After launching the show at Brisbane’s QPAC and a state-wide tour of Queensland, Multi-Award winner Graeme Connors’ 25th Anniversary celebration of his landmark album North is now headed to Newcastle.
When Graeme Connors moved from his home town of Mackay to Sydney in the 70’s, he signed to Festival Records and started touring with the likes of Sherbet, Marcia Hines & Kris Kristofferson. Everything was set for Graeme to become a successful recording artist. But the hit never came, and by 1987 he decided it was time to pack up and move home. Before he jumped on the plane though, Graeme decided to head into the studio one last time to record songs for the album that would later become North.
“As a parting statement I headed into the studio to record North. And as it turned out it was the beginning, not the end. Coming from a small town to the city I felt as if my ideas weren’t the big ideas. As a consequence I found myself chasing the market. It wasn’t until I let go of that and wrote about experiences of growing up in the tropics that the songs made a real connection” Graeme tells me over the phone from his home in North Queensland.
“North was really a fluke” he says.
“I was going through what a lot of people were going through at the time; Thinking about home and heading to a place where there was a sense of comfort. There was a bit of a culture change and the idea of the tropics being a part of Australia that hadn’t been explored in song. In books but not in song” Graeme says of the success of North.
Graeme will revisit the album North in a special show coming to The Civic Theatre on the 6th of March. He’s brining his 5 piece band of mates who he has worked with for many years.
“Rehearsals are just a social gathering really. But I’ve got to say it’s nice to make music with people you really know.”
WHAT: Graeme Connors | North 25 years on
WHEN: Friday March 6
WHERE: Civic Theatre Newcastle
MORE INFO: http://www.graemeconnors.com/tourCalendar.php
