Radio Luxembourg: the sounds of the sixties
Image: John Waters and Stewart D'Arrietta. Image: supplied
John Waters is about to embark on a run of dates for his new show Radio Luxembourg featuring the iconic sounds of the sixties.
Inspired by his childhood spent huddled next to a medium wave radio set to hear the sounds that excited him, Waters will be accompanied by Stewart D’Arrietta and a four piece band as they rock out the songs that came after The Beatles broke.
“These are about my teenage years when there was no commercial radio in England,” John Waters, singer and actor said.
“The BBC had a monopoly and you would get Pat Boone and a little of the latest pop music for a couple of hours, but mainly they didn’t see that it was their job to promote songs.”
To get around the impasse, the record companies in the sixties and seventies looked to broadcasting out of the small European state of Luxembourg which had a powerful commercial medium wave broadcasting system, and was a forerunner to the pirate radio ships such as Caroline located in the English Channel.
Despite the BBC ban lasting until 1973, when The Beatles and the Rolling Stones broke around the world, the English record stores began stocking more English sounds and the British Invasion was born.
“What I am doing is that I am going into a brief explanation of what Radio Luxembourg is about and what it meant to all of us who loved our music and the emerging sounds,” Waters said.
“This is a compilation show of the best rock and pop songs of the sixties that anyone can ever hope to grow up with.”
Think songs like the Small Faces’ “Itchycoo Park”, The Kinks’ evergreen “Waterloo Sunset”, Peter Starstedt’s plaintiff “Where Do You Go To My Lovely” and The Who’s explosive “My Generation”, the song that defined the era.
Pianist and singer, Stewart D’Arrietta has been playing with Waters since 1992, when they launched the John Lennon tribute, Looking Through a Glass Onion at Woolloomooloo’s Tilbury Hotel.
“These are the songs of my youth that I learned to play on the piano as a kid,” D’Arrietta, producer and pianist said.
“They are great songs and we have stayed true to their sounds as they are so good there is no need to change them.”
Famous for his gravelly voice and interpretive skills, D’Arrietta will get to shine doing his version of Arthur Brown’s “Fire”.
Alongside Tony Mitchell, Greg Henson and Paul Berton, D’Arrietta is excited about working once again with vocalist Jo Elms.
“She is a great vocalist who has worked with me on My Leonard Cohen,” D’Arrietta said.
Waters and D’Arrietta have chosen two iconic and beautiful theatres for the two shows in or close to Sydney.
The tour will open at Anita’s in Thirroul, a 1925, 800 seater which is regarded as the best theatre on the south coast.
Moving to Sydney, the next show is on October 15th at the art deco star of the Northern Beaches, the Hayden Cremorne Orpheum.
