Support: Bosko & Honey

Legendary UK avante garde musician, film maker and artist Mike Cooper returns to the Far North with a classic Pacific film on his 70th birthday tour.

Cooper, resident in Rome, and touring Australia after shows at Brunswick Music Festival, will be presenting the live soundtrack to the film 'White Shadows in the South Seas', shot in 1928.

The film is based on the 1919 novel of the same name by Frederick O'Brien, who spent a year in the South Pacific with native islanders. It is a powerful story, which was a bitter denunciation of white civilisation and its destructive effects on the lifestyles and cultural traditions of a Polynesian paradise.

The film began production in 1927 as a co-venture between documentary filmmaker Robert Flaherty and MGM.

White Shadows in the South Seas was directed by W.S. Van Dyke and starred Monte Blue and Raquel Torres, and the film is known for being the first MGM picture to be released with a pre-recorded soundtrack.

The central focus of White Shadows in the South Seas is Matthew Lloyd (Monte Blue), an alcoholic doctor who is shanghaied by an unscrupulous pearl trader and winds up being marooned on a Pacific island where the natives have never seen a white man before.

For the past 40 years Mike Cooper has been an international musical explorer, performing and recording, solo and in a number of inspired groupings and a variety of genres.

Initially a folk-blues guitarist and singer songwriter his work has diversified to include improvised and electronic music, live music for silent films, radio art and sound installations.

"Cooper stands out as the man who truly made something of his own out of Country-Blues..." - (The Guardian)

In 1962, as a singer and harmonica player, he co-founded an r&b band The Blues Committee, and the group went on to support greats such as John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Read, and Sonny Boy Williamson.

"Cooper was forging connections between folk and experimental music's long before America got New or Weird..."- (The Wire)

Ukulele duo Bosko & Honey hide in the rainforest of Kuranda, (Queensland, Australia) yet they are famous for their "Ukulele Safari" YouTube videos, in which they travel the globe searching for uke-folk... and a smaller, friendlier world.

With diverse backgrounds in fine arts and DJ culture, the duo bring a unique sensibility to the humble Ukulele, and in the process, they transcend 4-stringed stereo-types, and deliver a tantalising mix of jazz, soul, folk, island, punk and pop.

White Shadows in the South Seas with Mike Cooper takes place on Wed 25th April as an Under House Concert at 13 Barron Falls Road Kuranda. Tix are $12/10 on the door. Doors 6.30pm, Support from 7.00pm, and film at 7.30pm. Refreshments and popcorn available. Limited Numbers. Bookings: Nick: 0403 786 691