Thanks to billbertles for creating this great dittie – Jamaica’s unbelievably fast Usain Bolt setting a new 200m world record (19.19s!) at the 2009 World Athletic Championships in Berlin, to a highly appropriate soundtrack!

Click on the screenshot to watch the vid in full – Usain makes seriously Fast Friends with the championships mascot too!

The proud owners of the greatly sought-after (and totally sold out) Homebake tickets must be feeling just that much more smug today with the second announcement of artists for the bill.

Joining the musical merriment at The Domain on the second announcement are Paul Dempsey and The Scare, along with notables Bridezilla, Red Riders, Gin Wigmore and more. These kids will be joining our boys JET, Tim Finn, and The Middle East.

Great line up for the festival that I daresay has the best food stalls as well.

A couple of people were super worried this morning when triple j announced their Paul Kelly tribute gig, Before Too Long. But fear not, Australia’s great Paul Kelly is still alive, well, and probably enjoying some good mexican food (I last ran into him at the incredible Mexican restaurant above The Hopetoun).

The centrepiece of triple j’s Australian Music Month will be the two day Before Too Long tribute, featuring Missy Higgins, Paul Dempsey, Bob Evans, John Butler, Katy Steele, Ozi Batla , Dan Kelly, Clare Bowditch, Jae Laffer, Adalita, Dan Sultan, Megan Washington plus members of Augie March as the backing band and Ashley Naylor from Even as Musical Director.

See, Paul Kelly is kinda of a big deal around these parts, you know…

Paul Dempsey: “The first time I heard Dumb Things, it completely blew me away. So much energy and melody. It just picks you up and tosses you around.”

Bob Evans: “The opening strains of From St Kilda to Kings Cross began to play. It was beautiful – so melancholy and full of nostalgia for places that I had just begun to travel to myself.”

Get your tix for $55.70+bf from Ticketek or from October 14.

In what is shaping up to be a battle royale of critically-acclaimed and widely-adored singer-songwriters, we have Mr. Paul Dempsey and Mr. Bob Evans facing off for the ARIA for both BEST MALE and BEST ADULT CONTEMPORARY ALBUM at the 2009 ARIA’s.

They shall wield their guitars, thoughtful and intelligent lyrics, wit and charm to determine just who is the best in the land.

OK, in reality, they are likely both congratulating each other profusely right now on their respective albums: Paul Dempsey’s Everything Is True and Bob Evans’ Goodnight, Bull Creek!.

Huge shout outs to our other BEST music noms:

• JET – Best Rock Album
• The Cat Empire – Best Music DVD
• You Am I – Greg Wales for Engineer of the Year
• Keith Urban – Best Country Album

Triple J are holding a nifty little gig for Paul Dempsey & Kid Sam at The Troubadour in Brisbane this Wednesday night.

It was great to hear one of the comp winners had just inked a FRESH Dempsey tat!

A very worthy tattoo. I love seeing pics like this.

(photo by Steve Saxton)

Triple J is putting on a show for the fair city of Brisbane next Wednesday, Sept 23 at the Troubadour headlined by none other than Mr. Paul Dempsey.  He’ll be joined by Kid Sam on the bill.

Tickets are not available for sale, so how do you get yourself on the guest list? A couple of ways: tune in to Triple J or come up with a genius cover song that Paul and band should play.

He’s known for his renditions of Billie Jean, Time to Pretend, and Born to Run, but what do YOU want him to play?

Kara’s pick is Paul Simon’s ‘Boy in the Bubble. I’m going with Bryan Ferry’s Love Is The Drug.

To WIN: email your song to info@pauldemspeymusic.com by Sunday, Sept. 20 Include your phone number. Show is 18+ and prize does not include transport or accomm.

Paul Dempsey and band have kicked off the Everything Is True tour in support of the new album. But at a sold out gig at The Corner Hotel, it was an occasion to celebrate the new band as well as a very special 15-year anniversary… here’s more from PD himself:

It’s been a memorable start to the tour and it’s been particularly great to spend the last two nights at the Corner Hotel which is one my favourite venues and somewhere that SFK have also had a lot of memorable shows…

Richard, who books the shows at the Corner, is the same guy who gave SFK ourvery first gig and it was great to be joined onstage by Clint and Steph on Saturday night to mark the occasion of 15 years to the day since that first show… Thank you to everyone that was there to share that little milestone with us… My ears won’t soon forget it..

It’s also been great hanging about with old friends Parallel Lions and new friends Leena and Will and getting to hear them play amazing sets each night, I strongly encourage getting along early to see them… This week myself, Patrick John Bourke, John Patrick Hedigan, Shannon James John Fitzpatrick O’Vanderwert (as well as the mascot and the German) will roll on into NSW and we’re very much looking forward to it…

Thanks again.

Sounds like the audience loved it too. Here are some tweets from the show (we love that realtime commentary):

• Two Facts: Cointreau is shit hot, and Paul Dempsey can pick a support act. – waigo
• Awesome… @leenamusic and I were soundchecking her song ‘Mean Old Clock’ and Paul Dempsey jumps on-stage and sings the high harmony. F-Yeh! – willudall
• Paul Dempsey: Amazing. The Something for Kate appearance: Fucking brilliant! I had a bucket of a time!… Ramona was a waitress. – tulbot
• Something For Kate reunion last night at The Corner. Felt sorry for Paul Dempsey’s ‘new’ band having to play after them. Hard act to follow. – amurfett
  

Nova 96.9 Brekkie – Paul Dempsey interview by theinsound

When the gent “from the Herald Sun” rang and asked for the release date of Patrick Dempsey’s new album, I thought “aww, poor thing, he’s a bit mixed up” (we do get some very mixed up folk ringing here on a regular basis) – anyway, aside from the fact they’re both good-looking blokes, I didn’t think anyone could get McDreamy mixed up with our Aussie master of songwriting and musicianship (although, actually, it turns out someone did, teehee).

On correcting him, and then realising it was Merrick, Rosso, Kate Richie and Paul (not Patrick) himself, I can say I was preeetty relieved not to have made the error myself (can you imagine!). Paul (again, I emphasise, not Patrick) Dempsey is one of our absolute favourites here at EMI HQ so I can’t imagine any of my colleagues getting that one wrong.

The Nova crew were really lovely though and it was definitely a bit of a laugh. And Paul was wonderful as always in the interview…
Will be particularly wary of any such calls in future, say for Billy Allen or the Arctic Primates. Guess that’s the universe getting back at me for all the prank calls I made with my sister as a kid.

Paul Dempsey took over the Apple store in Sydney on Tuesday night to perform as part of the Live From Sydney series presented by iTunes.

True to form, a solo Paul treated fans and pedestrians to a number of tracks from his new album drawing them in with every song and every tale in between.

It was a perfect setting with perfect sound delivered, this EP (to be released shortly) will be a fans favourite for sure.

Check out some of the pics below from Tuesday!

WINNERS ANNOUNCED:

Congratulations to:

• Rachel of Wollongong, NSW
• Tracey of Brisbane, QLD

for your inspired odes to Ramona. You have won yourselves a deluxe edition of Paul Dempsey’s Everything Is True, out now! If you didn’t get a chance to preview the album on his myspace, make sure to tune into triple j for the week of Aug 24-31, when Everything Is True will be album of the week!

The deluxe edition of Paul Dempsey’s debut solo album Everything Is True is not just deluxe, but we also think it’s very special and are excited to be giving the package away to a couple of deserving wordsmiths. In 50 words or less, write an ODE TO RAMONA, the beguiling and lovely robot of Ramona Was A Waitress fame, and the Deluxo could be yours.

In the comments section to this post, submit your poem, haiku, limerick or inspired prose of up to 50 words on the subject of Ramona.

The two entrants with submissions deemed most creative will win a Paul Dempsey Everything Is True Deluxe package. This includes a signed 2CD Ltd Edition of Everything Is True including the 4 song disc Counterfeits and Forgeries; an exclusive tshirt featuring album artwork, and a letterpress print of Paul Dempsey’s handwritten lyrics to Ramona Was A Waitress.

Enter by Weds, August 12 at noon (EST) for your chance to win. Terms and conditions here.