Australian TV has suffered from the lack of antics from The Chaser boys this year – no outraged Today Tonight stories, no West Coke Eagle, no embarrassed politicians trying to find the easiest way to get out of a stunt and no sight of Chas Licciardello’s arse. For those who have missed The Chaser’s antics onscreen this year, never fear as you now have a chance to catch the comic muckrakers perform their stuff live on stage; The Chaser is coming to town. The Chaser’s Andrew Hansen says the break from television was needed for The Chaser lads to recharge their batteries.

The marriage of Australian country singer Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson, a rock singer with Brisbane band Pretty Violet Stain and a solo artist with two albums to his credit, was, perhaps, an unlikely one. The fact that their musical partnership has delivered a number one album called Rattlin’ Bones is ever harder to believe given that the 14-song affair, produced by Nash Chambers and Shane at Jimmy Barnes’ Freight Train Studios, is a very acoustic and quite dark country album. We speak over the telephone to Kasey and Shane a couple of hours after they’ve appeared on Channel Nine’s The Today Show and begin by saying that their performance of the album’s title song was screened in sepia-tone to great effect.