With decades of number one singles, sold out shows, and TV appearances, Hoodoo Gurus are arguably one of the nation’s greatest musical exports.
The rockers, Hoodoo Gurus, are celebrating 40 years of the record that started it all, Stoneage Romeos, with a mammoth tour alongside artists such as Dallas Crane, The Hard-Ons and Adalita. We caught up with frontman and music icon Dave Faulkner to chat about it all.
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“We thought we should do something to mark the occasion [album anniversary]”, Faulkner notes. “We had the reissue coming out, so thought we should at least do some shows.
“Then they just sold like wildfire, we were able to add more dates and then more towns, and it’s become quite a big thing.”
Dave Faulkner speaks to me on the back end of a huge US run, where they hit the stage with the show they’ll be bringing to Australian shores this November. These dates mark some of the first times certain tracks from Stoneage Romeos have been played.
“We’ve never done anything like this before. Before the first show, I remember I suddenly had a momentary pang of ‘could this be a mistake?’,” Faulkner adds with a laugh.
“Bringing these songs alive, and interpreting them in an exciting way is all we try to do every night. That hasn’t changed from day one to today.”
“It doesn’t feel any different to play any of these songs [from ‘Romeos], to any other song we’ve ever written. They still make sense to me, they’re my own lyrics. It’s weird, even the most obscure tracks, I can pretty much get straight away.”
Stoneage Romeos dropped back in 1984, but chuck it on and be exposed to a sound that continues to feel relevant many years on.
“It’s nice that people still hold the album with great affection. I also love the fact that the songs don’t sound dated to me. We felt like we indulged ourselves completely, we chucked in the kitchen sink, in terms of different sounds and instruments.”
“We wanted depth in our record, it was the best fun ever. It just felt like a huge discovery process.”
The rockers are on route for a mammoth Aussie tour, hitting both Melbourne’s Forum and Palais Theatre, Bendigo’s Ulumbarra Theatre and Geelong’s Costa Hall before finishing up at Selina’s in Coogee Bay, where it all began.
“For a good few years there, we’d always play gigs at Selina’s as part of an album tour, so we’re on home turf. Those audiences were the days of slam dancing and crowd surfing, it was mayhem,” Faulkner adds with a laugh.
“I don’t think it’d be like that, I think it’s going to be nice for people that have followed us for a long time to connect to one of the touchstones of our career, because we that was a sort of almost home base for a good few years there, it’ll be nice to get back to home turf.”
The boys have had a long history with Melbourne, first hitting our scene way back in ’82 with a gig at The Tote.
“We just always have a ball in Melbourne. I’m from Perth originally, and I moved to Sydney, I had a choice between Sydney and Melbourne, because back in those days, you had to go to either Sydney or Melbourne to prove yourself in front of the industry, to get attention, to even get someone to offer a record contract.”
“I chose Sydney because I had family in Melbourne,” Faulkner laughs. “There’s a lot of interchange between the two cities, musically speaking. We wrote Melbourne into our very first songs with the intention of hopefully getting someone in Melbourne to like us enough to invite us down to do a show.”
Dave Faulker mentions the tour as a bit of a ‘degustation’, fans will be hearing a bit of everything from the group, alongside Stoneage Romeos.
“The beginning of the show is all Stoneage Romeos. Literally the way you would have heard the album back in the day, first song to last song.”
“And then we go in and play just as much again, you know, with other material from our career and then an encore if people want it with more songs. So it’s going to be a pretty mega show!”
Hoodoo Gurus land in Bendigo on 22 January 2025 followed by Geelong on Thursday 23 January with support from Magic Dirt. Final tickets are available here.
