Having recently announced their break-up and farewell tour, The Beards have taken to their official Facebook page to share a heartfelt and fourth wall-breaking open letter bidding fans good-bye and thanking them for the bearded memories.
In the letter, the band explain the difficulties they’ve encountered as a self-described novelty band with little airplay and no record label, as well as their desire to break up before the joke that propelled the band for so many years gets stale.
“As few people other than those who have attempted to do it will understand, the personal, financial and emotional sacrifices necessary to make a living as an unsigned original touring band catch up with you eventually,” the band write.
“Whilst being on stage in front of all of you can be the most awesome job in the world, we feel that now is the right time to (hopefully) go out with a bang with one last tour, rather than slowly fade from relevance until we’re nothing but a quirky answer to a 2011 Hottest 100 quiz question.”
“Being a novelty band (and we’re not afraid to admit it), we faced an uphill battle from the start in many respects –we’ve had precious little radio play over the journey, the majority of festivals didn’t want to know about us, and most self-respecting music fans would screw up their nose at the idea, at least until they saw us live.”
“And so to win people over, we toured. Then we toured more. Then we toured again, until people began to take notice. That’s the reality we faced, as do many young bands that start out with nothing but a glint in their eye and a station wagon that they borrowed from their drummer’s dad.”
The band clarify that they have no ill feelings about their careers and instead appreciate “the experiences we’ve had, the friends we’ve made, the sold-out gigs we’ve played in European cities that we can’t even pronounce”.
An Open Letter To Music Fans (and Beard Enthusiasts)Recently, we, The Beards, have announced that we will be ending…
Posted by The Beards onWednesday, January 20, 2016
“We all know bands and musos who would give their left nut to have the career that we’ve had and we’re exceedingly lucky that from the start, there were enough of you – fans, other bands, managers, booking agents – that believed in us and believed in what we were trying to do,” they write.
[include_post id=”466563″]
“As funny as it sounds now, we didn’t start this project because of a love of beards. Our passion was, and still is, a desire to do something fun, something left of centre, something that satisfied our warped senses of humour.”
“Also, we had a hunch that just maybe, if we poured enough passion in and crafted the concept just right, something as absurd as a band that sings entirely and exclusively about beards might just end up being something great.”
“Did we succeed? Depends who you ask. Did we have fun? Hell yes. And do we owe it all to anyone who ever bought a T-shirt, sung along to one of our songs, forwarded on one of our videos, or stood in the crowd with a beer in their hand and a smile on their face? Abso-fucking-lutely.”
The Beards National Tour Dates
Wednesday, 20 Jan
West Tamworth Leagues, Tamworth Country Music Festival NSW
Saturday, 06 Feb
Houghton Festival, Houghton SA
Saturday, 13 Feb
Meatstock, Sydney Showgrounds NSW
Thursday, 25 Feb
Royal Oak Hotel, Launceston TAS
Friday, 26 Feb
Waratah Hotel, Hobart TAS
Saturday, 27 Feb
Red Hot Music, Devonport TAS
Friday, 11 Mar
Bar Indigo (Leisure Inn), Rockingham WA
Saturday, 12 Mar
Rosemount Hotel, Perth WA
Sunday, 13 Mar
WinterSunday, Hotel, Geraldton WA
Friday, 15 Apr
Bodega, Wellington NZ
Saturday, 16 Apr
Kings Arms Tavern, Auckland NZ
Wednesday, 20 Apr
Pier Hotel, Esperance WA
Thursday, 21 Apr
The White Star, Albany WA
Friday, 22 Apr
Dunsborough Tavern, Dunsborough WA
Saturday, 23 Apr
Prince Of WAles, Bunbury WA
Wednesday, 11 May
Yarella Sports Club, Gladstone QLD
Thursday, 12 May
Lionleigh Hotel, Rockhampton QLD
Friday, 13 May
Magnum’s, Airlie Beach QLD
Saturday, 14 May
Dalrymple Hotel, Townsville – QLD
Sunday, 15 May
The Jack, Cairns QLD
Saturday, 21 May
Jive Bar, Adelaide SA
Wednesday, 25 May
The Loft, WArrnambool VIC
Thursday, 26 May
The Golden Vine, Bendigo VIC
Friday, 27 May
SS & A Club, Albury NSW
Saturday, 28 May
The Area Hotel, Griffith NSW
Wednesday, 15 Jun
The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba QLD
Thursday, 16 Jun
The Soundlounge, Gold Coast QLD
Friday, 17 Jun
Sol Bar, Maroochydore QLD
Saturday, 18 Jun
The Triffid, Brisbane QLD
Thursday, 23 Jun
Karova Lounge, Ballarat VIC
Friday, 24 Jun
The Barwon Club, Geelong VIC
Saturday, 25 Jun
Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC
Thursday, 30 Jun
Beachcomber Hotel, Toukley NSW
Friday, 01 Jul
The Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle NSW
Saturday, 02 Jul
The Metro, Sydney NSW
