The Year That Was..2014

Just like that we find ourselves in December questioning where the year has gone. But here’s our yearly wrap up to jog your memory of what’s happened. What a year!

Lets go all the way back to January. Kicking off the year ‘Leeward Side‘ made it to number 88 in the Triple J Hottest 100 and the video made it into RAGE’s top 50 videos of 2013 at number 28.

Onto February, Josh was invited by Urthboy and Sulo from The Herd to collaborate on a track called ‘Someone Else’s House‘. You can watch the video here. Ahead of the Lone Wolf tour, Josh treated fans to solo recordings of a handful of songs. You can listen to them on his Soundcloud page.

On Valentines Day The Lone Wolf tour kicked off in Hobart with Jackson McLaren on support duties. From Hobart to Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns, Perth. Those first 7 shows were quick to sell out.

In March in between his own tour, Josh played Live on the Lawn at Werribee Park alongside Peter Murray, Bernard Fanning and Clare Bowditch. The Lone Wolf tour wrapped up at Zierholz in Canberra.

The Melbourne show took place at Melbourne Zoo to a sold out crowd of 3,500. We gotta admire Josh, whether he’s playing to 100 or 3500 people, where possible, he makes time for a signing after.

We once again had the pleasure of organising photographers for the tour. A massive shout out to the photographers who jumped on board! Check out the photos on Josh’s Facebook page.

Over the easter weekend in April, Josh took the Lone Wolf west, playing in Albany and Dunsborough. Josh teamed up with Jefferton James to shoot some extra bonus footage for the box sets.

In May Josh was everywhere. He made appearances on Music Feeds and The Riff on Channel V and was interviewed by TheAUReview, ABC Radio National & Double J. As part of the Sydney Writers’ Festival Josh along with Sarah Blasko and Urthboy spoke on a panel called Anatomy of the Song. Listen here. Josh also joined Kate Miller-Heidke on stage for ‘Share Your Air’ during her Vivid Live show at the Opera House. Watch a snippet here.

In June The Lone Wolf Tour went regional, and Josh took old mate Jack Carty back on the road with him. Kicking off in regional VIC, the tour saw Josh head to Darwin, Broome, regional QLD and NSW. Josh Pyke spoke at Indent’s Feedback Music conference in Sydney tomorrow with Wayne Connolly. Watch it here.

Halfway through their tour, Jack Carty released a new single called ‘The Joneses’, It’s a track he co-wrote with Josh! The tour wrapped up with two shows at Milton Theatre. Josh wrote a tour diary for Music Feeds.

One tour finished and another quickly began. 5 years on and The White Album Concert returned. Featuring the original line up of Josh Pyke, Chris Cheney, Tim Rogers and Phil Jamieson and backed by an amazing orchestra, they performed a string of dates in July. Having seen the show in 2009, I was very glad it was back for another round. They also released a live CD.

In August Josh played the Gympie Music Muster.

At the beginning of September, Josh Pyke along with Urthboy, Patrick James and Lindsay McDougall got together for Busking For Change in Sydney. Congratulations to Josh & everyone involved with Busking For Change for reaching the goal of raising $50,000 for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation!

Friends of Josh Pyke turned 8 in September! EIGHT! I can’t quite believe it either. We compiled a bunch of your stories in this little post celebrating our birthday. At the end of September the ARIA award nominations were announced. Josh and John Castle were nominated for Producer Of The Year in the ARIA Fine Arts & Artisan Awards!

October was quickly upon us. Josh spent some time writing with the likes of Marcus from Jinja Safari, Patrick James and Dustin Tebbutt. After much patience (3 years in fact) our UK friends finally got another tour. From late October to early November Josh toured the UK with Pylo. While on tour Josh dropped into BBC 1 and did a cover of Sia‘s ‘Chandelier’. Listen here.

There wasn’t much rest for Josh after returning from the UK. In late November he hit the road for The Last of the Lone Wolf Tour throughout regional VIC/NSW. He played four VIC dates and took Jackson McLaren along for the shows. The NSW dates saw Jordan Léser jump on board. The tour wrapped up last Friday in Katoomba. Josh wrote a tour diary for Tone Deaf. Read it here. We also had the pleasure of organising photographers for a handful of the shows, special thanks to those involved.

And just like that it’s late December. Josh has some big plans for next year, he’s announced some shows with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in April (which we seriously cannot wait for) and he’s writing/releasing a new album.

For those of you who had read this far – thank you for joining us for another excellent year. It’s pretty surreal to still be here 8 years later and it’s been great getting to know a whole bunch of fantastic JP fans.

As always, special thanks to Josh for being an all round legend! And to Michelle and Wonderlick for their continued support.

We’re taking a break over Christmas and the new year. But the website has been renewed and we’ll be back in January for our ninth year! Here’s to 2015!

Until then,
-sabi

PS. Voting is open for the RAGE 50! Vote for the TBATEOE video here, you’ve got until December 22nd to do so! And you can vote for Someone Else’s House by Urthboy (feat. Josh Pyke) in Triple J’s Hottest 100. Vote here.