For over a decade, The Cat Empire have been known worldwide as one of the great party bands. Their colourful, genre-bending music, shipped across the globe in travellers’ backpacks, seems at home almost anywhere.
The Aussie band are set for a triumphant return to UK shores later this year as part of a swing through Europe, and have even just announced two extra dates for London and Bristol after the first ones there sold out.
– O2 Academy, Bournemouth: 14 November
– London Roundhouse: 15 and 16 November
– O2 Academy, Bristol: 17 and 18 November
Get tickets, here
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Difficult to describe and impossible to categorise, The Cat Empire’s reputation is built upon a chaotic and fiercely uplifting live show.
That was certainly what an Aussie Times reader famously experienced on one of the band’s past shows in London; and then he lost his job for having the pleasure.
London Aussie bloke Mick (his real name withheld to protect his identity) was lucky enough to win two VIP tickets through AustralianTimes.co.uk to see The Cat Empire when they played at London’s Brixton Academy back in 2013.
“The Cat Empire is a band I had wanted to see for a very long time,” Mick told us.
“I’d never seen them; I always seemed to miss them. I was out of town when they were playing back home. This time, I wasn’t going to miss out.”
With his hot pair of tickets, Aussie boy Mick invited a date along to the gig and apparently had quite a big night, which he claims “didn’t end badly”.
“I just loved the gig. It was a great venue to see the band.” he said.
“I used to play trumpet, so seeing the guys on the horns was absolutely amazing.”
The following morning, an extremely tired and hungover Mick, who was earning a crust as a credit controller at a London publishing company, did the only true-blue Aussie thing to do in such a predicament and phoned in sick at work.
Later that morning, his housemate tried to contact him via his work email asking about his night; and that’s where it all went wrong.
“She (the housemate) emailed asking how was my night: How was my date?… She seemed like a babe… and all that sort of stuff,” a still chuffed Mick recalled.
Unfortunately for Mick, cyber monitors at his workplace picked up on the email and decided his nefarious real reason for skiving off work was grounds for termination.
However, instead of informing him directly, they replied to his housemate’s email informing her that he was no longer employed with them.
“When I woke up I had a whole lot of text messages,” an outraged Mick said.
“My housemate had sent me photos of the emails she’d got from my work saying I was no longer employed there!”
“I spoke to my recruitment company, but I probably would have had too many choice things to say to the lady who emailed my friend.
“She obviously didn’t let me know, but she let my housemate know.”
Asked if he regretted his big night out with The Cat Empire and calling in for a classic sickie the next day: “Hell no!” Mick assured us.
TOP IMAGE: Harry James Angus of The Cat Empire taken by Australian Times on the very night ‘Mick’ had a bit too much of a good time.