Angus & Julia Stone are an Australian brother-sister folk-blues group that formed in 2006 by Angus Stone and Julia Stone.
The siblings could be said to be following in their parents footsteps as they performed as a folk duo before Angus and Julia were born. Their father taught all three of his children how to play instruments and at family gatherings, when the children performed, Catherine was on saxophone, Julia on trumpet and Angus on trombone. They had an interesting passage into music, Julia travelled through South America on a gap year absorbing the sights and sounds of the countries she visited whilst Angus taught himself guitar whilst recovering from a snowboarding accident.
When Julia returned to Australia, the pair began to gig in small venues, mainly billed as Angus with Julia offering occasional backing vocal. However their first gig as a duo at the Coogee Bay Hotel, they performed Angus' track, 'Tears'. By that time Julia was writing her own material and they played split sets with each providing backing vocals for the other's material. In 2006 they decided to collaborate indefinitely and it proved a winning formula as by the end of the same year the duo signed a worldwide publishing deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing and Creative Artists Agency came on board as their UK-European agent.
Shortly after their recordings they gained noteirity in both their native Australia and the UK, In February 2007 they played their first national Australian tour which sold out completely. In the same month their early works 'Chocolates and Cigarettes' and 'Heart Full of Wine' were double-packed and released in Australia and the UK. The double EP reached No. 12 on the UK iTunes and their single, 'Private Lawns', was named Single of the Week on BBC Radio 2. The debut album followed that year and broke the top 10 in the Australian album charts and although it wasn't a commercial success throughout the world, it did receive critical praise from a number of publications including the British Guardian newspaper.
They continued to record as a duo whilst also working on solo material and touring constantly. The following two albums both topped the charts in Australia, whilst the self titled 2014 album made the top 10 around Europe in countries such as France, Germany and the Netherlands and managed to break into the top 100 of the UK album charts also.
The Tubs
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