TWO Newcastle mates have taken their passion for fighting cancer to a new level, hosting the NutStock fund-raiser at the Wickham Park Hotel this Saturday from 2.30pm to 10pm, featuring seven local bands.
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Matt Gilbert has been keen to enter the Shitbox Rally cancer fund-raiser for years, but surviving a bout of testicular cancer and subsequently, stage two cancer near his spine two years ago, drove him into action.
With his mate Kurt Speirs, they've entered a team, the Nut Truckers, in the car rally that runs May 12 to 20, driving from Newcastle to Townsville via unpaved roads in western NSW and Queensland. So far, they've raised nearly $20,000, with all funds going to the Cancer Council.
NutStock is part of that fund-raising effort.
The participating bands are Cooks and Bakers, Nana Klumpp, Slapjack, Loons, The Appointments, William John Jr and ChaiChester. Tickets are $25.
"Speirsy" plays bass in The Appointments and is a venue booker.
Gilbert, a coalminer and Belmont father of two, had his life turned upside down in December 2020, when he woke up one morning and discovered a lump on one of his testicles.
"I was laying in bed... I just sort of felt a lump, in my testicle. I couldn't really feel anything, it just didn't feel right," he said.
From there, he visited his GP in Belmont, was sent for a scan the same day, got results the same night and had the testicle with two tumours removed just after Christmas early in 2021.
Six months later, he had back pain, which turned out to be another tumour, which had spread from the first cancer event. He started three months of intensive chemotherapy within four days of that discovery.
"You don't know how loved you are until you go through something like that," he said of having cancer and now undertaking fund-raising for cancer research and patient care. "It's been very humbling."
COX SAYS GOODBYE
BRAD Cox is hardly what you would describe as your typical Cambridge Hotel act, but the country-rocker is a proven ticket-seller.
The 2018 Tamworth Country Music Festival Starmaker briefly lived in Newcastle and has built a loyal fan base.
Last November Cox sold out the 800-capacity main room and he'll return to the Newcastle West venue for his Acres Tour on Thursday, June 22, just three days before the Cambridge closes.
The Wednesday June 21 date is also tentatively held for a second Cox show.
The special guests will be Caitlyn Shadbolt and fellow Starmaker Sammy White.
SPIRALS OF HISTORY
THE smoking stacks of BHP, a bustling Hunter Street and a vista of freshly-built homes are some of the images seen in Newcastle singer-songwriter ChaiChester's latest film clip.
Spirals is the first single released off ChaiChester's self-titled debut EP, which is out on Sunday.
The footage used in the clip comes courtesy of the National Sound & Film Archive and showcases Newcastle in 1945.
WICKED VICTORY
IT'S not difficult to understand why Angry Anderson and The Screaming Jets are big fans of Sydney band Wicked Things.
With swaggering hard riffs, torn jeans, leather jackets and wild hair, Wicked Things are straight out of a late '80s time warp. The band features four brothers Kaleb Hills (vocals), Cooper (drums), and twins Blade (guitar) and Gericho (bass).
Wicked Things recently won the Australian Hotels Association NSW's Rockin' the Puburbs 2023 band competition at the Coogee Bay Hotel.
One of the judges was Anderson and the prize was $15,000 and a five-date east coast tour.
That tour includes at Anzac Day show at the Toronto Hotel supporting Newcastle pub-rock legends The Screaming Jets.
ELECTRIC LADY
SUPERJESUS' Sarah McLeod returns to Lizotte's on June 25, the final night of her One Electric Lady Tour.
McLeod spent the summer touring with Superjesus to promote the Adelaide alt-rockers' first new single in four years, Money (We're Only In It For Love).
But her attention now turns to her innovative solo show.
"I designed a guitar that could play bass and guitar at the same time, so when I add beats I sound like a three-piece band," McLeod said.
GROOVIN' CHANGES
TWO of Groovin' The Moo's headline international attractions have withdrawn from the touring music festival, but equally-hot replacements have been found.
Nigerian-British grime rapper Skepta and US alternative R&B artist Omar Apollo have cancelled their appearances, while English indie-band Nothing Like Thieves and acclaimed Ghanian-Australian rapper Genesis Owusu have been added to the line-up.
Owusu's Smiling With No Teeth won the Australian Music Prize and ARIA Album of the Year in 2021.
