Rock The House Sees Aussie Music Icons Take The Stage Again
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“Six music legends. Six decades of hits” are promised in the promo for Rock the House 3 at the Sydney Opera House in January.
For once the promise is true and it shows what great depth of talent and longevity Australia has in its musical legacy.
Over two shows on January 3, Glenn Shorrock, Russell Morris, Wendy Matthews, Jack Jones, Ella Hooper and Leo Sayer will hit the boards with a crack band of musicians led by Rex Goh.
“I don’t know how other people view it, but I see this as a really special thing that I get to play the Opera House and I’m thrilled that I am doing this show with some old friends and wonderful musical people,” Wendy Matthews said. “It’s a special event for me.”
“It’s just two shows over one day and I couldn’t say no to playing the Opera House,” Leo Sayer said.
Wendy Matthews has a longer connection with one of the artists performing in Rock the House.
She explains, “Glenn was the person who brought me to Australia many years ago.
“I lived in a house full of Australians in LA and he took me to a Little River Band concert one night.”
“I had this wreck of a Volkswagen that had to be push-started, and within half an hour after the concert Glenn was push-starting my Volkswagen and we have been friends ever since.”
Matthews would soon relocate to Australia where she would provide backing vocals for LRB, Jimmy Barnes, Tim Finn, INXS and the Models before joining Absent Friends in 1989.
In 1992 she recorded her second album Lily which contained the break-out hit The Day You Went Away, which was followed by a string of platinum albums gaining her acclaim as one of Australia’s best singers.
She is also looking forward to being on stage with old friend and seventies icon Leo Sayer.
“I first met Leo in London when I used to go on promo tours and he has always been approachable,” Matthews said.
“I didn’t expect him to move to Australia and it was during the Kevin Rudd years that he became a citizen and I remember doing a few songs on the day in Canberra when he was being naturalised.”
Icon of the 70s back for another show
The name Leo Sayer for many represents so much of the seventies.
He was a one man hit machine with massive singles and albums that defined the age and brought joy to millions around the world.
Hits such as You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, When I Need You and The Show Must Go On keep coming as did seven consecutive UK Top 20 albums.
“My memories of Australia go back to 1975 when I first toured here,” Leo Sayer said.
“Reg Ansett (airline owner) was the sponsor, Paul Dainty was the promoter, Michael Chugg was the tour manager and Mick Gatto was security.”
Sayer was last seen on Australian television in a clip from the recent 50th birthday celebration for Countdown, as a nod to his many performances on the show.
It was during his first tour here that he suggested to get to a show in Canberra the band go from Sydney by road.
On the way they stopped at a small country town in the Southern Highlands which many years later has become his home.
“All of this in 1975 was preempting my move to Australia and becoming a citizen,” Sayer said.
In Rock the House he will be performing many of his hits and doing a harmonica duet with Russell Morris, with whom he has done a number of concerts in the past.
Jack Jones will be known to many for his time leading Southern Sons in the nineties and since for his prowess as a vocalist and guitarist in many projects.
Ella Hooper is having something of a resurgence, not only with her original band Killing Heidi, who are appearing in summer festivals across the nation, but she also has forged a solo career in radio and television.
Rock the House will showcase the depth of Australian music from the sixties to now in two shows across one night at the Sydney Opera House on January 3rd 2025.
