As I get older the sound of an early gig is so much more appealing than it used to be.
Seeing a concert and getting to bed by 11pm is utter bliss! You can imagine my excitement when I heard Bobby Alu was coming to town and playing early morning café gigs. Enjoy your coffee, some breakfast and an intimate acoustic performance…and then still have the rest of your day! It’s genius!
Bobby Alu Breakfast Tour
- May 1- Werribee
8am / Tuckers / Breakfast Tour - May 1 – Northcote
Wesley Anne / My Style Tour - May 2 – Port Melbourne
9am / Coe & Coe / Breakfast Tour - Full tour dates here!
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When I asked Bobby how this tour concept came about he said it was “honestly like a crazy, weird idea. I thought it would be great to play a show at breakfast and I’m always at cafes so why not play a gig and then at the same time I was aware of this guy who had somehow made a living out of eating breakfast.”
At this point my mouth is gaping wide open…uhhh say what? And that’s where this whole tour gets even better! Bobby has partnered with Mark from Breakfast Shirts and as far as origin stories go this is possibly the coolest. Mark was just a regular guy who enjoyed going out for breakfast with his mates. One day he had run out of clean clothes and was wearing a very colourful and questionably ugly shirt. His friend was amused to see him not in a plain white tee and asked ‘what are you wearing?’. Without thinking it through, Mark responded with ‘It’s a Breakfast Shirt’.
From that day on he and his friends wore colourful and outrageous shirts out for breakfast and eventually started selling them. Today Mark has become a bit of an unofficial, breakfast representative.
Bobby asked Mark what he thought about doing a breakfast tour together. Mark took the idea and ran with it. They visited 50 cafes in just five weeks last year. The genius in this concept is that the gigs are free to the public and free to cafes. It’s the sponsors who pay and Bobby loves that he is involved in supporting small Australian businesses that are trying to be creative in how they raise their profile. “I’m very lucky because I get to just play music in all these different places.”
This tour is celebrating the 10th anniversary of Bobby’s hit, ‘My style.’ Looking back over the 10 years Bobby reflects that his own style and voice has evolved a lot. And its no wonder, Bobby played 180 shows just last year.
“Looking at this particular song, for whatever reason, it’s the one that’s the most streamed. We did a show in Amsterdam and people know all the words and it’s so weird. I get videos of that song getting played, one was at a bar in Kenya, and it’s just wild, like how much it’s travelled around. And obviously it’s because of that that I get to do this. So you know, it’s really interesting because I still think that like the essence of my music still sounds the same.”
Bobby is clearly no stranger to touring and I was curious to know what his must-have travel items were. “One thing that really helps is just the ability to nap. Just being able to nap anywhere, anytime so I have this travel pillow that goes everywhere and I have a sarong.”
“If I can see a little window. I’m like, I’m gonna have a quick little recharge here.”
Again I am left thinking – geez, this guy has really cracked the code. Bobby is the poster child for how to live your life right!
You can still catch Bobby at a few of his sunrise shows this tour, check out the dates here.
