VAN JAM presents “The Round Up” – our official round up of the incredible artists from our original VAN JAM 2023 line up.
The amazing team at the Racehorse Hotel, Ipswich have stepped up in a big way to help us create 2 awesome nights of music, filled with our favourite Aussie music legends.
Same dates, same artists, just a different location!
PLUS GET IN THE DRAW TO WIN!
Need somewhere to stay?
Check out our Caravanning Queensland website.
Or, check out Discover Ipswich’s post “Where to go camping in Ipswich” for other options.
LINE UP IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
In the pantheon of great Australian country artists, the name Adam Brand sits high on the leader board. One of Australia’s most commercially successful and popular recording artists, Adam Brand’s career statistics are staggering.
Over two decades Brand has sold more than 600,000 albums, won 12 Golden Guitars, and has been nominated for six ARIA Awards. He has achieved eight Top 10 ARIA albums. Over sixteen studio records, he has earned three platinum and five gold albums and eight CMC Oz Artist of the Year Awards. He has had in excess of twenty #1 singles on the country chart, including his current hit ‘All Or Nothing’. A massive concert draw he has played to millions of Australians and is one of this country’s top draw cards whether it’s solo or headlining a festival.
Career highlights included an American record deal with Arista Records, touring with Taylor Swift, winning Dancing with the Stars, the success of Adam Brand and the Outlaws and much more.
Here is Adam Brand in 2022. A family man not afraid to look in the mirror and write about what he holds dear. It’s been a helluva ride so far and there’s more to come. New chapters are being written, and in 2022 with the release of “All Or Nothing” … possibly the defining album of his career … the Adam Brand story is still going strong.
Daryl first found fame as lead singer of Sherbet, a band synonymous with the 70’s and their accomplishments during their long career were many. Between 1971 – 1978 Sherbet produced 20 national top 40 singles and were the first Australian band to top the $1million mark in album sales in this country, with a total of 15 albums and 30 singles to their credit, with songs like ‘Summer Love’ becoming the highest selling single of 1975 and ‘Howzat’ not only a hit in Australia, but also in England & America. During this period he won the Australian King of Pop award 3 times.
In November 1988 Daryl released the phenomenally successful album ‘Edge’ which spent well over a year in the national Aria chart, peaking at #1 for several weeks. In 1989 it became the highest selling CD in Sony Music Australia’s history, spawning 5 hit singles including ‘One Summer’, written by Daryl which went on to achieve gold status.
In November 1990 Daryl released his follow up album ‘Rise’, Daryl again proved that he had what it takes to make an album work and both the critics and public agreed. Rise boasted a further 5 hit singles. The most popular was undoubtedly “The Horses’, holding the #1 position on the national charts over 3 consecutive weeks. The unexpected success of this single led to being voted “Australian Song of the year’ at the 1991 Australian Music Awards.
Live the formative and flowing years of Australian Music with Daryl Braithwaite who is known for teen hysteria, international breakouts, multi platinum albums, extraordinary collaborations, performing at the sweatiest dives and some of the worlds most famous stadiums.
Daryl Braithwaite remains an integral part of the evolution and development of Australian popular music and a must see live on stage.
While successfully straddling the line between commercial success and managing to keep their Alternative Music roots secure, over their career, Eskimo Joe have racked up a long list of impressive accomplishments.
With 6 studio albums under their belts and sales in excess of 750,000, in Australia alone, the band has seen 3 of those albums debut at number 1 on the ARIA charts, with juggernaut “Black Fingernails, Red Wine” shining for a monster 62 weeks in the ARIA Chart Top 50 and “Foreign Land”, from their fourth album ‘Inshalla’, bringing home 2 APRA Awards, for Most Played Rock Song on Australian radio and Best Rock Song of 2010.
Eskimo Joe have enjoyed 35 ARIA nominations in their career thus far – a number only surpassed by Silverchair, Powderfinger, Kylie Minogue and John Farnham. They have brought home 3 International Song-writing Awards, 11 WAMi Awards and 8 ARIAs and 11 of their compositions have featured in Triple J’s Hottest 100 countdown, with ‘Black Fingernails, Red Wine’ landing 2nd place.
The stage however, is where Eskimo Joe shine and the band have performed at many significant events including: Sound Relief, Live Earth, Make Poverty History, the ARIA Awards, the APRA Awards, Big Day Out, Homebake, Laneway Festival, Falls Festival, Southbound, Splendour In The Grass, Triple J’s One Night Stand, The Australian Open, AFL and Sundance Film Festival in Utah, USA, on the same stage as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Along with a significant number of tours within Australia, the band have had their music released to great acclaim from fans and critics alike, in the United States, Canada,Europe and Korea with large festivals and sold out tours to boot… They were also the number one ticket holders for the Fremantle Football Club for two years running!
Eskimo Joe continue to captivate their large and devout fan base by pursuing new horizons and embarking on new challenges. The band began celebrations for their 21st birthday in 2018 by embarking on a national tour featuring The Sydney, Tasmanian, West Australian and Camerata – (Queensland’s Chamber) Orchestras and more recently provided a packed Optus Stadium in Perth with the pre-game entertainment before the NRL State Of Origin, plus a very special show at Freo. Social where they played Black Fingernails, Red Wine in it’s entirety. With a national tour in support of the legendary Jimmy Barnes and a reunion show with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in Kings Park at the end of 2019, along with the back catalogue vinyl re-releases (Girl, Ghosts Of The Past, Inshalla and Black Fingernails Red Wine & A Song Is A City re-releases available now) the anniversary was a great success. 2021 brought a spectacular performance at the AFL Grand Final at Optus Stadium, WA.
Eskimo Joe released ‘Say Something’, their first new single since 2013, globally to critical acclaim on June 26th 2020, Say Something reached number 1 most played on Triple M and 11th most played song on Australian Airplay charts, and won 2nd place in the rock category of the International Songwriting competition. Streaming now on all good platforms.
“Their new single sees them refreshed and more powerful than ever, with frontman Kavyen Temperley describing the song as “a call to act with humanity, without prejudice or violence towards each other or the planet”
– Rolling Stone.
ARIA and 8x Golden Guitar winner Fanny Lumsden has just announced her new album HEY DAWN will be out August 4th this year set to follow the highly acclaimed and accoladed album Fallow, which was released on Cooking Vinyl Australia/Red Dirt Road Records, in 2020. It debuted at #10 on the all-genre ARIA charts, going to #1 on the Country ARIA charts for two consecutive weeks, took out Best Country Album at the 2020 ARIA Awards, and swept the field taking home five CMAA Golden Guitar Awards including Album of the year, Female Artist of the Year, Single of the Year (Fierce), Video clip of the Year and Alt Country Album of the Year.
Fallow was shortlisted for the prestigious Australian Music Prize top 9 albums of 2020 with the Fallow & Variations album also making the longlist. Fallow also took out the Country Album of the Year at the AIR awards, plus scoring an Album of the year nomination, and topped it off with an APRA award nomination for one of the top 5 most played country songs for 2021 for Dig.
Fanny has appeared on Rockwiz, Play School Showtime, ABC’s The Set with You Am I, and was one of 12 Aussies in Global Music Match. She is a Support Act Advocate, a Volunteer firefighter, she wrote and produced a documentary telling the story of Fallow through the summer of bushfires. Fanny was also named 2021 Albury Local Woman of the Year for the Hume Shire for her work with regional communities, was the Country Ambassador for Bigsound Country in 2022 and is a leader within the CMAA community.
Along with her husband Dan Stanley Freeman she runs her own Record Label and Production company – Red Dirt Road and hugely successful touring brand – The Country Halls Tour, which has sold out over 200+ halls all over Australia.
An artist who is dedicated to playing live and connecting with audiences, Fanny has toured with the likes of Paul Kelly, Kasey Chambers and more headlined multiple sold-out theatre tours, played Americana Fest in Nashville, and successfully undertaken 8 Country Halls tours and will be appearing at Glastonbury on Avalon Stage in June.
In her own lane, Fanny is changing up how things are done.
This year Frente celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of their era-defining record ‘Marvin the Album’ with a very special vinyl and digital re-release. From the beer soaked carpet of the Punters Club in Fitzroy to massive stages the world over, Frente have won hearts and taken no prisoners with singles such as ‘Ordinary Angels’, ‘Labour of Love’ and their acoustic take on New Order’s ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’.
While the world was celebrating all things grunge, Frente’s blend of alternative and folk pop set them apart to listeners the world over. The honesty of the performances and recordings, plus the thoughtful quirky riffs and structures of the songs drew logical comparisons of Simon’s guitar work to some of Jonny Marr’s work for the Smiths and Dave Gavurin for the Sundays. Vocally Angie’s presence was, at the time, truly unique; an Australian female singer singing in her native accent, rather than adopting the American vernacular of the day.
If locally some corners picked holes in the videos for ‘Kelly Street’ and ‘Ordinary Angels’ for being a little too sweet, it seemed there was no such stigma for the band internationally. In the footsteps of seminal indie-pop bands such as The Triffids and The Go-Betweens, Frente left the country to find the recognition that had eluded them in their success in their hometown. They were invited to tour extensively with some of the biggest alternative artists of the day, including Everything But The Girl, Ween, The Beautiful South, Crowded House and Alanis Morissette.
In their absence, it seems that the respect and kudos have grown. As new generations discover them for the first time and their peers take another nostalgic listen to the songs that they fell in love, broke up, and started over with; Frente continue to mean something to many.
Aria Hall of Fame inductee, #1 selling Platinum artist, King of Pop, Australian Icon!
A few phrases commonly used when describing Aussie legend Russell Morris. Shooting to fame in the middle 60’s with “Somebody’s Image“, Russell had a string of hits including Hush and the Bob Dylan classic Baby Blue.
In 1969 he and producer Molly Meldrum released “The Real Thing”, Australia’s only true psychedelic #1 hit and a song that is played regularly on commercial radio to this day.
Following that, Russell penned breakthrough hits such as:
• Sweet Sweet Love
• Wings of an Eagle
• Rachel
• Part 3 into Paper Walls
• The Girl
• That I Love and many many more…
In 2012 Russell released the Sharkmouth Album a collection of tunes written about Australian historical characters. Sharkmouth reached #1 position on the iTunes Blues Charts & #1 on the Australian Blues Radio Charts, Russell won the 2013 ARIA award for Best Blues n Roots album for Sharkmouth.
Upon its release Van Diemen’s land debut at #4 on the National Aria Charts. Van Diemen’s Land was nominated for Best Blues n Roots album in the 2014 ARIA awards.
Thirsty Merc is celebrating 20 Years! With a brand new song locked and loaded for release, an 8-show Western Australian Tour in June/July, Capital City shows in September in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane with more to be announced during 2023 – it’s looking like a very fun year ahead for Merc fans!
Thirsty Merc formed in 2002, recorded their Debut album in 2003, sold over 250,000 albums (one double platinum, one platinum), received 5 ARIA nominations, garnered an APRA song of the year nomination, received extensive national airplay for multiple singles and videos and has toured constantly since the mid noughties.
The band’s song ‘In The Summertime’ has just been signed on again for Series 17(!) of hit TV show ‘Bondi Rescue’.
Lead Singer Rai Thistlethwayte riffs excitedly about the upcoming 20 Good Years Tour:
‘We really feel so humbled by our fans’ support over the past two decades, and it’s because of each and every one of you that we can continue to do what we love to do. We can tell you, there is so much energy in the tank in this band, 20 is one of those milestones that many groups only dream of being able to get to. Because of that, we’re gonna be at full throttle on this tour coming up. We want everyone at all of the live shows to feel the 20 Good Years vibe!’
Alongside the hits: Someday Someday, 20 Good Reasons, Mousetrap Heart, In The Summertime, The Good Life, Tommy And Krista and more, fans at the live shows will get to hear a sneak peak of new material.
Vixens of Fall, an Australian trio of singing sisters, hail from Far North of Queensland and ooze country cred. Now based in Brisbane, Vixens of Fall have appeared at the 50th Anniversary Tamworth Country Music Festival in April 2022, where they performed in the Opening Concert on Main Stage in front of thousands of fans. In August 2022 they had three spectacular shows at the Gympie Music Muster including a packed out Crow Bar.
In January 2023 at the Tamworth Country Music Festival they were named Australia’s Most Popular Independent Country Band for the second time. They have been touted by many Country Music industry insiders as the freshest, most exciting act to hit the Country Scene in many years.
They have released five singles in the last 18 months and all have charted in the top 10 on country Radio Charts and a couple went to # 1 on iTunes country charts. On May 27th their debut album opened at #1 on the iTunes Country chart and #11 on the all Genres Chart and has had over 1,000,000 streams. These girls are on the rise and Australia couldn’t be prouder.
“The hottest live act I have seen in four years” “These girls are destined for greater things.“
Oz Bayldon
“Look out for them folks, they are so good. so great, so full of energy. Three sista’s doin it for themselves.”
Beccy Cole
“They are energetic, fun loving gorgeous humans with music that reflects who they really are. Unexpected and sassy with attitude to burn and kind hearts bigger than the ocean.”
– Gina Jeffreys.