Three years since they last toured together, Mat McHugh & The Beautiful Girls will embark on a 21-date national tour commencing early January.
The run of live shows will also see Mat merge his own solo material with the band's back catalogue (that has a combined one hundred million streams) for the very first time, gifting fans the experience of McHugh complete canon of work."I kind of kept them separate for a long time live for various reasons," Mat explains. "I saw them as two separate bodies of work, but at the core of it of course they're basically the same thing.
"I mean, I make these records at home and play most if not all of the instruments on them, and so, after this past three years, I thought, 'You know what? Part of this whole deal of recalibrating and getting back out on the road and seeing people and sharing music was just kind of stepping forward and joining the two bodies of work for the first time.'
"It's a good, healthy step forward and it allows me the luxury of just picking and choosing the best of all of it.
"I'm very, very proud of the music I released as The Beautiful Girls and I don't want to stop playing it because I love it. It means a lot to me.
"This is a way of tying all those songs that people know, and people love, together so I get to release music in a way that feels honest and has integrity."
Joined by his band – bass player and producer Ian Pritchett, keyboardist Shannon Stitt and drummer Carlos Adura – what specific material can fans expect to witness?
"Just doing 'The Beautiful Girls Seaside Highlife: Greatest Hits, Volume 1' was really hard," he chuckles. "That was a double-album, which is probably longer than a gig!
"Then there are the solo records and then the new songs. It's a pretty nice problem to have. . . I just want people to have a good time; I want them to be together."
Tickets are on sale.
Mat McHugh & The Beautiful Girls 2023 Tour Dates
Fri 6 Jan - Hoey Moey (Coffs Harbour)Sat 7 Jan - Kingscliff Beach Hotel (Northern Rivers)
Fri 13 Jan – Westernport Hotel (Gippsland)
Sat 14 Jan - Haba (Melbourne)
Sun 15 Jan - Torquay Hotel (Torquay)
Fri 3 Feb - The Gov (Adelaide)
Sat 4 Feb - Hotel Victor (Victor Harbour)
Fri 10 Feb - The Triffid (Brisbane)
Sat 11 Feb - Imperial Hotel (Sunshine Coast)
Fri 17 Feb - Freo.Social (Fremantle)
Sat 18 Feb - The River (Margaret River)
Fri 24 Feb - Sooki Lounge (Melbourne)
Sat 25 Feb - The Corner Hotel (Melbourne)
Fri 3 Mar - Waves (Wollongong)
Sat 4 Mar - The Jetty (Canberra)
Fri 10 Mar - Steyne Hotel (Sydney)
Sat 11 Mar - Sunken Monkey (Central Coast)
Fri 17 Mar - Cambridge Hotel (Newcastle)
Sat 18 Mar - The Factory (Sydney)
