Boris’ speech from Friday night
YIEEWWWWWWW! Hello Gundy!
Good evening, Councillors, family, friends, fans and intrigued and slightly nervous punters that have stepped out of their comfort zones to check out a Heavy Metal Show! Well done to you and Welcome!
I know we have people that have travelled from Brisbane, Moree, Glenn Innes, The Gold Coast and Toowoomba among other places to be here tonight – so thank you all for your effort and enthusiasm.
Most of you guys know me – My name is Boris Billing, I’m a Gundy local, a husband, a father, a son, and a business owner. But what some of you may not have known is that I am also half of the creative force behind Brimstone a heavy metal band.
A lot of you guys remember my rock band Weapon Head but don’t really know too much about Brimstone – and so I wanted to give you a run down on where we have come from – and also where we are heading.
So where was Brimstone born? Well actually – I guess it was born through Weapon Head in a way. After a long successful run of shows, tours, albums and videos – Weapon Head had reached a point where we all needed to change direction and try something different.
And so the band decided to call it a day with the original line-up and I advertised nationally for new players.
I organised auditions – and the very first guitar player that I auditioned was none other than my partner in crime here tonight Mr. Pete Black!
As soon as Pete and I got in the room together – me on the drums and Pete on the guitar – we knew we had some real musical electricity happening. I remember saying to Pete at the audition “So which song do you want to play man – which one did you learn?” and his reply was “whatever you like – I’ve learnt all of them!”
After playing with Pete that day – I knew I had my man – and so Blackers was the new guitarist for Weapon Head.
And so at that time we had this ridiculous tour of Australia booked for February of 2011 – the plan was to play 50 shows in 54 days. We had the tour booked and also had a European/UK Tour partly booked for later in the year.
Things were looking great for the band – but things were not looking great on the home front. It was very hard on my wife Helen at the time who was looking after my daughters Mia and Ada who were only 8 and 6 at the time.
And so I made the decision to focus on my family which was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life, apart from Marrying Helen of course. I called Pete and explained what was happening and he completely understood where I was coming from.
He didn’t hold any grudges – and we remained friends.
Moving on 12 months – things had settled down at home and I wanted to reach out to Pete to see if he wanted to start a new casual project with no pressure, no tours, no deadlines or obligations and just write the kind of music that we liked – something that worked from our family and work lives, for ourselves and for our enjoyment. It was literally refreshing to just throw some ideas around and see what happened.
This – my friends was the actual beginning of Brimstone!
2 dudes writing songs for the fun of it.
We slowly but surely started putting some songs together – Pete would send me the music – I would write lyrics and add the drums and so on and so forth.
We were just going to record these ourselves in a very modest way.
But as the songs were being written – we realised that were onto something – this project needed to be professionally recorded. And so in 2014 our debut album “Raise a Glass” was released.
We received some excellent album reviews, got some online traction and then decided that we would put a full 5 piece live band behind the material and see how it translated on the stage. Turns out that it translated pretty bloody well!
We started rehearsing in Brisbane and soon had our first run of shows booked for Australia Day long weekend 2015. These shows were received well and soon we were applying for more gigs, festivals and international supports.
Not long after this we were selected to open up for Legendary Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach at Eatons Hill Hotel in Brisbane – this was a huge step up for the band and we definitely rose to the occasion.
Immediately after this we played our first shows in Sydney and Melbourne to support our album release – these shows also went down well.
A few months after this we were selected to play on the main stage at Dead of Winter festival at The Jubilee Hotel. This celebration of the dark arts was the perfect platform for Brimstone to showcase our wares to a larger audience – and we definitely came away with a few more fans after the performance.
The next 2 years we played a few local shows and then in 2017 we did the East Coast of Australia again in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne for UBERfest.
These shows also went down very well. We were slowly but surely growing our audience base.
After these shows Pete and I began to write again – ideas started to come and we just wrote and collaborated as time and our lives permitted – no mad rush.
Enter 2019 and obviously the world closed down for 2 years with COVID.
When things opened up again we had a healthy amount of material to start working on and we were keen to get back in the studio.
More songs were flowing and over the next 2 year period the new album was recorded in Brisbane.
After we recorded this album – we wanted to give it the best chance of succeeding – and so we decided to go about looking for Management to help us navigate the musical business battlefield.
In 2023 we signed an International Management deal with American company Extreme Management Group who are home to heavy hitters like Suffocation and Cattle Decapitation. This partnership has been a very beneficial one, with many lessons learned and new relationships forged.
One of the main reasons we wanted to go down this path was to se of we could secure a record deal for the new album and see how the fans took to it.
We are very pleased to report that we have recently scored a European Record Deal with the new album and it will be released later in the year. We can’t say who have signed with just yet, but I can guarantee you that this will be a huge step forward for us.
2023 was amazing for the live band – in August we scored the main support for Swedish Pop/Rock 7 piece Juggernaut The Night Flight Orchestra and then finished the year off in December opening up for American Thrash Metal Legends Metal Church.
We have also just snagged the biggest International support in our career in a couple of months time – and it’s still a secret at this point – so contractually I can’t tell you who it. But I can tell you that its gonna be one hell of a show!
Speaking of which – we’re gonna do our best to give you Legends one right now!
Pete and I are very excited with the live band
So remember guys that we are shooting the film clip tomorrow night here at 7pm so come on back down in your formal wear – as if you were going to a night at the opera / orchestra
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Goondiwindi Regional Council and RADF The Rural Arts Development Fund – who have made this entire weekend possible. We are very grateful for this opportunity to bring our Heavy Metal Show to town and have the opportunity to shoot a film clip here in the region is amazing. Thankyou to Will,Gal and Gary from Pinknoise Audio for their amazing Production, Thankyou to James Latter and his film crew for making this a reality, thankyou to Laura, James and the Cinema Staff for all of the positivity and help, thankyou to Mark and Maree Griffith from Gundy signs, thankyou to Pete Johnson and Benita Klowss for acting in the clip, special thanks to the Gundy Stet High School P & C who are running the bar this weekend – all proceeds are a fund raiser for the school – so please get behind that
thankyou to the live band along with Pete Black on lead guitar, Dane Perry on Rhythm Guitar, Chris Arthur on Bass and Jackson Caswell on drums for just being EPIC, and last but not least my beautiful wife Helen and my lovely daughters Mia and Ada who always support me in my musical misadventures. I’d just like to finish up here with a very special welcome also to my Mum and Dad who have joined us for a night of Heavy Metal Chaos! It’s very special to have you both here tonight!
O.K – so that’s enough blabbering on from me – please charge your glasses we will be hitting the stage very soon!
Cheers!
