Description: Matthew McGrath, founding member of Frill Neck, introduced the didgeridoo to Berlin in 1987. Matthew is acknowledged as a modern master of the didjeridoo.
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While working as lecturer in music at the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre in Sydney Matthew learnt to master the didgeridoo in 1984. In 1985 Matthew was adopted into the Williams family, a family of traditional Llardil song men, didgeridoo masters and dancers. He later spent a year living and working with the Llardil people of Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Matthew McGrath , founding member of Frill Neck, introduced the didgeridoo to Berlin in 1987. Following his Berlin solo didgeridoo debut at the Monsters Myths and Mutation festival in Tempodrome in 1987, Frill Neck was formed with Stewart Dunlop. Didgeridoo meets virtuoso guitars. Frill Neck’s unique blend of atmospheric ethno-jazz-punk and contemporary ballads spread quickly, drawing much attention and critical praise in the world of contemporary music, until Stewart’s death in 2006.
Apart from performing as singer songwriter and with the didgeridoo, Matthew conceived and organised a festival of great Australian indigenous performers in Berlin such as Bangarra dance Theatre, Woomera dance group, the Warrumpi Band, Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter in the Rückkehr des Boomerangs with Haus der Kulturen der Welt in 1995. Matthew instigated and managed a further tour of Europe by Woomera dance group in 1996, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of UNICEF.