Garry Gray launches the new album at The Tote. Danny Semmler photo.
Molly Meldrum’s worst nightmare, Sacred Cowboys, are playing rare shows in Canberra and Sydney in April to launch their new album “In The Manifesto”, out on Torn & Frayed (Australia) and Beast Records (France).
Sacred Cowboys play Smith’s Alternative in Canberra on Friday, April 17 with hard psych prog rockers ZZG, and Marrickville Bowling Club on Saturday, April 18 with Belle Phoneix and her band and Beast Records labelmates Pete Ross & The Sapphire.
Presented by I-94 Bar, tickets go on sale at 9am (AEDST) on Friday here for Sydney and here for Canberra.
Sacred Cowboys are, to quote their bio, “a moody hard rock band with a dry sense of humor”. “In The Manifesto” is their sixth studio album and first since 2007. They started playing in murky Melbourne dive bars in 1982, quickly attracting a rabid following.
With the release of their iconic first single, “Nothing Grows in Texas”, they were catapulted to national TV notoriety on Countdown where Molly famously labelled them "the worst group I've seen in five years". That’s a badge of honour.
OH & S laws preclude it these days but at one stage, singer Garry Gray made a habit of leaping into crowds, brandishing a chainsaw. The mercurial frontman can lay claim to being one of punk's founding figures in Melbounre, fronting early pioneers The Reals and The Negatives.
Sacred Cowboy co-founders Gray and Mark Ferrie revived the band in 2025 and enlisted Timothy Deane, Anthony Paine, and Damian Fitzgerald.
“In the Manifesto” has been attracting wide airplay in Melbourne following its sold-out St Valentine’s Day launch at The Tote, and is now being heard on Sydney community radio.Read our review here.
