The Sticker Club
OUT Friday 5th May 2023, the second album from the Sticker Club, Destination Rock and Roll Station.
Five years between albums is a long time but fans don’t need to wait any longer as The Sticker Club’s new album Destination Rock and Roll Station is out now through ABC Kids (streaming) and Half A Cow (compact disc).
Proving that they can play two types of music – rock & roll and country – The Sticker Club put on their best Grand Ole Opry outfits to perform their latest single Choc Chip Choo Choo Train. The song is about a train that delivers choc chips (and other yummy sweets) to Ice Cream Mountain. This train is no ordinary train as it runs on choc chips and instead of steam coming out of the engine’s chimney, it’s fairy floss! The song was inspired by a famous Australian song from the 60s (of course!). The Sticker Club’s Nic says, “When I was a young kid growing up in Canberra, I used to love the imagery of Living In A Child’s Dream’ by the Masters Apprentices where they sang about chocolate tree trunks and cherries dotted on the slopes of a mountain that is made out of ice cream. I wanted to recreate this scene to – hopefully – give today’s kids a similar magical place.”
“Earth To Nigel” was released earlier this year and features the newest Sticker Club member Ruby Firmstone playing her guitar with a device called an E-bow. which creates a magnetic drone out of the guitar. It’s a song about trying to get someone’s attention. They may be standing right in front of you and are just not listening. “Come inside! It’s dinner time!” you’re shouting. No response. The Sticker Club have turned that frustration into a pop song, originally inspired by hearing a mum say to her son, “Charlie, off the log and watch out for the goanna!” (whilst camping in a NSW South Coast National Park). Inspired by a demo sent to Half A Cow Records in 2001 by country NSW band Earth To Nigel (the three Maher brothers are Kram from Spiderbait’s nephews).
The album’s first single “Soup and Buttery Bread” is a song about dinner-time where they suggest a whole range of meals when all the kid wants is soup and buttery bread. It’s that simple.
The only cover song on the album is a version of the Lemonheads “Being Around”, which was written by Evan Dando and Australian Tom Morgan. Evan is quoted as saying it is “a children’s song sort of about ambiguity” and Nic – who played bass on the original track – had always wanted to record the song with the Sticker Club. Their jaunty version was inspired by the late 70s new wave band The Reels and singer Nellie nails this tune, making the pleas from inanimate objects seem real.
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The Sticker Club, from Sydney, have been playing their own songs for kids of all ages since 2012. Think the Archies-via-Chuck Berry. The band are lead singer Nellie Afford with Nic Dalton on guitar and bass, Ben Whitten on guitar, Damien Cassidy on Farfisa and bass, Alison Galloway on the drums and teenager Ruby Firmstone, who plays guitar and trombone.
One of the treats that the Sticker Club deliver is their determination to make music that both children and adults will enjoy with their unique brand of 60s-inspired bubblegum pop music (with a healthy dose of wah-wah guitar).
The Sticker Club played the regular It’s A Family Affair at the Petersham Bowling Club and have also played the 2019 Fairgrounds Festival in Berry, the Dress Up Attack Festival in 2012 (supporting Justine Clarke), the Summer Hill School and Yeo Park Infants fetes and the Inner West Music Festival. The band describe themselves as “a bit different to other kids’ bands because we’ve got the double wah-wah guitars and we’re quite rock and roll, kind of like 60s garage meets Don Spencer.”
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THE STICKER CLUB: Scratch ‘n’ Sniff (2018)
The Sticker Club, from Sydney, have created a debut album which echoes the bubblegum pop of late 60s cartoon bands like the Archies mixed with the indie-rock pedigree of the band members. The Sticker Club are Nellie Afford (from Agnes Kain), Nic Dalton (Plunderers, Lemonheads), Alison Galloway (Smudge), Ben Whitten (Intercontinental Playboys) and Dizzi Cassidy (The Argon Room, Faker).
The Sticker Club formed in 2012 when Nic realised he had written a whole stack of songs for his toddlers and should put a “kids” band together so he asked his friends Alison and Ben, who had daughters the same age as his. The first song Nic wrote for the band was (“Can You Do) The Peanut”, written on a family camping holiday down the New South Wales south coast. A female lead singer was required so in stepped Nellie, who also supplied one of the Sticker Club’s most treasured songs “Caterpillar”.
Ben, Alison and Nic’s daughters were initially in the band (singing, dancing and playing trombone, flute and clarinet) but the three girls quit (“we don’t want to be in a kid’s band”) and were replaced by Dizzi on the bass. The band liked the sound that trombone, flute and clarinet created so charts were written by Jenna Cave for five of the songs for the album, played by top-shelf Sydney jazz musicians.
The band started recording Scratch ‘n’ Sniff in 2014 and then the birth of three babies got in the way! The album was recorded and mixed by Tim Kevin (Holly Throsby producer) at Tempe River Studio in Marrickville. Sixteen songs in all: from the bubblegum pop of “Darcy” and “New School Tomorrow” to the toddler-friendly “Can You Hear The Doggie?” and “Kissiasaurus” with some psychedelic rock thrown in courtesy of “(Doin’) The Echo” and “Magic Flower Power Hour”.
Pics
Video
Animation by Jonathan Nix
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Music
Destination Rock and Roll Station
Destination Rock and Roll Station
Discography
Scratch ‘n’ Sniff
Scratch ‘n’ Sniff (hac213)
a co-release by ABC Kids/Half A Cow 2018
- (Can You Do) The Peanut
- Darcy
- New School Tomorrow
- Tree Girl
- Caterpillar
- Meena Manana Manoo
- Where Have All The Loom Bands Gone?
- Murrawee
- Can You Hear The Doggie?
- Hide And Seek
- I Can Jump Puddles
- Don’t Forget…
- (Doin’) The Echo
- Kissiasaurus
- The Big Yawn
- Magic Flower Power Hour
The Sticker Club: Nellie Afford: vocals / Nic Dalton: vocals, guitar / Ben Whitten: lead guitar /Dizzy Cassidy: bass, vocals / Alison Galloway: drums
with special guests:
Katherine Brownhill: violin, accordion / Clementine: vocals on “Murrawee” / Loretta Palmeiro: clarinet / Justin Buckingham: flute / Paul Weber: trombone / Hazel, Laila, Clementine: backing vocals on “The Peanut” / Tim Kevin: assorted bits and pieces / Jenna Cave: chart arrangements / Matthew J Tow: sitar
Produced by Nic Dalton
Recorded by Tim Kevin and Nic Dalton. Recorded at Tempe River Studio and the Nook 2014-2107
All songs by N. Dalton (Universal Music Publishing) except “Caterpillar” by C. Afford (Control) and
Can You Hear The Doggie”, “I Can Jump Puddles”, “Hide And Seek” and “Don’t Forget…” by N. Dalton/C. Afford/A. Galloway/B. Whitten (Universal Music Publishing/Control)
