We’re looking ahead for this gig, but it’s worth the heads up. On November 23, Eric Bogle will head to Ararat for Ararat Live.
Tickets are limited to 80 places, and given the songman’s standing in the music world, they’re not expected to stick around for long. Born in Peebles, Scotland a few months after the D Day landings in Normandy, Eric left school at the age of 16 to find his calling. He soon had a healthy checklist – labourer, waiter, export clerk, bar steward and millworker.
However, he just wasn’t very good at any of them. A chance meeting at a local pub would change his course, when he was offered the frontman position for a local band. Here we skip ahead a little, and Bogle arrives in Australia in 1969. A couple of years later, while attending a Remembrance Day service in Canberra, he would be inspired to write his iconic track, ‘And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda’. It has been covered numerous times by artists including The Pogues, Joan Baez, Slim Dusty, Midnight Oil and Katie Noonan and in 2001 was voted as one of the ‘Top 30 Australian Songs of All Time’ (APRA). Once again, tickets won’t stick around for long, so hop to it.
