Tripod are an Australian musical comedy trio founded by Scod (Scott Edgar), Yon (Simon Hall) and Gatesy (Steven Gates) in 1996. They provide original songs and harmonies, strung together by comic banter.
History
Live shows
Tripod began as buskers in Melbourne malls, performing a far-fetched prop act of which no record exists. They emerged as a musical act from the thriving Melbourne live music pub scene of the mid nineties, supporting popular local cover bands in such places as the Station Hotel, The Esplanade, the Central Club, the New Orleans Tavern and the Ritz, St Kilda. They were very much a cover band at first, performing three part harmony versions on hits by the likes of Elvis Costello, Bowie, the Beach Boys and Queen. They garnered a local following via regular residencies at the Commercial Hotel, Yarraville, just after it stopped being a biker bar.
They soon became regulars at the Prince Patrick Hotel in Collingwood, a Melbourne comedy venue, where they honed their skills in residencies and appearances from 1998 through to its demise in 2003.[1]
They have also toured the Australian rural countryside including long stints with the MICF Roadshow.
Tripod alternate the form of their shows between the song-and-sketch cabaret gig format (such as Self Saucing and Men of Substance) and narrative musicals. Their first "story" show was Tripod Tells the Tale of the Adventures of Tosswinkle the Pirate (not very well), which premiered at the MICF before touring nationally.
Their narrative show, Lady Robots, was first previewed at the 2002 Adelaide Fringe Festival before it was performed at the MICF later that year. The show was a musical comedy telling the story of three men who are hurled into space where they come across a planet populated only by Lady Robots. Tripod performed a re-jigged version of the show, Lady Robots v1.1 at the Athenaeum Theatre at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2005, before a national tour culminating in a hit season at the Sydney Opera House. No recordings are known to exist.
On 30 January 2010, Tripod held the world premiere of their comedic musical Tripod versus the Dragon at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Massachusetts, United States. Elana Stone co-starred in the production in the role of "The Dungeon Master"/"Dragon" after Megan Washington, who had been co-writing songs for the production, declined the role due to scheduling conflicts. The production is based on the Dungeons & Dragonsrole-playing game.[2] Tripod went on to perform this show at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the Sydney Opera House, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2010, as well as subsequent seasons in Perth, Brisbane, regional Victoria and the Przeglad Piosenki Aktorskiej festival in Wroclaw, Poland.
In January 2013, Tripod joined forces with Australian performer Eddie Perfect to create Perfect Tripod, a show of classic Australian songs arranged in four-part harmony, inspired by their cover of Meet Me in the Middle of the Air performed on The Sideshow on 13 October 2007. Perfect Tripod toured concert halls throughout the nation and have collaborated with such Australian pop music greats as Gotye and Missy Higgins.
In 2015 This Gaming Life played to rapturous houses at Hamer Hall, Victorian Arts Centre, with a 55 piece orchestra conducted and arranged by Wintory. The show was a full scale two-act orchestral love letter to the culture and relationships of passionate video gamers, and has been described as the "Stand By Me of the gamer generation."[citation needed]
TV
The band got their first break appearing on Hey Hey It's Saturday's "Red Faces" contest, where they performed a parodic medley of Oasis hits that demonstrated similarities between the songs.[3]
They performed on Rove/Rove Live in 1999, 2003, and 2004, and were guest programmers of Rage in 2004.[4]
Tripod were also core cast performers on the 2007 ABC weekly variety program The Sideshow.
The group made frequent musical appearances on Network Ten's Good News Week from 2009 to 2011, and have appeared on various ABC1 programs, including Spicks and Specks (May 2011), and Adam Hills Tonight (May 2013).
Tripod have appeared as guests throughout their career on popular Australian radio stations.
Their Song-in-an-Hour Challenge (2001–2004) was a popular segment on Triple J's drive-time show with Merrick and Rosso, and later on the Triple J Breakfast show[5] with Wil Anderson and Adam Spencer. In it they had one hour to write and arrange a coherent song based on incoherent listener suggestions and then perform said song to an eager national audience. Tripod often refer to this experience as their songwriting boot camp.
Two CDs containing some of the finest examples of these sessions have been released, each also including recordings taken from live Song-In-An-Hour challenges featured in Tripod's Pod August Nights concerts. In late 2005, they moved to Fox FM where they could be heard on Peter Helliar's weekly Friday morning show, Pete's Show.
Podcast
On 24 December 2015 Tripod along with host Andrew Pogson started a regular podcast titled Perfectly Good Podcast. Initially started to promote their upcoming 101 Tripod Hits tour, the ongoing series shifted its focus covering any number of topic including current themes or stories from Tripod's 20+ years together. Each podcast centres around a theme in which host Andrew Pogson attempts to keep the members of Tripod to. Tripod also play live or play recordings of their songs which loosely relate to the episode's theme.
Episode 71 (Live) – featuring Andrew Pogson on Blaxophone
Wish You a White Male Christmas
not recorded
Episode 71 (Live) – featuring Andrew Pogson on Blaxophone
Suggested in Episode 27, and making its first appearance in Episode 28 with Andrew Pogson's submission Tripod asked listeners to submit alternate lyrics for the song Aquaman, and Tripod then played each submission on varies episodes.[9]
Episode 44 – featuring Andrew Pogson doing Blaxophone solo instead of normal guitar solo
Aquaman The Tribute
Sergeant Bandit from The Tally Hoes
Episode 45 – featuring Andrew Pogson doing Blaxophone solo instead of normal guitar solo
Game Music
In 2023, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical was released, featuring songs co-written by Tripod. The album is nominated for a Grammy Award for the 2024 ceremony.[10]
Recordings
Tripod's very first record Box Set was released in 1997. It was funded by their winnings from live TV segment Red Faces on Hey Hey It's Saturday
Tripod toured with the show Tripod are Self Saucing in 2004, and again at the 2006 MICF. They recorded a live album of the show in April 2006 entitled Songs from Self Saucing, recorded and mixed by regular collaborator Nao Anzai, which was nominated for Best Comedy Release at the 2007 ARIA awards.
Tripod's first DVD was also released in 2006: a live recording of their 2005 show "POD August Nights". The DVD includes numerous special features including a music video for their song "Gonna Make You Happy Tonight" from their 2004 album, Middleborough Rd.
Tripod's 2001 show, Tripod tells the tale of the Adventures of Tosswinkle the Pirate (Not Very Well) was also released on DVD in 2006, following the original 2001 VHS release.
In 2009, Tripod released a DVD of a live performance at the Woodford Folk Festival. This DVD featured never-before-seen bonus footage consisting of a bootleg recording of their 2007 show How to Train an Attack Dog from Scratch, a show whose narrative was loosely based around an examination of the fictional history of musical comedy.
Tripod released a Christmas album in 2009, from their Christmas shows, entitled For the Love of God. A toured nationally with the songs, performing in the Sydney Opera House that year.[11]
They released a CD of songs from Tripod versus the Dragon, including extended versions of the songs from an early version of the show, as well as a DVD with numerous easter eggs and special features on 2 March 2011.[12]
Men of Substance, their first full scale studio project since For the Love of God, was produced by longtime friend and collaborator John Castle (Megan Washington, Vance Joy, the Bamboos)
Composition
Tripod composed the theme song for SBS One's Australian television comedy history show ADbc in 2009.[citation needed]
Albums
List of albums, with selected details and chart positions
^"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 24 January 2014. Retrieved 9 December 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), 2009
^"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 24 January 2014. Retrieved 9 December 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), 2009
^"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 24 January 2014. Retrieved 9 December 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), 2009
^"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 24 January 2014. Retrieved 9 December 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) 2009
