History

a tale of drummers and lobsters

1996 - 1998

Dandelion Wine began in mid-96, playing their first gig at the Deakin/Swinburne heat of the NAD Campus Band Competition after being together for four weeks, and were placed 4th out of the 17 bands that competed. After performing for Visual Octopus at the  Cherry Tree, a couple of gigs for the Rusden Association of Students and an all acoustic performance at Stonnington Theatre, featuring guest musicians from Genius and Camel Magic, the band endured  several line-up dilemmas that almost brought the band to halt. 

Instead of remaining in active during this extended period, the core of the band, Naomi Henderson (Vocals, woodwinds, percussion)  and Nicholas Albanis (guitar, dulcimer, mandolin) continued performing as a duo at events such as St Kilda's Not Quite The Melbourne Cup Festival. The line-up was completed shortly after this by Alistair Galloway (bass) and Brett Bridges (drums, percussion). In May 1998, three Dandelion Wine songs were featured on the soundtrack to Hook Turn Theatre's The Edge at Gasworks Theatre. The first live performance for the new line-up was at Mont Park in the criminal psychiatric wing.

1999 

Again combining their interest in theatre and music, dandelion wine's first experience of intertwining live music and other art forms was at a short works performance by Stonnington Theatre Company. A short film was made especially for the evening to accompany the live performance of the song 'Garden'. Here the more ambient side of the band thrived and lead to performances at goth clubs and other less  pub-like venues. 

Later that year the band started to perform at bigger venues such as  the Continental Cafe and the Evelyn and Corner Hotels. Their profile  was lifted even further with the Melbourne Fringe Festival event  Dandelion Wine's EAT YOUR BRAIN. The concept of the show  was to experiment with combining other art forms with music through improvisation. Painters, drawer, musicians, dancers, performance artists, puppeteers, all interacted with the music of the band over three weeks of performances. The greatest exposure however, was  playing at the Brunswick St Street Party and Artist Parties for the  Festival. Around this time, percussionist Dri (Psyburbia) became  a regular contributor to the band's live shows. With drummer Brett  Bridges away in Africa, Steve Ambrose (Mordi, The Nightshade)  filled in on drums for September and October. 

Late in 1999 Dandelion Wine found themselves drummerless once again when Brett Bridges left the band to pursue other areas. This time they continued gigging with a mixture of Dri's live percussion and sampled beats and loops. While this new approach added a new element to the band's already diverse base, they soon became frustrated with the limitations that samples and sequencing bring and recruited VCA percussion graduate Ryan McClusky (The Restless) to fill the vacant drum stool for the recording of their debut album 'Tunguska Butterfly' (released August 2000 on Crustacean Creations). 

2000 - 2001

New drummer Hamza joined the band shortly after the album was completed, in time for the album launch at The Continental Cafe, Saturday September 9, 2000. 2001 has seen the release of the 'Cat' single (from Tunguska Butterfly) and accompanying video clip. Shortly after the release of 'Cat', Hamza left the band to concentrate on other non-musical pursuits, once again leaving a drummerless void and a lot of Spinal Tap gags. Rather than find a replacement, the band accepted that the universe was trying to tell them something and decided to continue on without a drummer. The band now performs live with a mixture of samples and African and Middle  Eastern percussion taking care of the beats. In the studio, rhythm tracks are now recorded with a blend of guest drummers/percussionists, samplers and programmed beats.

2002

Alastair left the band in mid-2002 to follow other non-musical pursuits and was replaced by Steve Wheeler (Heligoland, Procession) who joined just in time for the launch of 'Rejiggered', a collection of remixes from 'Tunguska Butterfly'.

The band undertook their first European tour in late 2002, in support of their first European release 'Light Streaming Down'. A number of labels in Europe, Australia and the USA distribute the CD and the tour included Germany, Switzerland, Poland and the UK.

2003 - 2005

The band then returned shortly after in May 2003 for a short tour including Romania, Poland, Netherlands and Germany.

Following this, Dandelion Wine returned to Australia to begin work on their next album ~An Inexact Science~ . Somehow they found time for the Dark Exports tour of the east coast of Australia with Ikon and Immaculata.

2006

In mid 2006 they signed with Ars Musica Diffundére/Black Rain for the European/North American release of ~An Inexact Science~ and also teamed up with Reverberation for the Australian release of the album.

At the end of 2006 the band embarked upon their biggest Australian tour to date, with shows in Victoria, NSW, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. Also of note on this tour was the Melbourne album launch at the Northcote Social Club, which saw Dandelion Wine performing as a nine piece with a string section and choir, plus a helping hand from old friend and accomplice Steve Wheeler on bass.

2007

Early 2007 saw Naomi and Nicholas again running around the country for another tour before heading overseas.

They then headed off on their first Japanese tour and their largest ever European tour, which saw the band performing in their favourite haunts Germany, Poland, Netherlands and Switzerland, plus their first shows in Belgium, Czech Republic and Portugal. Of particular note was an appearance at the world's largest festival of dark Alternative music (Wave Gothic Treffen in Leipzig, Germany) which resulted in an extended standing ovation encore in the beautiful and historic Schauspielhaus.

Dandelion Wine have since returned to Australia to record a new EP which will be followed by recording for a new album to follow up ~An Inexact Science~.