Shangri-La (The Blackeyed Susans album)

Last updated
Shangri-La
Shangri-La BES.jpg
Studio album by
The Blackeyed Susans
ReleasedJuly 21, 2003
RecordedSing-Sing Studios,
Melbourne (2002)
Genre Rock / Folk rock
Length56:14
Label Teardrop
Producer Phil Kakulas, Craig Pilkington
The Blackeyed Susans
The Blackeyed Susans chronology
Dedicated to the Ones We Love
(2001)		Shangri-La
(2003)		Close Your Eyes And See
(2017)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Oz Music Project [1]

Shangri-La is the sixth studio album by The Blackeyed Susans, released in July 2003. After initial writing sessions in mid-1999, [2] recording of the album was scheduled for 2000. [3] It was postponed when the band’s then record company, Mds, was bought by Festival Records. The band eventually returned to the project in 2002, after their covers album Dedicated to the Ones We Love. [4] It was released on their own label, Teardrop, the following year. [5]

The Blackeyed Susans are an Australian rock band, which formed in Perth in 1989. Long serving members are Phil Kakulas on bass guitar, guitar and vocals; and Rob Snarski on vocals and guitar. They have released seven studio albums, Welcome Stranger, All Souls Alive, Mouth to Mouth, Spin the Bottle, Dedicated to the Ones We Love, Shangri-La and Close Your Eyes and See.

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 2003.

Festival organised series of acts and performances

A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. Next to religion and folklore, a significant origin is agricultural. Food is such a vital resource that many festivals are associated with harvest time. Religious commemoration and thanksgiving for good harvests are blended in events that take place in autumn, such as Halloween in the northern hemisphere and Easter in the southern.

Contents

The title of the album Shangri-La, refers to an illusory island paradise, a lost utopia that exists only in imagination and metaphor an apt name considering it was almost abandoned as an impossible project. In an interview Phil Kakulas commented

Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains. Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise, particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia – a permanently happy land, isolated from the world. In the novel, the people who live at Shangri-La are almost immortal, living hundreds of years beyond the normal lifespan and only very slowly aging in appearance. The name also evokes the imagery of the exoticism of the Orient.

"It was named before, back when I still had all faith that it would be released," Kakulas begins, "but it seems almost prophetic in that we did almost lose it. The name 'Shangri-La' seems to sum up a lot of what the album is about. The songs seem to deal with what happiness might be and where you might find happiness. Also I've been listening to a lot of the Shangri-Las, the girl group, and I like that seedy neon lights appeal. My vision of Shangri-La is much more like Vegas or something like that. It's a fools paradise." [6]

Shangri-La was nominated for 'Best Adult Contemporary Album' at the 2003 ARIA Awards, [7] [8] missing out to John Farnham's The Last Time . [9]

The 17th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards were held on 21 October 2003 at the Sydney Superdome. The ceremony aired on Network Ten.

John Farnham English-Australian pop singer

John Peter Farnham AO is an English-born Australian rock/soft rock singer. Farnham was a teen pop idol from 1967 until 1979, billed then as Johnny Farnham, but has since forged a career as an adult contemporary singer. His career has mostly been as a solo artist although he replaced Glenn Shorrock as lead singer of Little River Band from 1982 to 1985.

<i>The Last Time</i> (album) album by John Farnham

The Last Time is a studio album by Australian singer John Farnham. The album was released in Australia on 7 October 2002 and reached #1 in the ARIA charts with triple platinum status. The album featured three singles, including "No Ordinary World", "Keep Talking" and the title song "The Last Time".

Track listing

All songs written by Phil Kakulas and Rob Snarski, except where noted. [10]

  1. "A Cat Needs A Mouse" (Phil Kakulas, Dan Luscombe, Rob Snarski) – 3:15
  2. "End Of Time" – 5:04
  3. "Open All Hours" (Kiernan Box, Phil Kakulas, Dan Luscombe) – 4:47
  4. "My Body (Has A Mind Of Its Own)" (Kiernan Box, Phil Kakulas, Dan Luscombe) – 3:27
  5. "Deliver Me" – 5:26
  6. "Lost Horizon" (Kiernan Box, Phil Kakulas, Dan Luscombe, Rob Snarski) – 4:43
  7. "Hard Stuff" (Phil Kakulas, Dan Luscombe, Smith) – 3:48
  8. "The Eastern States" (Phil Kakulas, Dan Luscombe) – 5:52
  9. "Shangri-La" (Kiernan Box, Phil Kakulas) – 3:27
  10. "It’s Gonna Rain" – 5:34
  11. "Indian Summer" (Kiernan Box, Matt Habben) – 2:57
  12. "Endless Night" (Mark Dawson, Phil Kakulas, Rob Snarski) – 7:50

Personnel

Blackeyed Susans

Additional musicians

Related Research Articles

David McComb Australian musician

David Richard McComb was an Australian rock musician. He was the singer-songwriter and guitarist of the Australian bands, The Triffids (1976–89) and The Blackeyed Susans (1989–93). He also had a solo career including leading David McComb and The Red Ponies. Over his career McComb had bouts of alcoholism, and amphetamine and heroin abuse. He developed cardiomyopathy and in 1996 underwent a heart transplant. David McComb died on 2 February 1999 "due to heroin toxicity and mild acute rejection of his 1996 heart transplant", according to the coroner. In May 2001, the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), as part of its 75th Anniversary celebrations, named "Wide Open Road" by The Triffids – written by McComb – as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time. On 1 July 2008 The Triffids were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame with McComb's contribution acknowledged by a tribute performance.

Dirty Water (The Blackeyed Susans song) 1994 single by The Blackeyed Susans

"Dirty Water" is a single by The Blackeyed Susans, released in July, 1994, from their 1993 album, All Souls Alive. The last four tracks are taken from the cassette album Hard Liquor, Soft Music by The Blackeyed Susans Trio.

This One Eats Souls 1994 single by The Blackeyed Susans

"This One Eats Souls" is a single by The Blackeyed Susans, released in July 1994, from their 1993 album, All Souls Alive. The last four tracks are taken from the cassette album Hard Liquor, Soft Music by The Blackeyed Susans Trio.

<i>Some Night, Somewhere</i> live album

Some Night, Somewhere is a live album by The Blackeyed Susans, given away with copies of Mouth To Mouth sold around December, 1996 as a Christmas bonus disc. It was recorded live at the Continental Café in Melbourne and was a limited edition CD.

<i>Some Births are Worse than Murders</i> extended play by The Blackeyed Susans

Some Births Are Worse Than Murders is the debut EP by The Blackeyed Susans, released in March 1989 on Waterfront Records.

<i>Anchor Me</i> (EP) 1991 extended play by The Blackeyed Susans

Anchor Me is an EP by The Blackeyed Susans, released in March 1991.

<i>Welcome Stranger</i> (album) album by The Blackeyed Susans

Welcome Stranger is the debut studio album by The Blackeyed Susans. Released in August, 1992, the album is a compilation of their first three EPs – Some Births Are Worse Than Murders, Anchor Me and …Depends On What You Mean By Love – with the addition of three tracks recorded at the same time as the material released on those EPs.

The following is a discography of albums, EPs and singles released by the Australian band The Blackeyed Susans.

<i>All Souls Alive</i> album by The Blackeyed Susans

All Souls Alive is the second studio album by The Blackeyed Susans, released in December 1993 on the independent record label, Torn and Frayed, and distributed by Shock Records.

<i>Mouth to Mouth</i> (The Blackeyed Susans album) album by The Blackeyed Susans

Mouth to Mouth is the third studio album by The Blackeyed Susans, released in July, 1995.

<i>Spin the Bottle</i> (album) album by The Blackeyed Susans

Spin The Bottle is the fourth studio album by The Blackeyed Susans, released in July 1997 on Hi Gloss Records. Initial copies came with a karaoke disc containing instrumental versions of each song. The album was produced by Victor Van Vugt and featured ten new original songs and a cover of Billie Holiday's "You're My Thrill". Three singles were released from the album - "Smokin' Johnny Cash", "Spin the Wheel" and "Blue Skes, Blue Sea".

<i>La Mascara</i> (EP) 1999 extended play

La Mascara is an EP by The Blackeyed Susans, released in November 1998. It peaked at No. 5 on the AIR Charts in November 1988 and No. 6 on the Australian Music Report's Alternative Singles/EP Chart. Las Mascara was nominated for 'Best Single/EP (Independent)' at the 1999 Music Industry Critics Awards.

<i>Dedicated to the Ones We Love</i> album by The Blackeyed Susans

Dedicated to the Ones We Love is the fifth studio album by the Australian folk rock group The Blackeyed Susans and was released on 23 April 2001. It is the first issued on their own label, Teardrop, and was distributed through Shock Records. As the name suggests, it is a collection of cover versions, focusing on songs that have influenced and inspired the band. It includes songs made popular by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, The Crystals, Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground, and, most poignantly, The Triffids. The Triffids were the previous band of David McComb, who had died in 1999 and was a founding member of The Blackeyed Susans. The album was well received by the public and lauded by the critics, a national tour followed keeping the band busy until the end of the year.

Lets Live single by The Blackeyed Susans

"Let's Live" is a single by The Blackeyed Susans, released in June 1995. It was the first single taken from the band's third studio album, Mouth to Mouth. It included several bonus tracks which were not available on the album, the most notable of which was a Suicide-styled re-working of the Bruce Springsteen track "State Trooper".

Mary Mac 1996 single by The Blackeyed Susans

"Mary Mac" was the second single released by Australian rock band The Blackeyed Susans from their fourth studio album, Mouth To Mouth. It was released on the Hi Gloss Record label in October 1996, three months after the album's release. The song was recorded as part of the band's recording of Mouth to Mouth during the autumn of 1995 at the Fortissimo Sound Studios in Melbourne. The single proved to be the band’s most successful thus far and the song an essential part of The Blackeyed Susans’ catalog. The B-sides were bonus tracks, comprising: a cover of The Go-Betweens song, "Dive for Your Memory"; a cover of Canadian country music artist Hank Snow's "Ninety Miles Per Hour"; and an original, "Someone Watching Over Me", which was recorded by Phil Kakulas on an 8-track in a spare room in Abbotsford 1992.

Smokin Johnny Cash 1997 single by The Blackeyed Susans

"Smokin' Johnny Cash" is a single by The Blackeyed Susans, released in May 1997. It was the first single lifted from the band's album, Spin the Bottle.

Spin the Wheel (The Blackeyed Susans song) 1997 single by The Blackeyed Susans

"Spin the Wheel" is the third single released by Australian rock band The Blackeyed Susans from their fifth studio album, Spin the Bottle. It was released on the Hi Gloss Record label in September 1997, two months after the album's release.

<i>Love of Will</i> album by David McComb

Love of Will is the debut album by David McComb, released in March 1994. The album was recorded and mixed between June and August, 1993, at Platinum Studios with additional mixing at Metropolis and Sing Sing Studios. McComb selected 13 songs out of a pile of 35 and recorded them at Platinum Studios, Melbourne with producer Nick Mainsbridge, together with freelance musical directors Graham Lee and David McComb, and assistant engineers Kalju Tonuma and Phil Jones.

<i>Hard Liquor, Soft Music</i> album by The Blackeyed Susans

Hard Liquor, Soft Music is an album by The Blackeyed Susans, recorded in late 1993 by Rob Snarski, Phil Kakulas and Graham Lee as The Blackeyed Susans Trio.

References

  1. ↑ "Oz Music Project". Archived from the original on 2007-09-03. Retrieved 2007-10-16.
  2. ↑ "A cat needs a mouse". ABC . Retrieved 2008-06-26.
  3. ↑ "Sydney Morning Herald 15 August 2003". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2003-08-15. Retrieved 31 October 2007.
  4. ↑ "The Blackeyed Susans". Australia Music Online. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
  5. ↑ "Blackeyed Susans / Shangri-La". Sanity Music . Retrieved 2008-06-26.[ dead link ]
  6. ↑ Hocking, Steve. "Blackeyed Susans". dB Magazine. Archived from the original on 2005-10-01. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
  7. ↑ "Top of the pops". Sydney Morning Herald. 2003-10-19. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
  8. ↑ "ARIA Awards nominations". Sydney Morning Herald. 2003-09-22. Archived from the original on 2012-09-12. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
  9. ↑ "2003 ARIA Award winners". Channel Ten. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
  10. ↑ "APRA search engine". APRA. Archived from the original on January 24, 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-26. Note: requires user to input song title e.g. A CAT NEEDS A MOUSE
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.