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Sydney Folk Festival 2023
Members of 40 Degrees South are happy to be performing at this year’s Sydney Folk Festival – 18-20th August.
We’ll be presenting a themed concert “Songs of Struggle” with heaps of great anthems of solidarity – in the Quakers Hall (119 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills) Saturday from 1-2pm and we’ll be making merry melodies in the Molly Malone Mezzanine (next door to the Gaelic Club at 64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills) on Saturday evening from 7:30 until 9:00 or so. It’s a come-all-ye and there may be shanties…
There are lots of wonderful artists performing over the weekend – all events a stone’s throw from the Devonshire (eastern) side of Central Station!
NSW History Week
The theme of History Week in NSW was “Life and Death” and, together with The Museum’s own ‘pirate band’ The Mutineers, 40 Degrees South relished singing some of the more macabre songs in their repertoire.
There were stories about Australian convict pirates and whaling ship disasters followed by rum (courtesy of Peg Leg Tavern) and sea biscuit (made by our own Sue Brian)!
The concert took place in the Conservation Building of the Australian National Maritime Museum.
The Mutineers and the stripey shirted Forties
Devil Dodgin’ on the High Seas
The James Craig Music Club featured the Forties, with the theme: “Devil Dodgin’ on the High Seas” – songs that mix the sea and religion, often irreverently. We borrowed a young Dan Kenny for the evening in Tom’s absence, and brought down our average age considerably!
We are as likely to convert an audience to religion as we are to shave our bellies with a rusty razor, and we used to say “In fact, none of us know what a razor is!” and maybe that’s still true of Dan. I was tempted to dress him up as a choir boy.
Click image for video of “Wreckers’ Prayer”. (Video: Sue Brian)
Roaring Forties gigs in October 2012
We Made the Steel
The Forties will be launching their new CD, We Made the Steel, at the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Folk Club on Friday 19th October – complete with narration and slides; and then hotfooting it down to the Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival on the Saturday and Sunday (20th and 21st) for another performance of the steel songs and lots of shanties.
Forty Degrees South 