‘Change in Mood’. ‘Current Stand’. ‘Bitter Desire’. These are just some of Kids in the Kitchen’s singles that charged the Australian charts in the 80s. Now over four decades later, KITK return with their original line-up alongside Aussie rock legends The Uncanny X-Men to The Spiegeltent at Barwon Heads, January 5th.
This experience will take audiences back to the time of outrageous haircuts and bright clothing, KITK lead vocalist Scott Carne explained. “Basically, for each band, it’s about stepping back into the time machine for this particular show.”
“Both sport the original line-ups of the bands. In my case, KITK, the original line up and we basically are playing all our big hits and a collection of songs over the two albums we recorded. And it also features a backing singer, Zan Abeyratne, from I’m Talking, so she’s doing backing vocals for the KITK part of the show.”
As well as playing all their hit singles, KITK will be pulling tracks from both of their studio albums, Shine (1985) and Terrain (1987). “It’s all about the sound of [the songs], we’re not trying to unplug our songs and dissect them or do new versions of them, it’s about hearing them the way they were intended to be heard from the recordings. It’s all about that.”
Kids in the Kitchen and The Uncanny X-Men will each play a 60-minute set before coming together as a supergroup to pay homage to all the Aussie rockers we’ve lost in recent years.
“At the end of the show we jump up together for a bit of a finale, or what I call ‘The All-In Brawl’, and we smash out some songs from some of our dead comrades, to say the least, as we’re all dropping like flies these days. Well, we aren’t, we’re the young ones. But our peers, so that’s kind of where it’s at.”
Fans will also have the chance to grab some limited KITK merchandise at the shows, ranging from tee-shirts to tea towels. “We usually do CD and merch signings after the show and a few happy snaps, we’re pretty good like that,” explained Carne. “We kind of get out and in amongst it with the fans and the people that come down to see the show.”
Though the years have flown by, Kids in the Kitchen will rock just as hard as they did the first time around. The finer elements, including some questionable hairstyles, have stuck through the decades.
“You’ll definitely see a mullet from Brian Mannix, I know that one. He’s sporting a beautiful at the moment. As for me, at one stage I had a bit of a party going on at the back but not a full-blown mullet. But I think there are more ‘skullets’ going on than mullets for most of us now.”
It all goes down at The Wonderland Spiegeltent at Barwon Heads on January 5. You can purchase tickets at www.wonderlandspiegeltent.com.au/
Written by Thom Devereux