John Schumann And The Vagabond Crew @ The Gov, Adelaide 16/8/2025

Mention the name John Schumann and people will immediately reply with “He’s the guy who sings I Was Only 19” or “He used to be in Redgum” or even “Didn’t he used to be a politician?”. The answer to all three is of course correct but John has done a lot more than those things. John continues to release new music and perform with his band The Vagabond Crew. He has just released a new single, Fishing Net in the Rain and is at The Gov for a set of Solo/Vagabond songs followed by a set of Redgum songs.

Credit to Adelaideans who turned up in droves for the performance. On a cold wet evening, The Gov was close to a sellout.

John Schumann and The Vagabond Crew played two sets over the evening, with nearly three hours of music. The first set was Behind the Lines; a set of war tunes that John has been singing and recorded over the year. This was to be a very sombre set with no talking between songs from John.

The band came on stage and commenced playing. John walking out casually soon after, hands in pockets, looking a little lost without a guitar in his hand. At the microphone he started singing Boy on the Run, taking in the crowd and the setting.

A nice touch was Celine O’Leary giving narrative between each song, telling the story of the song to come. Scotts of the Riveria, To an Old Mate and Anzac Biscuits followed in quick succession. Photos and images appeared on the screen behind the band to further enhance the stories being told in song.

A moving On Every Anzac Day told the story of Indigenous Australians fighting in World War One and then the reception, or lack of, they got when they returned home. Don Walker’s Khe Sanh was retitled Long Thanh by John, with permission from Don, as Australians never fought at Khe Sanh. The song was performed with just John on vocals and Rohan Powell on guitar.

It was moving that many of the songs John was singing were about people he knew, many of the stories not having a happy ending. Glass on the Bar and another Chisel classic in Steve Prestwich’s When the War is Over were standouts of the set. The new song Fishing Net in the Rain was inspired by a recent Royal Commission into defence and Veteran Suicide and shows John’s writing ability hasn’t waned over the years.

After a version of Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms, John spoke to the audience for the first time. “It’s beer o’clock. We will be back with some Redgum tunes”. It reminded me of the first time I saw Redgum in 1981. After the first set John announced a break. No one moved from their seats until John laughingly told us “Fk off and get a beer”.

A change of outfits for the band, from matching khaki shirts for the first set, to an array of black T Shirts for the Redgum set, soon saw the band back on stage. One More Boring Night in Adelaide opened the set. Well, what else would you start with in Adelaide. As to what was going to be a common theme during the evening, the lyrics were updated to these “modern” times. There was mention of Womad, The Big Car Race and Submarines.

Next up was the lament to people living in Beaumont with the usual four-wheel drive monologue to go with it. Speaking as a fan, I would rather have heard more classic Redgum songs than sit through the same story again. But the people in the room loved it.

We were told It Doesn’t Matter to Me came about from a weekend of “songwriting” in Port Elliott with lots of cheap wine and some other substance in tow. Yes, that now explains the song.

John regaled us with the tale of travelling on a train through outer Sydney when John saw painted on a factory wall If You Don’t Fight You Lose. He thought that was great, being the name of their debut album. He them mused, “I have never seen Paul Kelly’s How to Make Gravy painted on a factory wall”. A moving Killing Floor followed, a tale of human survival.

Fabulon is another song that should have stayed in the 1980’s. It was fun then, but even with lyric upgrade of Amazon, iPad and NBN, it has dated badly. Give me Stewie instead. 100 Years On bought the band back on track and Hugh McDonald’s The Diamantina Drover, sung by Ian “Polly” Politis, bought a tear to the eye of many.

I guess I’ve Been to Bali Too just had to be played, and it was pretty much as the original except for mention of Schapelle rather than McCartney.

Then the magnum opus, Gladstone Pier, with searing violin from Julian Ferraretto fuelling this magnificent song that makes the hair on the back of your head stand up. “They used to like us in Gladstone (Queensland) before we released this song” mused John. Has Springsteen ever written a song this good? I don’t think so. “They fought, she left him crying, Angry words in a last café, in desperation on a lonely night, she took the bus to Cairns next day”. How good would have this been if it segued into Beyond Reason.

The ABC radio audience has just voted I Was Only 19 the number one South Australian song of all time and rightly so. “It was only a song when I wrote it,” said John. “I didn’t set out to change anything”. But change things the song did. When the song ended and John and band walked off stage, it was to a well-deserved standing ovation.

The Long Run and Where Ya Gonna Run To commenced the encore, the band having fun with the latter song, each member rolling out a short solo during the song, including a great violin/piano play off. The last song was a John Schumann solo song, Holy Mary, “But if you listen to it, you will hear about my leaving Redgum”. A fitting end to a wonderful three hours of music and another standing ovation as the band left the stage.

Gigs like this don’t come along often. Two sets and three hours of music. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Live Review by Geoff Jenke