by
popular north coast children's performer Mereki, an indigenous
Kamilaroi woman, in 2001.

Thierry Fossemale, on bass, has played with the likes of The Whitlams
and more top shelf jazz combos than he cares to remember, while
drummer Nick Fisher used to work with Ed Kuepper and the New
Christs when he was a crazy kid himself.

Assisting this terrific trio is Suzie Surprise aka Suzie Leigh, a hugely
experienced acrobat and circus performer who has turned heads
across the world and trains aspiring circus runaways at schools
around NSW’s north coast. While the band performs live, Suzie
conducts workshops in body balancing, juggling, hoops, plays games
and dress-ups and dances with the kids as she plays different
characters and makes sure they all have heaps of fun.

The album also features a cast of singing local kids and guest
musicians such as Dean Beale on didgeridoo & click sticks and
Christian Pyle on Hammond organ, banjo & David Ades on
saxophone & Cye Wood on violin, all creating a huge album bursting
with information and great music.

From simple nursery rhymes to energetic pop-rock reminiscent of
The Beatles or Crowded House, songs about dolphins, echidnas,
koalas, bush turkeys and cane toads will echo through your kid’s
heads for years. They’ll learn respect for animals and the history of
this ancient land, and get a great musical education too! - MICK DALEY / THE REMAINS


Discography

Still working on that hot first release.

Photos

Bio


Spikey & Friends are a uniquely Australian Alternative K-indie Rock band, educational & fun for the whole family. Songs include many themes about native Australian animals coming from an authentic Indigenous perspective with Indigenous values about nature.

Spikey & Friends utilize music as a vehicle to not only entertain children & parents but also help give access to a more balanced view of living & looking after the biodiversity of our oceans, rain forests and Indigenous cultures.

Spikey & Friends are well renowned musicians:

Michael Turner on guitars & vocals, an ARIA winning musician. Michael Turner was “Wild Pumpkins At Midnight”, who came soaring out of Tasmania on the back of the burgeoning green activists movement in the 1980s, conquered Melbourne's mercurial music scene and went on to play across Europe for a decade.

He is also known as the singer & guitarist for retro acoustic pop surf outfit “The Durga Babies” and the highly regarded Surf Instrumental band “Dan Rumour & The Drift”.

Thierry Fossemale, an in disputed sensei of the double bass, has played with the likes of “The Whitlams “and more top shelf jazz combos than he cares to remember.

Nick Fisher on drums used to interpret Ed Kuepper’s unique music and controlled the percussive earthquake of rock & roll legends
“The New Christ” before embarking on less torrential projects.

This family band offer an incredible high-energy, colorful, fun, educating, interactive, authentic performance (+ workshops) providing an earthy, Australian, independent alternative rock feel, by 3 highly experienced talented musicians/teachers and with up to 5 children (7-11 yrs) in amazing colorful animal costumes playing, singing, dancing in the band with our very friendly Spikey Echidna mascot LIVE!