Forty years after 12 Days to Paris first arrived crackling out of Australian speakers, The Huxton Creepers are returning to the road for their first national tour since 2011, bringing one of the great cult Australian guitar records back into the spotlight where it belongs. The Melbourne band will celebrate the anniversary with a long-awaited vinyl reissue of the album through Cheersquad Records & Tapes on June 5, before heading around the country performing the record in full for the first time ever.
For a certain generation of Australian music fans, 12 Days to Paris occupies that strange sacred territory where power-pop hooks, pub rock energy and jangling guitars collide into something timeless. Emerging in the mid-80s alongside the explosion of Australian guitar music, The Huxton Creepers sounded like a younger, scrappier cousin to Sunnyboys and Hoodoo Gurus, while carrying traces of The Saints’ ragged urgency through everything they touched.
That chemistry runs all through tracks like My Cherie Amour, I Will Persuade You and Autumn Leaves, songs that still sound wired directly into the golden age of Australian guitar pop. Elsewhere, fan favourites like King of the Road and Don’t Even Think About It helped cement the band’s reputation as one of the hardest-working live acts of the decade, endlessly touring pubs, halls and sticky-floored venues around the country.
The reissue itself carries its own sense of resurrection. With the band’s catalogue tangled in legal limbo for decades after the collapse of their original label, 12 Days to Paris has remained frustratingly absent from streaming platforms and vinyl collections alike. Now, the album finally returns in both limited-edition gold vinyl and standard black pressings, alongside its long-overdue digital release.
“We knew we had the songs and the band was firing on all cylinders,” drummer Arch Law says of the original sessions at Melbourne’s Platinum Studios with Steve Berlin of Los Lobos and Chris Copping involved in the process. “Forty years on we are really proud of 12 Days and excited to be bringing it back to life.”
The anniversary tour also arrives with a lineup that feels deeply connected to Australian underground rock history. Melbourne dates will feature longtime allies Icecream Hands, while NSW and Queensland audiences get support from The Johnnys. Brisbane shows will additionally include Mick Medew and Ursula, further tying the tour back to the tangled lineage of Australian independent guitar music.
Perhaps the most striking thing about The Huxton Creepers’ return is how naturally they fit into the current moment. Modern Australian guitar bands still chase the same balance of melody, urgency and emotional openness that records like 12 Days to Paris captured four decades ago. You can hear echoes of them in everyone from You Am I to Powderfinger, both longtime admirers of the band.
For a group that once began as four school friends fumbling through covers with bread-bag seals used as guitar picks, The Huxton Creepers now return as something more lasting: one of the great missing links in Australian guitar music finally being restored to view.
THE HUXTON CREEPERS CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF 12 DAYS TO PARIS TOUR
Fri Aug 7th Sooki Lounge, Belgrave w/ Icecream Hands – Tix
Sat Aug 8th Croxton Bandroom, Thornbury w/ Icecream Hands – Tix
Fri Aug 14th Marrickville Bowling Club w/ The Johnnys – Tix
Sat Aug 15th Marrickville Bowling Club w/ The Johnnys – Tix
Sun Aug 16th (arvo) Hamilton Station Hotel, Newcastle w/ The Johnnys
Fri Aug 21st Norton Music Factory, Caloundra w/ The Johnnys – Tix
Sat Aug 22nd Crowbar Brisbane, Fortitude Valley w/ The Johnnys + Mick Medew and Ursulla – Tix
Sun Aug 23rd (arvo) Wallaby Hotel, Mudgeeraba w/ The Johnnys – Tix
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