Rolling Blackouts Coastal FeverIt all began ten years ago with two mates trading vague ideas back and forth on a Brunswick porch.
“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to involve live music and adventure,” recalls Jack Parsons, the co-founder of Guts Touring and a founding member of The Pretty Littles. “It was just the broadest stroke of an idea.”
At the time, he was chatting to his mate James Clarke, who shared his “drive to do something different.” The lightbulb went off when they found inspiration in Midnight Oil and Warumpi Band’s legendary 1986 Blackfella/Whitefella Tour.
The plan was to revive its ethos of creating opportunities by taking live music to Australia’s most remote and isolated communities.
Together, they then founded Guts Touring, which has been going strong since its creation a decade ago. They carry some mighty alumni, including Amyl And The Sniffers, Bad//Dreems, and Floodlights, as well as acts from the Northern Territory, such as Black Rock Band and James Range Band.
This year’s roster is massive – “really, really epic, there’s no getting around that,” Parsons says. Cherished indie-rock stars Stella Donnelly and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever are going on the road, with Ullah and Docker River Band joining them.
This grand return of the Guts Tour features 11 concerts, almost all of them free to attend.
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The journey kicks off next week on Thursday, May 14th in Wadeye and will conclude after thousands of kilometres travelled for the grand finale in Darwin on Sunday, May 24th.
The line-ups that they’ve cultivated over the years have been a real “source of pride,” Parsons says. “It’s been such a good part of it because you get these terrific people who make music, and we get to see it every night in very different, crazy situations we don’t usually see the bands in.”
Going cross-country in the outback to play music is completely different to the inner-city touring that most bands do, who’d perhaps focus more on the music than the logistics.
“Part of being in a band and touring, for certain people, it can feel a bit monotonous or a bit like déjà vu,” Parsons says. “You’re doing the same things but in different places.”
As a touring musician himself, Parsons admits that it “never gets old,” but understands how that cycle can get monotonous for bands “who tour a lot.” The unpredictable thrill of the Guts Tour has been the solution to make gigging fun again.
“That possibility of doing something different, it’s rejuvenated and recalibrated bands. It takes you back in a way to why you started,” he explains. “It’s fun, you’re with friends, but you can detach from that over time and become more of a small business [when touring].”
The team’s convoy is undoubtedly a spectacle among themselves and for the locals, whose stages are rarely graced by many bands. Everyone involved in the tour rolls up their sleeves and gets into it. “It’s this travelling road show and the camaraderie is the secret ingredient,” Parsons describes it.
There’s also no doubt that it’s an incredibly difficult endeavour. Situations like driving through the night hoping there’s still fuel and the tyres don’t burst, or wading through rough weather conditions may be exciting in retrospect, but in the moment, it’s, as Parsons downplays, “a little bit more frenetic.”
Yet the community and goodwill out in the country make those unpredictable dilemmas navigable and miraculously pay off.
“We’ve had to reach out to heaps of different people along the way, in communities or to those we have very little to do with, but appreciate what we’re trying to do,” Parsons explains. “They all want to see us succeed and want to see the tour work.”
It’s obvious why the Guts Tour is welcomed with open arms – the reality is that in those remote parts of Australia, there are so few opportunities to see live music and for the locals to explore their own musical potential.
“There are so many bands in each community, and this is an opportunity for them to play and perform for their family and friends,” Parsons says. “People are grateful that we get out there and put on a show.”
He adds: “Live music is live music – it connects pretty much with everyone, everywhere. It’s good to take it to places that deserve more of it.” Parsons and the rest of the crew are indeed successfully inspiring remote and outer regional communities with music, given that the program is still alive and well all these years later.
There’s also a sustainable element to the concerts – each will use a solar-powered PA, courtesy of Alex Pinte, founder of Wildlive, an initiative advocating for environmentally-friendly live music production.
“The sound system sounds amazing,” Parsons raves about Pinte’s input. “It uses no energy, the same energy as a kettle boiling.”
Pinte’s system allows the team to be flexible with where they set up, such as in the middle of footy ovals, where they normally would’ve had to run a generator or take power from the grid. Not only is great music going around, but they’re setting a fantastic example of how live events can be sustainable – clearly, there’s no excuse.
“If you can have a solar-powered PA about four-and-a-half hours west of Alice Springs, you can have one in Collingwood too,” Parsons says.
Evidently, there’s so much incredible music out there, but it’s hard for the bands in the bush with little support and infrastructure access to find their audiences. That’s why the Guts Tour exists – to bridge those gaps while also having the time of their lives.
Parsons brilliantly sums it up: “For an Australian music scene to be an Australian music scene, it needs to encompass all of Australia – the whole place, not just the east coast.”
Guts Touring 2026 kicks off on May 14th, with tickets to their Katherine and Darwin events on sale now.
Guts Touring
Docker River Band
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
Stella Donnelly With Ullah
Thursday, May 14th – Wadeye, NT
Friday, May 15th – Palumpa, NT
Saturday, May 16th – Peppimenarti, NT
Sunday, May 17th – Emu Point, NT
Monday, May 18th – Katherine, NT (Ticketed)
Tuesday, May 19th – Beswick, NT
Wednesday, May 20th – Gapuwiyak, NT
Thursday, May 21st – Bulman Weemol, NT
Friday, May 22nd – Jabiru, NT (New Location)
Saturday, May 23rd – Gunbalanya, NT
Sunday, May 24th – Darwin, NT (Ticketed)
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
