Rock Royalty

In what is being billed as a world first, Melbourne's iconic Palais Theatre will play host to the opening night of the Apia Time Of My Life Tour. Featuring Australian music legends Daryl Braithwaite, Joe Camilleri, James Reyne and Ross Wilson, this show is sure to be a seriously unmissable event. Tickets, also, should be at a significant premium, given each of these four artists are still selling out shows individually. When Inpress catches up with Reyne, the first thing we want to know is how the tour came about, but it seems that the more pertinent question might have been why it hasn't happened before.

“I got a call from the promoter saying there was a possibility of doing these shows with these other guys and I just said 'count me in'. The four of us know each other pretty well and we've worked together a lot over the years. We all get on well, so that helps. We all live in Melbourne, so that helps, too. We're all fortunate enough to have pretty extensive back catalogues of hits that people will know. The idea just sort of worked. It was a real no-brainer, actually.”

Despite his uber professional standing, for some reason Inpress imagines Reyne as slightly nervous about this tour nonetheless. While admitting to Time Of My Life's difference, though, Reyne says being able to blame someone else is always a comfort.

“It's not your regular show, that's true. The good thing, though, is that because there's four of us, it's all care and diminished responsibility. You're not reliant on selling it out with it just being you. So in that sense, it's a bit more relaxed, really. Like I said, we all know each other really well, so there's no having to worry about how someone's going to behave on the road or anything like that. It'll be fun because the pressure's kind of off.”

With such a vast and storied back catalogue, the obvious question here is how Reyne decides which songs he'll play and which he'll leave out. Besides wanting to represent his recent work, it doesn't seem to be something he spends too much time fretting over.

“Yeah, I don't know what I'm going to do about that. We get about half an hour each so that's, what, six or seven songs? I don't know, it's something I'll have to think about. You can't please everybody. If you leave one out there's always going to be someone asking why you didn't play it. I do want to put at least one new one in. I'll just have to sneak it in there, you know? The older I get and the more I play, the more I realise that some of these songs seem to be really important to people, they just seem to resonate. I always used to think that was kind of a cliché, but people often come up to me almost in tears – they're probably pissed, but still – telling me how much they love certain songs.”

Metaphorically rubbing his hands together in anticipation of historic Aussie rock'n'roll dirt, your correspondent saves his best and most hard hitting question until last: given the other three aren't here, does Reyne want to take the opportunity for some celebrity gossip? In a world exclusive, Inpress can now reveal that a certain ex-Sherbet singer… well, is rather talkative.

“No, there isn't any dirt I can really dish, they're all too lovely. We also don't do anything on tour that we'd be embarrassed about. I'm very clean living. I get up early in the mornings. I get off stage and go straight back to the hotel and read a book. Well… if you go shopping with Daryl he likes to talk to every person in the shop. He likes to have a chat. That's about as nasty as I can get, really.”

James Reyne will be playing the following dates:

Wednesday 24 April - West Gippsland Arts Centre, Gippsland VIC
Friday 26 April - Palais Theatre, Melbourne VIC
Saturday 27 April - Costa Hall, Geelong VIC
Sunday 28 April - Capital, Bendigo VIC
Wednesday 8 May - Canberra Theatre, Canberra ACT
Sunday 12 May - Perth Concert Hall, Perth WA
Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 May - Twin Towns, Tweed Heads QLD
Friday 17 May - Concert Hall, QPAC QLD
Saturday 18 May - Civic Theatre, Newcastle NSW
Sunday 19 May - The Star Events Centre, Sydney NSW
Saturday 25 May - Kimberley Moon Experience, Kununnura WA
Sunday 9 June - Melbourne Public, South Wharf VIC
Thursday 13 June - Lizottes, Newcastle NSW
Friday 14 June - Brass Monkey, Cronulla NSW
Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 June - Lizottes, Central Coast NSW
Sunday 16 June - Lizottes, Dee Why NSW
Thursday 1 August - Coutts Commercial Hotel, Ayr QLD
Friday 2 August - Edge Hill Tavern, Cairns QLD
Saturday 3 August - Dalrymole Hotel, Townsville QLD
Sunday 4 August - Mission Beach Hotel Motel QLD
Tuesday 6 August - Glenmore Tavern, Rockhampton QLD
Wednesday 7 August - Harvey Road Tavern, Gladstone QLD
Friday 8 August - Club Hotel, Bundaberg QLD
Saturday 10 August - Calamvale Hotel, Brisbane South QLD
Sunday 11 August - The Paddo Tavern, Paddington QLD