Mick Thomas follows new single and film clip with new Substack page Top Paddock ahead of National GoSoloComeBack solo tour.
Having launched on the weekend, Top Paddockis right now #2 on Substack’s ‘International Bestsellers in Music – Rising Chart!
With the new dates added, Mick’s nationalGoSoloComeBack solo tour kicks off Wednesday April 8 in Perth
Video for new single ‘Build This’ premiered at the IndustriALL International Convention of Union Delegates at the Sydney Convention Centre – right after an address by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
Time to get loose in the Top Paddock with Mick Thomas’ new venture on Substack
Mick Thomas launches his latest web-based venture on Substack. It’s called Top Paddock and it’s a regular platform presenting lots of music – demos, covers, new versions of old songs, old versions of new songs. And stories. Stories about songs. Songs that tell stories, chord charts and music diaries. The words are free but the songs will cost you (but not too much).
Years ago, Mick had a subscriber based platform called Mick’s Monthly Music Club. It ran for a couple of years and was a lot of fun (and work) ultimately falling by the wayside as new albums and challenges presented themselves. But it put a lot of music out there and pointed the way forward for Mick’s next decade. In a lot of ways it predicted the rise of platforms such as Patreon and Substack. Substack presents a streamlined vehicle for the quality engagement a long running career such as Mick’s requires.
In a recent article on industry heavyweight Jimmy Iovine concerning the problematic rise (and predicted demise) of Spotify, writer Joel Gouveia summed it up:
“The artists who will survive the next five years are the ones who are quietly shifting their focus away from the ‘ATM Machine.’ They are building their own cultural hangars. The music industry has spent a decade obsessing over how to get a million people to listen to a song once. The next decade will be defined by artists figuring out how to get 1,000 people to care forever.”
Welcome to Mick’s new Substack. Here’s what’s up so far…
Post #1: presents an in-depth story concerning Mick’s thoughts on his impending solo tour (after not touring solo for 25 years). It’s a thoughtful rant centred on a lonely railway platform in Northern Germany. The opening track is a solo version of a WPA song appropriately called ‘The Four Corners of the Earth’ and this is the first of many solo readings of some old classics as Mick keeps the GoComeBack classification of songs running as guiding theme. “Four Corners…” is a ‘GoSong’.
Post #2: Is the first in a series of three demos using the same Calypso backing track for entirely different lyrics. It’s an exercise that arose out of Covid Lockdown boredom that spawned three very different songs. “One Last Swim in the Ocean” is the song featured here.
The next couple of posts that will go up this week will feature the next song in the Calypso series and a partner song for “Four Corners…” – a ‘ComeBackSong’. There will be easily a half a dozen tracks up by early April – after that Top Paddock will be a monthly proposition.
Time to get loose in the Top Paddock…
https://substack.com/@mickyjimthomas
Mick Thomas drops new single and film clip ahead of National solo tour.
Build This is the single. GoSoloComeBack is the tour.
“Build This” was written by Mick Thomas and Ben Salter from an idea of Ben’s – a simple rumination on the palatial airports at Dubai or Abu Dhabi.
When Mick played it to violin player Jen Anderson she thought it was about the controversial stadiums built for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. And the more Mick thought about it, the more he realised that the thought could be applied to any number of ambitious building projects going on in the world as we speak.
When Mick and the band were invited to play at the Sydney Convention Centre for theIndustriALL international convention of Union delegates in November – right after an address by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – “Build This” was the obvious choice of song. The corresponding video by Mick’s brother Steve Thomas’s company Roar Film was shown on the night lending weight to a powerful statement of modern reality.
“Build This” was recorded in Auckland at Roundhead Studios with Steven Schram and is the third single from the 2025 Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission albumGoComeBack on Coolin’ By Sound Records.
GoSoloComeBack – the solo tour
As far as the tour is concerned it’s all about the songs. The tour Mick and the band have just completed for the album GoComeBack felt like the strongest statement they have put out there in years. It was certainly the most fun and the best supported one in recent memory. But for Mick the underlying joy of it all lay in getting to play a whole swathe of the new album while reaching into the archive and pulling out some neglected pieces of their collective past. Crowds were totally supportive of their efforts to balance the set with songs from all eras of their past.
And so when the booking agent suggested a solo tour might be in order it was an attractive thought how much scope there would be to extend this idea. For the majority of shows on the tour Mick will be playing two sets on his own without a support act so be prepared for a pretty intense and anarchic romp through some uncharted territory – albeit with some familiar signposts.
Interspersed amongst the shows is a subset of shows, a sub-tour called GoSoloComeBackToTheMCT which sees Mick return to his home base the Merri Creek Taven in Northcote for a series of shows in which he’ll be joined by opening acts with who he has close ties from various stages of his career – from Dave Steel to Brooke Taylor, to Barclay, Pilkington and Waters, Shackleton and everyone in between! Having announced these in an email to his fans earlier in the week, these shows sold out in less than 48 hours.
APRIL
Wed 8 – Lyric Underground Perth WA – JUST ADDED
Thu 9 – Lyric Underground Perth WA – SOLD OUT
Fri 10 – Duke of George Fremantle WA
Fri 17 – Smith’s Alternative Canberra ACT
Sat 18 – Django Bar Marrickville NSW
Sun 19 – Dangar Island
MAY
Sun 3 – Merri Creek Tavern (Melbourne VIC) + Dave Steel – SOLD OUT
Thu 8 – Trinity Session Adelaide SA
Sun 10 – Merri Creek Tavern (Melbourne VIC) + Shackleton (feat. Anna Burley & Olivia Bolmat) – SOLD OUT
Thurs 14 – Black Swan Hotel, Bendigo VIC
Sun 17 – Merri Creek Tavern (Melbourne VIC) + Brooke Taylor – SOLD OUT
Thu 21 – Bush Inn New Norfolk TAS
Fri 22 – Little Theatre Deloraine TAS
Sat 23 – The Pier Ulverstone TAS
Sun 24 – Merri Creek Tavern (Melbourne VIC)+ Craig Pilkington & Barb Waters – SOLD OUT
Fri 29 – Old Stone Hall Beechworth VIC
Sun 31 – Merri Creek Tavern (Melbourne VIC) + Michael (and Cal) Barclay – SOLD OUT
JUNE
Fri 5 – Tintenbar Up Front Tintenbar NSW
Sat 6 – Qube 226 Gympie QLD
Sun 7 – The Junk Bar Brisbane QLD (matinee show – JUST ADDED
Sun 7 – The Junk Bar Brisbane QLD – SOLD OUT
Tickets available through www.mickthomas.com
Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission’s latest album GoComeBack is out now on Coolin’ by Sound. It available on CD, limited edition LP and Digitial Download from
GoComeBack | Mick Thomas
The pre-album EP release “First Step in a Homeward Direction” is available from
First Step in a Homeward Direction (the Cure For Everything) Maxi Single/EP | Mick Thomas
www.mickthomas.com
www.facebook.com/MickThomasMusic/
mickthomas.bandcamp.com
