Category Archive: Modern Music
Return of Split Enz
(Adelaide Entertainment Centre, 25 May 2026) Split Enz arrived in Australia in 1975, at that stage more-or-less a New Zealand cabaret act [‘art rock’ as Glenn A. Baker and Stuart Coupe termed it in their book, The New Music (1980)]. Wonderfully weird, their oddball appearance and intricate songs gave them a certain cachet, but after some musicians moved on, the original line-up that included Tim Finn, Eddie Rayner and Noel Crombie were joined by Tim’s brother Neil (later of Crowded House fame, and, briefly, and surprisingly, Fleetwood Mac). Melody Maker opined that “they are one of the few bands with…
Continue Reading →EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert
(Directed by Baz Luhrmann) (2025) Luhrmann’s biopic, Elvis – The Movie came out in 2022 (reviewed here), and whilst it was in preparation, Baz learned of the existence of over 60 boxes of 35mm and 8mm film footage of Presley in concert, in rehearsals and interviews. They were stuck in a Warner Bros vault in a salt mine in Kansas, of all places, negatives near to perishing, with no accompanying sound. Luhrmann had to spend a lot of his own money, and two or three years technical time, to have selections of the film retrieved and synced to existing audio….
Continue Reading →Lou, the Velvets, and Nico
(A celebration, at the Governor Hindmarsh, Adelaide, 31 January 2026) The first record I bought with my own money was Transformer, which started a lifelong love of the music of Lou Reed. And a discovery of his really diverse work, travelling from poems of urban depravity to ones of great love and beauty. Did get to see him once, and he was wonderful, but he was definitely emblematic of the truism, ‘never meet your idols.’ Orson Welles didn’t sell a huge amount of tickets, but he made every moviegoer want to be a cinéaste. The Velvet Underground made every amateur…
Continue Reading →An Evening Without Kate Bush
(Adelaide Fringe, Garden of Unearthly Delights, 13 March 2025) Kate Bush, is, like one of her influencers Emily Bronte, both genius and mystic. Her look, her voice, her entire unique and brilliant oeuvre, have entranced us ever since her debut in 1978, aged 19. Sarah-Louise Young is clearly a Kate obsessive, and her show, a dizzy mash-note, is clearly for fans (we mean that in a good way), the Fish People, but it is witty and vibrant enough to please those ignorant of Kate-World. Whilst the music is pre-recorded, Young is not: her voice is strong and she inhabits the…
Continue Reading →What the World Needs Now
A celebration of Burt Bacharach (Festival Theatre, 22 November 2024) Burt’s songs are deceptively light. Famously grumpy critic Lester Bangs called him “the Master of the Superficial.” But his love melodies, entwined with the lyrics of Hal David, among others, are, in fact, little masterpieces of intimate, intricate concision. He co-wrote 73 US top-40 songs, so he must have been doing something right. On Friday night, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, under Benjamin Northey, was in full lavish-and-lush mode, providing a gorgeous backdrop to accomplished singers David Campbell, Emma Pask, Thndo and Chantelle Ormandy. Unfortunately, vocalist Elise McCann was indisposed, but…
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