It will be the biggest all-star Aussie music line-up seen on the Border when The Red Hot Summer Tour transforms Wodonga’s Gateway Lakes on March 3.
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After being a regular summer highlight at Mulwala, the tour makes its Albury-Wodonga debut with a second series featuring John Farnham and Daryl Braithwaite, supported by 1927, Baby Animals and The Black Sorrows.
“It’s a great feeling to be part of it,” says 1927 bass player Simon Sharpiro.
“I guess we all grew up with that music, it was a great period for Australian music through the 1970s and 80s.
“So when you get five or six acts together all from a similar vintage, There’s so many great artists and a real good catalogue of songs.”
After a sell-out run in the 2017 Red Hot Summer Tour, John Farnham’s return was due to popular demand, tour organisers say.
“Audiences loved seeing John Farnham as part of the 2017 sold out tour,” tour promoter Duane McDonald said when confirming the Wodonga concert.
“We’ve joined together an incredible Aussie line-up … it is going to rock.”
Revered as one of the best male vocalists – by fans and fellow musicians – Farnham has had an incredibly versatile career over five decades.
Likewise, Braithwaite was top of the charts with Sherbert in the 1970s, releasing dozens of top 40 songs before a solo career which produced his iconic cover version of The Horses.
For music fans from the late 1980s and 90s, Joe Camilleri and The Black Sorrows, rockers Baby Animals and 1927 will have the 10,000 fans in fine voice.
Shapiro, who has performed internationally as well as with 1927, says he enjoys being part of a festival tour and is grateful music has been a career.
“I’ve been lucky in that music has taken me around the world, performing my songs and touring with some international acts,” he says.
“It’s not always glamourous, it’s not all champagne, but it’s a lot better than digging holes, and we appreciate there’s a lot of people who work a lot harder for what they earn and what they do. We are richly rewarded.”
And sharing the stage with Australian music icons is not lost on the Sydney bass player.
“There’s John Farnham singing and you’re there watching and listening from the side of the stage,” he says.
“There'd be a lot of fans who’d love the opportunity to be side of stage while he’s singing. That’s definitely a perk of being in one of the bands on the tour and being amongst it, definitely.”