Aussie songstress Kate Miller-Heidke has collaborated with rock parody group The Beards for possibly this year’s best Christmas jingle I’m Growing A Beard Downstairs For Christmas, all in the name for charity.
Miller-Heidke put the wheels in motion for the unlikely paring when she covered The Beard’s You Should Consider Having Sex With A Bearded Man on stage at the 2012 APRA Awards, spurring The Beards to then accompany her on her “Nightflight” album tour.
Miller-Heidke invited the group’s lead singer Johann Beardraven, with his trusty saxophone in hand, into the studio to make bearded innuendo-laden magic.
The result is I’m Growing A Beard Downstairs For Christmas by Kate Miller-Heidke featuring The Beards, a Christmas single addressing the serious issues of manscaping and clamscaping, all with a hairy sideways smile.
It delivers its important personal grooming message with jangling sleigh bells and ding-dongs merrily on high, not to mention a touch of 80’s power ballad saxophone.
“The Beards opened for me on tour a couple of years ago, and some of their fans heckled me for not having a beard…this song is my revenge on them.
“It also taps into my sick love of Christmas songs. It’s one of the poppiest, most upbeat songs I’ve ever written and it’s my dream that it gets played at Westfield during extended Christmas shopping hours,” Miller-Heidke said.
All proceeds from the single will go to Bowel Cancer Australia and their annual fundraising effort Decembeard. That charity wants people all over the country to grow their beards, be it downstairs or upstairs, to raise money to fight bowel cancer and help save lives.
Anyone who participates in Decembeard, or sponsors someone involved, will receive a free download of I’m Growing A Beard Downstairs For Christmas.
Beyond Christmas, Miller-Heidke will appear at the Sydney Festival’s season of her opera “The Rabbits”, continuing on from sold-out runs in Perth and Melbourne.
She will also be appearing with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, performing a suite of symphonic pop songs at Mona Foma Festival in Hobart in January.
The songstress is keen to get back on the road to perform material of her own, announcing a tour of capital cities and selected regional centres in February and March in the new year.
Audiences can also expect to experience a piece from her acclaimed musical “The Rabbits”, a new cover or two, plus songs from her most recent record “O Vertigo!”, as well as earlier material from across her varied career.
“I have some slightly bent new songs I'd love to play, as well as revisiting some older stuff and a snippet or two from The Rabbits.
“I'm really looking forward to playing in these gorgeous venues before going into studio hibernation next year,” Miller-Heidke said.
To donate to Decembeard and purchase I’m Growing A Beard Downstairs For Christmas click HERE
Kate Miller-Heidke Tour Dates
Thursday 11th February
The Byron Theatre, Byron Bay (All Ages)
Friday 12th February
Ipswich Civic Centre, Ipswich (All Ages)
Sunday 14th February
The Triffid, Brisbane
Thursday 18th February
The Factory Theatre, Sydney (All Ages)
Friday 19th February
Laycock Street Theatre, Gosford (All Ages)
Saturday 20th February
Estonian House, Melbourne
Wednesday 2nd March
The Spiegeltent - Garden Of Unearthly Delights, Adelaide (All Ages)
Friday 4th March
J-Shed - Bathers Beach, Fremantle
Wednesday 9th March
Montrose Town Centre, Montrose (All Ages)
Friday 11th March
Burrinja Cultural Centre, Upwey (All Ages)
Saturday 12th March
Port Fairy Folk Festival, Port Fairy (All Ages)
Tickets HERE
The Beards have announced that they have been forced to change venues for their World Beard Day event on the 7th of September due to unscheduled building works associated with the development next...
Last Friday Kate Miller-Heidke announced that her 4th album, ‘O Vertigo!’, due for release in March next year, will be her first independently-released album.
Arguably the best beard related band in the whole of Australia and quite possibly the world return with an album and tour dates set to makes us all jealous of their glorious facial hair.
