Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission have premiered the video of their new single “Captain Collingwood“, taken from their new album City’s Calling Me, and, as they prepare to head out on their ‘Out and About‘ national tour, and hope for third time lucky as far as Bluesfest is concerned, they have announced a change in their ranks.
New single “Captain Collingwood” was written by Mick’s old Weddings Parties Anything bandmate Peter Lawler, and is a quirky highlight of the new album. City’s Calling Me has been described by Mick as “a guided tour through ‘the city of the heart”, and it features old favourites reinvented and new gems unearthed; from Mick’s own catalogue, as well as those of friends including Sally Kimber, Van Walker, and Charles Jenkins
The album also features – at its literal and emotional centre – “The Suburbs in Between”, a poem by Barry Humphries and read by Brian Nankervis with musical backing from Mick and the band.
The new video was made by local animator Nathan Armstrong, and as it reveals, the song has nothing to do with Nathan Buckley. “Captain Collingwood” also serves as a fond farewell to the Roving Commission’s Brooke Russell, who sings lead on the track, and who has just left the group to pursue other projects. Brooke’s replacement has been revealed as another Brooke and another Melbourne-based singer-songwriter in her own right, Brooke Taylor, who released a debut solo album entitled It’s the Little Things this time last year. Mick has known Brooke for some 15 years and has said of the changes: “we always said this band was going to be like the Grandfather’s Axe and so it continues. As with every lineup this may just be ‘the one’.”
Mick, Brooke, Roving Commission regulars Dave Folley, Squeezebox Wally and Ben Franz, and Roving irregular Jen Anderson, another of Mick’s old buddies from the Weddos, hit the road next week – COVID and various State Governments willing.- for their “Out and About” tour, which kicks off in Canberra Thursday July 1. And then it’s onto Bluesfest, where Mick and Jen will also be appearing in a rare reformation of Weddings Parties Anything. They cannot wait.
