Hosted by local men’s wellbeing initiative Shedding The Blues, the event aims to bring life back to the music scene with performance and some much needed information on looking after ourselves, our loved ones and each other.
Jimi Hocking is a man of many talents; he is a guitar genius, a martial artist, a prolific touring artist, a skater, a family man, a blues musician and a well-connected part of a family of Australian rock royalty. A name ingrained into the Australian music scene since 1980 (of The Screaming Jets, The Angels & The Blues Machine fame), he’s also now known to many as an ‘electric blues stylist’, regularly performing his thought-provoking and ‘tongue in cheek’ original material in an acoustic setting, both in Australia and on the NYC anti-folk and blues scene (pre-Covid of course).
Following a couple of trying years for the musician, with several gigs cancelled due to the changing face of COVID-19 and its various and ever-changing restrictions, Jimi is finally making his way back to Queenscliff for the first time in more than two years to put on am intoxicating free performance of electric blues rock.
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around the region here.
The electric love child of T-Bone Walker, BB King and Jimi Hendrix will perform as part of the Tune-Up EXPO, courtesy of the Bellarine’s ‘Shedding the Blues’ group and the Borough of Queenscliffe.
Taking place at the Queenscliff Town Hall on Sunday, April 10, Tune-Up Expo will combine the very best of community-based and professional music with some very much needed information on looking after ourselves, our loved ones and each other, building on the core elements of men’s wellbeing initiative ‘Shedding The Blues’ – a group with the aim of drawing together men in our community who share a love of music.
Alongside Jimi, the event will also host a series of local community music groups such as the Shedmen Blues band, the Sea of Ukes and the Tides of Welcome choir, as well as a series of health and wellbeing–based information sessions and activities throughout the day from the likes of Bellarine Community Health, Queenscliff Climate Action Group and Chris Lavars and his hand drumming workshop.
Casting a wider net for this free, all-ages event, the theme is to combat the prolonged social isolation that has been a constant over the past two years.
Des Gorman, the coordinator of Shedding the Blues, has always long believed that music is a great medium to promote “healthy social interactions” and keeps improving our “cognitive capacity”, which has proved even more important in the past couple of years.
Tune-Up Expo will take to the Queenscliff Town Hall on Sunday, April 10 from 10am-5pm. For more info, head here.