Thirty-five years
of the same songs.
A nine-piece continental act working out of the northern suburbs.
Frankie Velvet and the Tendertones have been performing without a break since February 1991, when they were put together in an afternoon at a reception centre in Thornbury. The line-up has changed thirty-one times. The repertoire has changed very little.
In that time the band has held residencies at the Golden Fleece in Brunswick, the Chandelier Room in St Kilda, and the Neptune Lounge of the M.S. Coral Duchess on the Pacific circuit. It plays weddings, functions and the occasional funeral. It has returned to the Lisbon coast every year since 2008. It is currently at the Emerald Room in Coburg on Fridays.
Fourteen studio records, six live. Most of them were sold at the side of the stage.
- Formed
- 1991Thornbury
- Members to date
- 31four of them twice
- Studio albums
- 14and six live
- Engagements
- 4,118to 31 August 2026
- Chandelier Room
- 6111994–2000
- Current line-up
- 9since 2021
Continental, unhurried.
Hammond organ on its warmest setting, brushes on a snare, tenor saxophone, upright bass, an archtop guitar and three voices behind the lead. The standards, taken slowly. The band has never used the word lounge about itself and has never much minded other people using it.
In April 1996 Neville Marsh reviewed the St Kilda residency for The Melbourne Weekly Observer and described the act in a phrase that has been on the posters ever since:
“It is not lounge and it is not jazz. It is Preston Baroque — music of considerable ornament and no urgency whatever, played for an audience that has already eaten.” Neville Marsh · The Melbourne Weekly Observer · 12 April 1996
He did not intend it as a compliment. He reviewed the band nine times.
Goodnight
The Long Goodnight
Recorded over four Sunday afternoons at the Golden Lotus in Thornbury, the room the band was formed in, now under different management. Eleven songs, nine of them slow. Del Auguste’s organ is the loudest thing on it.
- The Long Goodnight
- Table Nine
- Do You Know the Way to Santa Fe?
- Every Bride Cries Eventually
- Prawn Cocktail Moon
- Cascais at 4am
- Nino’s Waltz (instrumental)
- Somewhere Between Preston and Paradise
- A Slow Dance for the Recently Divorced
- The Barmaid at the Bowls Club
- Goodnight, and Mind the Step
“I have now seen this band four times and I cannot entirely account for it. They are not good in any sense I was trained to recognise, and I would go again tonight.”Sim Lachlan
Grooveyard Monthly, March 2014
“Mr Velvet sang for two hours and forty minutes without at any point appearing to be in a hurry.”Dot Farraday
Australian Cabaret Review, September 1997
“Eles não sabiam quem éramos e nós não sabíamos quem eles eram.” They did not know who we were and we did not know who they were.Ruído (Lisbon)
Issue 31, August 2008
Weddings, functions and anything with chairs.
The band has no manager. Enquiries go to Bettina Croll, who also plays tenor saxophone and keeps the books, and who will usually come back to you within a fortnight.
Two sets, an interval, and whatever is asked for at the end. Six weeks’ notice is preferred. Less has been managed.
The Emerald Room
The Long Goodnight
Two drinks minimum
Doors 7.30
No booking fee