Brian Cadd is arguably the most influential and key role player in recent Australian musical history. He has been deep in the fray since the emergence of contemporary music in this country in the ‘60s.
Riding alongside him for most of the years has been dear friend and musical collaborator Glenn Shorrock. And yet after decades and decades of touring, they are set to be back playing Geelong Arts Centre.
Their show The Two Amigos! will fill the theatre space on Sunday 11 August at 2:00pm. They are set to play classics they have concocted together as well as favourites we have come to know of them writing individually.
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Although times have indeed changed, despite Cadd joking about his long-standing friendship with Shorrock, “Excuse me, I’ve been on tour with Glenn for my whole life,” Shorrock and Cadd have changed. Despite aspects of their being remaining quite the same. For Cadd this is a passion for playing live shows, particularly to audiences that reside outside of the major metropolis of Australia.
“This tour is definitely not like the old days of driving 300 miles in a Kombi Van to play two gigs,” says Cadd. “It’s really much more a question of being able to be us and go out and do the stuff that we really love doing without driving around the country.
“These shows are so special, because when the audience was growing up in Geelong, or the areas around Geelong you would never get to see a show like ours at an Arts Centre. The show would have been at a pub with limited production, and so it’s become just like playing anywhere in Australia. That’s a wonderful thing for our musical industry, and for the people of regional areas to experience.”
That contribution to a musical industry that Brian Cadd views as so incredibly unique and special is one reason why he keeps on touring.
“One thing it is we do have is a beautiful structure to the way that music has developed here in Australia. It’s unique and it’s helped us raise a special music industry. It’s not like anything else I’ve encountered in the world.”
It is in this vein of ensuring the Australian Music Industry propels forward that Cadd plays with a band comprised of members younger than him. Although they aren’t in their 20’s, they do sit a generation below him and provide another layer to the way in which music develops and evolves in this country.
“Everyone that we’re playing with are much younger than us,” he says. “So their interpretation of our music is based on their musical growing up, and their unique musical journey. The guitar player might be essentially playing what he thinks is on the record, but it’s in his style rather than the original recording.
“It isn’t a very conscious thing though; I might just hear it and be like “oh that’s nice”. But our band members were young, they were very young when the records came out, and in a lot of cases that means there is a different style and flair added to our songs we wrote a long time ago.”
So as much as the upcoming Geelong Arts Centre show will act as an ode to the arts in regional parts of Australia, as well as how the music industry has flourished since the ‘60s, what remains as perhaps the most important and prominent feature of the show is a celebration to long standing friendship.
“Isn’t that the coolest thing to still be best friends with such an old friend? And Glenn and I have been friends since about 1964. There’s nothing we haven’t been through. We’ve been through hell together, and so this show is about just getting out there and rejoicing in our friendship.
“So when we get on stage, based on 60 years of friendship, all the records we have made together, having the closeness of being best friends, we will spend half the time having fun with each other and telling stories about the other one.”
In its essence the show will encapsulate the title of The Two Amigos! As Brian Cadd says “It won’t just be about playing the jukebox hits. We will feature lots of those, but it is set to be a hilarious evening, full of entertainment rather than just being an introspective and terribly serious musical thing.”
Tickets to see Brian Cadd and Glenn Sharrock together as The Two Amigos are on sale now and can be purchased here.
