baloombawop

Written and produced by Donna Williams

and performed by Donna and The Aspinauts

Once upon tough time, there were Grumpy Gallumphies who didn’t like strangeness it made them quite grumpy. Then a magical train arrived from a dream and those who could dare, they had dared to get in. It was off to Baloomba-wop where they had purple rain, and a shop that even sold new replacement brains!

They would meet Charlie Warmton whose best friend was a blanket, and the Brookenstein Fox who lives up on a shelf, and Bluster-McFluster with his technical gadgets and the Gimmety-Gimme with everything for herself. They’d meet Booger-Looger who picks his nose to perfection and the Whirly-twirl-girl who lacks any direction. And Gadoodleborger who runs a magical shop which just happens to be where the train is to stop.

But deep in Baloomba-wop, a Grumpy Gallumphy, the notorious Dame Grumpty-Doo-bee-the-Fourth. She is looking to change Baloomba-wop for forever. She’s determined to make all these weirdoes quite plain. Will she be stopped before everything’s ‘normal’, I wonder. Or succeed making all be exactly the same? Read the rest of this entry »

Donna and The Aspinauts have an adult version of the Barbie song, but I’ve reworked the lyrics for a kids version.  Enjoy Read the rest of this entry »

Footsteps of a Nobody is getting a 2nd showing!

Footsteps of a Nobody is a powerful one woman rock-musical from Donna Williams, author of the international bestseller, Nobody Nowhere; Autobiography of an Autistic Girl. Through characterisations, gestural signing, evocative spoken word and song it traces Donna’s pivotal experiences from a meaning deaf, meaning blind feral child to homelessness and life as a domestic prostitute and on to her ultimate fight to claim a place of equality among others.

REVIEWS OF DONNA WILLIAMS’ BOOKS:
THE NEW YORK TIMES: She allows us to understand our own perceptions as never before.
PEOPLE MAGAZINE: By turns fascinating and harrowing…
WEEKEND REVIEW: …evocative, poetic…compelling, shocking, gut-wrenchingly moving…
DAILY TELEGRAPH: Powerful and unique.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: deserves every superlative a reviewer can muster.

BOOKINGS: 9329 8821

www.spenserslive.com.au
www.aspinauts.com

  In 1985 I wrote a song called Not Just Anything.  In 2009, I rewrote the lyrics to form the song A Room With A View.  Unlike the award winning Merchant Ivory film of the same name (adapted from the 1908 novel by E.M Forster) my song is not a about an Edwardian romance.   In 2007, I had written a filmscript, Mc Reedy’s Christmas (represented by Bicoastal Talent) about a post apocalyptic society and related to climate change in a world where we did nothing to stop it.  The lyrics to A Room With A View were based on Mc Reedy’s world.  Here’s its lyrics: Read the rest of this entry »

  I recorded the song Boulevard of Broken Dreams back in 2005.  It was written 15 years ago in 1990.  In fact, before Green Day put out their version in 2004, there had been 5 other songs with the same title in the years of 1954, 1958, 1957, 1984 and 1989.  In my version, there is mention of Marilyn (Monroe), James Dean and Elvis, referring to the painting by  Gottfried Helnwein also titled Boulevard of Broken Dreams.   My version of the song is basically about our the ‘irrational rationality’ we take for granted in affluent Western societies. Read the rest of this entry »

  For anyone who has been a Baa Baa Black Sheep, you can hear this gothic blues version by Donna Williams and The Aspinauts on our music page. Read the rest of this entry »

THAT’S SO GAY a song by Donna Williams 2009

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  The stereotype of Aspergers is of relatively emotionally unexpressive people who lack empathy and imagination.  When I met Anthony, he struck me as the closest thing to a walking cartoon.  He’s a formally diagnosed Aspie, a fellow ticcer, and one of the most surreal humans I know.  His capacity for imagination is broader than most humans can get without psychedelic drugs.  He’s also someone naturally empathic whose quick to help or lend an ear.  Here’s our interview. Read the rest of this entry »

  Heidi Everett is an awesome performer so it was a great honor to get this review from her.  Enjoy.  Here it is:

“The gig – ‘Rock and Rebuild’ benefit concert for Victoria’s bushfire crisis, was organised and promoted by Kaine Marsh, head of Finbar Production.  The bands – A very eclectic yet thoroughly charismatic line up of artists who have some sort of connection with the towns affected by the fires. The location – Hurstbridge Oval, an iconic picture of pure Aussieness.

Tigger-dog and I had a visual introduction to Rock and Rebuild as the officially on-time Connex rolled into Hurstbridge station. A sun dried brick of a country oval transformed wonderfully into a fruitful orchard of stalls and country folk milling around a flat bed truck pumping out music with a whole lotta heart. As we lounged around in front of the stage, Donna and the Aspinauts sauntered into their first number and had the audience looking up from their snags to see what the hell had hit them front and centre between the eyes and ears.

A-ha! These were no ordinary folk songs to be kum-by-ya’d around the campfire, no way! As the guys in the Aspinauts band changed gear quicker than a red Ferrari, front-woman Donna kept apace brilliantly with her phonetically charged lyrics and mesmerizing hands shaping the melody like an artist at the easel. I watched, captivated like the crowd around me. Each song blurred deliciously into the next with Donna’s spoken word etching out the poetry of human condition, always so very eloquent and astutely connected to the song the band was about to launch into, such a poignant moment when Donna painted the scene of a blackened landscape, burnt by the very fires this benefit concert set to quell.

The set itself was just the right amount of time for Donna and the Aspinauts own musical genre to be smacked firmly into the hearts and minds of the audience. As a muso myself, I intuitively looked around to see the reaction of people who might not have had the chance to experience such a richly flavoured ensemble before, and as a muso, I can confidently say that The Aspinauts had the crowd in the rather elusive ‘palm of the hand’.

I’ve seen this band a few times now and I thoroughly recommend an audience with a Donna and the Aspinauts event if you are ever given the chance. I say event because they are so much more than just a band playing music, each of your five senses will be buzzing before the end of the first song, and by the end of the show, you’ll be definitely Aspi-fied.”

Heidi Everett

http://www.heidieverett.com.au/Home.html

  Last month, with The Aspinauts, I had the honor of playing with a wonderful performer, Heidi Everett.  This is my interview with her. Read the rest of this entry »