Rough Red
An Australian CMT chart busting Top 5 single, two European tours, and a brand
new album full of honestly written and passionately delivered songs - that's Rough Red,
Australia's favorite exponents of country rock. As the name implies, you can best describe
the music of Rough Red as - "mature, well rounded with an honest earthy flavour that
is bold, agressive, goes down hard and leaves a distinctive aftertaste".
When your album is "Album of the week" for two consecutive weeks on Ireland's
biggest national rock station, 2FM, you play in front of thousands in football stadiums in
London and Paris, have a gig bombed out in Northern Ireland, this is a band that must not
be missed when they come to the Festival.
The guys in Rough Red have a sheer joy and exuberance in their music that is infectious.
They love to write and perform, and to hear the crowd applaud. Rough Red is essentially a
country rock band with an edge. It’s country music that crosses over, it's roots
music, it's stories of life, love and lament. It's tight and compelling with soaring
harmonies, screaming mandolins and manic accordions. It can rock you, soothe you or move
you to tears. It's fun, yet emotive.
The band is spending the whole of 1999 in Australia, after criss-crossing Europe twice in
the past few years. In 1998 they were again included on the bill of some of Europe's
biggest festivals, including the aforementioned Skagen Festival in Denrnark, the Broselia
Festival in Brussels, and the Galway Arts Festival in Ireland. These were no small stage
events. In both Skagen and Broselia, the band played on the main stage, just prior to the
headline acts, to audiences of 5,000 and 15,000 respectively.
The Reds also played at the legendary Borderline Club in London. It is said that if you
can play the Borderline, you can play anywhere in England. The band played a 90 rninute
show to a packed house of radio and press VIP'S, and scored some excellent reviews,
In Australia, the band made its debut at the legendary Tamworth Country Music Festival in
January 1999, (following performances on the main stage at the 1997 Gympie Muster, and the
Woodford Folk Festival), and were amazed at just how many people knew the band, given
their absence from Australian shores in the last two years. Undoubtedly this is due to the
incredible exposure afforded the film clip of their first single "Long Train
Running", a haunting version of the old Doobie Brothers' song, on CMT- The song has
been played regularly for almost two years on CMT, and the Reds are very grateful to the
folks there for this continued support. The film clip is, without doubt, one of the best
Australian Country videos ever produced.
And now the band's profile has escalated with the chart success of "Living in
Australia", a top 5 hit from their brand new album "SEEING RED".
"Living in Australia" and the new single "Tears of Dust" are both
enjoying high rotation on CMT, as well as being featured on Landline and other national
television shows. The band's singer is also a prolific writer of short stories, poems and
comedy routines. He has written an amusing and often moving account of Rough Red's first
tour of Europe.
Their concert in Vikedal will be their first concert ever in Norway and therefore we
welcome them to Norway and Vikedal.
The members of Red Rough is:
John Fegan - Lead vocals, harmonica, acoustic guitar
Peter Harvey - Keyboards, accordion, vocals
Steve Tyson - Electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, dobro, vocals
John Barr - Bass guitar, vocals
Dave Parnell - Drums, percussion, vocals
Rough Red http://www.roughred.com/
