Live Review BY ALEC SMART 15/02/20
February 19, 2020
Sunnyboys performed at Taronga Zoo on 15 Feb, part of the Twilight at Taronga annual summer concert series, with support from Rocket Science.
The fourth show in their 40th anniversary national tour, which has so far taken them to Torquay, Melbourne and Brisbane, the original line-up of the much-loved band have also released an updated version of their eponymous debut EP, re-recorded and re-titled Sunnyboys 40.
Garage rockers Rocket Science warmed up the stage for them with a repetitive, often abrasive sound that was in many ways the polar opposite to the jangly, danceable melodies that characterize the Sunnyboys.
The Melbourne-based quartet have a 22-year history, albeit with a five-year break, during which they’ve released five studio albums – the latest, Snake, in Aug 2019.
Singer-keyboardist Roman Tucker is a compelling front man, snarling and gesticulating whilst hammering out notes on his historic Farfisa organ. As the rest of the band churn out intense rhythms that stray into psychedelia and grunge, Tucker occasionally coaxes his theremin into releasing other-worldly wails and whines with the result resembling a psychedelic reception party for aliens.
Sunnyboys’ original line-up, consisting of drummer Bill Bilson, bassist Peter Oxley, and singer-guitarist Jeremy Oxley – all of whom hail from the northern NSW town of Kingscliff – and guitarist Richard Burgman, from Wagga Wagga, have remained a stable entity since they reformed for a reunion show in Sydney in April 2012.
On that occasion they appeared onstage at the Enmore Theatre in Newtown as a surprise act billed Kids In Dust in one of the Dig It Up concert series supporting fellow 80s power-pop band Hoodoo Gurus.
When the band ascended the Taronga Zoo open-air twilight stage on Saturday night, the familiar opening chimes of The Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun began, their usual nod-and-a-wink to fans to announce their impending arrival.
Later in the set the band played another Beatles’ number, Birthday from the White Album, which often appears in their live set and on this occasion celebrated the upcoming birthday of bassist Peter.
The band performed 20 original crowd favourites (plus the aforementioned Beatles’ cover), all of which have stood the test of time, despite most of the lyrical content deriving from teenaged Jeremy’s sometimes naive expressions of youthful hopes and sorrows.
These included stand-out songs My Only Friend; their first breakthrough hit Happy Man; the Oxley brothers’ only co-written song, the somewhat melancholic epic Let You Go; catchy upbeat You Need A Friend; and their signature number Alone With You.
This ‘classic’ version of the band formed in 1980 from the dissolution of the short-lived Shy Imposters and, after recruiting Peter’s precociously talented younger brother Jeremy, went on to play their debut gig in Aug 1980, just two months after they started rehearsing.
Thereafter, thanks to the appeal of Jeremy’s angsty, bitter-sweet ballads of love and loss, they were signed by mainstream Australian record label Mushroom, home to a profusion of successful bands and artists, including The Angels, The Church, Renee Geyer and Skyhooks.
Over the next few years the young quartet released three best-selling albums – Sunnyboys, Individuals and Get Some Fun – until their breakup in 1984. This reunion of the original four members reprises the much-loved songs from that era.
An alternate version of the band with just Jeremy and guest musicians (including Tim Freedman, who went on to form The Whitlams), toured from 1987-90 and released the album Wildcat, but the songs from that release are largely unknown to most fans and physical copies of the album itself have disappeared into collectors’ obscurity.
Guitarist Richard Burgman, who, during the years Sunnyboys were in stasis played with punk pioneers The Saints and folk-rock combo Weddings, Parties Anything, is the focal centre of the band in concert, hyperactive, ever-smiling and encouraging the crowd to clap or dance.
This frees Jeremy to focus on singing and playing guitar (because, as anyone familiar with the songwriter’s troubled history and the mental illness that has afflicted him knows, his concentration fluctuates), while his loving big brother Peter is often attentive with a smile and a nod of encouragement to ensure he’s at his best.
Jeremy’s breakdown in the early 1990s and subsequent withdrawal for 20 years likely began a decade earlier with the stress of expectations and fame coupled with alcohol abuse. This recipe for ruin started with the gruelling tour schedule the band undertook following the meteoric success of their debut, eponymously-titled album – which sold 50,000 copies.
As Sunnyboys state on their website: “the band would … tour endlessly, including one Melbourne visit that featured 27 shows in 10 days: 11 of them in just 3 days! It was this sort of workload that would later prove very telling on the band.”
Despite the slings and arrows of time, the band’s original chemistry is very apparent 40 years on as they gel together onstage. Operating on a relaxed tour schedule that involves just a few appearances a year no doubt keeps them fresh and focused too.
And this four-decade anniversary sees the release of a new song – Can’t You Stop – which fits in well with their repertoire of timeless material.
When they were about to introduce it at Taronga, a small scuffle broke out near the front of the stage as a few tipsy people jostled for space beneath the light rain falling.
The tension was quickly defused as the band called for calm, with Jeremy joking that the new song was aimed at the people spoiling the night: “Can’t You Stop fighting?!”
The grand finale of the evening, Jeremy’s autobiographical The Seeker, was a crowd-stirrer. The original studio recording first appeared on the band’s first self-titled and independently-released 4-track EP.
The first pressing, made just two months after their debut gig and four months after the group’s founding, also featured an early version of Alone With You, and all four songs on it have recently been re-recorded and released to coincide with this 40th anniversary year tour.
As Peter said recently in regards to their longevity, “We really didn’t think we would ever play again as a band. But wow, we have and we sure are having a bloody great time doing it.”
And as Taronga Zoo’s Twilight concert demonstrated, the fans are having a bloody great time too.
–
Sunnyboys’ set list – Taronga Zoo, Sydney, 15 Feb 2020
–
Love to Rule
Tunnel of My Love
Trouble in My Brain
My Only Friend
What You Need
Tomorrow will be Fine
Can’t You Stop [new song]
Happy Man
It’s Not Me
Gone
The Stooge
Show Me some Discipline
To the Bone
Let You Go
You Need a Friend
I’m Shakin’
–
Birthday
Lovers on Another Planet’s Hell
Alone with
–
You The Seeker
–
View Alec Smart’s full gallery of images HERE
–
