The Sticker Club: Destination Rock and Roll Station OUT NOW

Five years between albums is a long time but fans don’t need to wait any longer as The Sticker Club’s new album Destination Rock and Roll Station is out now through ABC Kids (streaming) and Half A Cow (compact disc).

Proving that they can play two types of music – rock & roll and country – The Sticker Club put on their best Grand Ole Opry outfits to perform their latest single Choc Chip Choo Choo Train. The song is about a train that delivers choc chips (and other yummy sweets) to Ice Cream Mountain. This train is no ordinary train as it runs on choc chips and instead of steam coming out of the engine’s chimney, it’s fairy floss! The song was inspired by a famous Australian song from the 60s (of course!). The Sticker Club’s Nic says, “When I was a young kid growing up in Canberra, I used to love the imagery of Living In A Child’s Dream’ by the Masters Apprentices where they sang about chocolate tree trunks and cherries dotted on the slopes of a mountain that is made out of ice cream. I wanted to recreate this scene to – hopefully - give today’s kids a similar magical place.”

“Earth To Nigel” was released earlier this year and features the newest Sticker Club member Ruby Firmstone playing her guitar with a device called an E-bow. which creates a magnetic drone out of the guitar. It’s a song about trying to get someone’s attention. They may be standing right in front of you and are just not listening. “Come inside! It’s dinner time!” you’re shouting. No response. The Sticker Club have turned that frustration into a pop song, originally inspired by hearing a mum say to her son, “Charlie, off the log and watch out for the goanna!” (whilst camping in a NSW South Coast National Park).

The album’s first single “Soup and Buttery Bread” is a song about dinner-time where they suggest a whole range of meals when all the kid wants is soup and buttery bread. It’s that simple.

The only cover song on the album is a version of the Lemonheads “Being Around”, which was written by Evan Dando and Australian Tom Morgan. Evan is quoted as saying it is “a children’s song sort of about ambiguity” and Nic - who played bass on the original track - had always wanted to record the song with the Sticker Club. Their jaunty version was inspired by the late 70s new wave band The Reels and singer Nellie nails this tune, making the pleas from inanimate objects seem real.

The Sticker Club, from Sydney, have been playing their own songs for kids of all ages since 2012. Think the Archies-via-Chuck Berry. The band are lead singer Nellie Afford with Nic Dalton on guitar and bass, Ben Whitten on guitar, Damien Cassidy on Farfisa and bass, Alison Galloway on the drums and teenager Ruby Firmstone, who plays guitar and trombone. One of the treats that the Sticker Club deliver is their determination to make music that both children and adults will enjoy with their unique brand of 60s-inspired bubblegum pop music (with a healthy dose of wah-wah guitar).

The Sticker Club have hosted the regular It’s A Family Affair at the Petersham Bowling Club since 2012 and have also played the 2019 Fairgrounds Festival in Berry, the Dress Up Attack Festival in 2013 (supporting Justine Clarke), the Summer Hill School, Ferncourt and Yeo Park Infants fetes and the Inner West Music Festival. The band describe themselves as “a bit different to other kids’ bands because we’ve got the double wah-wah guitars and we’re quite rock and roll,kind of like 60s garage meets Don Spencer.”