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The Whitlams
Thu 27 Apr 2017 by The J Files
The Whitlams were a piano-driven pop band. They were literate, tongue-in-cheek and unafraid to explore the complexity of the many facets of human emotion in their music. They were a counterpoint to much of what was happening in their scene, which some found refreshing.
Amongst the dozens of killer guitar-centric indie bands emerging from the Australian underground in the mid-‘90s, one Sydney band emerged with a distinctly different sound.
It’s been 20 years since the band’s breakthrough album Eternal Nightcap and we are celebrating by taking a look back at one of Australia’s most cheriThe Whitlshed adult-pop acts.
Join Mike Williams for The Whitlams J Files, Thursday 27 April from 8pm on Double J.
Download The Whitlams podcast on iTunes
Chapter 1
Introducing The Whitlams
For many Australians, Sydney’s The Whitlams just appeared out of nowhere. But this band was no overnight success story.
“The Whitlams kicked off in around ’92, so I was about 28. I’d already been in about 25 bands,” frontman Tim Freedman tells Double J.Video: YouTube
“I was in a ska band called Itchy Feet. We were on a TV talent show, we played all the universities, it was a lot of fun. We had a bit of a following.Video: YouTube
“I was in another band called Penguins On Safari… I got used to booking gigs, going to pubs asking if they’d put a band on. And just trying to corral drummers, just trying to keep a band together. When there’s no money, you’ve gotta do it with hope. You’ve gotta convince people they’re going somewhere, which is all just snake oil.
“I became a sideman for a while. I did seven weeks playing piano in the Sunnyboys, I played piano in The Hummingbirds for about 18 months, just after they released loveBUZZ. I went out with Alannah [Russack] for a few years, so I knew them.
“So I toured with them and I enjoyed the process, but I wanted to be a bandleader. So I formed another band called the Olive Branch with my brother [Nick].”
A fortuitous, drunken meeting – which Freedman has previously stated happened at the Big Day Out, even though the men already knew each other from the scene – gave the artist a different musical avenue to explore.
“I met these two guys at the pub, Andy Lewis and Stevie Plunder, who were originally from Canberra,” Freedman recalls. “They were really good folk musicians. We just started jamming and playing each other’s songs.
“Even though I wasn’t putting as much time and effort into that little band [as he was with the Olive Branch], it had a bit of chemistry. When we started playing on Saturday afternoons at the local pub, people started coming along. So it got its own momentum.”
Everything would fit in the Kingswood. The piano in the back, the double bass next to it, one person lies on the piano and two guys sit in the front bucket seats.
Tim Freedman
Freedman quickly saw the potential for this side-project and the opportunity it might present to play shows outside of his home city.
“We worked really hard,” he says. “I had never really got out of Sydney with music, and I was ambitious. So as soon as I was in an act that seemed to draw crowds, I’d be on the phone booking shows in Coffs Harbour and Byron Bay and Brisbane and Newcastle.
“We’d go up and down the coast every seven weeks. I had a Kingswood and everything would fit in this Kingswood station wagon.
“The piano would be in the back, the double bass next to it, one person would lie on the piano and two guys in the front bucket seats.
“We’d go down to Melbourne overnight and play the Espy on Thursday night after the 11-hour drive – that was always a tough gig. Do a three-day jaunt, get a gig in Albury for $300 on the way back.
“It’s funny, bands are still getting paid $300 for a gig. But in those days that’d pay for our petrol and a hotel room at the Cosmopolitan in St Kilda. It was scrappy, but we were young and full of the devil.”
These early tours were vital for the earliest incarnation of the band. While it surely didn’t hurt their songwriting skills, more importantly, it taught them how to entertain.
“We learnt how to play and talk to the audience. We had a lot of laughs. We were all drinkers, which of course has its ups and downs. But during the show and after the show it was always a lot of laughs. We’d do 150-160 shows a year.”
Thanks to the band’s first record deal and some minor radio success, the crowds continued to grow.
“We got a little deal with Phantom Records, got some money to record an album. We did that pretty quickly, four studio tracks and the rest was live. That started getting played on triple j in 1993 – especially the song ‘Gough’ – and then we could start playing and 200 people would come along to the Annandale Hotel or The Espy.”
Chapter 2
Up Against The Wall
This first incarnation of The Whitlams ended almost 20 years ago.
Sadly, Freedman is now the last living member.
“We put out two albums. Andy left the band in around ’95, so Stevie and I put out Undeniably The Whitlams and then he [Stevie] died in January ’96.”
There was nothing else I wanted to do.
Tim Freedman
Stevie Plunder was found dead at the bottom of Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains on 26 January, 1996.
The tight trio of road-hardened buddies had been obliterated. Freedman was alone. But still, he felt compelled to plough on with The Whitlams.
“After Stevie died I was down the coast, sitting by the pool and I heard ‘I Make Hamburgers’ on the radio,” he recalls.
“They used to play triple j over the speakers at Thirroul pool. So I decided to put another line up together and just keep writing.
“There was nothing else I wanted to do. I was always gonna take it as far as I could. I loved performing. I loved getting in the van and playing to different towns. It was just in my blood, I just loved it. Stevie died, but that didn’t mean I had to give up.”
That doesn’t mean it was easy. Freedman wrote and played his way through his grief, but he also had to get a band together at the same time.
“I had maybe nine or ten people through the band, drummers and bass players,” he recalls. “It was a really tough time and I was deciding whether to keep going. Andy was nice enough to come back for three or four months to play with me and help me through that period.”Video: YouTube
Freedman made 1997’s Eternal Nightcap in the wake of Plunder’s passing and dedicated the album to his departed bandmate. But, contrary to what most people think, its songs weren’t written about Stevie.
Everyone assumes they’re about Stevie, but they were songs I’d been writing for ten years,
Tim Freedman
“Eternal Nightcap certainly had songs that were about friendship.
“One specifically, ‘Charlie No. 3′, about someone ending their life and what they were feeling at the time.
“But I think the impression that it was all about Stevie was more of a media impression,” he says.
A trio of songs, Charlie No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3, are most commonly associated with Plunder’s passing. Previously, Freedman has said the songs were about Beasts Of Bourbon guitarist Charlie Owen.
These days, he says that the inspiration from the songs all came from different places.
“Everyone assumes they’re about Stevie, but they were songs I’d been writing for ten years,” he says.
“They were about [three] different friends. I, as a songwriter, decided to shape them into a narrative. And it worked. People saw it as [one] story, even though I’d had three sources for the story.”
Something in Eternal Nightcap connected with Australia, both quickly and profoundly.
“From the wreck, I’d managed to put an album together that captured people’s imagination,” he says. “It was a bit of a fairy-tale, but there was this huge sadness behind it that gave it depth.
“Then, two years from when Stevie died, we had the number one on the Hottest 100.”
Chapter 3
No Aphrodisiac Like Success
“We put the album out in September ’97 and didn’t even have the money for a film clip,” Freedman recalls of Eternal Nightcap.
It was a very effective $40 marketing campaign.
Tim Freedman
“I got 50 cassettes and dubbed ‘No Aphrodisiac’ on them and on the front, in texta, I wrote ‘A Letter To You’.
“I put it in every pigeonhole in triple j and 2BL and 2FC. That was a very effective $40 marketing campaign. No one knew who it was from. I don’t know if anyone played it.
“A few weeks later the album went to everyone and [triple j] started to play ‘No Aphrodisiac’ and it just went mad.
“It was a song that worked just because it was pretty, it was about loneliness, but then it got funny. It had a real development. It just got a life of its own.Video: YouTube
“Then, suddenly, the album started flying out of the stores. We had no marketing budget. It was our own label, we were broke. It was one of those moments where the song did all the work.
The success of the song was even more unlikely given the musical landscape of the time. The alternative rock and dance scenes were booming, with big beats and noisy guitars the omnipresent sound of the time.
“I’m forever thankful that triple j were flexible enough to put a ballad in the middle of playlist that was pretty dominated by guitars and grunge by that stage. It stood out like a sore thumb. It was always this slow four minutes in the middle of everything else, which was a bit more brash and abrasive.
“The album went gold and platinum in a couple of months. I suppose people voted for [‘No Aphrodisiac’] in December and it went to number one on Australia Day.”
Every couplet had been laboured over for a long time. It wasn’t something that was written in four or five months. It was jigsaw puzzles from the last ten years.
Tim Freedman
It was a special moment in Hottest 100 history. Former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam – after whom the band was named – gave an introduction.
Freedman was in an ABC studio in Adelaide (the band were touring with Hunters and Collectors at the time) to react to the news. But, 20 years on, he reveals that he already knew they’d won.
“I got a little whisper a little bit before, because record companies in those days used to get whispers about it,” he says.
“Of course we were very excited. I went down to the co-writers’ house in Camperdown – Chit Chat and Pinky Beecroft from Machine Gun Fellatio – and we had a drink and celebrated.”
Yes, those two anarchic songwriters from the Australian underground (at that stage, anyway) were partly responsible for one of the most heartbreaking and poignant songs of the ‘90s.
Of course, their contribution was the wonderfully twisted end to the song.
‘Forty, shaved, sexy, wants to do it all day
With a gun-toting trigger-happy tranny named Kinky Renée
Tired teacher, twenty-eight, seeks regular meetings
For masculine, muscular, nappy-clad, brutal breeding
While his wife rough wrestles with a puppy all aquiver
On a wine-soaked, strobe-lit Asiatic hall of mirrors’
“They’d written that at a house I rented and I always thought it was hilarious. I thought ‘Well, if I’m gonna make this guy start losing his mind completely, I’ll use Machine Gun’s lyrics at the end.’”
The Australian public soon realised that this single was just the tip of the iceberg. They discovered that this Freedman guy knew how to write songs.
“People heard this song called ‘No Aphrodisiac’ out of the blue by a band called The Whitlams. They got the album and it had emotional depth.Video: YouTube
“Stevie had died 18 months before. So, to fill an album, I just went back to the songs I’d been working on for ten years. Every couplet had been laboured over for a long time. It wasn’t something that was written in four or five months. It was jigsaw puzzles from the last ten years. Lyrically it was quite full and tight.”
Eternal Nightcap‘s success quickly changed Freedman’s life. Thankfully, he was ready. You don’t play 150 shows a year for half a decade and not have your next move all set out for when success beckons.
We’d see older bands in the airport and they’d say ‘there’s the hardest working band in Australia’.
Tim Freedman
“We were in a position where we were so well organised, because we had a good manager and were ambitious and hardworking.
“As soon as ‘No Aphrodisiac’ took off, we were out on a 140 date tour.
“We didn’t take three minutes to go ‘what do we do now?’. We knew exactly what to do. We knew how the live scene worked. We went out and really laid into it.”
After years of toil, Freedman didn’t want to take his big opportunity for granted.
“We’d see older bands in the airport and they’d say ‘there’s the hardest working band in Australia’,” he recalls. “I never said no to a show. I loved it. I’d been struggling for long enough to really appreciate it.
“When ‘No Aphrodisiac’ hit, I was 33 and broke. I’d been at it for ten years. I really didn’t take anything for granted.
“I knew we had to put on good shows, I knew we had to be professional, I knew we had to keep writing, I knew the next album had to be good. I wasn’t gonna let this opportunity go.
“And I knew how lucky I’d been. Because if ‘No Aphrodisiac’ hadn’t clicked, it would have sold 8,000 [copies] and I would’ve been struggling again. I just respected the chance I’d been given. I worked me and the band’s butt off.”
Chapter 4
You Gotta Love This City
That hard work paid off. Freedman wrote another sterling record in 1999’s Love This City, an album that showed the songwriter was confident to tackle more specific societal issues as well as the emotional terrain he was applauded for on Eternal Nightcap.
“I thought, ‘I have an audience now’. So on Love This City I didn’t shy away from social matters.
“There was a song about East Timor (‘400 Miles From Darwin’). I wrote about how the pubs were closing and how poker machines had destroyed the culture in the pubs (‘Blow Up The Pokies’).
“And I finished a song I’d started many years before about how having the Olympics was not necessarily a great thing (‘Love This City’).Video: YouTube
“A lot of us who didn’t have a voice didn’t give a stuff about the Olympics. So I came out with the one and only anti-Olympics song, not knowing that they were to be the greatest Olympics ever. And I must say I did enjoy the two weeks…”
Following the success of that record, tragedy rocked Freedman’s life again. Founding bassist Andy Lewis took his life. Lewis hadn’t been a part of the band for a number of years, but the thought of being the only remaining founding member of the band that had become his life was understandably confronting for Freedman.
“I wrote one particular song about that called ‘The Curse Stops Here’,” he says. “I’d been touring in Canada when it happened and when I heard I was devastated.Video: YouTube
“To think that all those rousing, rollicking times when we were in the Kingswood, doing 150, I was the only one left from that car who remembered all the good times and could reminisce. And the sadness for Andy that he was going through such torment and grief, leaving behind a kid and a wife. I wrote the song just trying to come to terms with the grief of it.”
While people are constantly looking for specific details about Freedman’s private life within his lyrics, the singer believes that the songs only connect when the audience can relate them to their own lives.
“One thing about the songs on Eternal Nightcap and Love This City is they’re about how much we mean to each other. Those are the type of songs I’ve written that have touched people the most,” he says. “The ones that celebrate friendship and how much we care. It’s not necessarily about a boy and a girl. It can be about male friendships, a lot of them.”
The first chapter of The Whitlams was short, particularly in the context of the band’s 25-year career. But Freedman acknowledges how integral those formative years were.
“Terepai [Richmond – drums] started playing with me in ’99, that’s 18 years now, whereas the first Whitlams was only together for four years. But we fitted so much in and I learnt so much from them.”
Chapter 5
Been Away Too Long
With his newfound fame, Freedman wanted to ensure he had the best band money could buy. Literally.
“I wanted to get the best band I could,” he says. “Terepai had just finished touring with D.I.G. and he was the best. So I bribed him to come join the band. ‘Come and play with me, I’ll pay you this much’.
“Same with Jak [Housden – guitar]. I’d always loved his work. He’d been in The Badloves and I’d seen him play solo and he just has a beautiful feel and a great stage presence.
“Warwick [Hornby – bass] was recommended to me, he’d been in a band called The Lab with Paul Mac and he was really solid. I got them all together in a rehearsal room in ’99. They’d never even met each other.”
It’s lovely to play to people when a room becomes this orgy of nostalgia, singing and memories.
Tim Freedman
It was a supergroup, with Freedman as the puppet master.
“As Dave McCormack once said, ‘If Yr Famous and You Know It Sack Yr Band’,” Freedman laughs.
“So in ’99, when I was recording Love This City, I decided to get this great band together.
“At the start you’re saying ‘I’ve got some good work. Come along.’
“Then, over the years, you stop signing contracts, you just become friends.
“People turn up if they want, they do 90 percent of the time. Now it’s a thing I can’t replicate with other people, really. It’s in our bones.”
Freedman has no delusions about why people come to see The Whitlams these days. It’s a time to reminisce, a time to feel nostalgic, and he loves it.
“It takes [the audience] back to a time when they were young and feeling passionate about music. It’s lovely to play to people when a room becomes this orgy of nostalgia, singing and memories.
“If we do our job well, they feel unselfconscious and we’re smiling and they’re smiling – it’s a big feedback loop and it can be a very joyous affair.
“Lately we’ve been going around every September, we play one or two shows in our favourite rooms and I really look forward to those.”
One thing that’s different about The Whitlams now is that, every now and then, they’ll play with orchestras. It’s a long way from the beergardens the band played in the early-‘90s, and it’s not something Freedman ever strived to achieve. But the band are comfortable in this more refined setting.Video: YouTube
“I never imagined we’d do it,” Freedman says. “Like most things it was a mistake and it evolved.
“I became friends with Peter Sculthorpe at an APRA Awards, then I ended up at a party at Richard Tognetti’s and made an arse of myself. Then he asked ‘who was that arse?’ and asked me to work with the ACO.
“Then the West Australian Symphony found out we were open to that kind of collaboration and they commissioned some songs, so we went over and played the Perth Botanical Gardens and it worked.
“I started commissioning arrangements of more recent songs and we got to do it in the Concert Hall at the Sydney Opera House probably ten times over the years with the Sydney Symphony.
“I’ve got wonderful composers to develop the arrangements, so it’s a really solid show now, we know it works with orchestras. It’s exciting to be at such a big event and be in the middle of an orchestra.
“It really works because I let the arrangers go to town, add melodies, add textures, use the whole orchestra. It’s not like a rock band with some padded strings in the background. It’s a really tempestuous, grandiose and sometimes poignant version of The Whitlams’ repertoire.
The Whitlams most recent album was Little Cloud, released in March of 2006. That’s 11 years ago now; will there be a new one soon?
“Not soon, no,” Freedman deadpans.
“I’m not entirely sure there’ll be a Whitlams album as such. Jak wants to get in the studio – he lovesit – I’ve got to write a few songs for him.
“These days it’s a bit different. You can release three songs and go on tour, so I certainly wouldn’t count that out. But I don’t think there’ll be a whole album.”
Listen to The Whitlams full podcast here: https://www.abc.net.au/doublej/programs/the-j-files/the-whitlams/10274528
The Whitlams
Last Drinks at the Morrison Hotel
It’s 20 years since “Blow Up the Pokies” was released on the multi-platinum album “Love this City” and even though all the band can really do is shrug their shoulders that nothing has changed on the pokies front they can mark the passage of time and recall partying like it was 1999 by playing most of the album each night on this tour.
The Whitlams are also thrilled to announce that two of their favourite artists will join the shows in the capital cities next year – Bob Evans and Ella Hooper – in the 2019 Last drinks at the Morrison Hotel Tour.
Tim Freedman says “ I have identified 12 songs and two bonus tracks that I still want to play from “Love this City”, and that will make up the core of the shows this May and June. The other half of the rambunctious long set will wander widely through the other five albums, stopping off for six minutes at Bob Dylan’s ‘Tangled up in Blue’ which it’s time to play again”.
The band’s career achievements include seven albums, three multi-Platinum and three Gold and three ARIA Awards, including the Best Group presented by Gough Whitlam in 1998. In 2011 Eternal Nightcap was voted 27th on the ABC’s ‘My Favourite Album’ poll, and more recently earned the 17th spot in ‘Triple J¹s Hottest Australian Albums of All Time from my iPhone
BOB EVANS
Bob Evans, the ARIA winning alter ego of Jebediah frontman Kevin Mitchell, has graced the Australian music scene for more than two decades and has written some of the country’s most beloved songs. Under the alias of Bob Evans, Mitchell has released six albums, all of which showcase the versatility and skill of this talented songsmith. Gentle, acoustic melodies prevail, enveloping the classic folk storytelling and strong emotional pull that characterises Mitchell’s substantial body of work, the most recent of which is his new album, ‘Full Circle’, a culmination of his best, out October 2018
Ella Hooper
Ella Hooper made her entrance onto the Australian music landscape as the technicolour teenage frontwoman of her high school band, Killing Heidi. At age 13 she won Triple J’s unearthed competition and has been writing and releasing intense, intelligent pop music ever since. In and out of the studio for much of 2018, Ella kicks things off with new single ‘To The Bone’. It’s been a colourful journey and it’s only getting busier for this chameleonic purveyor of pop rock.
2019 Tour Dates
TUE 21 & LIZOTTES NEWCASTLE, NSW WED 22 MAY
Tickets: https://lizottes.com.au/
No support
FRI 24 MAY CANBERRA THEATRE – PLAYHOUSE CANBERRA, ACT
Tickets: https://canberratheatrecentre.com.au/
With Bob Evans
THUR 30 MAY MIAMI MARKETTA GOLD COAST, QLD
Tickets: www.oztix.com.au
With Bob Evans
FRI 31 MAY THE TRIFFID BRISBANE, QLD
Tickets: www.oztix.com.au
With Bob Evans & special guests
WED 5 JUNE REPUBLIC BAR HOBART, TAS
Tickets: www.moshtix.com.au
No support
FRI 7 JUNE THE GOV ADELAIDE, SA
Tickets: www.oztix.com.au
With Bob Evans & Ella Hooper
THUR 13 JUNE THE JOAN PENRITH, NSW
Tickets: https://www.thejoan.com.au/
With special guests
FRI 14 JUNE METRO THEATRE SYDNEY, NSW
Tickets: www.ticketek.com.au
With Bob Evans & Ella Hooper
SAT 15 JUNE RIVERSIDE THEATRE PARRAMATTA, NSW
Tickets: https://riversideparramatta.com.au/
With Bob Evans
THUR 20 JUNE CORNER HOTEL MELBOURNE, VIC
Tickets: www.eventbrite.com.au
With Bob Evans & Ella Hooper
FRI 28 JUNE MECC – AUDITORIUM MACKAY, QLD
Tickets: http://www.themecc.com.au/
With special guests
SAT 29 JUNE PILBEAM THEATRE ROCKHAMPTON, QLD
Tickets: http://www.seeitlive.com.au/Home
With special guests
SUN 30 JUNE GLADSTONE ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE GLADSTONE, QLD Tickets: https://gladstoneentertainment.com/
With special guests
THUR 4 JULY ASTOR THEATRE PERTH, WA
Tickets: www.ticketek.com.au
With Bob Evans & Ella Hooper
The Whitlams 25th Anniversary Orchestra Tour
THE WHITLAMS
25th Anniversary Orchestra Tour
April and May 2017 – Tickets on sale Now
Australian musical institution The Whitlams will mark the 25th anniversary of their scrappy genesis with a national orchestral tour in April and May 2017.
Adding an air of aural sophistication to lead singer-songwriter Tim Freedman’s pop smarts, the full orchestral treatment will be given to their classic hits including ‘Blow Up the Pokies’, ‘No Aphrodisiac’, ‘Thank You (For Loving Me At My Worst)’ and many more, under the baton of conductor Guy Noble.
The beautifully crafted and textured arrangements were commissioned over a decade dating from the first symphonic collaboration with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in 2004. Composers of the calibre of Peter Sculthorpe, Brett Dean and James Ledger have contributed scores, and the repertoire has been critically lauded as the most successful union of classical and pop this county has seen. The brilliant musicianship of Jak Housden (guitar), Warwick Hornby (bass) and Terepai Richmond (drums) is enhanced by a 50 piece orchestra on each date, and is sure to impress fans and music lovers alike.
Playing for one night only in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Canberra and Adelaide, the tour follows on from The Whitlams’ immensely successful collaborations with our state symphony orchestras over many years. This will be, for instance, the 11th Sydney Opera House Concert Hall show for Sydney Symphony and The Whitlams.
Tim Freedman said, “It is an honour to play with these musicians who in some cases have been playing their instruments since they were in the womb. I particularly look forward to hearing Peter Sculthorpe¹s beautiful string interlude to my song ‘Out the Back’ for the fist time since he passed away two years ago. It never fails to send audiences into raptures.”
The Whitlams have been a fixture on the Australian music scene since 1992. Their achievements include seven albums (three multi-Platinum and three Gold) and three ARIA Awards, including a Best Group gong
presented by Gough Whitlam in 1998. In 2011 Eternal Nightcap was voted 27th on the ABC ‘My Favourite Album’ poll, and more recently was voted no. 17 in ‘Triple J¹s Hottest Australian Albums of All Time’.
The Whitlams – 25th Anniversary Orchestra Tour
Presented by The Music House
Friday 28 April
Brisbane (Philharmonia Australia)
Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre
Saturday 29 April
Melbourne (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra)
Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne
Tuesday 2 May
Sydney (Sydney Symphony Orchestra)
Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
Wednesday 3 May
Perth (West Australian Symphony Orchestra)
Perth Concert Hall
Friday 5 May
Canberra (The National Pops Orchestra)
Canberra Theatre, Canberra Theatre Centre
Saturday 6 May
Adelaide (Adelaide Pops Orchestra)
Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre
Tim Freedman and the musical…
Tim Freedman and the musical built around his songs.
Whitlams tunes have been turned into plot points for a musical.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/tim-freedman-and-the-musical-built-around-his-songs-20140502-37ldf.html#ixzz315WwDfWX
Freedman Does Nilsson tour above Melbourne Pops Orchestra
In 2014, Tim Freedman will be honouring the legacy of one of the 20th century’s great singer-songwriters – the legendary Harry Nilsson.
Harry Nilsson (credited simply as “Nilsson” in his album titles) created a body of work throughout the 60’s and 70’s that is going through a resurgence of interest at the moment. A 17 disc box set “The RCA Albums Collection” has just been released, as has a full length biography: “Nilsson – The Life of a Singer-Songwriter”.
Nilsson won two Grammys for his most recognisable performances: 1969’s “Everybody’s Talkin” (theme song for the iconic movie “Midnight Cowboy”) and 1972’s “Without You”. He penned such classics as “One” (famous in Australia from John Farnham’s version), the irrepressible cult favourite, “Coconut” and his first big pay cheque, The Monkees’ “Cuddly Toy”.
In a 1968 press conference, John Lennon and Paul McCartney famously referred to Nilsson as their “favourite American group” after Lennon had listened to his second album for 36 hours straight. Nilsson’s relationship with The Beatles was to become central to his life, and the infamous rabble rouser became best friends with Ringo Starr throughout the 70’s. John Lennon produced his 1974 album – “Pussy Cats” after their exploits during the notorious Lost Weekend and it was John who negotiated Nillson’s record deal with RCA that kept him recording long after drug and alcohol abuse had damaged his beautiful voice.
Before that in 1970, Nilsson recorded “Nilsson Sings Newman”. Never forgetting what inspired him, Nilsson recorded an album of Randy Newman’s early repertoire with little regard for fashion or chart position, even though he was near the peak of his own popularity at the time.
It is in this tradition that Tim Freedman has decided to do the same thing with “Freedman Does Nilsson”. While being a gifted studio artist, Nilsson suffered from horrific stage fright which meant he never performed his songs in concert, ever. With this tour, Freedman has decided to create a “live imagining” of what a concert of Harry Nilsson may have been like.
“Harry was either very very good, or very very bad. It’s a poignant and often hilarious story with great songs that I’ve loved putting together,” says Freedman.
Tim Freedman is one of Australia’s most accomplished contemporary songwriters. His lyrics have been described as having a “charming cynicism”, enhanced by an instinct for a poignant melody and a highly individual musical style. Like Nilsson his songs take sharp turns from the heart breaking to the whimsical, and like Nilsson his songs work wonderfully with just piano and vocal. Freedman interviewed Randy Newman for the Sydney Morning Herald in 2011, and looks forward especially to singing Freedman singing Nilsson singing Newman.
The Whitlams won ‘Best Group’ at the 1998 ARIA Awards, as well as ‘Song of the Year’ and ‘Best Independent Release’ for their third album “Eternal Nightcap”. In 2011 this album was placed 27th on the ABC’s “My Favourite Album” poll, and more recently was voted no. 17 in “JJJ’s Hottest Australian Albums of All Time”.
The Whitlams recorded output spans seven albums since 1993, and includes the double platinum “Love This City”, the No. 1 “Torch the Moon” and their “Truth, Beauty & A Picture of You – Best of the Whitlams” which sat in the Top 10 for six weeks running. More recently Tim released a solo album on Sony titled “Australian Idle”.
Tim’s solo performances are a treat for music lovers, as his intimate banter, caustic wit, honest vocals and stripped-back piano style have captivated audiences around the world, the highlights being his solo Sunday night residencies at London’s Ronnie Scotts in 2003 and 2005, and his nine year stretch of annual Christmas shows at The Basement in Sydney.
His interpretation of Nilsson classics accompanied by anecdotes of each song and of how they fit into Nilsson’s reckless life is an event not to be missed.
The Whitlams and Melbourne Pops Orchestra
We are excited to announce another orchestra show with the Melbourne Pops Orchestra on Friday June 28 at the Hamer Hall in Melbourne!
Tickets are available at:
http://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/whats-on/event.aspx?id=3608 or 1300 182 183
http://www.ticketmaster.com.au/The-Whitlams-tickets/artist/729868 or 136 100
Hope to see you all there
The Whitlams & Melbourne Pops Orchestra!
We are excited to announce another orchestra show with the Melbourne Pops Orchestra on Friday June 28 at the Hamer Hall in Melbourne!
Tickets are available at:
http://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/whats-on/event.aspx?id=3608 or 1300 182 183
http://www.ticketmaster.com.au/The-Whitlams-tickets/artist/729868 or 136 100
Hope to see you all there
Pete Murray, The Whitlams & The ASO
We are very excited to announce that we will be playing the Adelaide Fringe with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra alongside Pete Murray this March!
Check out the website for details & tickets
http://www.the-depot.com.au/events/pete-murray-the-whitlams-the-aso
Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne shows TBA!
Pete Murray and the Whitlams
We are very excited to announce that we will be playing the Adelaide Fringe with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra alongside Pete Murray this March!
Check out the website for details & tickets
http://www.the-depot.com.au/events/pete-murray-the-whitlams-the-aso
Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne shows TBA!
THE WHITLAMS JOIN FLIX IN THE STIX
We are pleased to announce that we will be joining the Flix in the Stix tour in 2013 throughout the regional cities in Australia. Flix in the Stix features an eclectic mix of award winning international short films curated by Australian film industry heavyweight, NASH EDGERTON.
All tickets can be purchased through Ticketek at http://premier.ticketek.com.au/Shows/Show.aspx?sh=FLIXINTH13 and you can check out the website at http://www.flixinthestix.com.au/ for more information!
FLIX IN THE STIX 2013 DATES:
Friday Feb 1 Lake Wyangan GRIFFITH NSW
Saturday Feb 2 Australian National Botanic Gardens CANBERRA ACT
Friday Feb 8 Lazy River Estate DUBBO NSW
Saturday Feb 9 Orange Botanic Gardens ORANGE NSW
Friday Feb 22 Bicentennial Park TAMWORTH NSW
Saturday Feb 23 Saumarez Homestead ARMIDALE NSW
Saturday Mar 9 Fairylands BALLARAT VIC
Sunday Mar 10 Big Hill Vineyard BENDIGO VIC
Friday Mar 22 Music Bowl WAGGA WAGGA NSW
Saturday Mar 23 Bong Bong Racecourse BOWRAL NSW
Friday Apr 26 Heritage Village ROCKHAMPTON QLD
Saturday Apr 27 Tondoon Botanic Gardens GLADSTONE QLD
