Welcome to The Merlin Bird

Classic Rock's "Prog" - Cover CD

Not all Christmases are equal 

Hi folks - a very Merry Christmas to all who happen upon these words: hope the festive season treats you well!  Now those of you who have seen our ad in Classic Rock's Prog, will know that we're donating the profits of all CD's ordered by Christmas 2009 to the Fred Hollows Foundation.  These guys do great work curing avoidable blindness in developing nations, so every EP sold will help give someone out there the best Christmas present of their lives. If you've ever been thinking of grabbing a copy, now is the time.  Best wishes folks, and all good cheer for 2010! 
 

The hibernation ends
Following a long, metaphorical winter that has seen various birdies leave the nest and various others busy with alternative projects musical ( - most notably Dan's national tour with Matt Kelly - ), The Merlin Bird has once again awoken, sniffed the spring air, and tried an experimental warble or two by way of warming-up for recording the next studio album.

Current plans are to hit the studio from November '08 for the first full-length Merlin Bird CD. Songs are in various stages of completion at the time of writing, ranging from almost-finished to "hey - I've just had an idea". It is anticipated, however, that most of it will be completed in the traditional manner by leaving it all 'til the last minute.

For the record, the band is now twice as large as it was when the original CD was laid down, consisting of Geoff (keyboards, guitars, vocals) and Dan (drums, percussion, sense of humour). Love and thanks to all birdies past, who have helped take the band to where it is today – you were all important, and all appreciated. If things work out as we'd like, you will also all have your contributions to make to the new CD, and hopefully for releases thereafter as well. Thanks for being part of the journey.

Also for the record, Geoff is on the left in the photo above and Dan on the right, unless you think the guy on the right is better looking, in which case that one's really Geoff.

Meanwhile, watch this space and our myspace page for updates on the progress, shaping, ups, downs and timing of CD the next. In the long-ago words of Mr. Collins, let the dance begin ...

The Bird to appear with Jethro Tull & Fish
The first date of The Merlin Bird's inaugural international tour has now been confirmed. We will be appearing at the oddly named Night Of The Prog festival in Loreley, Germany on 22nd July, '07, with Fish (ex-Marillion), Pendragon and Jethro Tull. The original lineup of Asia will also be putting in an appearance, to put the seal on what should be a great weekend of music. Bitter in-band fighting has already broken out over who gets to have their photo taken first with which particular progressive rock legend. Merlin Bird fans the world over are advised to invest in Kodak now.

The Bird on The Beeb
Yes, the first in what will hopefully be a long, long line of BBC radio interviews can now be safely announced to the world.

Geoff will be appearing on Genevieve Tudor's folk show on BBC Radio Shropshire on Sunday, 24th September, 2006, from 8pm. Those who live locally or are blessed with extremely powerful receivers can tune in at 96 FM.

Today England, tomorrow the world?
For all our English fans out there ( - if there are any - ) The Merlin Bird have set their sights on hemispheres other than their own. Plots are being hatched and plans formulated for a foray to the Mother Country. Specifically, Geoff is looking to do a solo tour of the UK from August - October of this year ('06), armed with the good wishes of his bandmates and, more importantly, some backing tracks he can play along to.

This will be a warm-up effort for a tour by the full band, currently being mooted for late this year or early '07.

Merlin Bird back in the studio
And following on from the above, the need for some instant backing tracks means live gigs have been put on temporary hold while we hit the recording studio - in this case, the very reasonably priced Southern Cross studios in Melbourne's Eastern suburbs. Aided and abetted again by our favourite partner in crime Beck Sian with star recruit Shakira Searle, we are currently working on three tracks, all of which can probably be lumped in the "live favourite" category. For those of you who are wise in the little known branch of music lore that is Merlin Bird song titles, they are:

Backburner (which is benefiting from some nice churchy organ sounds and gregorian-monk style vocals),
Rubicon, and
To The Unknown God ( - the one that we usually close our shows with and which, being in a series of odd time signatures, has proven to be the bane of stand-in drummers everywhere.)

The Merlin Bird myspace page has the pretty-much-finished version of Unknown God, and the almost-pretty-much-finished version of Backburner.

Becky goes forth
Beck Sian, whose scintillating vocals were so much a part of the Reason and Rhyme CD, is herself heading off to the UK in mid-2006 to pursue her musical career. Australia's loss will be England's gain, because Beck is planning to make the move a permanent one. The possibility exists of some dual Becky/Merlin Birdy shows if we get our act together when in England, but as far as Australia goes she will be sorely missed. Her fans will have one last chance to see her at her farewell show - The Aztec Bar, Belgrave, June 30th, 2006. She has kindly invited The Merlin Bird to perform, along with many other artists that she has been involved with over the years. Best of luck, Beck. If ever there was a voice that the world deserved to hear, it is yours.