Venue: The Corner Hotel
Date: November 22, 2007
Reviewed By: Lyn. Photograph by Mark Geisel.
After much anticipation, one of Australia ’s best male vocalists Colin Hay entered and began the set with acoustic guitar. Going Somewhere was beautifully sung with passion and desire. It’s no secret that this man hails from the 1980’s band Men at Work and its no wonder that tonight The Corner Hotel is close to sold out. I was amazed at how strong and powerful his voice is - I’m sure plenty of people had goose bumps.
After this amazing start Colin leapt into banter for about 10 minutes, telling us that tonight’s gig was being filmed for DVD, then continuing on about his life story. Born in Scotland, he came to Melbourne and had to learn the aussie accent, after being teased for his Scottish brogue. He proved to be quite the comedian, and we a very responsive crowd!
The rest of the band entered at the third song in, bringing the total to five on stage, Charlie on drums, Simon on guitar, Dorian on keyboards and the beautiful Celia on tamborine and shakers, playing with strength and happiness, all looking completely relaxed.
Colin has a new album out called Are You Looking At Me, so tonight is about both newies and old songs. At one point we saw the entire band played with bazookas, just when I thought I’d seen it all!
Celia goes off, how else can I put it, I couldn’t stop watching her at times! She puts amazing zest into her backing vocals and instruments whilst sporting both a very colourful outfit and expressions. Celia hails from Lima, Peru . It felt like Colin's microphone volume was a little high, as I couldn’t hear backing singers much at all.
Songs for the night included, Lifeline, Beautiful World, What Would Bob Do - a rather quirky song, as well as Down By The Sea - a rather haunting Men At Work song that sold 1 million copies from the album Business As Usual. Colin told us the band used to tune 12 string guitars when stoned (which didn’t work) and he wasn’t so sure he ought to be saying that when his parents were in the room!
Lonely Without You was followed by Looking For Jack, after which another story developed: He had the title Looking For…, but he didn’t have the next word. Then he had the chance to meet Jack Nicholson and there you go, the song developed.
Who Can It Be Now was a oldie but a goodie, and Overkill a crowd pleaser. It’s A Mistake then Are You Looking At Me required much audience participation and I must add I really like this song, a groovy, catchy number.
Land Down Under was received well, written by Colin for Men at Work, it’s a song sung all around the world and its appeal was not lost on the crowd. The night ended brilliantly with Be Good Johnny. I’m sure everyone went home with a smile on their face and wonderment for Colin’s unique voice.
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