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Bluejuice

In 1984 Bluejuice rose from the ashes of one of Australia’s favourite pop bands, Sherbet.

After singer Daryl Braithwaite left to pursue his solo career, the band found themselves struggling with significant gambling and narcotic debts. Although Howzat was an international hit, the royalties dried up and the boys were getting desperate. One night in Bangkok changed all that. Drummer Ned Molesworth, keyboardist Jerry Craib and bass player Jamie Cibej found themselves in a seedy strip club when they chanced a meeting that would change their lives.

Without warning, two of the most beautiful female impersonators took to the stage and hypnotised the audience with a slow, seductive snake-dance. The boys were speechless. The she-males were wanton, blistering. The audience rushed the stage, and the lady-boys took a back door out. Jerry was waiting, and ushered them into a tuk-tuk. Plying them with opium and the promise of clean, safe gender-realignment surgery, he coaxed Xinxui (now Jake Stone) and Pataks (now Stav) back to Sydney, Australia.

Rehearsals for the new band began in earnest, and Bluejuice was born.

Sporting an aggressive, party-oriented mix of rock, hip hop, electro and disco, the five member group is in its element making people dance in a retarded, unselfconscious way. Producer Jim Masheder likened the band’s sound to “Lil’ Jon playing in a rock band”, an accurate representation of the more aggressive tracks on their debut LP, Problems. Elsewhere, expect to find downtempo hip hop, ska-tinged pop and pounding disco, all laced with the band’s winningly tongue-in-cheek attitude.

Problems earned them a 4 star review in Rolling Stone, won them the Red Bull AMP Award 2008 – “In Recognition Of Outstanding Potential” and $15, 000 (which they are currently snorting). The first single from that album, Vitriol, came #11 in Triple J Hottest 100 in 2007 with follow up singles The Reductionist and Phantom Boogie gaining them similar high rotation loving on Triple J

bluejuice have played the Big Day Out, Playground Weekender, Come Together and Splendour In The Grass and supported major names like The Specials, Tricky, Mercury Prize winner Dizzee Rascal.

Not bad for a bunch of ex-Sherbet band members, and two greedy she-males, eh?