Over a decade after their split in 1999, Brisbane alt kings Custard are set to reform for one show only over the Queen’s Birthday weekend.
The foursome will play at Sydney’s Vic On The Park Hotel on Saturday 8th June in their only confirmed appearance for 2013, as The Music reports.
The one-off gig will see the return of bandmates David McCormack, Paul Medew, James Straker, and drummer Glenn Thompson (who joined the recently reformed Go-Betweens) and hopefully bring out vintage tracks, such as ‘Music Is Crap’ and ‘Girls Like That’.
Custard’s stronghold over the Aussie alternative rock scene since their 1990 formation through to their amicable split nine years later spawned a series of popular hits off iconic albums We Have The Technology in 1997 and Loverama in 1999.
The band’s popularity was cemented when the Brisbane outfit were voted in at #7 on Triple J’s Hottest 100 of 1995 for their lead single ‘Apartment’. More success followed in 1998 when ‘Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us)’ came in at #3 on the music poll, being beaten out by fellow Aussie Ben Lee and American pranksters The Offspring.
Thompson spoke to Beat Magazine in 2011 about the split being an amicable and collective decision, with the band feeling exhausted following an intense international touring schedule which proved too consuming and difficult by the end. Custard’s stronghold over the Aussie alternative rock scene since their 1990 formation through to their amicable split nine years later spawned a series of popular hits
“Those times are a bit blurry now, but it just seemed to peter out,” Thompson recalled. “Even if we hadn’t broken up, I reckon I could have just quit anyway because it was pretty hard touring. I had an 11-year-old daughter, and because we were always working and touring constantly, that was really hard.”
Having kept in contact after the split, Thompson and McCormack continued jamming together, with the Custard frontman forming The Titanics with his then-wife Emma Tom after they called it a day. Following that, McCormack turned to solo material with his backing band the Polaroids and a long awaited solo album in 2009 entitled Little Murders.
McCormack and Thompson eventually got the call in 2009 to reform Custard for a special concert commemorating Queensland’s 150th Anniversary, a concert curated by Brisbane’s own Powderfinger.
Following the successful gig, Custard continued to play a few gigs each year, making an appearance at the 2010 incarnation of the Meredith Music Festival in rural Victoria and the 2011 Brisbane Festival. (Oh, and they gave Tone Deaf an awesome recipe for Coca Cola Braised Pork too!)
The Queen’s Birthday show boasts “the most English of treats” on the Sydney pub’s Facebook event, with the gig looking “less like a delicious creamy dessert than four blokes from Brisvegas with more slacker-pop hits that you can poke a sceptre at.”
The gig will be supported by local act Songs who are touring their latest release, Malabar.
Custard 2013 Show
Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend ft. Custard
Saturday 8th June
Vic on the Park Hotel
2 Addison Road, Marrickville, New South Wales
FREE event 12pm til Late.
