Tycho Brahe’s very first live show was 8 April 1995, 30 years ago!!! And here's some photographic proof!!! The gig was at Brisbane’s Institute of Modern Art, as part of local label Transcom's “Cyberia” event. The lineup consisted of me on lead vocals and bass guitar, and Georgina on keyboards and vocals, and this set the blueprint for the band moving forward as the technology and lineup expanded and evolved around us.
Georgina had a Korg DS-8 and Roland Juno-106 onstage on an actual keyboard stand, also controlling an Ensoniq EPS16+ rackmount sampler (we had to load floppy disks into it between songs). We didn’t have a rack case for that so it sat very precariously on an X-stand constructed from a kerbside rubbish ironing board (spray painted black). My Alesis Quadraverb was stacked on top of that for processing the bass via a Boss distortion pedal - a rudimentary version of the same rig I still use today. My bass was a cheap copy of a Fender, brand name “Ranger”, so I covered the “R” with some white tape so it instead read “anger”!
The setlist is lost to the mists of time, but it very likely consisted of an intro piece called Assimilating The ‘80s, followed by Armistice. The set probably also included Sanctify, Leap, Total Kaos, Seventeen, and White Room - which would have had the entire “beware the beast man” monologue from The Planet of The Apes as a pre-recorded intro…
The band lineup has changed and evolved over the years…we’re looking at you Stephen Birt, Alison Barclay, Lana Gishkariany, Francis Tohill, Andy Walls, Thomas Evans, and Sam Morrison. It has been quite a journey so far - but we’re not done yet! As long as we’re enjoying what we’re doing, we’ll keep doing it…not sure if there’s another 30 years in the tank but we’ll give it a shot ha ha!!!
