The Red Eyes

Happy 2012! The Red Eyes are now officially celebrating their 10^th year!  

Back from some crazy shows at Woodford Folk Festival and with just a few shows in hometown Melbourne (Fri 6 Jan, The Espy w Grandmaster Flash; and Wed 18 Jan, Queen Victoria Night Market), the band are making way to head over to NZ for their first tour, aptly named the ‘Homecoming Tour’!

Kicking off at Revolver, Queenstown on Jan 26, before taking in venues in Dunedin, Wellington, Leigh, Hamilton and Auckland, they will also appear at the inaugural Winchfest wakeboard and music festival on Jan 28 performing alongside Katchafire and Cornerstone Roots.

The Red Eyes ‘NZ Homecoming Tour’ heralds  the prodigal return of NZ’s long lost sons El Witeri and  Damien Charles. Born and bred in Auckland, the two musicians’ musical roots were developed touring around NZ throughout the 90’s before they re-met in OZ and honed their alternative Dub/Reggae style for an appreciative Australian audience. Over 10 years their fan base has grown exponentially, as has their lineup of past and present musical hotshots. The wider Red Eyes family are rumoured to later this year take to the stage in the official birthday celebration featuring the entire back catalogue of Red Eyes talent! Expect the stage to be overflowing!

Exploding onto the NZ turf with a string of club dates through Jan and Feb 2012, The Red Eyes are touring their new track Circles, the first single release from their anticipated third album.

NZ Tour Dates

Thu 26 Jan: Mint Bar (Wanaka)
With guest The Nomad

Fri 27 Jan: XIIB/12 Below (Dunedin)
With guests Skull Dubbery and DJ Jungle Far I

Sat 28 Jan: Bodega (Wellington)
With guests Newtown Sound feat Israel Starr

Sun 29 Jan: Winchfest (New Plymouth)
Also feat. Katchafire and Cornerstone Roots

Fri 3 Feb: Sawmill Cafe (Leigh)
With guests DJ Dubhead

Sat 4 Feb: Flow Bar (Hamilton)
With guest DJ Captain Nemo

Sun 5 Feb: Kings Arms (Auckland)
With Guest Dam Native & DJ Dubhead

Tickets ON SALE – www.eventfinder.co.nz

It’s been almost 12 months since The Red Eyes released Red Army to rave reviews including a nomination for best Blues & Roots album at the 2010 Australian Independent Record Label Awards, as well as Album of the Week on Radio Australia and PBS FM.

The band is going from strength to strength as they tour the nation and pick up coveted festival spots, including this years’ Raggamuffin Festival where they joined multiple Grammy Award winning Mary J Blige and veteran Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff for a nationwide tour.

Now for The Red Eyes it’s on to another stellar line-up, with Bob Dylan, Grace Jones, BB King, Ben Harper… and the list goes on, and on, and on, reading like a wish-list for Australia’s most star studded music festival of all time. But it’s actually real, and all these acts (over 100 and counting) and thousands of punters will converge in little old Byron Bay later this month for 6 days of pure Easter Long Weekend Bluesfest bliss. The Bluesfest website reads, “People, the word is out – The Red Eyes are definitely on the next big thing list. Melbourne’s dub/reggae superstars, The Red Eyes, will bring their unique sound, masterfully produced beats, and soulful lyrics to Bluesfest 2011 – and we can’t wait to have them!” …and The Red Eyes can’t wait to be there.

You can catch their explosive set of skank-inspiring dub/reggae/soul goodness on:
// Saturday 23 April
2:30-3:30PM – Juke Joint Stage
// Sunday 24 April
8:30-10PM – Juke Joint Stage
www.bluesfest.com.au 

In other recent news:

• Jeremy Sole from KCRW FM, California visited Australia and captured an intimate interview and impromptu recording with The Red Eyes. Watch live video footage of The Red Eyes performing an acapella version of ‘Titokowaru’s War’ (Red Army, 2010) here. Check out Jeremy’s show on KCRW (March 31) featuring both the acapella and album versions of ‘Titokowaru’s War’ here.

• The Red Eyes lead singer El Witeri was selected as a finalist at the 2011 APRA Performance Development awards.

• The Red Eyes have been invited to perform at Fest Napuan, Vanuatu in November 2011. From Vanuatu, the band will sweep through the Pacific Islands, with gigs soon to be announced in Fiji, New Caledonia and New Zealand.

• The Red Eyes joined the barefootprints crew for the inaugral ‘Fest la Frog’ – a sustainable music and art festival held at Melbourne’s CERES Environmental Park on Sat 9 April. Despite the late rain the crowd rocked to The Red Eyes and made a stand for sustainable living.