This year the ABC turns 75 and what better way than a party at the riverstage with a sway of ABC personalities and entertainment for the kids (Bananas in Pajamas, Fireman Sam etc) and music and comedy for the big kids (The Boat People, Troy Cassar-Daly, Craig Reucassel from The Chaser, Scared Wierd Little Guys, Aunty Jack and Thin Arthur and The Great Debate).
I have mentioned before how much a large part of my life the the ABC has been both the radio, tv and now the internet. That is why there would be nothing holding me back from going along for the show. Was a really great day and a perfect 3rd concert for my 4 concerts in 4 days weekend.
First up on show were local lads The Boat People. I remember hearing a lot of these fellas back in the end of Highschool/early Uni when I was listening to 4ZZZ a fair bit. Since then I don’t think I have consciously listened to them. This meant that I was blown away quite nicely on Sunday arvo.
Scared Weird Little Guys
I have only been exposed to the Scaredies once before and that was on Music Tour in year 12 when Ms Jabs played the Macadamia EP on the bus and we were all curled up our seats doing the actions. It was a funny event. With their matching suits, mis-matching heights and some rather topical lyrics they proved a hit with all members of the audience. At one stage they were siniging three songs between them (Summer Nights, Louie Louie and X) whilst the crowd sung Wild Thing (all four songs have the same basic chords in them)
Aunty Jack and Thin Arthur
I have heard a lot about The Aunty Jack show over the years but this was my first exposure and they were pretty funny.
Craig Reucassel from The Chaser
Of The Chaser guys, Chas takes out first place for my favourite and Craig is a close second. Having him up to muse out the next 75 years of the ABC/Australia and what is happening currently was rather funny. His prediction is that in 75 years time John Howard will still be PM and Maxine McKew will be opposition leader (which thinking about now is rather flawed sine Maxine is running against Howard for the seat of Bennelong). To finish off his segment he picked out people in the audience with Andrew Hansen hair, the crowd then voted for the person who had the most Andrew Hansesn like hair (read weird) and they had to sing a closing song for the segment. The girl who won though by her own admission had a few drinks under the belt and really should have thought more I thought about what words she lets out her mouth at such a day. Moving right along…
The Great Debate.
This was quite an event and a lot of fun. The question of the debate was “Are interviews more important than music?” in regards to radio. Heading the affirmative team was 612 ABC’s drive presenter Kelly Higgins-Devine with John from the Scaredies and Craig Reucassel from The Chaser. Heading the negative team was AM presenter Tony Eeastly with Rosie Beaton from Triple J/jTV and Rusty from the Scaredies. It was really amusing to listen and watch and at the end of the day the crowd decided that interviews were more important than music.
Troy Cassar-Daly
Troy is a bit of a legend in the Australian country music scene, everyone knows who he is and it was great to see him live for the first time. He really got the crowd going with lots of participation which was really good.
ABC Personalities.
These are just the ones that I grabbed photos of, there would have been scores more round the place.
Richard Fiedler, Peter Cundall, Madonna King, Andrew Lofthouse, Jenny Woodward, Steve Austin, Rosie Beaton, Peter Thompson.
Blue King Brown closed the show and they very much deserve their own post which will come in the next day or two.
You may prefer to view a slideshow of the photos which is available below or here.