Maynard is questioned about his musical choices by Charlie Fatt. Dig some Bananarama, Right Said Fred, Electric Six and The Castanet Club finally together on the same show.
Category Archives: Maynard
Almost Live From The Castanet Club – Ep 2
Sit back, put on your loudest shirt, and enjoy! Newcastle Museum is proud to bring you Almost Live from the Castanet Club!
With current public health orders preventing visitors from experiencing our special exhibition The Castanet Club – An exhibition you can dance to! in person, we’re bringing the fun to you with this limited release variety show.
In true Castanet Club collaborative style, we’ve gathered talented musicians, videographers, sound engineers and visual artists to produce a modern take on a classic Novocastrian attitude: get your friends together, have fun, make art and share it!
In today’s show Maynard goes on a deep dive into the complex history of and uses for bunting with Newcastle Museum’s head bunter Emma and ask who on a Royal Navy ship is known as the “bunts”? Lance Norton overcomes a shambolic start to a Tom Jones classic at the Sydney Trade Union Club in December 1984, and we finish off with high operatic drama from the Nutbush Seating Limits singing The Legend of Xanadu!
Almost Live From The Castanet Club – Ep 1
Sit back, put on your most outrageous jumper, and enjoy! Newcastle Museum is proud to bring you Almost Live from the Castanet Club!
With current public health orders preventing visitors from experiencing our special exhibition The Castanet Club – An exhibition you can dance to! in person, we’re bringing the fun to you with this limited release variety show.
In true Castanet Club collaborative style, we’ve gathered talented musicians, videographers, sound engineers and visual artists to produce a modern take on a classic Novocastrian attitude: get your friends together, have fun, make art and share it!
For our first episode of Almost Live The Medley Sisters join us from 1988 and get into a banjo duel – except with a violin and an accordion. Maynard makes a special Castanet Club themed cocktail with scientist Catherine and Sprout Catering & Kitchen bartender Harry (they also chat about sedimentary rocks). We round off this electric experiment in almost live entertainment with The Lairs, who take us all the way to Las Vegas!
Watch the August Maynardarama video livestream
Saturday night Maynardarama broadcast to the world a message of foolishness and colourful tea towels wrapped in the grooves that are so needed these days.
Enjoy a trampoline with Ann-Margret, a casually undone bow tie with Tom jones or maybe marvel at Mari Wilson changing her outfit in under 25 seconds on live TV. Tim Ferguson drops in to monkey around AND International (but mainly NSW) Tea Towel News.


Watch previous Castanet Club based video livestreams from August
Maynardarama video stream Saturday night
A final video livestream to finish off this current series of live broadcasts from Maynard International Studios.
A show full of videos, foolishness and fluff that I found down the back of my couch.
Expect some Ann Margret, Tom Jones, Doug Parkinson going wonderfully cowboy in 1979, Tim Ferguson and yes Mari Wilson and her tea towel.
Here’s the link to watch that will be active around 8.30pm Saturday:
https://www.mixcloud.com/live/dj-maynard/
Watch the previous shows featuring The Castanet Club video and photo archives.
The Castanet Club Comes to YOU! – (Final)
Maynard brings the colour and movement that was The Castanet Club 1982-1991 into your home (Final show)*.
Tune in one last time. Hang onto your Lana Caruso hat, because you’ll need it for this show.
Videos and songs from Castanet Club archives, as well as some photos even we’ve never seen. See the Newcastle Museum exhibition from afar, close up and live from Maynard International Studios. Plus videos of a few of the artists that influenced The Castanet Club.
See what can be done with just some really old slide photos and VHS tapes.
Lance, Rodney, Warren, Kid Paganini, Nastassja Bassi, Jodi Shields and Leslie Fountain will be on our final show this Saturday night.
*show may not go as planned. Some viewers may be underwhelmed.
Here is the second show from Saturday 31st July, the final Castanet Club Come to YOU!
The Castanet Club Comes to YOU!
Maynard brings the colour and movement that was The Castanet Club 1982-1991 into your home (for 61 very odd minutes)*.
Videos and songs from Castanet Club archives, as well as some photos even we’ve never seen. The Castanets make themselves at home at your place. See the Newcastle Museum exhibition from afar, close up and live from Maynard International Studios. Plus videos of a few of the artists that influenced The Castanet Club.
Using only sticky tape and a Gestetner machine see what Maynard can do with some really old photo slides and VHS tapes.
*show may not go as planned. Some viewers may be underwhelmed.
Here is the first show from Saturday 17th July, The Castanet Club Comes to YOU!

Watch the second (and final) Castanet Club Comes to You! from 31st July.
Download your free 18 month 2021 -2022 Castanet Club calendar here.
The Castanet Club 2021 -2022 calendar
Your 18 month Castanet Club calendar is here for you to enjoy and print out. You can see The Castanet Club exhibition at Newcastle Museum July 11th through to October 2nd 2021.
This will open in a new window (probably), then right click and choose Save As
How about some out of context quotes about The Castanet Club 1982 – 1991 from the people that were there.
The only full colour book about The Castanet Club is now available.
Steve Abbott (Johnny Goodman) – “If you make friends with the audience before the show, it makes it harder for them to dislike you.” “We were excessively daggy”.
Warren Coleman (Bowling Man) – “We had a show that would work in a pub or a theatre”.
Glenn Butcher (Lance Norton) – “The first show we played outside Newcastle at the Adelaide Fringe festival in 1984 was 3 hours long. We did everything.”
Jane Turner (Kath & Kim) – “When I first saw The Castanet Club at The Last Laugh in Melbourne, I fell in love with Lance Norton’s voice.”
Angela Moore (Betty & Shirley Purvis) – “Shirley Purvis was based on my grandmother from Yowie Bay.”
Mikey (Elvis Presle) – “The Castanet Club never had a bad gig. How many acts can say that?”
Russell Cheek (Tron Wexler & Douggie) – “The greatest comedy cabaret big band in the world that never made any money.”
Jacqueline Amidy (Nastassaja Bassi) – “Everything was much bigger than it should have been.”
Kathy Bluff (Kid Paganini) – “We were always anchored in popular culture and retro.”
John Doyle (Roy Slaven) – “The Castanet Club was larger than the sum of its parts.”


The Castanet Club Exhibition opens at Newcastle Museum July 11th.
Thanks to Tracy Mac and everyone at Newcastle Live Radio for my first interview about the upcoming Castanet Club exhibition at Newcastle Museum that is planned to run from 11th July to October 2nd.
We talk about the little I know about the exhibition, early Castanet Club musical influences and intersection of voyeurism and Romper Room.
The only full colour action packed book on the history of The Castanet Club is out this week. It’s selling like lamingtons at the North Bondi RSL Club.
Look busy! Bowling Man is coming.
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Warren Coleman, who played Bowling Man in The Castanet Club, drops in to Maynard International Studios to return his VHS player. Can Maynard look like he has a life with only a Barbara Eden photo and a 1982 calendar?
Not a chance, but enjoy this 2021 episode of The Odd Couple.
Warren has had an illustrious career acting, writing, acting some more, writing some more and then editing and writing. Which won him an Academy Award for Happy Feet in 2006.
Warren and Maynard talk about none of this, but if you want the hot ticket to the best Lost In Space and Star Trek episodes we have them for you.


The Newcastle Museum exhibition The Castanet Club: an exhibition you can dance to! opens on July 11th and continues till October 31st. Come see and hear what it was all about from 1982 – 1991.
Sandman remembers The Castanet Club
The big bumper book in full colour on The Castanet Club