Ed Kuepper & The Queensland Symphony Orchestra:
Live at The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley, 5 November 2020
Ed Kuepper has been a presence in Australian music for nearly fifty years. Born in Bremen, West Germany, Kuepper’s family migrated to Brisbane when he was a child. In high school he co-founded the band that would become The Saints, one of the most influential groups in the history of punk music.
After three albums with The Saints, Kuepper left the band to pursue more esoteric styles of music. He formed the band Laughing Clowns, which produced a more avant-garde jazz kind of sound. In the 1990s he returned to heavier rock music with The Aints, a project that was revived again in the 2010s, now with an exclamation mark at the end of their name. The Aints! were previously featured in episodes 267 and 269 of Live Delay.
Since the mid-1980s Kuepper has released a long and steady stream of solo albums, crossing a broad swathe of genres though always anchored by his singular style of guitar playing. We previously aired a solo set of his in episode 145. In 2017 Kuepper teamed up for a collaboration with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, reinterpreting songs from his vast back catalogue in a live performance for the Brisbane Festival. In 2020 the collaboration was repeated, with Live Delay there to capture the event. The QSO was conducted by Peter Morris on the night, with orchestrations by Rob Davidson.
Part one of two. Click here for part two.
Recorded by James Fearn-Wannan
Mixed by James Fearn-Wannan
Show production, engineering and host: Scott Mercer
Originally aired via Zed Digital, 7-8pm, Sunday 4 September, 2022