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Tim Rogers, Lance Ferguson

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Lance Ferguson, Tim Rogers

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The Ferguson Rogers Process, the new project from Tim Rogers (You Am I) and Lance Ferguson (The Bamboos) have released their debut album, Style And Or Substance.

Style And Or Substance presents that rare chemistry that can only occur when two of Australia’s favourite artists are combined and then heated. The resulting compound charts new territory for both of its protagonists and entices us to a musical space where Disco discovers that it can get dirty, and Rock can find its groove.  It’s glamour meeting grit. It’s the movie star meeting the hustler. It’s discovering that there’s glitter in the gutter. It’s the new and revelatory combination of Tim Rogers’ wry lyrics and Lance Ferguson’s innate sense of groove.

Giving their hometown a fashionably late Christmas present, The FRP have just announced a New Year’s Eve performance as part of a free event at Footscray Park with a line-up that also includes Bumpy and Crown Heights. With a band lead by Ferguson and featuring members of The Bamboos and Melbourne Boogie maestros Mondo Freaks and with one of this country’s greatest ever showmen on vocals, this could well be the best NYE show on offer this year.

The band’s postponed album launch tour dates have been shifted to 2025 with details set to be announced in the new year.

Ferguson’s timeless take on Disco manages to recall both its Pop peak when all the world wanted to be on a multi-coloured dancefloor, as well as the period where it had to head downtown and reinvent itself in dingey night clubs, hiding from a backlash of intolerance and exploding stacks of records. Roger’s lyrics are a potent pinballing of ideas, semi-famous names and couplets that recall a wild night of non-stop conversation across a long night of bar hopping. As soon as you catch and laugh at one line another two or three have flown by. Mae West, Garth Hudson and Johnny Ramone pop up amongst ruminations on the glory of taking chances, media oversaturation (“too much choice not a lotta quality”) dubious attempts at self-improvement, playful self-deprecation (“my lugubrious pose, as sturdy as a hose”) and the therapy that comes with just getting on and not caring about getting dirty.

“Going Disco” doesn’t mean the same thing in 2024 that it used to, of course. But Style And Or Substance is an album that will appeal to fans of both artists upon hearing it, no matter whether they were anticipating the result or cocked a suspicious brow when first reading about it.  It’s so much more than the sum of its parts and it’s music that was a pleasure to create and aims to create pleasure upon listening. Or as Rogers puts it, “This music is pure joy. Dance music for clumsy lyricists with happy feet. Two against the whirled. Come join the Process in the middle of the floor”.

For Ferguson, working with Rogers is a special musical partnership and this album “is built on a friendship and cherished musical accord that has gone on for nearly 14 years now.” It’s been that long since their first work together, Rogers adding guest vocals to The Bamboos’ 2012 track “I Got Burned”. That became one of the biggest Australian songs of that year and was a turning point for both of them. It brought The Bamboos to many new listeners, and it brought out a Soulful side of Rogers that took almost everyone by surprise.

Realising that they had a good thing going on, Rogers and Ferguson took the show on the road in 2013 with ‘The Rock N’ Soul Medicine Show’ where they added to “I Got Burned” Bamboosified takes of You Am I favourites as well as some versions of vintage songs that they both loved. The two of them then hunkered down to write more music, resulting in the The Rules Of Attraction in 2015. That album was widely acclaimed with and they took it to the stage again with another sell out national tour, including playing to ten thousand plus people on the closing night of Womadelaide in that year.

The Ferguson Rogers Process Style And Or Substance is out now on coloured vinyl (across three limited variants), CD, cassette and digital via Impressed Recordings.

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Tim Rogers, Lance Ferguson

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NYE Celebration
At Footscray Park

Dec 31st 6pm – 10:30pm

Feat The Ferguson Rogers Process,
Bumpy, Crown Heights & More

MORE INFO

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STREAM STYLE AND OR SUBSTANCE

ORDER LP / CD / CASSETTE

Track List

1. Style And Or Substance
2. Live Together
3. Who Dares Wins
4. Thumbs
5. Choice
6. Schleep
7. Dirty-Clean
8. A Long Year
9. The Endless Cycle Of Maintenance
10. Multitudes

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Follow THE FERGUSON ROGERS PROJECT
Website

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Lance Ferguson, Tim Rogers

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AMNPLIFY – DB