Gus Macmillan

Touring in China

Gus — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 03:44:52 +0000

September and October were a busy time, as I traveled with Blue Grassy Knoll to China to perform at World Expo with at the Australian Pavilion. It was also the first time I have taken my new family on tour, with my partner Feng Feng and 3 month old son Wilfred joining us. I spent a great week doing shows with BGK to huge crowds, playing a live score to the silent film Labourer’s Love. (see here )

I then headed to Beijing where I spent time with Chinese film director Guoren working on the score to his feature film ‘Give You Some Colour’. The film is looking great and the score, partly Blue Grassy Knoll and partly my own compositions, is taking shape nicely. Hopefully it will be released early in 2011. From there I traveled to Chengdu where my partner Feng Feng’s parents live, and spent some quality time with Wilfred’s grandparents for three weeks, finally returning to Melbourne in late October.

New arrival

Gus — Wed, 26 May 2010 05:06:27 +0000

Gus is very very excited to announce the arrival of his first child, Wilfred Donald Wang Macmillan on June 24th. He tipped the scales at a massive 4.6kg (10lbs 4oz) and continues to grow apace. Despite the reduction in sleep, life has never been better now that Wilfred has come into the world.

Wilfred Donald Wang Macmillan

View from the Knoll

Gus — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 04:57:45 +0000

Blue Grassy Knoll have been gathering again, planning out our year ahead, which will be the most exciting for quite a while. Gigs are booked at the Melbourne Recital Centre for June and August, including the world premiere of our new score to The General as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival. This will be followed by a tour to China to perform Labourer’s Love at World Expo in the Australian Pavilion. Finally, a reprise of Our Hositality will happen again at the Recital Centre in November.

Devil Goat Family String Band

Gus — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 04:56:00 +0000

Greg Walker, of Machine Translations, has just finished mixing 8 songs from Devil Goat Family String Band that will be released later in the year as an EP cd. Recorded mid-2008 they sound great and will hopefully get the band back together to play a few gigs again soon.

Hobson’s Choice of gigs

Gus — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 04:53:55 +0000

Hobson’s Choice are playing around town, at The Gem in Collingwood, Open Studio in Northcote, and The Standard in Fitzroy, as well as going into the studio soon to record some more demo songs. They will also be doing some spots at the Ceres Market on Wednesday mornings.

Adelaide Festival 2010

Gus — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:52:27 +0000

February & March saw Gus back playing with new(ish) band Stretch ‘n’ the Truth, which were getting together for the Adelaide Festival, plus a few warm-up gigs before hand. The band is the brainchild of Steve “Stretch” Teakle, and playing his songs are a crack line-up of musos, including Ekki Velhiem on violin, Phillip Rex on double bass, Jimmy Watson on drums, and Nara Demasson on guitar. We had a gig in the Speigletent, which went great, but because of it’s poor timeslot late on a sunday night didn’t pull so many punters. Festival Director Paul Grabovski was there, however, and enjoyed it so much he booked us for another gig later on in the festival, so we flew back for an encore performance. Very Rock ‘n’ Roll!

Woodford 2010

Gus — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 04:47:40 +0000

It’s been a great start to the year, beginning at the Woodford Folk Festival where I was playing with Hobson’s Choice. It was my sixth time playing at Woodford but the first time with Hobson’s Choice, and the gigs went fantastically well, as did the jams in the Green Room with some of the best players in Australia. Hobson’s Choice were recorded live and will be on the Woodford Festival Compilation CD that is being released soon, which is a great honour.

Redspan Dance

Gus — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 05:02:10 +0000

Redspan Dance Company finished developing a new work, Vista, at the end of 2009, thanks to funding from Arts Victoria and the Australia Council and have applied for funding to the Besen Foundation for a short third development at the end of 2010. Hopefully the piece will be presented in early 2011, possibly as part of Dance Massive Festival. Gus was producer of the piece and wrote a 45 minute score for the new piece, which was choreograhed by partner Feng Feng Wang.