Robert Forster has two new interviews: with Stuart Coupe on Dirt Music, and discussing Guy Clark's Old No. 1 on My Favourite Album with Jeremy Dylan.

Robert's Belfast show on Thursday 23rd March 2023 is previewed with an interview in the Belfast Telegraph.

Read the documentary press release.

The latest issue of Mojo Magazine has a major interview with Robert Forster.

Robert discusses his recording career with The Go-Betweens and solo, and his latest album The Candle And The Flame, due for release on 3rd February 2023.

This issue of Mojo is out now in the UK.

Greetings from Brisbane

Dear friends, pull up chairs, this is a difficult and lengthy post. It is tough news that I wish to share with you and not for you to pick up second hand on the internet over the next months.

In early July last year, Karin Bäumler, my wife and musical companion for thirty-two years, was diagnosed with a confronting case of ovarian cancer. It was a time of shock and grief, and that same month, she embarked on a regime of chemotherapy treatment.

Ever since we met, Karin and I have sung and played music together in our home, and in these dark days we turned to music once again. I had a batch of new songs I’d written over the last years, and we started playing them together. Our son Louis often dropped in for a meal and a chat and soon he began joining us on guitar. One night, when sitting cross-legged on the couch, after we had played a song, Karin looked up from her xylophone and said, ‘When we play music, is the only time I forget I have cancer.’ That was a big moment.

In the meantime some of our very kind Brisbane friends had formed a cooking roster, leaving meals at our front door to support us through this time. One of them was Adele Pickvance, former Go-Betweens and Warm Nights bass player. On one of her meal delivery trips, I asked her to bring her bass and an amp along. She pulled up a chair in our lounge room and fell right in on the new songs.

In October, Karin was scheduled for surgery. We booked a studio, and on September 27th, the four of us sitting in a circle, recorded 10 songs live in 7 hours. Whatever would happen in the future, we would always have the tape.

Over the next months, when Karin was strong enough and Covid numbers were low, we booked odd days in the studio. Sometimes our daughter, Loretta, would come along and join us and we brought in friends to help us, too. Karin was driving the album and listening to what we’d done on each session, gave us weeks of enjoyment and a place we could retreat to, away from hospital visits and scans and blood tests. In early March, with her chemotherapy course just finished, we did our last day in the studio.

The songs we recorded formed an album that will come out early next year, and this Wednesday, the 19th, we will release a single. But we wanted you to know the story of the creation of the record first. Why it exists. Why these musicians are playing on it. Why there isn’t layers of production, instead a live, catch a moment feel to the sound. Two of the songs on the album are from that September 27 recording. We didn’t know we’d started an album but we had, in the shadow of Karin’s hospital visits.

With a challenging year behind her, Karin is feeling strong and positive now and she can’t wait for our music to go out of our house and into the world. It may seem strange making an album in these circumstances and looking back, we really don’t know how we did it, but we do know that it helped us just so much as a family. It was done in drops and gave us this other reality we could live in. Something that music is great in giving.

In the slow process of the album’s recording, we didn’t inform a wide range of family and friends of what we were doing, and we ask for their understanding in the delivery of this news.

The album is called “The Candle And The Flame”. We hope you will enjoy it!

Fondest Regards from Karin and myself,

Robert

Robert Forster plays live shows in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Austria in March 2023, and in Australia in May 2023:

11th March 2023: STRATHAVEN, Strathaven Hotel tickets
12th March 2023: EDINBURGH, Mash House tickets
14th March 2023: YORK, Crescent tickets
15th March 2023: HEBDEN BRIDGE, Trades Club tickets
16th March 2023: WOLVERHAMPTON, Newhampton Arts Centre tickets
17th March 2023: OXFORD, Bullingdon tickets
20th March 2023: LONDON, Lafayette tickets
21st March 2023: BRIGHTON, Komedia tickets
23rd March 2023: BELFAST, Empire tickets
24th March 2023: DUBLIN, Button Factory tickets
27th March 2023: HAMBURG, Nachtasyl tickets
28th March 2023: BERLIN, Festsaal Kreuzberg tickets
30th March 2023: KOLN, Stadtgarten tickets
31st March 2023: LANDSBERG, Stadttheater tickets
1st April 2023: WIEN, Akzent Theater tickets

12th May 2023: ADELAIDE, Trinity Sessions tickets
13th May 2023: FREMANTLE, Freo Social tickets
18th May 2023: CASTLEMAINE, Theatre Royal tickets
19th May 2023: BRUNSWICK, Brunswick Ballroom tickets
20th May 2023: ST KILDA, Memo Music Hall tickets
21st May 2023: ARCHIES CREEK, Archies Creek Hotel tickets
26th May 2023: BRISBANE, Princess Theatre tickets
27th May 2023: SYDNEY, Factory Theatre tickets
28th May 2023: NEWCASTLE, Lizottes tickets

Tickets for all shows are on sale now.

The press release for the album and tour can be read here.

The second single from the album, Tender Years, is out now and can be seen on YouTube.

The first single from the album, She's A Fighter, is out now and can be seen on YouTube.

Please note that Robert's UK tour scheduled for October 2021 has been cancelled.

Robert Forster is the guest on the latest episode of the Nakedly Examined Music podcast. In the podcast, Robert discusses No Fame from Inferno (2019), Here Comes a City from Oceans Apart (2005), On My Block from Before Hollywood (1982) and Let Me Imagine You from Songs to Play (2015).

The podcast can be heard at Nakedly Examined Music.

On Saturday 13th February 2021, Robert Forster and band played a live concert for Bavaria's Bayern2 Nachtmix. Robert played seven of his solo songs as well as three Go-Betweens songs and three cover versions of songs by David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen and Sparifankal. Robert was supported by his wife Karen Bäumler, Luke McDonald and the Forster Family Singers.

The show can currently be heard on the Bayern2 website.

On Sunday 17th January, Robert Forster will be the guest of Tim's Twitter Listening Party. Robert will discuss his debut solo album Danger In The Past track-by-track as we play our copies, starting at 9pm GMT, 4pm EST, 1pm PST, or 7am Brisbane time (Monday morning for those living in this time zone). Robert's comments will be available on Twitter at this time.

To coincide with this event, the recent remasters of Robert's first two solo albums, Danger In The Past and Calling From A Country Phone, are available on CD as a bundle from Needle Mythology for a reduced price (until 24th January 2021).

Domino are looking at the possibility of repressing G Stands For Go-Betweens Volume 1. They write:

"While making no guarantees, we are entertaining the notion of doing a final re-press of the first volume. We know there's some demand out there but it would be good to get a picture of just how much. Unfortunately, these box sets are not inexpensive to make and between things like Brexit and COVID-19 getting increasingly so.

"We don't want to go down the whole road of Kickstarter/Pledge type thing, but there's a bare minimum we would need to sell to comfortably reach to make it a worthwhile endeavor. So, we're taking an informal poll ... to see just how much more demand there might be. So, ... if you would be strongly interested in a future purchase if we were to proceed" ... then please leave a reply to the message from Domino on Facebook.

The Needle Mythology remasters of Robert Forster's first two solo albums, Danger In The Past (1990) and Calling From A Country Phone (1992), are now available digitally for streaming or download. The bonus tracks for each album are also available, as separate digital singles. The albums were remastered by Sean McGee at Abbey Road.

Needle Mythology co-founder Pete Paphides says, “The remastering has dramatically revealed a depth and physicality to these recordings that casts new light on Robert’s intentions for these records. Calling From A Country Phone, in particular, is a revelation. It’s as though an invisible membrane between listener and songs has been removed.” Robert adds, “Listening now, I am struck by its boldness and beauty – we really did go out on a limb.”

The albums are available now at:

More information on these reissues can be found on the Needle Mythology Facebook page.

Needle Mythology have announced their reissues of Robert Forster's first two solo albums, Danger In The Past (1990) and Calling From A Country Phone (1992), on CD and 180gm vinyl. This will be the first reissue of Danger In The Past and the first vinyl issue of Calling From A Country Phone. Each album includes two bonus tracks, as extra tracks on the CDs or as a bonus 7" with the vinyl versions. The first 150 copies of each vinyl LP ordered from the Needle Mythology webshop will come with a lyric sheet signed by Robert. The albums include new liner notes from Robert and previously unpublished photographs.

The albums were remastered by Sean McGee at Abbey Road. Needle Mythology co-founder Pete Paphides says, “The remastering has dramatically revealed a depth and physicality to these recordings that casts new light on Robert’s intentions for these records. Calling From A Country Phone, in particular, is a revelation. It’s as though an invisible membrane between listener and songs has been removed.” Robert adds, “Listening now, I am struck by its boldness and beauty – we really did go out on a limb.”

The albums can be ordered now from the Needle Mythology webshop.

More information on these reissues can be found on the Needle Mythology Facebook page.

Robert Forster has been posting his 2019 tour diary to his Facebook page.

The complete diary can be downloaded here as a pdf.

Domino have announced the release of G Stands For Go-Betweens Volume 2, the second installment in the anthology series documenting The Go-Betweens. The box covers the band's creative output in the latter half of the 1980s and contains five vinyl LPs, five CDs, and a 112-page book with historical liner notes from Robert Forster, archival photographs and pieces from guest writers.

The box contains the first vinyl re-pressings in thirty years of Liberty Belle And The Black Diamond Express, Tallulah and 16 Lovers Lane, all remastered from the original analogue tapes. An 18-song live double LP of the band performing in London in 1987 is included, as are five CDs of b-sides, radio sessions and demos.

The box is available to order now from Domino Mart.

Robert Forster discusses the work of the Go-Betweens in this period with Pete Paphides:

Robert Forster's first album in four years, Inferno, was released on 1st March 2019 by Tapete Records on vinyl, limited deluxe vinyl, CD and download.

Tracks on Inferno are:

Crazy Jane On The Day Of Judgement; No Fame; Inferno (Brisbane in Summer); The Morning; Life Has Turned A Page; Remain; I'll Look After You; I'm Gonna Tell It; One Bird In The Sky

The album has received reviews from Mojo Magazine (****), Record Collector (****), The Guardian (****), Uncut (9/10) and The Irish Times (*****).

The artist known as What has won the Doug Moran national portrait prize for his painting of Robert Forster. The painting was chosen from nearly 1,000 entrants and awarded the $150,000 Doug Moran portrait prize at Juniper Hall in Sydney on Wednesday, 30th October 2019.

All 30 finalists of the Doug Moran prize, including the portrait of Robert Forster, will be on show in Sydney's Juniper Hall from Friday 1st November 2019.

Further information on this story is at the Guardian website.

Grant & I has been named Book Of The Year 2017 by Uncut and Book Of The Year 2017 by Mojo Magazine.

Grant & I is the story of the friendship and collaboration of Grant McLennan and Robert Forster, who gave Australia The Go-Betweens, one of our best and most influential bands.

To find out more about the book, and to buy it, in Autralia please visit the Penguin Books website; in the UK visit Omnibus website.

'The truest and strangest poet of his generation.' Nick Cave

'An odyssey of friendship, ambition and the struggle of art. Clear-eyed and compelling.' Paul Kelly

'Books by Bob Dylan and Patti Smith have set a new benchmark for the music memoir in recent years. Forster’s book sits well in their company.' Loudmouth e-zine

Links to reviews of Grant & I are on the Grant & I page.

Grant & I was published in the UK by Omnibus on 17th July 2017 and will be publishedin Germany by Heyne on 30th October 2017.

Signed copies of Grant & I are available via Pledge Music.

Robert appeared on BBC TV's 'Newsnight' programme on 12th October 2017: