Reverend Funk and the Horns of Salvation kick off their monthly residency at Red Bennies playing the first Friday of every month! DJ support by stalwarts of the melbourne DJ scene Blair Stafford and Manchild!

Reverend Funk and the Horns of Salvation are a Melbourne based 7- 10 piece lineup, playing Soul, Funk, R&B and Disco dance music made famous by the original Masters from the 60's till now! The band has held down Live residencies at The Evelyn Hotel in Fitzroy, The Next Blue nightclub @ Crown and Manchester Lane.

BLAIR STAFFORD

1. With his fingers working his own record label (Straightup Recordings) in the Director/A&R role. Head Honcho of   “Best Music Website 2006” – (Beyond Jazz Poll)  - www.straightup.com.au and musical director of Chill City Festival in Melbourne, Blair also plays varying styled residencies, most notably Fridays at the Victorian Arts Centre which he has held down for several years.

In the past Blair has hooked up with Lanu (Lance Ferguson/The Bamboos/Tru Thoughts) to run the now infamous Thursday night weekly car park party ‘Boogie People’ at Section 8 in Melbourne’s Chinatown in 2007/8. Throwing down genre cracking seven hour shows and touring the ‘Boogie People’ to The Funk Festival in Perth, Chill Island in Victoria and Playground Weekender Festival in NSW.

Some recent supports include Bugz in The Attic, Jazzanova, Mo’ Horizons, Marc Hype, Russ Dewbury, Ohmega Watts, Blue King Brown, Paul Kelly and others. Most interesting musical moment was jamming up the stage with Archie Shepp. Only to be blown off of course!

Studying music at Arts College in Berlin and living there for eight years, Blair witnessed and partook in the birth of both the techno and acid jazz scenes, playing regularly over a seven year period at such clubs as Delicious Doughnuts, Tresor and Tacheles in Berlin and various parties around the city and Europe for some years, touring extensively both as a DJ and saxophonist. On his return to Australia in the 90s he has been a sought after DJ and musical co-ordinator touring regularly here and overseas, having worked with members from acts such as The Bamboos, Flow Dynamics, FDEL, Deep Street Soul, The RAah Project and Ray Mann Three as well as alone.

Currently, Blair is working as Creative Director for a new festival at The Abbotsford Conventin in 2011 as well as to programme a festival in Fukui, Japan in 2011. He also runs his own management/A&R company representing The RAah Project. Blair was headline act at the Disco Tent at Peats Ridge Festival on New Years Eve this year, where he expanded on his current passion of throwing down the serious boogie!

You can hear Blair every Tuesday at 9am on his own show Inside Vibe on PBS FM

MANCHILD

20 billion years ago

A minor scuffle between God, Buddha, Allah, The Jewish version of God and those 20 million Hindi gods results in a giant explosion that creates the entire universe. It is accompanied by impressive and foreboding classical music. 

19 billion years ago

A secondary explosion creates the first Manchild. 

5 billion years ago

Primitive life-forms first move from the sea to land, where they discover the pre-evolved Manchild strolling about in a smoking jacket with a pipe and a copy of 'Juggs'. 

3.5 million years ago

Human-like creatures begin to walk the earth, hunting with rudimentary clubs and spears. The woman wear very little clothing and are greatly impressed by the The Manchild's dapper ways and smooth veneer, much to his pleasure. However he is unfortunately killed in an incident involving three cave ladies and the forgetting of 'the safe word'. 

7 BC

The second Manchild is discovered in a Moroccan marketplace stealing fruit and haberdashery. It is obvious that he has formidable party-rocking DJ skills from the moment he is discovered but sadly his hands had been chopped off by law officials. He is bound, gagged and thrown into a river. 

1877

In an effort to improve his chances with the ladies, Thomas Edison invents the phonograph. However he forgets that DJ's won't be cool for another hundred years so he returns to his celibate life of inventing light bulbs and combustion engines

1973-7

DJ's Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa, amongst others, invent the concept of over-the-top, self-aggrandising names. This influences society greatly. 

1987

A small child in Australia celebrates his birthday. Two men appear at the door holding a record, the soundtrack to 'Young Einstein'. The record is bright pink. The child demands that they give him 'his record' because he 'needs it'. They at once realise that they have found the third Manchild. There is much celebration. The child goes around and demands everyone give him their records. He experiences varying degrees of success.

2006

A brief foray into the field of moustache growing and wearing proves unsuccessful and The Manchild realises his true calling is making people shake what their mama's gave 'em. After attempting to achieve this by simply standing on the street and yelling instructions at passers by, he decides to put his formidable record collection to good use and begins to rock parties like few have seen before. Taking funk, hip-hop, soul, rock, indian go-go, dancehall and whatever else, he excites dancefloors all across Melbourne, making men damn his name in jealous fury and ladies breathily whisper 'Oh Manchild, you make me so...' before it becomes too much and they faint.