Tripod (band)

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Tripod
Tripod performing at Falls Festival, 2007
Background information
Origin	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Genre(s)	Parody Acoustic Rock Comedy rock Geek rock
Years active	1997–present
Website	www.3pod.com.au
Members
Scod (Lead guitar, vocals) Gatesy (Rhythm guitar, vocals) Yon (vocals, miscellaneous instruments (trumpet, harmonica))

Tripod is an Australia musical comedy act, specialising in improv, parody and satire. As its name suggests, the band is a trio; it comprises Scod (Scott Edgar), Yon (Simon Hall) and Gatesy (Steven Gates). The trio cover a wide variety of performance styles, from soft ballads to hard rock, performing these songs with only the aid of Scod (and, at times, Gatesy) playing acoustic guitar.

1 History
2 Style
3 Trivia
4 Discography
5 Awards
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

Tripod formed when the three members were attending university in Melbourne. During their shows, they have made passing references to their history of busking in Melbourne malls. The band got their first break appearing on Hey Hey Its Saturday's "Red Faces" contest, where they performed a parodic medley of Oasis hits that demonstrated similarities between the songs.

The band gained further fame performing in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and making various radio appearances. On the Triple J drive-time show Merrick and Rosso, they had a weekly spot where they were challenged to write a song in an hour, with the topic and style chosen by the hosts. This format was continued from 2002-2004, when they appeared on the Triple J breakfast show with Wil Anderson and Adam Spencer, with the Song in an Hour Challenge. Two CDs containing some of the finest examples of these sessions have been released, each including recordings taken from live Song-In-An-Hour challenges featured in Tripod's Pod August Nights concerts. In late 2005, they moved to Fox FM where they could be heard on Peter Helliar's weekly Friday morning show, Pete's Show.

In 2005, Tripod performed the show "Lady Robots v1.1" at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival: a musical/comedy type stage-show telling the story of three men, hurled into space where they come across a planet populated only by Lady Robots. This is slightly changed version to the original Lady Robots first previewed at the 2002 Adelaide Fringe, then performed at the MICF of the same year. Both versions of Lady Robots have toured Australia since 2002. Tripod began touring their latest show "Tripod are Self Saucing" in 2004, continuing into the 2006 MICF.

The band are regular performers at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and featured in Network Ten's sketch comedy television show skitHOUSE.

Tripod's first DVD release was a live recording of their show "POD August Nights" and is regarded as a showcase of "the Best of Tripod". The DVD includes numerous special features, including a music video for one of their songs, 'Gonna Make You Happy Tonight' that featured on their album, "Middleborough Rd.".

A DVD version of their show, "Tosswinkle the Pirate" has recently been released following the original 2001 VHS release, as well as a live recording of one of their live shows at the 2006 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, titled "Songs from Self Saucing."

Tripod are core cast performers on the ABC program The Sideshow, and have performed a number of their songs such as "Gonna Make You Happy Tonight", "Krap Karate" and "Snapshots". The Sideshow has finished for 2007 and the ABC has decided not to recomission it for 2008.

[edit] Style

Tripod's songs are spread across a number of different styles. At times they use humorous sounds, such as "Yon and his Flute" from the Open Slather album, but their particular brand of humour stems from the lyrics of their songs and the comedic timing between the three men, often including acted bickering on stage. The lyrics are often satirical, or use off-beat humour. Topics have included movie-style martial arts, stalking, interesting Shakespearean-era words, and counterterrorism.

Tripod are self-professed geeks, and also reference video games and Star Wars in many of their songs.

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

Gatesy was a member of Kind of Pluto until their break-up in 2005.
Scod has another band, Scott Edgar and the Universe, which formed in late 2005 and continues to perform around Melbourne; their first album was released in 2007 and is self-titled.
They were also honoured with a reference in the Star Wars novel Force Heretic II. On Page 223 of the paperback version, the names Yon, Gaitzi and Scod were used, as well as the name Tripod. Their canonical standing is still being disputed.^{[citation needed]}
In 1996, Gatesy appeared in an Australian children's educational television program on the ABC called "Shape, Shape, Shape". He played a magical shape-adoring swagman.

[edit] Discography

Box Set (1997, out of production)
Open Slather (April 2000)
Open Slather Special Christmas Edition feat. Tripod Live April 2000 (November 2000, out of production)
Tripod tells the tale of the Adventures of Tosswinkle the Pirate (Not Very Well) (VHS) (2001)
About An Hour of Song-In-An-Hour (2002)
About An Hour of Song-In-An-Hour ... Again (2003)
Fegh Maha (2004)
Middleborough Rd (2004)
Pod August Night (DVD) (2006)
Tripod tells the tale of the Adventures of Tosswinkle the Pirate (Not Very Well) (DVD) (2006)
Perfectly Good Songs (Mini Album) (2006)
Songs From Self Saucing (2006)