All posts by Maynard

General, Maynard, Retro, The Castanet Club, Video

Almost Live From The Castanet Club – Ep 3

Be loud, be proud and prepare ye for the third and final episode of Almost Live from the Castanet Club! from the now closed Castanet Club exhibition.

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!

We bring you a big finish with Newcastle legends Fish Fry getting us off to a roaring start with 24 Hours from Tulsa. Maynard and Zorica demonstrate Rodney Cambridge MBE’s Lamington Recipe (concluding it’s easier to go to the bakery). Finally, Nastassja Bassi haunts us from 1986 with a beautiful version of Wuthering Heights.

Watch our third and final show from Newcastle Museum.

Watch The Castanet Club Comes to YOU!

The Castanet Club facebook page

Get your Castanet Club full colour 110 page book with over 200 photos you haven’t seen…

General, Maynard, The Castanet Club, Video

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!

Watch our second show from Newcastle Museum.

Watch The Castanet Club Comes to YOU!

The Castanet Club facebook page

General, Maynard, The Castanet Club, Video

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 our first show from Newcastle Museum.

Watch The Castanet Club Comes to YOU!

The Castanet Club facebook page

General, Maynard, Retro, Video

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.

Watch all the action live from Maynard International Studios

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.

Tim Ferguson on Maynardarama
Tim Ferguson on Maynardarama
Maynard with Mari Wilson pink tea towel
Maynard with Mari Wilson pink tea towel

Watch previous Castanet Club based video livestreams from August

General, Maynard, Retro, Video

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.

General, Maynard, The Castanet Club, Video

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!

Enjoy the second (and final) Castanet Club Comes to YOU!
A real hi-light from the final show Nastassja Bassi (Jacqueline Amidy) singing Wuthering Heights. It’s as good as the book and a lot shorter.

Watch the first Castanet Club comes to YOU!

Newcastle Museum Exhibition

General, Maynard, Retro, The Castanet Club

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!

Audience outside original Castanet Club 1982
Audience outside original Castanet Club 1982

Watch the second (and final) Castanet Club Comes to You! from 31st July.

Download your free 18 month 2021 -2022 Castanet Club calendar here.

General, Maynard, The Castanet Club

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.

Download your calendar here.

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 book cover
The new Castanet Club book

Castanet Club calendars drying on the line
Castanet Club calendars drying on the line
Maynard, The Castanet Club

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.

Listen to the full interview here

Watch the movie trailer for The Castanet Club exhibition at Newcastle Museum that opens on July 11th.