As the former frontman of Australian Crawl, James Reyne’s voice is instantly recognisable to millions of Australians.
With a career that’s stretched four decades, Reyne has plenty of material to draw on for his ‘A Crawl to Now’ tour, an acoustic duo set with guitarist Josh Owen.
He says fans can expect lots of the old hits mixed in with some of his newer songs over the 90 minute show.
“They’ll have fun. It’ll be songs they know, and they’ll have a great night,” Reyne said.
“We love touring, we’re lucky that we get to see so much of Australia, and all the changes in the regions.”
Now in his 60s, he’s considered a veteran of Aussie rock. But it’s not just his own generation that loves his music.
“We get quite a lot of younger people coming to gigs,” Reyne said.
“I love it – they’ve probably grown up with their parents playing my music, but to see someone who’s 20 knowing all the words to my songs is really great.”
Those fans would be too young to remember his iconic debut on Countdown in 1979, which saw Reyne perform alongside Australian Crawl with two arms in plaster.
“We joked that if the whole music thing didn’t work out, people would still remember us because I was the guy with two broken arms,” he said.
“We were hoping that people would see the appeal of the band and the song, but a lot of people thought it was a gimmick.”
Reyne and his Australian Crawl bandmates certainly proved they were no gimmick, going on to sell millions of albums and releasing dozens of hits, including The Boys Light Up, Downhearted and Reckless.
Thirty years after it was released, Australian Crawl’s debut album The Boys Light Up was recognised for its enduring appeal, named as one of Australia’s 100 best ever albums.
Ipswich is one of the final stops on his ‘A Crawl to Now’ tour, before he travels south to Horsham and Mt Gambier.
“I love the Ipswich crowd, they’re always great, really enthusiastic.”
But while the tour is almost over, Reyne is not thinking of slowing down.
The rest of his year will be spent recording, working on music for a film, and getting ready for another big tour early next year.
He says it’s important to him keep looking forward, and not back.
“I’m not an overly nostalgic or sentiment type,” Reyne said.
“I respect the past. If you went through the whole thing, certain things left instead of right, but I don’t look back on it.
“Respect past, but I live in present, and I look forward to the future.
“I don’t spend energy thinking about the past.”
