Blog posts. This is the default category.
You can finally get your hands on the official Groundhog Day Sheet Music for Piano, Vocal and Guitar!
All of your favourite songs from Tim’s award winning musical Groundhog Day can be downloaded here and played to your heart’s content.
Ready for a wild road trip across the Australian outback with Tim’s brand new comedy drama UPRIGHT?
Update: UPRIGHT Season Two is out now – details and where to watch BOTH seasons here.
UK: Sky Atlantic and NOW TV (from Thursday 28th November, 2019)
Now available on DVD and digital platforms in the UK too – see below.
Australia: FOXTEL (from Sunday 1st December, 2019), BINGE (from Saturday 26th December 2020)
Now available on DVD and digital platforms in Australia too – see below.
Canada: Super Channel Fuse – now ended. (from Sunday 19th January 2020 until December 2021).
Canada can now stream UPRIGHT for free on CBC Gem. (from Jan 2021)
Russia: Fox Russia (from Tuesday 3rd March 2020).
Belgium: Telenet – now ended (from Wednesday July 1st 2020).
US: Sundance Now (from Thursday 6th August 2020).
(Join Sundance Now with the promo code ‘UPRIGHT’ for a 30-day-free-trial).
Germany, Austria and Switzerland: Universal TV (from Tuesday 11th August 2020).
Spain: Sundance TV (from Monday 7th September 2020).
Netherlands: Ziggo TV – now ended. (from Thursday 10th September 2020).
New Zealand : TVNZ (from Friday 18th September 2020).
Lithuania: Telia Play (from Wednesday 23rd December 2020)
South Korea: Wavve (from Wednesday 10th February 2021)
Latvia: TET+ (from Thursday 1st April 2021)
Germany – WDR (Free TV) ARD Channel One – now ended. (from Tuesday 15th June 2021).
Available on DVD in:
Australia
UK
Available on digital platforms in:
Australia
UK
Co-written and starring Tim, UPRIGHT follows two misfits thrown together by chance in the middle of the Australian desert, who forge the unlikeliest of bonds in their quest to get a precious piano from one side of the country to the other.
Tim: “Making Upright was a complete joy and a massive privilege. After living overseas for more than a decade, I couldn’t have hoped to come home to a more fun and inspiring project: an original Australian outback adventure story, full of heart and laughter, made by some of most talented and dedicated creatives in the country. It’s a unique but universal story about family, resilience, music, forgiveness, and learning how to find a moment to breath out. And it’s full of silliness, action, and wonderful performances, and will make you want to go to the beach and/or ring your mum”.
When Lucky Flynn (Tim), who hasn’t spoken to his family in years, learns that his mother is dying, he sets off on a 4000 kilometre drive across Australia to see her, packing only his cherished upright piano. His plans soon go awry when he meets rogue teenager Meg (Milly Alcock). Together they forge an unlikely friendship as they embark on a road-trip adventure across the Nullarbor Plain in a race against time.
UPRIGHT features a stellar cast including Heather Mitchell (A Place to Call Home, The Great Gatsby, Palm Beach), Daniel Lapaine (Muriel’s Wedding, Black Mirror), Ella Scott Lynch (Love Child, Janet King), Daniel Frederiksen (Ghost Rider, Matilda the Musical, Catastrophe), Kate Box (Rake, Picnic at Hanging Rock), Ningali Lawford-Wolf (Mystery Road, Last Cab to Darwin), Sachin Joab (Hotel Mumbai, Pine Gap), Luke Carroll (Strangerland, Redfern Now) and Rob Collins (Secret City, Cleverman, The Wrong Girl).
Led by Tim, there’s a brilliant creative team behind UPRIGHT, including the Creator Chris Taylor (The Chaser) with whom Tim is writing the series alongside award-winning writer-actors Kate Mulvany (Lambs of God, Fighting Season, Jasper Jones stage play) and Leon Ford (Offspring, No Activity). The Director is Matthew Saville (Please Like Me). Tim is Executive Producer with Penny Win, Carly Heaton and Helen Bowden. Producers are Lingo Pictures’ Jason Stephens, Chris Taylor and Melissa Kelly (Hounds of Love).
Tim has written some music for the series, alongside a beautiful score by Jackson Milas and Antony Partos and a cracking soundtrack of Australian artists, including Sia, Briggs, INXS, Baker Boy, Paul Kelly, Alice Sky and more.
A selection of UPRIGHT Quotes and Reviews can be found here.
UPRIGHT is a Lingo Pictures production for FOXTEL and SKY UK, with major production investment from FOXTEL and SKY UK and Screen Australia in association with the South Australian Film Corporation. The series financed with support from Create NSW and Screenwest. Rest of world sales are being handled by eOne.
#Upright2019 #UPRIGHT
UPDATE: Carry You, the version from the credits of the final episode, performed by Missy Higgins is out now.
Stream/download: https://MissyHiggins.lnk.to/CarryYou
UPDATE (22/07/20): Tim’s #UPRIGHT Q&A with Judd Apatow, hosted by ATX Festival, with Sundance Now and eONE TV, is available to watch here.
UPDATE (14/03/20): Shows in Sydney, Newcastle, Melbourne and Brisbane have had to be postponed.
Rescheduled dates in January and February 2021 here.
Hey Australia! Earlier this year Tim’s long-awaited national tour BACK sold out in record time, received rave audience reviews and won the prestigious Helpmann Award for Best Australian Contemporary Concert.
In March 2020, Tim’s going back on tour with encore performances of BACK. He’ll make two new stops in Hobart and Newcastle and return to Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.
So, if you missed out last time or want to go back-to-BACK, here’s your chance.
As in 2019, all profits from the Premium priced tickets, available for each show, will be donated to a local charity of Tim’s choice.
Tim: “We’re not sure yet where our charity dollars are going to go on this leg of the tour, but are looking at spreading some love in the direction of some of the independent theatres I feel passionate about”.
PERTH Crown Theatre – Friday 6th March – SOLD OUT
PERTH Crown Theatre – Saturday 7th March – SOLD OUT
HOBART Wrest Point Entertainment Centre – Thursday 12th March
HOBART Wrest Point Entertainment Centre – Friday 13th March
HOBART Wrest Point Entertainment Centre – Sat 14th March – SOLD OUT
SYDNEY Enmore Theatre – Tue 17th March – POSTPONED
SYDNEY Enmore Theatre – Wed 18th March – POSTPONED
SYDNEY Enmore Theatre – Thursday 19th March – POSTPONED
SYDNEY Enmore Theatre – Friday 20th March – POSTPONED
SYDNEY Enmore Theatre – Saturday 21st March – POSTPONED
NEWCASTLE Civic Theatre – Monday 23rd March – POSTPONED
NEWCASTLE Civic Theatre – Tuesday 24th March – POSTPONED
MELBOURNE Hamer Hall – Thursday 26th March – POSTPONED
MELBOURNE Hamer Hall – Friday 27th March – POSTPONED
MELBOURNE Hamer Hall – Saturday 28th March – POSTPONED
BRISBANE Fortitude Music Hall – Tuesday 31st March – POSTPONED
BRISBANE Fortitude Music Hall – Wednesday 1st April – POSTPONED
BRISBANE Fortitude Music Hall – Thursday 2nd April – POSTPONED
BRISBANE Fortitude Music Hall – Friday 3rd April – POSTPONED
Onsale times are local unless otherwise stated.
The use of strong language, strobe lights and loud music occurs throughout the show. Parental discretion is advised for children under 16 years of age.
LAST UPDATED: 11/10/19
Tim won the AWGIE for Comedy – Situation or Narrative for ‘Day Eight’ of his upcoming series UPRIGHT. The Australian Writers’ Guild held their 52nd Annual AWGIE Awards ceremony last night at the City Recital Hall in Sydney.
Tim stars in, co-produced, wrote the music and co-wrote the script for the eight-part series. You can read more about UPRIGHT and the stellar team behind it along with some of Tim’s thoughts on it here.
The prestigious AWGIE Awards celebrate the very best in Australian stage and screen writing, recognising and rewarding the outstanding achievements of Australian storytellers and their contribution to Australia’s cultural landscape. They are the only industry awards given by fellow writers to writers judged exclusively on the basis of the writer’s own vision, the written script.
We’ll be announcing when and where you can watch the series soon.
If you missed out or have tickets to spare for the BACK UK tour, Tim has appointed Twickets as his official ticket resale partner in the UK.
Twickets is a ticket marketplace that enables fans to trade tickets at FACE VALUE. It protects its users with a guarantee against fraud and overpricing and offers an alternative to the exploitative secondary ticketing platforms and ticket touts that Tim is keen for his fans to avoid. More details and you can download the App here.
Note: It’s always worth trying the venues first, in case they have any stray tickets, although they may just be individual seats dotted around. Keep an eye on your local venue social media accounts too.
Tim’s new landmark series UPRIGHT has received two AWGIE Award Nominations in the COMEDY – SITUATION OR NARRATIVE category. One for ‘Day Eight’ written by Tim and the other for ‘Day Six’ by Leon Ford.
The prestigious AWGIE Awards celebrate the very best in Australian stage and screen writing, recognising and rewarding the outstanding achievements of Australian storytellers and their contribution to Australia’s cultural landscape. They are the only industry awards given by fellow writers to writers judged exclusively on the basis of the writer’s own vision, the written script.
Tim stars in, co-produced, wrote the music and co-wrote the script for the eight-part series. You can read more about UPRIGHT and the stellar team behind it along with some of Tim’s thoughts on it here.
We’ll announce when and where you can watch the series soon.
The Australian Writers’ Guild will present the 52nd annual AWGIE Awards on Thursday August 22nd at the City Recital Hall, Sydney. The full list of nominees can be found here.
Tim has won the prestigious 2019 Helpmann Award for Best Australian Contemporary Concert for BACK.
He was unable to attend the ceremony because he’s on a family holiday in Western Australia so he sent his thanks via this video:
This is Tim’s fifth Helpmann Award having previously won:
2016 – Best Original Score in a Musical for his music and lyrics for Matilda
2012 – Best Comedy Performer for Tim Minchin vs The Orchestras Round II
2011 – Best New Australian Work with Tim Minchin Vs Sydney Symphony
2009 – Best Comedy Performer for his show Ready For This?
The Helpmann Awards, established in 2001 by Live Performance Australia, were announced yesterday evening, at their 19th annual awards ceremony at the Arts Centre Melbourne. They recognise excellence in many areas of Australian live performance, including musical theatre, contemporary music, classical music, comedy, opera, theatre and dance.
Last week, the nominees for the prestigious 2019 Helpmann Awards were announced with BACK nominated for Best Australian Contemporary Concert.
The winners will be announced at a red carpet event on Monday 15th July at the Arts Centre Melbourne.
Tim toured BACK, in Australia and New Zealand, earlier this year and the UK tour kicks off in October. All UK dates have now SOLD OUT so if you have no luck looking for stray tickets at the venues (or if you have any to sell) please try Twickets Tim’s only official ticket resale partner in the UK.
In February, Tim announced this year’s competition for the Yamaha Great Start Grant, with the prize including 34 brand new Yamaha instruments, specialist training to help to get a school band program going, AND an in-school concert with Tim.
Ravenshoe State School in Tablelands, Queensland, Australia won the grant and yesterday Tim rocked up to the school to present the prize and perform for them.
Tim: “It was really gorgeous! I chatted about why music is important and fun, and I played:
Not Perfect
F Sharp
Naughty
Carry You.”
Ravenshoe are excited to now be able to get a band started and to develop the music program at the school.
UPDATE: Video of the event.
It’s taken me 4 weeks to figure out whether to tell this sad story, but I think I should because I think some of you may want to help out.
My Australian tour finished a month ago. After 12 weeks of working together, we landed in Sydney, struggled past the assholes standing too close to the carousel to gather our bags and instruments, and hugged each other goodbye.
There were 18 of us in the tour party, and I think we all agreed it had been one of the best tours we’d worked on; beautiful theatres, wonderful audiences, no big issues or illnesses, and an amazing team of people utterly dedicated to the pursuit of silliness and excellence.
The last person I said farewell to was the person to whom we all owed the biggest debt: Greg Weaver, tour manager and sound engineer extraordinaire. He handed me my guitar and we agreed we’d talk the following day to dig into planning the UK tour. He pointed me to my driver, gave me a brief and perfectly unsentimental hug… and that was that. Five hours later I was calling my bandmates to tell them that our Greg had died of a heart attack just a couple of hours after delivering us all home. No warnings, no prior problems… just one of those things.
It is hard to explain the genius of Greg. He was a quiet, extremely hard-working, deeply ironic, funny, unique, talented man. I’d only known him for 4 years, but I’ve been hugely saddened by his sudden passing, and I’m furious that I will no longer benefit from his brilliance!
And I’m a new-comer! He was Sound-God and Tour-Guru to some of Australia’s greatest artists. Paul Kelly and his mob have been working with Greg for 20 years. The Whitlams for almost as long. Sarah Blasko, Phil Jamieson, Boy and Bear, The Clouds and many others. We’re all shattered.
Many, many people commented that our “Back” tour sounded as good as any concert they’ve ever been to. The excellent quality was because Greg Weaver was obsessively, unrelentingly dedicated to his craft. We would soundcheck for over an hour every night, and he would wander around the theatre sitting in dozens of seats to make sure the mix was sounding good. He loved his work, and cared deeply about words and music. The last song he mixed was Carry You (for those who’ve seen it).
If you enjoyed our tour and would like to pay a small tribute to the unsung hero of “Back”, I wonder if you’d drop a few dollars to help out his fantastic wife and boy here: https://supportact.org.au/greg-weaver-appeal/. They need us.
Farewell to the Dream Weaver. This post does no justice to you.
Tim will be featuring in an episode of Anh’s Brush With Fame on ABC TV on 1st May.
The series will screen on Wednesdays at 8pm starting on 17th April on the ABC and ABC iview. (The episodes will be repeated the following Sunday at 5:30pm).
In each episode comedian, author and two-time Archibald Prize winning artist Anh Do paints a portrait of his sitters, whilst he talks to them in-depth about their life and work, as he decides how he’ll depict them. Along with Tim, this fourth series includes: Michael Clarke, Lindy Chamberlain Creighton, Leah Purcell, Walter Mikac, Dannii Minogue, Alan Jones, Saroo Brierley, Deborah Hutton, Georgie Parker, Gordian Fulde, Kylie Kwong, David Wenham and Archie Roach.
UPDATE: For those not in Australia and unable to watch on ABC iview, the embedded Tweets below show a few clips and (SPOILER ALERT) the finished portrait.
A few clips for those outside Australia and unable to watch the episode on ABC iview and finally (SPOILER ALERT) the finished portrait:
The moment that set @timminchin on the path to musical success. ? Anh’s Brush With Fame starts Wednesday 17 April at 8pm. #ABWF pic.twitter.com/s9yFqPk89t
— ABC TV + iview (@ABCTV) April 14, 2019
“This is what I do. This is who I am” – @timminchin #ABWF pic.twitter.com/NhYqHI5rc7
— ABC TV + iview (@ABCTV) May 1, 2019
.@timminchin opens up to Anh about his Hollywood years and dealing with self-doubt. Anh’s Brush With Fame – Wednesdays 8pm. #ABWF pic.twitter.com/NtJ5GMuHH2
— ABC TV + iview (@ABCTV) April 30, 2019
Anh wanted to capture not only @timminchin‘s amazing eyes and hair but also his intelligence and intensity. What do you think of his portrait? #ABWF pic.twitter.com/ZqHpKF5GQV
— ABC TV + iview (@ABCTV) May 1, 2019
Hi. 22 years ago, I went to WAAPA to try to learn to read music. I learnt other stuff instead. Recently, they put on a genuinely special ceremony and gave me an undeserved-but-much-appreciated honorary degree. I gave them a too-long speech.
The text is below.
“Of all the unexpected outcomes of my unexpected career, one of the more annoying is that I’ve managed to get a reputation for being able to write a reasonable speech. Like with my gigs these days, I battle a pervasive feeling that I can therefore only let you down. Woe is me. With this one, I left myself a whole day – yesterday – to write, and then yesterday went to shit, and so now it’s a three-hour jobby from this morning. It might be a little rambly.
I am hugely grateful and more than a little embarrassed to be honoured like this. This institution puts out proper extraordinary artists. I was only here for two years, and yet my contemporaries include Graeme Blevins and Tommy O’Halloran and Ben Vanderwal and Libby Hammer and Troy Roberts and James Sandon and Grant Windsor and these incredible people who’ve found a level of craft I wouldn’t be able to approach in my wildest dreams. In this tent alone, there are artists who I swear you’ve put here just to make me feel like the hack that I am. I feel the same as I did when the jazz students used to come and watch our “commercial music” ensemble performances: mildly embarrassed and very threatened. And then the added cruelty of holding the event in a circular room full of mirrors: I’m not much good with the piano but I’m very good with subtext, you bastards, I know you’re telling me to take a good hard look at myself.
With a head like mine, you learn to try not to.
So this week I’m staying at the Crown Metropole hotel. It’s not my usual vibe, but the theatre I’m playing in is right there, and besides if I stay with my parents, the kettle wakes me up at half past six and I’m not having that. Anyway, presumably because my tour is attracting punters, the hotel management upgraded me, so I’m staying in some kind of penthouse suite thing. It’s about the size of my house, and feels like I’m living in an Italian furniture show room. There are just so many couches. I’m staying there on my own, yet I counted, and you could have 90 people comfortably sitting in my hotel room. I don’t know what it’s for. It’s a room built for the sole purpose of making Wankers feel like Legends. Trump would love it, you know.
When you first walk into a room like that, you initially feel really excited, but it is genuinely gross and quite miserable to stay there. That’s worth knowing, I guess, if your plan is to be a Rockstar or a famous actor. It’s not only lonely at the top, but populated by unnecessary chairs. Put that on a fridge magnet.
My time here at WAAPA was quite hard actually. Being an artist requires massive reserves of self-belief, and coming to a place like this is incredibly testing. Of course, I know now that the 2 years I spent here feeling unbelievably bad about myself were simply training for the subsequent 8 years where I felt even worse. Watching beautiful beautiful Graham Wood play piano and just wanting to give up… wanting to cut my fingers off and feed them to a swan, taught me… well, not to. I guess. It was the beginning of a lesson I’m still trying to learn: that comparing yourself to others, in any area of your life, is poison.
It was also hard here because I had really good friends in the acting course, and they were all wandering around in black tights and shagging each other and looking fabulously sweaty, while I was wandering around with the other pianist in my year, who was a sweet guy, but deeply depressed, and every day just reminded me how we were going to be poor for life and that there was no point.
And it was hard because – like you – I was making coffees and pouring beers to pay my rent.
But mostly, it was hard because music had always just been fun to me. Music was a thing you did at parties to pick up girls. It was something I did when I was stressed or sad. It was an escape; I could – and still can – fall asleep playing the piano, and wake up seconds later wondering how my fingers got to where they’d got. And coming here, it was work, suddenly. I had to practice. (The first year I was here remains the only year I ever actually practiced piano. Russell Holmes will confirm I certainly didn’t do any practice in second year. Somewhere a few weeks in it became clear we both preferred just hanging out and chatting.)
But I am so grateful for the two years I spent here. It is impossible to measure the value of what that diploma gave me. Much of what they were teaching me I couldn’t get at the time, but unconsciously, I put the info on some shelf in my brain to be picked up and properly examined later, when I had more time and was feeling less stubborn. I learned musical tools, performance tools, I learned to respect time, I learned to listen, I learned resilience. I learned that dominant 13th shape that is also a minor 6/9 and a dominant 7 sharp 5 sharp 9 and a major 7 sharp 11 and it’s the best shape in the world and Matilda is built on it. I never learned to read music. I don’t know whose failure that is. I’m gonna say Paul Pooley. Is he here?
I guess I’m trying to say to the students here: I know these places can be hard, but keep going. You won’t actually know what you’re really learning until years later. Just listen, keep your humility and stay tough.
Right, if this were a graduation ceremony, my role here would be to give career advice to the graduates. It’s not, but I guess I’ll try to give advice anyway, because I’m quite old now, and giving unsolicited advice is what old white guys are supposed to do. I’m gonna mansplain the arts to you.
It’s actually surprising to me how often I get asked for career advice. Young musos and actors, and parents of stagey little kids… they go, “how do you get a career like you?” And I mean, I get it. I so clearly remember in my teens and twenties thinking, what’s the trick? There must be a trick. But it still takes me aback that they ask me, because my career is so clearly such an absurd fluke. I mean, I simply got lucky. And not lucky like, I was on the bus and I got my umbrella confused with the umbrella of a guy who turned out to be the husband of a record company exec… There was no single moment of luck, nor a series of lucky events. I mean, it’s a fluke because it turned out that having my weird combination of attributes allowed me to make some stuff that happened to find an audience in a particular place and time.
And that’s the short and long of my advice really: there is no trick. You can’t have a career like mine. It’s mine. You have to have your career.
To expand upon that platitude, I’ll tell you three things I reckon are important if you’re serious about a career in music or theatre or dance or film. All three of these are total clichés, but perhaps worth reiterating.
Firstly: you have to get good. Get really good. No short-cut, no business technique, no amount of self-promotion or nice business cards, none of it means anything, really. You just have to be really, really good at what you do. Ideally, be the best. And that takes hours and hours and hours. Time when your mates are taking pills or smoking cones, time when other people are having holidays. You don’t get to have a good work-life balance. It means being a bit obsessed. And if you’re lucky, it won’t suck because you love it. And if you don’t love it, stop now. Don’t do it as a job. There are many more important jobs than being a muso or an actor, or at least as important, get one of those and play music as a hobby.
But if you’re going to do it, you simply have to spend all your time and all your energy and all your money getting good. Sorry.
There is however, a little loophole in this advice. Which is that how you define ‘what you do’ is up to you. I am the best in the world at what I do. Without a doubt. And I can say that confidently, because the number of people I’m competing with is zero. The thing I am best in the world at, is being a science-obsessed, uber-rhymey polemicist pianist singer satirist wanker. I am really, really good at that job. I am the king of Minchinland, population: this idiot.
So be really, really good at what you do. And figuring out what that is also takes hours and hours and hours. I’m sorry.
And this is related to my second bit of advice, which is:
You have to be authentic. Actors, you might authentically look like a Hemsworth and authentically love going to the gym. But I promise, as someone who has been involved in casting on both sides of the couch: all anyone wants to see is you. We want to see how you play the character, how you bring you into a character.
My career began in my late twenties when I finally stopped trying to be what I thought other people wanted from me. I was trying to get acting agents, getting headshots and cutting my hair, changing my name to Timothy, as if that crap ever changed anything. I was trying to get the silliness out of my songs in the hope that I could get a record deal. I was separating all the things I am, because I had identified what I thought was the marketplace available to me, and was trying to be various products that might be consumable. The minute, the minute, I stuck everything I am on the stage… the moment I wore what I wanted, said what I wanted, put together a show that had me doing weird poems and monologues and playing jazz and pop and rock, the moment I got authentic, my life changed.
I’m an odd example, obviously, because I’ve always been obsessed by trying to do lots of different things. But the lesson stands anyway. Your career, whether you wanna be a triple threat on the west end, or a film actor, or a session percussionist: don’t make the mistake of thinking that little old you is not interesting to the world. You have lived a unique life, consumed a unique suite of ideas, marinated in a unique combination of songs and artists and influences. You will have something that no one else has, and identifying that is your key to a beautiful career. And that career might mean you are dirt poor your whole life, or it might mean you get to be a massive star. But it won’t matter, because you won’t be trying to be something that you’re not.
And the third bit of advice: Be kind. Just be kind. To everyone. Always. (Actually you don’t have to always be kind upwards. You’ll come across people above you – a director or producer, a studio boss, an A&R dude – who are arseholes. You’re allowed to tell them to f-off.) But basically you should always be kind. It seems so obvious, but it’s amazing how many people fail to understand its importance. Be kind to the monitor guys, be kind to the fly-mech, be kind to the ushers and the merch people, the gaffers, the make-up artists, be kind to your fellow performers. Whatever happens. Even if there is feedback screaming in your in-ears, even if the air-con doesn’t work in your trailer and you’re freezing, even if you’re under huge pressure and you’re under-slept and working days and gigging nights and you haven’t written a speech you have to write and you’re starving and all you want is some poached eggs and a flat white delivered to your furniture store hotel room but you’ve accidentally left your “do not disturb” sign on the door so the waiter just doesn’t deliver your breakfast for an hour and then when he does, he spills your flat white onto your poached eggs… even then, be kind. If in doubt, double down and be kinder. Not only will it make your life better, but it is really good career advice. The musicians I’m working with on this tour are some of the best players in the country, but that’s only half the reason we sought them out. They are just really, really lovely people. So just be kind. It will bite you on the ass if you’re not. And yes, there are successful arseholes – I’ve worked with a couple of the most famous of them – but, who wants to be one of them? It’s gross.
Music is not magic to me. Being a musician is not particularly romantic. Songwriting is a craft you get better at by doing it over and over again, just like cooking or surgery or painting or sex or handstands. Our ability to make art that resonates correlates very closely to our experience in life. I’m back at authenticity now. We carry our scars and our defeats and victories into how we express ourself. We bring all our experience, all our hours, all our self-loathing and self-love into our craft. At least we should.
Thank you so much for having me.”
For the third year, Yamaha are awarding one lucky school in Australia their annual Great Start Grant!
This year the grant consists of enough instruments (34 brand new Yamaha instruments) and training to get a school band program Off To A Great Start plus an in-school concert with Tim! Applications are open now.
Apply for the grant and find more details here.
Applications close 16th March 2019.
Tim announced the grant on Today and talked about the importance of music in schools, as well as his own exposure to music at a young age and in school. (Video only available in Australia)
Robin Hood is now available on Digital in the US and will be out on 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD 19th February 2019.
Taron Egerton plays Robin Hood, with Jamie Foxx as Little John, Eve Hewson as Maid Marian, Jamie Dornan as Will Scarlet, Ben Mendelsohn as Sheriff of Nottingham and Tim as Friar Tuck.
More #RobinHoodMovie details and US purchase options here.
Release dates for other countries:
United Kingdom: available on Digital 18th March 2019 and on DVD 25th March 2019.
France: available on DVD 28th March 2019 and on Digital 29th March 2019.
Spain: available on Digital and DVD 29th March 2019.
More will be added as we’re provided with them.
Tim as Friar Tuck
Here is the first of what will hopefully be an album worth of song releases in 2019. It’s called 15 Minutes. I hope it amuses.
xt
14th January 2019: Now available to download or stream from all the usual places, including:
Australia:
iTunes & Apple Music
UK:
iTunes & Apple Music
Amazon UK
US:
iTunes & Apple Music
Amazon US
Also available on:
Spotify
YouTube Music
Orchestrated and Produced by Daniel Denholm
Engineered by Daniel Denholm at Point Blank Sound
Orchestra recorded by Brent Clark @Trackdown Scoring Stage
Mixed by Tim Palmer @ 62’ Studios
Piano and Vocals – Tim Minchin
Guitar – Jak Housden
Bass – James Haselwood
Drums – Evan Mannell
Backing Vocals – Jak Housden, Sarah Belkner, James Haselwood, Ben Vanderwal
Mastering – Ryan Smith @ Sterling Sound Nashville
String Section – Contractor and Leader – Veronique Serret
By now we thought that there would be
Jetpacks and flying cars
Robots to do the cleaning up for us
And help with the shopping.
We’d all be famous for bit
That’s what Andy Warhol said,
Thought we’d all get our coloured head
Well the truth would rock him
He may be surprised
To wake up and find
That we have weaponised
Humiliation
In the future, everyone
Everyone will have
Their 15 minutes
15 minutes of shame
15 minutes where they
Are unforgivable.
Pick up your pitchfork and your torch
We’ll go hunt the monster down
But keep an eye out for uneven ground
We’ll turn on you if you stumble.
Don’t need perspective or a heart
Leave humility at home
Welcome to the glasshouse, hope you brought your stones
Are you ready to rumble?
I am scared to write
Anything that might
Upset my own tribe
But never mind, cos
In the future, everyone
Everyone will have
Their 15 minutes
15 minutes of shame
15 minutes where they
Are unforgivable
Irredeemable
Inexcusable scum
Fit only to be strung up
In the village square
I will see you there
I am scared to say
Anything that may
Be taken the wrong way
But fuck it, baby
In the future, everyone
Everyone will have
15 minutes
15 minutes of shame
15 minutes where they
Are unforgivable
15 minutes
15 minutes of shame
15 minutes where they
Are unforgivable, irredeemable
Inexcusable
Unforgivable, irredeemable
Inexcusable
Unforgivable, irredeemable
Inexcusable
…
