New Album Out Now

Touring Australia 2025

GoComeBack

MICK THOMAS’ ROVING COMMISSION – the ARIA-Award winning former Weddings Parties Anything singer/songwriter and his band of fellow travelers – have an announced a new album, a new tour, and even a short tour of record store in-stores appearances in the lead up to the album’s release.

The new album GoComeBack is out October 31 on Coolin’ By Sound Records. It follows the recent EP First Step in a Homeward Direction, the title track of which served as the new album’s first single and set the album’s thematic concerns. The album was recorded in in Auckland at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios with award-winning producer Steven Scram.

GoComeBack is the name of the album.

GoComeBack – it’s a pidgin Indonesian term for return journey. Recorded in Auckland at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studio with award winning producer Steven Schram (Crowded House, Paul Kelly, Sans Cisco etc) it’s is a simple but effective concept for a song cycle.

Go is side one – it takes you away, leaves you in a far off place. You catch a bus at dawn, by a submerged island you hear distant voices, you marvel at how mundane a supposedly exotic place can be, and how exotic a functional entity needs to be. You catch up with a band who went a-touring and never came back, you get your nails done by someone who wishes they were far away.

ComeBack is side two – it tries to see beauty in the everyday. A tram ride through a divided city, some wild birds in the airport food hall, a sculpture by the river and a small child in a Vietnamese restaurant. Mick sits on a pier in an obscure seaside town and wonders how he got there while some artists try their bohemian best to pretend their domicile is anywhere but a work-a-day Melbourne suburb.

GoComeBack is the full Roving Commission six piece line-up captured by an in form producer/engineer in a fine studio setting. It’s Dave Foley (Tex Perkins, The Killjoys) and Ben Franz (the Waifs, Matt Walker, Tim Rogers) working the rhythm effectively and stylishly, Ben takes a guitar solo on a Memphis originating banger and Dave pounds relentlessly as Steven Schram drives them hard over an eight day session. Jen Anderson sculpts the violin arrangements dodging and weaving around the ever present understated keys and accordions of Mark Squeezebox Wally. Mick sings with the tonal grit and sincerity we have come to expect – supported and complimented by the spirited counterpoint of Brooke Taylor – whose confidence soars with each subsequent foray into the studio. Her lead vocal on Dirt Under Your Nails is understated but magnificent. The violins on First Step are a highlight. Ben Salter’s lyrical contribution on a couple the tracks is undeniable. And the songs take you away and then get you where you live.

GoIn-StoreComeBack
… to your local record shop!

Interspersed amongst the in-stores are a number of intimate shows in towns that won’t be reached by the main tour.

Fri Oct 3 – Toowoomba Volcanic Brewery w/ Nine Year Sister (ticketed show) QLD
Sat Oct 4 – Sonic Sherpa Brisbane 4.00 QLD (in-store)
Sat Oct -11 Clarity Adelaide 4.00 SA (in-store)
Sun Oct 12 – Three Brothers Arms Adelaide Hills w/ Jacob Jake (ticketed show) SA
Sat Oct 18 – Egg Records Sydney 4.00 NSW (in-store)
Fri Oct 24- Dodges Ferry Hotel (ticketed show) TAS
Sat Oct 25 – Tommy Gun Records Hobart 4.00 TAS (in-store)
Sun Nov 20 invite only listening party at the Merri Creek Tavern MELB

Previous releases

‘FIRST STEP IN A HOMEWARD DIRECTION’

ARIA-winning Australian singer-songwriter Mick Thomas returns with First Step In A Homeward Direction (The Cure For Everything), a seven-track EP that finds the veteran troubadour reimagining songs by some of his most respected contemporaries — including The Screaming Jets, Charles Jenkins, Spencer P Jones & Kim Salmon, Carla Geneve & David Beniuk — with the heartfelt grit and warmth that has defined his four-decade career.

Backed by his long-running band The Roving Commission — featuring fellow Weddings Parties Anything alumni Mark “Squeezebox Wally” Wallace & Jen Anderson alongside a crack team of seasoned players — the EP also includes a freshly charged version of ‘Walkerville’, a standout track from Mick’s WPA days, given new life in the hands of a band who know how to tread the line between rowdy celebration and introspective grace.

Opening the EP is its self-titled track First Step In A Homeward Direction — a powerful new song that also doubles as the lead single from Mick’s forthcoming album, set for release in October 2025. Recorded at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios in Auckland with ARIA-winning producer Steven Schram (Crowded House, Paul Kelly), it stands apart as a bold and deeply personal introduction to the next chapter in Mick’s storied career.

At once a tribute to the songwriting of his peers & a reflection of his own enduring voice, First Step In A Homeward Direction captures Mick Thomas doing what he’s always done best: turning great stories into great songs & great songs into something entirely his own.

Track Listing

First Step In A Homeward Direction
Across The Nullarbor
Loose Ends
Walkerville
Yesterday’s Clothes
A Swim In The Ocean
Helping Hand

‘WHERE ONLY MEMORY CAN FIND YOU’ 2023 LP

The new album Where Only Memory Can Find You by multiple ARIA-winning Australian singer-songwriter Mick Thomas and his current outfit Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission takes him right back to his roots with beloved Oz rock outfit Weddings Parties Anything, the album’s title taken from the chorus of that band’s classic 1987 single ‘Away Away’. Like that song the new album is a beautifully rumination on the nexus between memory and the passing of time, and how you can never go back – no matter how much some people seem hell-bent on revisiting their past.

Musically the Roving Commission – who also feature two other WPA alumni as well as members of The Waifs and the backing bands of Aussie luminaries such as Archie Roach, Tex Perkins and David Bridie – ply a distinctive blend of melodic folk-rock that embraces restraint and sophistication in the studio, but definitely know how to bring the party vibes in the live realms with their rollicking stage show. Where Only Memory Can Find You contains co-writes with Oz rock figures such as country icon Sara Storer and members of Indigenous folk outfit Tiddas, including some of the most poignant songs ever penned by Thomas – who in 1993 won the Song Of The Year ARIA for his timeless Oz rock classic ‘Father’s Day’ – with tracks like ‘Back In The Day’, ‘Lilac Trees’, ‘Seven Wonders’ and ‘Calling Me Home’ already up there with the finest moments of his nearly four-decade long career.

Few artists seem to genuinely improve with the passing of time but on Where Only Memory Can Find You Mick Thomas is going from strength-to-strength, consolidating his already entrenched reputation as an iconic Australian artist.

‘LILAC TREES’ SINGLE

The gorgeous new single Lilac Trees by Oz rock legend Mick Thomas and his band the Roving Commission is a beautiful string-laden rumination on an old song passed down the generations by his family, and how the lyrics that seemed so pure and innocent in his youth now prove problematic in today’s more enlightened times. The song’s words haven’t changed, but it seems that what’s deemed acceptable by society in this day and age has changed irrevocably for the better.

Of course, the title track from Back In the Day was effectively also the first single from Where Only Memory Can Find You, so we’ve already had a taste of the new album and the themes that run through it. New single “Lilac Trees” is not only about memory, but also a song about a song; an old song from the American South that was taught to Mick as a child, and which, upon reflection, is one he now realises he could never sing because of its racist undertone.

New single Lilac Trees also ties in with memories and perceptions of the past.

Mick explains: “I played a songwriting workshop as part of a festival alongside Jessie Lloyd who collated the Mission Songs Project. The theme of the workshop was something like ‘Home Songs’ and the only thing I could think of that was anything like a ‘family song’ for me was one we used to call ‘Lilac Trees’. I looked online and couldn’t find it, but then I realised the actual title was ‘Stay In Your Own Backyard’. It is a song from the American South, and reading through the lyrics I realised they were at best condescending and patronising but no – let’s say it plainly: It’s a racist song. It was taught to us by my grandmother who was far from racist herself – in fact she’s probably where a lot of our decent family politics and egalitarianism comes from, a really kind and fair woman. But even for the purpose of historical illustration it’s a song I could never bring myself to sing. It just has a really bad sentiment to it. So ‘Lilac Trees’ is a song about that song, and about realising something that had been passed down from generation to generation wasn’t what you thought it might have been.”

‘BACK IN THE DAY’ 2022 EP

Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission, the latest vehicle for the main man of Melbourne’s legendary Weddings Parties Anything (and also featuring fellow Weddo Squeezebox Wally, and the Waifs’ Ben Franz), are thrilled to announce their new partnership with Coolin’ By Sound.

Coolin’ By Sound is owned by esteemed music writer Steve Bell and his partner, longtime Qld music mover and shaker Michelle Padovan. The label has international distribution through US indie powerhouse Redeye Worldwide.

“As a young Aussie music fan I fell in love with Weddings Parties Anything in the mid-’80s while still at school and I’ve followed Mick’s career ever since – I own pretty much everything he’s ever put out and been seeing him play live for decades – so to welcome him and The Roving Commision into the CBS family feels like an absolute privilege on so many levels. We’re so excited to work alongside someone that we hold in such high esteem, with Mick being in my humble opinion one of our country’s greatest ever singer-songwriters, and these new releases highlight that he’s still at the peak of his powers with an awesome band at his back.” – Steve Bell, co-owner Coolin’ By Sound

Ahead of a 20-date East Coast Christmas tour, it wouldn’t be Christmas without a Mick Thomas tour; dates are below – and while they toil away on their next full-length album, Mick and the group have decided to christen the new relationship with a 7 track “maxi single” called Back in the Day.

The greatest Australian seven-track maxi single since Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons’ 1978 classic So Young, Back In The Day will feature a mix of new and old originals and some great covers. The EP’s title track will be the next album’s first single, while the EP itself expands upon that song’s premise of looking in the rearview mirror of life with a perfect batch of beautifully chosen and executed covers and reinterpretations relating to the same theme.

New versions of “Houses” and “A Tired Old Hat” shine fresh light on a couple of an undeservedly lost Thomas classics from the past decade. The covers, which include the The Saints’ late ’80s classic “Shipwreck” (something of a tribute to the late Chris Bailey), Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s Ragged Glory highlight “Days That Used To Be”, and the unsung first album Cold Chisel gem “Home & Broken Hearted”, featuring a spunky lead vocal from the Roving Commission’s newest member, Brooke Taylor, reveal something of the diverse influences on Thomas’ songwriting and the band’s approach. Brooke Taylor also takes lead on a gorgeous version of Johnny Thunder’s heartbreaking 1978 ballad “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory”. One of those rare songs that is vividly remembered by everyone who has heard it and an unexpected delight awaiting anyone who hasn’t, “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory” is perhaps going to be the EP’s dark horse, and Brooke, Mick and gang make it their own.

Together the seven songs which constitute Back In The Day combine to become one fascinating and vibrant rumination upon dealing with the passing of time, delivered with both authority and authenticity by this accomplished five-piece band.

“Even though the whole theme of the EP seems to be about looking back, it’s really great to be doing it as a means to move forward,” Thomas laughs. “The whole album that we’ve done which is coming out next year is about people being focussed on what came before. I was originally going to call the album Solastalgia – which is just a term I read in a book which refers to this existential recognition of being attached to a time and place that you can never really attain, like something that’s in the past – but then I found out that Missy Higgins already had an album called that!

“But it just meant that I became really interested in songs that were about looking backwards to some degree, and I had some covers that I knew would fit around the theme so it all came together really quickly and easily.”

Bio

Mick Thomas has been at the coalface of the Australian music scene for four decades – releasing six acclaimed albums throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s with his band Weddings Parties Anything and another ten albums during the subsequent solo career which has continued uninterrupted to this day – and while he’s well-and-truly counted amongst our country’s greatest ever songwriters (WPA’s 1992 single “Father’s Day” won the 1993 ARIA Award for Song Of The Year), over the journey he’s also proved a dab hand at making other people’s songs his own and imbuing them with his own spirit.