21 hours Ago By Josh Leeson
THE Newcastle music scene will rock with "female solidarity" on Saturday night when Acacia Blue headlines a fundraising gig for local charity Got Your Back Sista. Login or signup to continue reading "Gig For The Gals" at the Hamilton Station Hotel will also feature the female-fronted indie acts Elestial and Regikay. Acacia Blue vocalist Kaitlyn Simm said her band was looking to launch their latest single, Cool , and wanted to provide greater importance to the gig by making it a charity fundraiser.
Got Your Back Sista, a Newcastle charity that aims to provide relief and support to women and children who have escaped domestic violence, perfectly fitted the criteria. "Because we're a female-fronted band and have three women in the band, we thought there are so many women in the Newcastle music industry who are so talented that this has got to be something we can pull together and get some female solidarity going," Simm said. Acacia Blue formed just before the COVID-19 pandemic and played their first show on New Year's Eve 2020 at the Hamilton Station Hotel.
Since then, Simm and her bandmates Emma Audet (lead guitar), Mariah Murphy (drums), Reece De Silva (rhythm guitar), and Harry Youl (bass) have released a series of singles and their debut EP Swimming Lessons in 2022. Acacia Blue also won the 2022 University of Newcastle band competition with their brand of melodic pop-rock. Saturday's show will be De Silva's final gig with Acacia Blue before he moves overseas and is replaced by Kaelebb Gordon-Smith.
Acacia Blue is one of several female-fronted acts in Newcastle, like Butterknife , Elestial , Boudicca, Goon Gremlins, and the recently disbanded Boycott. "As a female-fronted Newcastle band, a lot of the time there's so many male bands that are all either from a grungy genre or surf-rock genre, and we always thought we were the odd one out on the line-up," Simm said. "So we wanted to put together a cohesive show of female-fronted music.
" Music scenes haven't always offered a welcoming environment for young female musicians, but Simm says venues such as the Hamilton Station Hotel have been a huge advocate for women. "There's always a couple of things here and there that you might go, 'I don't love the way that happened there or how I was spoken to there', but it's been pretty rare on the whole," she said. "We feel fairly comfortable and confident walking into most venues in Newcastle.
" All money raised from Gig For The Gals will be donated to Got Your Back Sista. Josh Leeson is a news and features journalist, who focuses on Lake Macquarie, politics and entertainment at the Newcastle Herald. He first joined the masthead in 2008 after stints at the Namoi Valley Independent and Port Stephens Examiner and has previously covered sport, including the Asian Cup, A-League, Surfest, cricket and rugby league.
Josh Leeson is a news and features journalist, who focuses on Lake Macquarie, politics and entertainment at the Newcastle Herald. He first joined the masthead in 2008 after stints at the Namoi Valley Independent and Port Stephens Examiner and has previously covered sport, including the Asian Cup, A-League, Surfest, cricket and rugby league. DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team.
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