On Tuesday 25 March, over 75 members of the Bundaberg community were treated to a thoroughly unusual night out at CQU Bundaberg.

Mike Cooper, a talented folk / blues player who specialises in the lap steel Hawaiian guitar, provided live accompaniment to the 1926 movie, Pearl of the South Seas. Cooper, a British artist, returns to the Bundaberg Campus after his Tabu performance in 2001.

Billed as a ‘radical cinematic re-mix of Frank Hurley’s ‘B’ movie thriller filmed on Thursday Island in 1926,’ Cooper also re-edited the movie mixing in some of his favourite films.

“It’s like watching TV from another planet as Hurley’s hero weaves his way through a labyrinth of future time and place to finally emerge triumphant,” says Cooper.

Mike Cooper has made the transition across a variety of music styles from country-blues to folk-jazz, putting his own unmistakeable mark on each.

Both a performer and writer, he occupies an unusual niche, moving between western experimental music – such as playing the Hawaiian lap-steel guitar – to producing critiques and ideas that have been published in both journals and text.

Combining Cooper with a B’ grade thriller, lead to a performance that certainly had everyone riveted.

For more information on Mike Cooper (including a full biography) please check out his website http://www.cooparia.org.uk/.

Mike’s performance was sponsored by CQU Bundaberg and ContComm.