- Laughing Clowns
Laughing Clowns were an
Australian post punk rock band fronted by vocalist and guitaristEd Kuepper and backed by drummerJeff Wegener .History
Formed in
Sydney in 1979 after the break-up of Kuepper'spunk rock band The Saints. Where The Saints were a bass/drums/guitar rock band, Laughing Clowns' various line-ups includeddouble bass ,piano ,tenor saxophone andtrumpet . Often referred to as "jazz punk" by critics, the group's songs were often constructed around difficult time signatures and sometimes "off-key" melodies. Kuepper passionately disagreed with the assertion that the music was jazz-like, but rather thought of the music as being soul-like. This is evidenced by the fact that, in amongst the cachophony, many of the songs have strong melodic hooks, epic progressions and emotionally charged lyrics.They released several
albums , singles and EPs, including "Holy Joe", "Mr Uddich-Smuddich goes to town", "Ghosts of an ideal wife" and "Law of nature". They disbanded in 1985 with Kuepper continuing to record and perform under his own name.In 1995, the Hot label released a compilation of Laughing Clowns songs with the title "Golden Days: When Giants Walked the Earth".
In 2004, Kuepper and Wegener began performing together on "
Ed Kuepper's MFLL " project, a live performance of soundtracks to short films, and have toured Australia as a duo since.Another
anthology of Laughing Clowns material, "Cruel but fair", was released on 3 October 2005 by the Hot label.Band members
* Ed Kuepper - guitar, vocals
* Jeff Wegener - drums
* Dan Wallace-Crabbe - piano
* Ben Wallace-Crabbe - bass
* Bob Farrell- tenor saxophoneBand members in later line-ups:
* Louise Elliott - tenor saxophone
* Paul Smith - bass
* Peter Milton Walsh - bass
* Peter Doyle - trumpet
* Leslie ("Bif") Millar- bassChris Abrahams (piano), Louis Tillett (piano), Glad Reed (saxophone) and Diane Spence (trombone) are also present on Laughing Clowns recordings.
External links
*http://www.myspace.com/laughingclowns
*http://www.thekuepperfiles.com
*http://www.myspace.com/edkuepper
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