He's performing a national tour celebrating the iconic music of Australian Crawl.
James Reyne, the iconic Australian musician, is taking a stroll down memory lane with his 2024 Crawl File Tour.
The tour, commemorating the 40th anniversary of Australian Crawl’s first greatest hits collection, promises to be a nostalgic journey through some of Australia’s most beloved rock classics. Locally you’ll be able to catch James Reyne at the Torquay Hotel for two special shows on 14 and 15 of January.
James Reyne Crawl File 40th Anniversary Tour – 2024
- March Fri 8 and Sat 9: The Gov, Adelaide, SA
- March Sat 23: Northcote Theatre, Vic
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To coincide with this exciting tour, Universal Music is reissuing “Crawl File” on vinyl, making it available for fans to order starting tomorrow.
This collection reads like a legendary live gig, opening with Australian Crawl’s debut single, ‘Beautiful People,’ and concluding with their crowd-pleaser ‘The Boys Light Up.’ In between these iconic tracks are timeless Australian classics such as ‘Reckless,’ ‘Errol,’ ‘Oh No Not You Again,’ ‘Lakeside,’ ‘Downhearted,’ and ‘Things Don’t Seem.’
For many fans, playing any song from this album is enough to transport them back to the sea spray and late summer nights of their youth.
Just a snippet from any of these songs can conjure vivid memories: “The garden’s full of furniture, the house is full of plants … Had an experience bizarre … I would give everything just to be like him … Let me tell you ’bout two young lovers that lived on the coast … All them summer rubbernecks kept coming to panel-van the street … Broken dreams that never really started … Things just don’t seem to be going right … She don’t like that kind of behaviour … Hopes are up for trousers down … The garden it is dorsetted, that lady she’s so corseted.”
The wordplay in these songs is pure magic, and their melodies unforgettable. It’s a musical journey that’ll have you singing and dancing along in no time.
Fun fact: The distinctive artwork for “Crawl File” was co-designed by Buster Stiggs, previously the drummer for The Swingers and Models.
Back in 1984, “Crawl File” was the biggest Australian best-of album, hitting #2 on the charts, kept off the top spot by that year’s massive compilation, “Choose 1985,” which dominated the charts for nine weeks.
The release of this greatest hits collection capped off a bittersweet year for James Reyne and Australian Crawl. Despite the band’s success and their sponsorship of the 1984 Bells Beach Surf Classic, a significant accolade for James Reyne was winning a Logie for Most Popular New Talent, thanks to his standout role in the hit mini-series “Return To Eden.” However, this joy was tempered by the tragic loss of Guy McDonough, a planned US tour that had to be canceled.
James Reyne is a musician who doesn’t dwell on the past, but he does occasionally pay it a visit.
“It was all a long time ago,” reflects James, “and sometimes I feel like it was another person who lived that life. But I’m still making music, and I’m still on the road. Australian Crawl was a great apprenticeship.”
Fans can catch James Reyne on tour with an 8-piece band, including guitarists Brett Kingman and Josh Owen, bassist Andy McIvor, Sean Johnson on keys, drummer John Watson (who was part of Australian Crawl with James), and backing vocalists Melinda Jackson and Nicky Kurta. This initial run of tour dates is only the beginning, with two more announcements yet to come.
Tickets are on sale now here.
