2023 has been a monumental year for Kingswood. The release of a wonderful album in the shape of ‘Home’, an unprecedented 100+ date countrywide tour, the unexpected dropping of a second album ‘The Tale of G.C.Townes’, at the tail end of the year and now the launch of Kingswood lager means there really isn’t nothing these guys won’t tackle. Fans of the band and of course beer, can join the guys at Prince Bandroom in St Kilda on 17th November to hear new music as well as try the new beer.
We managed to catch up, albeit briefly, with lead vocalist Fergus Linacre as he made his way through airport security, to find out what the year has meant to the band and how they got into the idea of creating their own beer.
Sean: Hello Ferg! How you going?
Ferg: I’m good thank you, Sean.
Sean: I really appreciate you taking this later-than-usual call to chat to us at The Rockpit.
Ferg: Not a problem at all mate. We’ll have to see how we go, as I’m currently checking in at the airport.
Sean: We’d best crack on then. I’m currently three and a half hours southeast of Perth in the beautiful town of Nannup. It’s the only place I could get a signal on the phone so I pulled over here for our chat [laughs].
Ferg: Oh divine. [laughs] That’s amazing! Beautiful part of the country.
Sean: Well, let’s keep this short and sweet. We can easily divide it up into past, present & future. I have to start but congratulating you on the fantastic album ‘Home’ that you released earlier this year and what an incredible tour that followed its release.
Ferg: Mate, we were super proud of it. It’s a record that we made in Covid and we didn’t really have any sort of aspirations for it being, you know, fitting any conception of what we needed to do. We just were inspired by everything slowing down and making sort of a country-inspired record that we felt really close to and in the end people seemed to love it so we were thrilled. And doing the big Hometowns Tour, I think we did one hundred and ten shows in six months and we had an absolute ball each and every night, so yeah it was a really great, you know, maybe once-in-a-lifetime thing we were able to do.
Sean: Unbelievable. I don’t even think I can remember an Australian band completing so many dates in such a short space of time.
Ferg: No, from what we understand it’s the biggest tour we’ve ever done, you know, maybe in the 80s bands were touring a lot but no one’s pricked their heads up and said that they’ve done more than that, so we hold the record at the moment [laughs].
Sean: Fantastic, and of course you showed WA so much love on the tour. We sometimes miss out on tours being so isolated but we certainly got a huge smattering of Kingswood on this tour.
Ferg: We ran right up to Exmouth and Broome and all the way down south to Albany and we’re coming back as well. We really did get to see nearly every corner of the country. It was a fantastic experience.
Sean: I was going to touch on the fact we have you back at the end of this year. We see that you are here on the 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th of December. What a lovely bit of time there in the middle of the Christmas holidays!
Ferg: Absolutely beautiful. We can’t wait.
Sean: You’re doing all the southwest areas that I’m just about to visit Margaret River, Bunbury and Albany. I’m going to try and get down to one of those for a weekend. I caught you at the Carine, which was just an incredible show and a wonderful set.
Ferg: So much fun. Yeah we loved it. We generally love that part of the world – it’s heaven down there so can’t wait to go and spend the New Year’s post Christmas period there.
Sean: Next is the Kingswood Lager, which I’m so interested about being a man who likes a beer or two [laughs].
Ferg: You know, we did this tour and we drove around and we tasted different beers all over the country. We played lots of different breweries and we just thought, you know, we love beer and we’ve always talked about it, we’ve always analysed different beers that we have and we thought why not bring out our own beer, so we’ve been working on it for quite a while now and and it’s finally finally coming out so we’re thrilled. It’s a delicious beer and we’re launching it in Melbourne on November 17th and then it’ll be onwards and upwards from there. Tickets are still available for the VIP beer experience at Prince of Wales Bandroom in St Kilda.
Sean: We’ve got a photographer and reviewer coming along to sample the beer, take some pics and hear some Kingswood tunes
Ferg: Yeah, that’s fantastic – the band will be playing and it’s going to be a really special night I think.
Sean: I did get the pleasure of having the brand new album dropped to me just before I left my door in Perth. I’ve had a little listen to ‘The Tale of G.C.Townes’ in the car. What a fantastic collection of songs and even more country inspired than ‘Home’.
Ferg: Well that’s right, we also made that at the same time as ‘Home’ so it’s really like a lot of the collection of music that we did that at the end that we didn’t put on the ‘Home’ record and you know we thought about what are we going to do with all these songs and then you know, why not just put an album out. We actually really love it and are very excited for people to hear it. It’s certainly very different but it’s a little bit of a special record to us so we can’t wait for people to hear it. I think it comes out tomorrow. (The Tale of G.C.Townes was released on Friday 3rd November.)
Sean: I’ve had it on two or three times in the car. It really is fantastic Ferg.
Ferg: Thanks mate. Really appreciate it.
The call gets interrupted for around 4 minutes as Fergus goes through airport security and I had the odd experience of being put through the x-ray machine in a plastic tray along with Ferg’s, keys, change, belt and anything else the security staff asked him to remove from his person.
Ferg: Sorry about that [laughs].
Sean: That’s a first for me – I’ve never gone through an x-ray machine during an interview [laughs]. Before we lose you I just have three more general questions to wrap up with, kicking off with my restaurant question.
Ferg: Go for it mate.
Sean: If you could invite three musicians, dead or alive to join you for dinner one evening who would you have at the table?
Ferg: It’s going to be Paul McCartney – certainly I think that would be an incredible guest. Let me think… Paul McCartney, Otis Redding and Ella Fitzgerald. What a lovely table, a lovely little table and a nice conversation I would hope. now can you give me one minute I’m just going through security so stay on the line no worries
Sean: What was the last album you listened to, Ferg?
Ferg: The last album I listened to was by a band called High as a Kite – The album’s called ‘Silent Treatment’. They’re a Norwegian band. We were driving through the fjords of Norway and we thought, “Wow, We thought we should listen to some Norwegian music”, so we put that on. It was a beautiful soundtrack, driving through the snowy mountains. Just stunning.
Sean: Oh wow, I’ll have to check them out.
Ferg: Great band!
Sean: I’ll take a listen to them as I drive through the Karri Valley forests. The final question before you settle down for your flight – If you could be credited with writing any song ever written, what song would you choose?
Ferg: That’s an easy one to answer for me – ‘Yesterday’ by The Beatles. That’s such a great song. I think it’s perfect. It’s such a beautiful song.
Sean: That’s a wonderful song to wrap things up with. I hope you have a pleasant flight. I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with us at The Rockpit. We’ve loved watching the band’s incredible journey this year.
Ferg: Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Sean: I’m sure I’ll be able to get to one of those shows. I might even try and get down to the Bunbury one. It’s only two hours from me.
Ferg: That’d be fantastic – make sure you come and say hi.
Sean: Thanks mate, all the best and regards to the rest of the guys.
Ferg: Will do. Thanks mate. Bye.
KINGSWOOD AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES
Friday 17 November Prince of Wales Melbourne
OFFICIAL KINGSWOOD LAGER LAUNCH Tickets
Saturday 18 November Archie’s Creek Archie’s Creek Tickets
Saturday 25 November Adelaide Gaol Adelaide Tickets
CRY BABY FEST
Wednesday 27 December Mojo’s Fremantle Tickets
Thursday 28 December The River Margaret River Tickets
Friday 29 December Froth Craft Brewery Bunbury Tickets
Saturday 30 December Six Degrees Albury Tickets
Thursday 4 January The Royal Oak Launceston Tickets
Friday 5 January Blythe Park Heybridge Tickets
GOOD GUMNUTS FESTIVAL
Saturday 6 January Altar Hobart Tickets
Thursday 25 January Tamworth Hotel Tamworth Tickets
Friday 2 February Alice Springs Brewing Company Alice Springs Tickets
Saturday 3 February Mayberry Darwin Tickets
Friday 9 February All Seasons Hotel Bendigo Tickets
Saturday 10 February Wool Exchange Geelong Tickets
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