The Painted Ladies

The legendary Vic Simms and The Painted Ladies will perform songs from Simms' 1973 release The Loner, Australia's first Aboriginal protest album, this Friday 12 August at NGV.

The Painted Ladies are proud to be a raggedy band driven by love, creativity and a sense that race relations in this country still has a ways to go. The Painted Ladies project started as a tribute album to Vic Simms and his legendary lost 1973 classic The Loner. The project is the brainchild of Luke Peacock, a member of the great country-Rockhampton band Halfway. Luke was working at Brisbane Murri Country radio station 96.8FM (his father is a Torres Strait Islander), when he stumbled across a copy of the first Australian black album, recorded by inmate Vic Simms in Bathurst Gaol in 1973.

Inspired, Luke thrust the album back into the spotlight with a new generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians,  and roping in an all-star cast to help out in the studio including including most notably Cairns' favourite sons the Medics – plus such stellar guests as Roger Knox, Paul Kelly, Ed Kuepper, Ian Haug, Bunna Lawrie and Vic himself . The Painted Ladies Play Selections from The Loner was released mid-2014. By September 2014, the band played its debut performances at the Judith Wright Centre in Fortitude Valley as part of the Brisbane Festival. These two sets were so successful that the Ladies were invited to appear at Womadelaide in March 2015.

Also coming up are Jess Ribeiro (19 August), Kid Congo & the Pink Monkey Birds (26 August), Mick Harvey (2 September), Pierce Brothers (9 September) and more!