Sugarbeach Wedding Announcement

Lesbian Quarterly is proud to congratulate Marlee and Tully of Sugarbeach on their wedding, happening as LQ is going to ‘press’ on September 1st 2007.

The Vancouver-based lesbian pop duo met in Australia where Canadian Marlee Walchuck recruited Australian corporate accountant Tully Callender into her ‘real job’ as a musican. The couple returned to Vancouver and performed recently at this summer’s pride festival. They have just released their debut single “I Just Love Girls”.

Marlee has been in the lesbian music scene for some time, starting with membership in 80’s rock/pop band ‘Mistress’, popular in the Vancouver area.  

Her mainstream experience in the music industry is extensive, starting with her first public live performances with siblings Judy Ginn and Jim Walchuk at the age of 14 – facing 16,000 fans at the Vancouver Coliseum.  She was a regular on the CBC Variety hit “The Judy & Jim Show.” She balanced her club performances with her studio singing for commercials such as McDonalds and BC Lotto, and television appearances on popular programs like The Vancouver show, The Irish Rovers, The Nice Show and many others.

Various duo and trio led to Marlee’s single act which won “Battle of Vancouver’s Best Solo Rock Acts” and a hit single which won 1st prize in the Canadian Song Festival and was on the Canadian A Playlist for 6 months.

Marlee’s album “One More Chance” was released and she toured Canada and Germany playing to crowds of up to 10,000 people. She was nominated for 5 BCCMA awards and won Best Vocalist in 1999.

In 2001, Marlee decided to head down to the land of kangaroos, crocodiles and the endless summer and brought her musical talent as keyboardist and vocalist to Safari, the girls-only cover band born out of Australia style’s famous Party Girls. Marlee’s R&B covers blew the roof off everywhere Safari played and the band leader, Faye Reid, was quoted as saying “I was so busy listening to that voice, I almost forgot to play”.

Tully joined Marlee to form Sugarbeach this year leaving behind her corporate career in Sydney. Tully, who has always had her hand in some musical project or another, from saxophone player in a Jazz band to vocal & piano performances at the Sydney Opera House Town Hall, now focuses on Sugarbeach as her full time gig.