The Whitlams’ classic protest song from 1999 – ‘Blow Up the Pokies’ – has been reworked by Tim Freedman with his new alt-country line-up.
This fresh version was born when the Wesley Mission contacted Freedman in May 2022 and asked for a reworking of the song that could be used as the soundtrack to their poignant Gutful of Gambling TV ad (view here).
Re-jigged from the original’s waltz time signature to a propulsive 4/4, sung in a lower key, and driven now by banjo and pedal steel guitar, this reconstruction wrings new emotion out of the story of a musician playing a poker machine on the same spot in a pub where he used to play in his band. A new audience awaits the song, whose message is as relevant today as it was upon release 24 years ago.
The theme is still potent, and just two months ago a community movement in Alice Springs used the track in their successful campaign to stall a proposal to add poker machines to four venues with indigenous and lower socio-economic clientele (see ABC story here).
Freedman’s alt-country project The Whitlams Black Stump Band sees him and long-time drummer Terepai Richmond joined by an A Team of roots musicians, namely two CMAA Producers of the Year, Rod McCormack and Matt Fell, on banjo and bass respectively, and young gun Ollie Thorpe on electric and pedal steel guitar.
Born from a week of recording in mid 2021 with sessions that veered from campfire intimacy to rollicking country rock, the band reconstructed the best of The Whitlams’ repertoire with a smattering of new songs and some classic Americana from Kris Kritstofferson to Neil Young.
The mid 2022 single “The Day John Sattler Broke His Jaw” was a staple on country radio through the winter and reached the Top 30 of the Country Hot 50 radio airplay chart.
The band debuted at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in 2022, then wound its way down the East Coast from Cairns to Queenscliff in a three week tour that cemented their musical connection. The outfit has the ambition to play Australia far and wide, with the Black Stump Duo – their piano and pedal steel configuration – touring Victoria and Tasmania in November and December, and the full five piece line-up reconvening for the Tamworth Country Music Festival in January, and then lapping the country in their “Big City Debut Tour” through March, with the dates on sale next week.
“Blow Up the Pokies” was the second single from The Whitlams’ fourth album Love This City which was released in 1999 and sold double platinum
The album was recently placed No.101 in Rolling Stones’ Greatest 200 Australian Albums of all-time list. The band’s third album Eternal Nightcap was No.27
In 2000 the song was the No.1 researched song on the MMM Network and blared out over building sites across Australia.