Early 1976 saw me turning out to catch the criss-cross polyrhythms that explode with happiness purveyed by the London-based African musos from Osibisa. We’d started with a Chinese dinner, queued in the wet season rain at the Murray Basketball stadium and then enjoyed a pretty magical show but some of the glow evaporated when the boss called me into the office the following day to inform me that he was taking me off the nice Year Five class I’d spent three days with and I was going to be filling in for various other staff members who were heading off on lengthy in-service activities.
For some reason the refrains of Woyaya (We are going/Heaven knows where we re going/ We know we will) seemed appropriate.
When it comes to incongruous double bills they don’t come much stranger than a show at the Showgrounds with Chuck Berry supported by the Army Band from Lavarack Barracks.
Berry’s performance, backed by the Adelaide outfit that later morphed into The Angels, was more or less as expected, though my clearest recollection of the evening involved Mr Berry’s limousine being caught in the crush of departing concert goers. The Chuckster seemed less that impressed as assorted indigenous members of the audience pounded on the car roof with cries of See you later, countryman.
The preferred venue for concertes was, however, the Sound Shell in South Townsville’s Dean Park where I caught Little River Band, The Angels, Cold Chisel, Redgum, The Sports, Split Enz and Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons.
Little River Band, as previously noted, could be relied on to deliver a quality show, but The Sports/Split Enz double bill wasn’t as good as it could have been. While The Sports are one of my all-time favourite Australian bands, it was one of those take it in turn to headline affairs, and a high-quality set from Split Enz culminating in a mass sung-along I Got You was followed by a disappointing set from Steve Cummings and company, who at that stage included Red Symonds (as I recall from certain on-stage banter).
Redgum put on a pretty good show as well, while The Angels and Cold Chisel provided a contrast in approaches in another double bill. I preferred the rough-hewn approach of Cold Chisel to the highly-staged performance Doc Neeson put on fronting The Angels, but when it came to spontaneity there was nothing quite like Jo Jo Zep.