James Reyne, Nick Barker @ The Gov, Adelaide 16/1/2025
James Reyne is an artist who doesn’t live in the past, but occasionally he pays it a visit. It is obvious that people do like when he does indeed revisit his past, as James has two nights at The Gov to woo his fans. Australian Crawl’s first compilation album is being re-released on vinyl to celebrate its fortieth anniversary. Where does time go?
Where in deed does time go? It’s been a long long time since I last saw support, Nick Barker play live. It may have been so far back that he was still with his band The Reptiles. Poor Nick was up against it, armed with only an acoustic guitar and a packed talking Gov waiting for James Reyne.
“Thanks for supporting live music”, Nick started with. “Probably the last thing you want to see is some old prick on stage with just a guitar”. No, Nick, I was really looking forward to seeing you. No Good opened proceedings, Nick’s voice as good as it has ever been. There were some newish songs and some older songs during his short set. Flightpath dealt with, well, living under a flight path, something he had come to cherish after living under one for a while, and Sunny was a song about his child.
The 1994 single Time Bomb got an airing and local Adelaide musician Chris Harris joined Nick on stage, playing harmonica and doing backing vocals for the Reptiles 1989 hit, Come Up and See Me Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me), yes, the Steve Harley song. Chris then stayed on stage for a blues infused Scar. A good set, although at times I kept thinking a band behind him would have propelled the songs into the next level.
Sometimes it is great to see a band get up on stage and just play no frills Rock N Roll. No video, no special effects or special light show, just good ole Rock ‘N Roll. Tonight was one of those nights. Australian Crawl were all over the radio waves from 1979 to 1986 and continue to be today on the classic radio stations. It seems they could do no wrong with single releases.
With just keyboard player Sean Johnson, James Reyne walked on stage fifteen minutes earlier than the advertised start time, catching many out in the beer garden unaware he was on stage. The two rolled into Hoochie Gucci Fiorucci Mama from the Crawl’s first album, Boys Light Up. A gentle beautiful start to the set. Song finished; the rest of the band came on stage to rock into What a Pain in the Arse it Is, a James Reyne song from 2015. Other than the occasional “thanks for coming out on a Thursday night” from James, it was just song after song, hit after hit for the evening.
Beautiful People, Australian Crawls first ever single from 1979, sounded as fresh as when first released and Daughters of the Northern Coast had the crowd singing along loudly, knowing all the words despite it not being a big hit when released back in 1982. James didn’t leave out his solo career with Slave and Motor Too Fast receiving as much applause as the Crawl songs. Downhearted had the phones in the audience out again and they stayed out for a powerhouse version of Reckless (Don’t Be So…). The whole band were trying to be “out front” in sound with a magnificent drum beat from John Watson, who played with Australian Crawl for a while. This version certainly was far better than the original single, which in itself was pretty amazing.
James halted proceedings at this stage, looking at the people down the front. “That stuff you are recording on your phone, do you go home and watch it?” He singled out one punter, “Do you watch it at home?” The person replied they did. “Why?”, replied James, “it sounds and looks shitty. Do you show your friends the video?” Again, a positive reply. “Wow, do they tell you to get a fken life”. He kept the conversation going, telling everyone to ignore these videos on social media as they don’t represent the show at all.
The band left the stage, except for James and guitarist Josh Owen for a subdued The Boys Light Up, complete with audience singing along. Strangely there were only a few phones lit up. The band returned and the pace picked up with another Reyne solo song, Fall of Rome. Next, White Limbo from the Semantics E.P. was a song “you can tell is a song from a band running out of ideas”. Yes, it did show, perhaps not the best song of the evening. However Unpublished Critics more than made up for it. This song rocked and was the highlight of the evening, along with Reckless.
The set closed with the hits Oh No Not You Again and Errol. The band were soon back on stage for a blistering Things Don’t Seem to close out the evening.
You knew what you were getting from the beginning, the hits, and James and band delivered. I had forgotten how many great hits Australian Crawl had, and I also had forgotten how good James Reyne solo songs were. To quote James Reyne “It was all a long time ago, and sometimes I feel like it was another person who lived that life. But I’m still making music and I’m still on the road. Australian Crawl was a great apprenticeship.”
No frills Rock N Roll with great songs delivered to near perfection. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Live Review By Geoff Jenke