|
It was there John Farnham saw us It was there John Farnham saw us. He was blown out by Venetta and asked her to come on tour with him. 'Whispering Jack' was top of the charts and he was breaking all records in the industry with record sales and concert attendances. One year later he asked me to come on board and play bass for him. That was on the Age Of Reason tour, I had sung backing vocals on the album. The music wasn't exactly what I usually did, it was middle of the road, whereas I had always been a bit more rootsy and alternative, but I thought it would be fun to do it any way. My friend Lindsay Field was also a backing singer in the band and later Chong Lim from Venetta's Taxi and Gospel Jubilee came on board. I figured that I would do the gig for maybe a year or two at max and then move on
I ended up playing in that band for 13 years. Throughout that time I had many adventures, I travelled with John Farnham to Europe several time. We did all the major European rock festivals like 'Rock am Ring' at Nuebergring in Germany where we supported acts like Sting, Bob Geldorf, Dave Stuart, Toto, and ZZ Top. John could have done so well in Europe if he had wanted to, he had a lot of chart success, but he never seemed to want to put the time into cultivating a really solid fan base there like he had in Australia. He got really miffed once, in Europe, when he got a review saying 'how can you sing rock in a suit???' I must admit I have always thought he could drop the suit thing and get a bit more down and dirty but I guess we all have to work within our own comfort zone. Playing in the John Farnham Band led on to other opportunities like touring with Olivia Newton John and Kylie Minogue. 
John Farnham Tour with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
NEXT: chapter 9 - Playing with Kylie Minogue |
