Violinist Warren Ellis, guitarist Mick Turner, and drummer Jim White are The Dirty Three- an instrumental trio considered one of the most prestigious Australian acts on the international music scene. Their music has been called lyrical, passionate, original, inspiring, and has earned them admiration and renown the world over.

Forged from a need to pay the rent in 1993 in Melbourne, Australia, in their beginnings the trio often played residences at some of Melbourne's smaller pubs. The three members are now based in different corners of the globe, and occasionally regroup to record and tour.

The trio released their raucous debut 'Sad & Dangerous', and eponymous album in 1995, albums representative of a trio finding their sound. The albums that followed- 'Horse Stories', 1997, 'Ocean Songs', 1998 and 'Whatever You Love, You Are', 2000 offered the definitive moments of the trio's career. 'Cinder', released in 2005, essentially continued musical traits developed in their previous albums and although it continues in the spirit of 'Ocean Songs', 'Cinder' differs and diverges from their previous works in that it includes new instruments and the for the first time in their career, vocals. The arrangements are generally shorter and more concise than those on their earlier albums. Perhaps most notably, instead of the usual recording live technique, they opted for the first time in their career to record in the studio individually.

The Dirty Three have toured with Sonic Youth, Pavement, Throwing Muses, Cat Power, Low, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Devendra Banhart, and many others.

Warren Ellis is also a member of the Bad Seeds and releases solo material. Mick Turner has also released solo albums, and has worked together Jim White to release under the name Tren Brothers. The pair have also worked on recordings by Cat Power and Will Oldham, as session musicians, and as backing musicians on tours. Mick Turner is also an internationally exhibited painter with his own work gracing the covers of all of their major albums except Sad & Dangerous. He also runs the band's own record label Anchor & Hope. In 1999, Dirty Three collaborated with Low to record in session.

Dirty Three @ Le Guess Who? 2026

Performers