Events

Friday 27th February 2026 - FBI

Federal Blues Inc. (FBI) was formed in early January 2014 - a band drawn together by the shared love of the BLUES. All being residents of the Byron village of Federal, the name came naturally. They have built a strong following which established the Blues Club at Bangalow Bowling Club. The Blues Club proved to be a popular format and in 2019 they moved to Ballina RSL and expanded performances to every Sunday in 2023.Band members are ex-pat Canadian Tommy Cuyler on guitar & vocals, who has played at the Byron BluesFest accompanying overseas artists and has supported the great BB King.Soren (Soz) Carlbergg is on guitar & vocals and brings a wealth of experience in his solid Chicago blues style, working with Tommy, delivering great guitar harmonies.Steve Foster plays blues harmonica and weaves his sound in and around the FBI groove making the ‘sauce’ that is the Blues.Martin Muller is on bass with some vocals. He combines with Derek Armistead on drums to be one of the best rhythm sections on the Northern Rivers. They have been together for many years and it shows.FBI plays a mixture of originals and blues classics, delivering an exciting and dynamic voice to the blues.

Friday 27th March 2026 - Acid Bleed

Hailing from North Coast New South Wales, jazz band ACID BLEED play a blend of hot gypsy swing, infused with a spicy Latin groove. The repertoire spans gypsy to classic jazz standards with some funky originals.
In the 16 years since their formation, they have put their mark on the local jazz scene and developed a loyal following of supporters and well-wishers. They have played many concerts, clubs, pubs and other venues, including a very successful tour to Hong Kong and more recently the Bay of Islands Jazz Festival in New Zealand.
The lineup includes Jimmy Chiu and Dave Caldwell on guitars, Josh Kirk on double bass, Dave Hirst on drums. Andrew Horowitz is on violin and saxophones with special guest vocalist Veronica Lovejoy who brings her style and sensibility to recreate the romance of Paris circa 1940’s.

Friday 24th April 2026 - Vicki Salisbury Quartet

The Vicki Salisbury Quartet plays vocal jazz, swing, Brazilian jazz, pop jazz and original jazz
Jazz vocalist, Vicki Salisbury, together with her husband Dr David Salisbury on flute and saxophonist from Los Angeles, will be complemented by formidable musician Larry Thompson on keyboard. Larry’s arrangements breathe new life into standards by mixing old and new forms to explore the boundaries of contemporary jazz.
The group will add special guest drummer Rod Ford on drums and vocals to complete the quality line-up.
This tight and versatile jazz outfit will present flavours from Latin bossas, to originals to re-imagined arrangements of well-loved jazz standards from the Great American, Modern Jazz Songbook and classic pop standards.
The Band has been entertaining audiences with their crisp arrangements and extensive repertoire that spans the classic jazz years, from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Vicki was born in New York and raised in Arizona. She credits her Mum, with teaching her most of the Great American Song Book, and tunes from movies and musicals of the day.

Past Events

Friday 30th January 2026
Always a pleasure to jive along to this world-class big band. Led as always by Rick Best with his arrangements and brilliant cutting-edge keyboard skills.
Brilliant phrasing from the best trombone section any where along with the fiery yet elegant sax section, scintillating trumpets and driving rhythm outfit was amazing to see.
Sweet Thunder consists of some of the best players on the Gold Coast many instantly recognisable. Rodney Ford on drums and vocals; how DOES he play complex rhythm drum fills while singing cabaret style?
Mike Keogh on trombone, John Conley on double bass. Yet another gorgeous arrangement of Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square with mesmerising bass trombone intro, coupled with audible baritone sax playing by the under-rated Ken Lincoln.
Crowd-pleasing favourites galore, such as Rick’s own arrangements from Wind in the Willows suite, Jelly Roll Morton’s almost forgotten Bleep Bleep, Darn That Dream and Dead Man’s Blues.
Plus of course, many arrangements from the immortal pen of Sammy Nistico. What a treat for serious jazz lovers!

Friday 28th November 2025
A highly individual blend of brilliant musical styles for the last show of the year.
Powerhouse Jazz ranging from the avant-garde to well loved standards, with tasteful renditions of Bacharach to The Beatles.
Excellent vocals and dynamic bass playing from Nikki Parrott, at times scatting along with her double bass solos.
Tremendous drumming provided by David Sanders with some amazing solos thrown in.
Steve Russell on piano performed a solo number for the last tune of the first set to wild applause. Absolutely brilliant keyboards.
We have come to expect the brilliance of Martha Baartz who provided yet again a tasteful and melodious sax overlay to the whole performance. What a blast!

Friday 31st October 2025
Always a pleasure to have this excellent, tight big band back, fronted by Col Atkinson with his powerhouse bass playing, crooning vocals and compering along with band leader Paul Radford on trombone.
Well drilled sections, great trombone chorus, excellent sax and trumpet groupings, and brilliant rhythm section with great drive.
New girl singer Lisa Angel added glorious vocal glamour, she’s a star of the future. Her stand-out number ”My Funny Valentine” brought the house down.
Great to hear “Macarthur Park”, that timeless classic played so faultlessly with marvellous light and shade.
Nice also to see the age range of this outfit, with the youngest player 14 and the oldest player 83!
All the arrangements, whether classic standards or crowd-pleasing favourites were well chosen and faultlessly played.
A great evening, thanks to Gold Coast Big Band. We’ll see you again soon!

Friday 26th September 2025
Sorry, still no review!

Friday 29th August 2025
Sorry, still no review!

Friday 25th July 2025
Info coming maybe? I've lost my reviewer!

Friday 27th June 2025
Imagine a vehicle travelling at a fair old lick down a deserted road with a white line down its centre. One side is labelled ‘Blues’, and the other ‘Rock and Roll’. Although the appropriate lane to be travelling in is on the ‘Blues’ side, occasionally the driver allows the nose to drift into ‘Rock and Roll’, to which it is closely related anyway.
Now put that to music, and you have ‘Imperial Blues Review’, who belted it out for us at our June gig. In between nostalgic blasts of well-preserved raw Blues by revered former artists, the boys in the band occasionally broke into ‘time capsule’ defiant Rock and Roll numbers that will never be forgotten as long as our feet remember how to tap. Typical was the good old party favourite ‘Guitar Boogie Shuffle’, twelve bar Blues on a day out in ‘Memory Lane, Rock and Rollsville’, that had the dancers on the floor after the first bar, one of them a young mother with a baby in her arms!
Led by Nick Churkin on drums and vocals, with guitarists Azo Bell and Tim Longworth on either side, and John Hellman thumping out the riffs on the upright bass, this outfit showed both their class and their provenance as former members of top Aussie bands, and delivered what they’ve excelled at for years.
Another great night in a friendly venue, and as usual the food was first class. More, please!

Friday 30th May 2025
The ‘big band’ sound has a secure future in the Northern Rivers, thanks to the dedication, energy and foresight of a man named Andrew Montfroy, who is an accomplished trombone player himself, but who realised that there was a need to provide incentives and opportunities for young people who had shown musical talent at school to continue developing and applying their skills before they became lost.
The result was the ‘Project Swing Big Band’, and we were delighted to enjoy the outcome. Seventeen musos, the vast majority of them in their late teens or early twenties, delivering time-honoured dancehall classics with all the confidence and verve of mature players, and with an enthusiasm that was contagious. Apart from instrumentals with novel arrangements from band members themselves, we were able to sing along with evergreen vocal numbers such as ‘Fly me to the moon’, ‘A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square’, ‘I’ve got you under my skin’ and ‘A foggy day in London Town’ that brought back such precious memories for most of us.
Kudos, Mr Montfroy. You kept us there until the end, and not even the foul weather kept your audience away.

Friday 2nd May 2025
The weather was against us, but the die-hards who enjoy raw blues weren’t about to let that prevent them from turning out to hear ‘The Neighbours from Hell’ make their first appearance at the club. And they delivered what they promised.
Azo Bell on guitar, Beat Gisler on bass, and Jamie Pattugalan on drums left us in no doubt that the most authentic Blues sound is the one that comes from sparse instrumentation powered by deep emotion, and there was plenty of that on display through their taut and dedicated delivery. There was also some relief from the intensity as the boys played around with better known melody lines, including a guitar version of Brubeck’s ‘Take Five’, and a rendition of ‘My Favourite Things’ that Julie Andrew could only have delivered if she was high on cocaine.
To show Nature’s appreciation, it had stopped raining by the time we all left.

Friday 28th March 2025
The weather was filthy, but somehow they did it again with a capacity crowd, and those who braved the elements were well rewarded with two and a half hours of ‘the way it was’ in the Texas dance halls of the 1940s and 1950s. And to judge by the number of dancers in the specially extended dancing area, the music has definitely not lost its toe-tapping appeal.
The ‘Warren Earl Western Swing Band’ have what it takes to honour the musical tradition established by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, with an authentic line-up of laptop steel, rhythm/ lead guitar, bass, drums and fiddle, and two vocalists who deftly deliver those haunting harmonies that in those days they called the ‘high lonesome’ sound.
There was plenty there for those enthusiasts whose memories go back far enough to recall classics such as ‘Right or Wrong’, ‘Milk Cow Blues’ and ‘Crazy Arms’. And more than enough to warm the cockles of everyone’s hearts ahead of getting wet feet on the way home.

Friday 28th February 2025
Another brilliant evening with a capacity crowd. How do they keep doing it? By booking bands we all want to hear, that’s how, and this month was no exception.
The Trombone Kellie Gang are firm Club favourites, so we knew what to expect, but WOW! From the get –go they were into it with enthusiasm and verve, and as usual appeared to be enjoying themselves as much as we were. The lady herself, Kellie Barnett, had presumably brought along a spare lung as she belted out the vocals, then switched to the trombone without seeming to pause for breath, while the man with ten fingers on each hand – Peter ‘Scrubby’ Hurcombe – reminded this audience member yet again why he gave up guitar playing. With the usual effortless support from Justin Pfeiffer on upright bass, Vonn Dengate on rasping sax, Rodney Ford on drums, and Anne-Maree Summerfield on harmony vocals, the most obvious things about this line-up are that they are well rehearsed, and that they love playing together. It shows in their faces and their music.
Finally, a word of praise for ‘JT’s Kitchen’, who serve up delicious dishes at affordable prices at every gig, making the total evening’s experience one to look forward to every month. The length of the queue at their service window speaks for itself.

Updated 1st February 2026
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