Little River Band singer thrills big river town audience

The  voice of Australia's Little River Band, Glenn Shorrock, performs at the Balclutha War...
The voice of Australia's Little River Band, Glenn Shorrock, performs at the Balclutha War Memorial Hall on Saturday night. Photo by Helena de Reus.
Big names came to the big river town on Saturday night. Glenn Shorrock, the voice of Australia's Little River Band, and Jason Kerrison, lead singer of New Zealand band Opshop teamed up, to the delight more than 200 people at the Balclutha War Memorial Hall.

Among the songs Shorrock performed were Little River Band classics Help is on Its Way, Home on a Monday, and Cool Change.

At age 67, Shorrock showed no sign of slowing down.

He was not afraid to banter with the audience and proved he still had plenty of energy with his hip-jutting, arm-waving dance moves.

Shorrock, whose career spans more than 40 years, helped form the Little River Band in 1974.

"In those days everything was new and interesting. We didn't really know what we were doing. Now it's a multimillion-dollar industry and celebrity drives everything."

For Little River Band, Shorrock wrote the hits Emma, Help Is on Its Way and Cool Change, and wrote other songs for his solo career.

"I'm not a songwriter any more, but you never know when or where I will find that inspiration. I tend to goof off and play around with sounds and not finish anything."

Shorrock has been twice inducted into the Aria Hall of Fame, once in 1991 in his own right, and again with LRB in 2004.

He has also performed in theatre and cabaret, in shows such as Evita and The Rocky Horror Show.

"The measure of success is still being around. I've had 50 years of experience and I still enjoy singing. It's not always a glamorous job but I'm happy going around singing the songs people still want to hear."

For Opshop frontman Kerrison, touring with Shorrock fulfilled a childhood dream.

"I met Glenn two weeks ago and I'm blown away that I get to sing with him. It's a boyhood dream singing with Glenn from Little River Band."

His father was a "big fan" of LRB and he grew up listening to its music, he said.

Balclutha musician Vickie Evans opened the show, performing four songs, including Lipstick Stains, which won her the Gold Guitar award in Gore earlier this year.

- helena.dereus@odt.co.nz

 

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