"Tripod, Love them or hate them you have to find them funny.." Well.. Gatesy said it, and i'd have to say it's true... I've only been a Tripod Addict since the 12th of October 2000, when they came to play a gig at my school, for what we call "Arts week" previous years have seen Glynn Nicholas, Tiddas, some local talent, Terry Denton and more recently we had Rod Quantock, (but that was in Maths week I believe.. we have a lot of weeks...) By far, out of all the shows we've had, they were the greatest, and I'm sad to hear about how much brilliant Tripod stuff I've missed, though I'm making up for it now. I went to a show at the Prince Patrick Hotel 2 weeks later, and again the week after that.. and since then I've been spending a hell of a lot of my time surfing the web searching for more information, or talking to the boys themselves, and new friends I've made, through the Tripod "Podster forum" on the official site. The guys are kind, fun and sweet. They visit the message board fairly often to answer questions and such, and there's always a bunch of people around talking about the guys, past and upcoming shows, and basically everything... though it can get very irritating at times, It's better to just sit back and ignore I find...
the 10th of December was the 4th annual Tripod Xmas show, at the Hifi Bar in Melbourne. I almost didn't get in, but it all turned out well, and I took many many photos. all photos on this site are mine from shows.. and if you're going to take them please let me know... so I can kill you. hehe.
Anyway, enough about me, onto more interesting topics, Those fantastic men we call Tripod..
Scod is: Scott Edgar, fabulous guitarist, really nice guy, he wears glasses, so we assume him to be the Geek.. which I suppose he is ("Ah! don't! I'll get hayfever!") but still.. as far as geek's go, he's the best around.
Yon is: Simon Hall, his nickname, Yon comes from Simon - Simyon, according to him, and he's the crazy, kooky, yet very adorable member of the group, all the times I've spoken to him, he's been very quiet, nice, and friendly, though slightly shy and put off I think by the overly exciteable fans.
Gatesy is: Steven Gates, He's sexy, funny, and the apparent "boy-band" factor of the group, although he denies it, I'm so sure he loves the attention...He has his own band, "Kind of Pluto" (yes, a normal band...) their site is on the Links page. I've gotten to speak to gatesy uch more than the other guys due to all the kind of pluto gigs, and he's just one of the best people I've ever had the pleasure to meet.
Tripod have been together for many years, they started out Busking and got onto Hey,Hey it's Saturday - singing a song about Oasis, pointing out the fact that all of their songs have the same chords, the boys've also appeared on IMT (performing Stalk and 'Plucka duck' that I know of), Good News Week('Lovesong'), Recovery ('Prodigy meets Aqua'), Good News Week Nitelite(Gatesy was on Julie's Team, except Julie was away that night.. so it was Amanda Kellar's team, performed 'Would you mind'), Rove(performing 'the beard song', 'farewell to Rove', and on Rove[live] - 'Cowboy'), Paul and The Fatman (a GNW special - Xmas Song), and the last few Comedy Festival Gala's.
Gatesy's sordid past includes a children's show called 'Shape,Shape,Shape' which I got my hands on recently, and spent about 5 hours in tears from laughter from - catch it if you can - they often repeat it on the ABC. He has appeared on Blue Heelers (I'm not sure of the date, I missed it..), and is also in a Super-soaker ad that is only shown in the USA and on Foxtel.. so if you catch it, then consider yourself lucky.. I haven't.. Tripod had a weekly spot on Merrick and Rosso's show on JJJ every Tuesday around 4pm..Where they were given 3 topics and had to write a song in an hour incorperating all 3, coming up with so many classics, it's extremely funny, the favourites would have to be Meg + Russell, The Naked Chef song, and the Manchild song. although I loved them all, it's so hard to choose. They also appeared on a show called "Trash is my life" on 3RRR every Saturday afternoon. where they sang a song about the special guest on the show each week, these include Dylan Lewis, Fiona Horne, John Saffran, Tim Ferguson and Paul Hester, just off the top of my head, and on a show called "Home and Hosed" on Foxtel (Thankz Lainy!). they appeared on 'Denise' which I sadly missed, and also on another Foxtel show called 'The Big Schmooze'.
At the moment Tripod are back at their hour challenges on JJJ - but now with Adam and Wil for breakfast. they perform at about 7:45am on Tuesdays, and have come up with some absolutely brilliant pieces thus far. They're currently finishing a compilation CD of those challenges - and are also working on another live album in the style of Open Slather - recorded at 'Pod August Nights' this year.
The guys are definately on the rise, but are yet to appear on Carols by candlelight, much to their extreme annoyance, but who needs 'em. Carol's by candlelight sucks.. The Tripod Xmas show was so much better..
The guys have release 3 albums, their First, "Box set" is no longer available, so if you find a copy on CD then you're luckier than me! "Open Slather" is their second, recorded throughout the 2000 Comedy festival, and the 3rd was released on November 27th 2000, with their single, "I hate your family" (Xmas song) being released. the CD is just Open Slather Xmas edition, but it was worth buying for the 3 extra songs, (the single, plus commentary version, plus "censored" version....funny stuff..)
You can now also buy their VIDEO - "Tripod tell the tale of the adventures of Tosswinkle the Pirate (Not very well)" that was filmed at Chapel Off Chapel about 3 weeks after the 2001 comedy festival season of the very successful show.. which.. I think I ended up seeing like.. 5 or 6 times?
Buy it, and get bonus Leish! cos yes. I am the 'knob-end' that the boys pick on in the video... the girl in the burgondy jacket. Scod is just a god for pickin' me for that 'honour'. and in the words of Gatesy: "Leish! You've been immortalised FINALLY, as a Knob-end!"
"I know.. I'm so honoured!"
hehe
Lady Robots, Tripod's 2002 comfest show - was absolutely incredible. better than Tosswinkle - I just wish I'd got to see it more - seeing it three times just was NOT enough. Those guys can't stop outdoing themselves! they're setting a horrible precedence...
there's never been a Tripod show I haven't enjoyed, and now, almost 2 years since my first show - I'm up to about 30-somethin' shows. which seems like not enough really, considering - but I've done pretty well.
I'm a kind of pluto Addict, they are absolutely incredible, my favourite band ever. hehe.
OK, time for Leish to sleep
updated 4/9/02 |