JOHN FARNHAM LIVE BY DEMAND
The exact words uttered are open for conjecture but those there on side-of-stage at the Sydney Cricket Ground not long
after midday on March 14 concur. “God, I’ve missed this!” was the essence of John Farnham’s reaction to the soaring,
roaring and overwhelming response to his performance of ‘You’re The Voice’, with admirers Coldplay, at the Sound Relief
benefit concert. It could have been “How good was that?!” or even an astonished expletive or three, but one thing’s for
sure, it was the moment that confirmed what had been occurring to him for some time: that his sabbatical had reached a
natural end. That day, with that catalyst, the tentative plans of some months were effectively cemented into place. Plans
for a series of intimate performances, with his full band, in ‘lyric-type’ theatres and wineries in September and October of
this year commenced.
John Farnham Live By Demand is just that. It meets a ceaseless national enquiry over the past three years as to when the
man, who has sold more tickets and more albums and notched up more achievements than any other Australian musician,
would return to perform.
While there will never be a John Farnham tour on the scale of his epic 2002 sweep across Australia – taking in almost a
hundred shows in vast arenas and a 4,000 seat tent in cities and towns over the better part of a year before almost half a
million people – there will always be John Farnham performances... and as the years go on, they will reflect his evolving
musicality and life.
There was no retirement and there is no ‘comeback’. There has been, as has long been the case with perennial artists,
from the Rolling Stones to Barbra Streisand, a respite from rigours, a time to refocus and replenish. Some time for himself.
Since John joined Strings Unlimited as a 16 year old singer in late 1965, and was a national chart star two years later, music
has defined and consumed him, often to the exclusion of other pursuits. There has always been a new single, album, tour,
show or collaboration commanding his attention. Admitting freely that he felt he “had to get out of people’s way for a
while”, John laid recording and touring aside for a time to connect with family, friends... and livestock. Always passionate
about horses, John and Jillian Farnham became involved in the 90s with cutting horses – designed to show a quarter
horse’s ability in the show ring to work with cattle – and began taking out awards with their mounts, here and in the U.S.
Every bit as competitive as rock’n’roll, this intense and demanding sport, where as Glenn Wheatley says with a manager’s
shudder: “They gallop at frantic speed and then stop on a coin” has, along with scuba diving and fishing with his sons, been
what has occupied the singer while he has been out of public sight.
But as the 60s folk song declared, there’s a time and season for everything under heaven, and John Farnham’s quarter
horses will have to do without him for a time. He is back in music mode and the call has gone out. Gone out for songs for a
new album – with premier tunesmiths around the world responding swiftly – and gone out to the Farnham band and
singers to get back into their own saddles. “It’s a bit like the scene in the Blues Brothers film”, laughs Wheatley, “where
everyone starts buzzing ‘we’re putting the band back together, we’re putting the band back together’ and they hang up
their aprons, don their stage suits and come from all over to get back to work”.
Now Chong Lim, Angus Burchell, Stuart Fraser, Brett Garsed, Steve Williams, Bob Coasin, Craig Newman, Lindsay Field, Lisa
Edwards and Dannielle Gaha haven’t exactly been idling or disposing of their time unproductively, but there’s no doubt
that the planets do align when they assemble. It is where they should be, where alchemy occurs. This is one of the most
adept, inventive, expansive and road-hardened outfits Australian music has known and its return to performance is cause
for as much celebration as its leader’s. “I want to be with them again on stage” John
enthuses, “because there aren’t any musicians like them. There’s something that happens when we’re together and it is
something that I’ve really missed.”
It is what also happened when Coldplay’s Chris Martin introduced ‘Whispering Jack’ to sing, what has been described (by
him amongst others) as, one of our unofficial national anthems that day in March. As Kathy McCabe reported in The Daily
Telegraph: “It was everything you wanted a moment to be. There was no doubt Farnham was having a ball up there,
singing with the world’s biggest rock act as his backing band. But it was the crowd who made the moment. Their voices
swelled as one for chorus, Farnham revving them to sing louder and louder with an emphatic, “Come on!”. “Those front
rows weren’t the usual mums and grandmothers he would be used to hanging on his every note. They were the kids and
grandkids who had grown up hearing their elders flog Farnham’s signature song. It is ingrained on their DNA, and, cool or
not cool, they love it. They love it so much that 120,000 people sang it even louder when it was replayed later in each of the
concerts. It has some powerful magic”. So much so that the international Billboard magazine insisted: “If there was a
single recording which must be released from this concert, this was it”. It would be fair to say that the title of the tour was
born out of that moment.
It would also be fair to say that while John Farnham was away from stage and studio for a time, he was most certainly not
away from those who have long admired and embraced his music. Many found their own way to maintain contact. Some
recent research into his online presence emerged with some startling figures. Farnham videos were found on 124 different
sites around the world – from Japan to Romania, Hungary to Sweden – with possibly hundreds of other sites not yet
located. YouTube alone has 7,235 listed, with the original ‘You’re The Voice’ clip having notched up 1.65 million views. In
total on YouTube there have been 7.8 million Farnham views. It would be safe to estimate that John Farnham viral videos
have been seen more than 25 million times.
The performances at Sydney and Brisbane’s Lyric Theatre’s, Melbourne’s Palais Theatre, Perth’s Burswood Theatre, the
Derwent Entertainment Centre in Tasmania, and wineries in the Hope Estate and Barossa in NSW and South Australia – very
much big productions in small theatres – will see John and his crack ten-piece band look back over career highlights,
rendering the songs he has to, and wants to. This intimate venue tour will be an opportunity to witness at close quarters a
consummate singer and entertainer of more than forty years experience and unparalleled achievement, looking at the body
of his work through the eyes, attitude and perspective he possesses now.
When the twentieth anniversary of Whispering Jack – still the highest domestic selling album by an Australia artist – was
marked in 2006, there was some tallying done. Since 1986, the Farnham blitzkrieg had seen a total of 164 concerts at the
Rod Laver Tennis Arena and the Sydney Entertainment Centre, with more than a million tickets sold in Melbourne alone. He
was the most-seen act at every Entertainment Centre in Australia. Over that span, every album and single was carefully
crafted, each career-turn undertaken with admirable enthusiasm. His remarkable body of work – be it polished pop,
smokin’ soul, robust rock or ballads that take the top of your head off – made him an integral component of Australian
popular music; in fact, Australian life.
In that Australian life there are phrases like ‘a breather’, ‘a smoko’, ‘gone walkabout’. Maybe John Farnham availed
himself of all of those, but as the Beatles once sang, he’s back where he once belonged, with a full head of steam. “I want
to do this, I want to be on those stages because I really have missed it”, he reveals. “Everything about it feels right just
now.”
Sony Music will release a new 3 CD set called “The Essential John Farnham” in September.
John Farnham Live By Demand – as much his as ours.
For further information please contact Dianna O’Neill Publicity
Phone 02 9337 2288 Mobile 0418 468 148 Email dioneill@ozemail.com.au
Tickets on Sale Monday 15th June 9.00am
TICKET PRICES A Reserve $169 B Reserve $129 C Reserve $99
TOUR ITINERARY
SYDNEY
Lyric Theatre – Star City
September 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9
HUNTER VALLEY
HOPE ESTATE WINERY – OUTDOOR CONCERT Saturday September 19
HOBART
Derwent Entertainment Centre
Thursday September 24
BRISBANE
Lyric Theatre - QPAC
September 28, 29, 30
PERTH
Burswood Theatre
October 8, 9, 10
BAROSSA VALLEY
Barossa Under The Stars - OUTDOOR CONCERT
Saturday October 17
MELBOURNE
Palais Theatre
October 19, 20, 22, 23, 24
For VIP, Dining and Hotel Packages Call 1300 THE VOICE or Showbiz.com.au/thevoice
MORE THAN 40 YEARS OF JOHN FARNHAM ACHIEVEMENTS
SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS
July (1) 1949
John Peter born to John and Rose Farnham, raised in Dagenham, Essex, England
1956-1957
Performs around Essex on charity shows staged by his uncle
1959
Emigrates to Australia with family, settles in Melbourne
1964
Begins performing on weekends with The Mavericks – they had a five song repertoire
Late 1965
Invited to join Strings Unlimited as vocalist
1966
String Unlimited make the state final of Hoadly’s National Battle of the Sounds, recorded a three-track
demo
1967
Records the Susan Jones commercial for TAA airlines. Appears as a Kommotion mimer (as did Ian
Meldrum).
Signed to EMI Records
Dec 1967
Sadie (The Cleaning Lady) enters the charts, goes to #1. Album of the same name is a best-seller
1968
Wins a Logie award for Best Teenage Personality and does so for five consecutive years
Dec 1968
John tops Go-Set Pop Poll
Sept 1969
One goes to number one
Hits the road around Australia on riotous Operation Starlift concert Tour with Russell Morris, Ronnie Burns,
Johnny Young, Zoot, Doug Parkinson In Focus, and Masters Apprentices (with Glenn Wheatley)
Dec 1969
Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head becomes John’s third number one smash hit
June 1969
Becomes King of Pop - a crown he holds for five years
January 1970 Stars in the pantomime Dick Whittington and His Cat
June 1970
The Looking Through A Tear album goes gold within weeks
October 1970 Comic Conversation a national top ten hit
March 1972
Crowned King of Moomba
1972
Goes to Tokyo to sing Brian Cadd’s Don’t You Know It’s Magic and receive Most Outstanding Performance
of a Composition award at the World Popular Song Festival
October 1972
Rock Me Baby a top ten hit
April 1973
Marries dancer Jillian Billman who he met on set of Charlie’s Girl
February 1974 Plays the lead role in stage production of Pippin
January 1975 Hosts first color transmission of Countdown
May 1975
Performs a benefit concert for the victims of Cyclone Tracy
July 1975
Final EMI album released, J.P. Farnham Sings
Sept 1975
John is seen as the bankrobber Tom in an episode of the TV cop Series Division 4
1976
Busy in television – Opportunity Knocks, Bobby Dazzzler, Survival with Johnny Farnham, The Don Lane
Show
1979
Old friends John Farnham and Glenn Wheatley meet at a Little River Band show in Las Vegas and discuss
management and an album
1980
Makes ABC TV series Farnham and Byrne Sings at Royal Command Performance concert at Sydney Opera
House before the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, sings Help
July 1980
Help becomes John’s first national top ten hit since 1972
Sept 1980
Release of the top twenty Graham Goble-produced Uncovered LP
Dec 1981
The John Farnham Band set attendance record at Billboard nightclub in Melbourne. They toured in support
of Stevie Wonder in Australia, with John joining him for duets
February 1982 Invited to replace Glenn Shorrock in Little River Band
Sept 1982
LRB with John Farnham in Australian top ten with On The Border
Nov 1982
In U.S. top ten with LRB single The Other Guy
SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS cont’d
1984/1985
John sings title and soundtracks songs for American films Fletch, The Sluggers Wife, Rad, Savage Streets,
Voyage Of The Rock Aliens, Beyond My Reach and Hell Tracks
February1985 John’s composition Playing To Win titles LRB’s second album with him
October 1986 You’re The Voice and the album Whispering Jack both storm to number one and cannot be budged for
months Jack’s Back becomes biggest Australian concert tour of all time
Dec 1986
Pressure Down becomes top five national hit
March 1987
John takes out six statues at the inaugural ARIA Awards – the first of very, very many over the years to
come
April 1987
You’re The Voice reaches U.K. top ten. John has number ones in West Germany, Scandinavia and Canada
and is top ten in Italy and Spain
May 1987
Whispering Jack is the first compact disc manufactured in Australia
January 1988 Named Australian of the Year during Bi-Centennial celebrations
June 1988
Headlining performer at Brisbane Expo ‘88
August 1988
Age Of Reason single and album both at number one
1988
Age of Reason European tour sees him play from clubs to concert halls
March 1989
Visits U.S.S.R. to launch Greenpeace album Breakthrough, alongside The Edge, Annie Lennox, Peter
Garbriel, Chrissie Hynde and David Byrne
Princes Trust concert appearance in London before Prince and Princess of Wales
August 1989
Communication, collaborative single with Danni’Elle, reaches #13
Sept 1989
Sings Waltzing Matilda at the last-ever VFL Grand Final
October 1990 Chain Reaction becomes John’s third consecutive national number one album. That’s Freedom is a top
three hit.
Nov 1990
Burn For You enters charts on way to top five
Nov 1991
Makes top three with Jimmy Barnes duet, When Something Is Wrong With My Baby
Dec 1991
Full House becomes a #2 national album – features performances with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
August 1992
Joins Kate Ceberano, Jon Stevens and Angry Anderson in gala national concert production of Superstar,
seen by a million
October 1993 Release of the Then Again album
1994
Hits the road with the Talk of the Town national concert tour
March 1995
Featured performer at IndyCar Australia IndyCarnival on Gold Coast
August 1995
Performs at the Australia Remembers Concert, marking 50th anniversary of end of WWII, at St. Kilda Palais
January 1996 Receives the Order of Australia
Releases Romeo’s Heart album and embarks on Jack Of Hearts tour
August 1996
Tours Asia (Taiwan, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia) in support of Romeo’s Heart and Don’t Le
It
End single with Chiu Hai Chen
May 1997
Performs at opening of Melbourne’s Crown Casino alongside Ray Charles and Kylie Minogue. Jack’s Bar is
dedicated to him
October 1997 Release of Anthology series of CDs and charting of top three Human Nature collaboration single Every Time
You Cry - most broadcast record of the year
October 1998 Commences The Main Event tour with Olivia Newton John and Anthony Warlow
Dec 1998
Highlights of The Main Event album reaches #1 nationally
April 1999
Commences the I Can’t Believe He’s 50 tour with special guests Kate Ceberano, Human Nature, Ross
Wilson, James Reyne and Merrill Bainbridge
Sept 1999
Live At The Regent album enters the top ten
Dec 1999
Performs a set for Australian troops in Dili, East Timor
Sept 2000
John and Olivia Newton John sing DareTo Dream during the Parade of Nations at the opening ceremony of
the Sydney 2000 Olympics
Nov 2000
Heads out on the road on a 25 date tour in support of his soulful number one 33 1/3 - the album he always
wanted to make and did make during the year in a Melbourne warehouse
January 2001 The Centenary of Federation celebrations include a Centenary Medal for John “for outstanding services to
Australian music”
2002
John Farnham Love Songs CD collection charts in Germany
SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS cont’d
Nov 2002
Commencement of epic The Last Time national tour, playing almost 100 performances to a half a million
fans
July 2003
Works with Queen to produce a new version of We Will Rock You for the Rugby World Cup
October 2003 Inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame
Feb 2004
Performs at Mission Estate Winery Concert, Hawkes Bay NZ
Feb 2005
A sold-out four-city Together In Concert tour with Tom Jones
Nov 2005
I Remember When I Was Young – Songs From The Great Australian Songbook album reaches #2 on
national
charts
Feb 2006
Performs four shows at Sydney Opera House with SSO, assisting the Creating Greener Pastures cause
Commenced a brief Australian tour sharing bill with Stevie Nicks
Feb 2006
Concerts with the Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras
March 2006
Sings at the Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony
March 2009
Performs You’re The Voice with Coldplay at Sydney Cricket Ground to open Sound Relief bushfire benefit
concert
Sept 2009
Begins the Live By Demand tour in intimate venues across Australia with the Farnham Band
NEWS 
