The 27 Club at Sydney Fringe Festival

The 27 Club is one of the most exclusive clubs in the world, but it is not one that many join by choice.

It’s a cultural phenomenon where a famous musician dies at the age of 27 and achieves membership to a club with dubious benefits.

Starting shortly after the successive deaths of Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison, the urban myth took hold and has in the ensuing decades included some of our dearest and brightest stars, including Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse.

As Australia is home to many of the world’s best tribute acts it is no surprise that the idea of a show came to creator Zac Tyler and producer Craig Harrison, when in the middle of the last decade they conjured The 27 Club for the 2015 Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

Gathering Mondo Psycho’s powerhouse vocalist Carla Lippis and Dusty Lee Stephensen (The Wanderers and 27 Club musical director) the gestation of one of Australia’s most popular touring shows emerged; with a couple of notable additions soon to join.

“Carla has been doing it from the beginning and Kevin Mitchell (Jebediah) and I jumped in on in its third year, after they had been running it at the Fringe for a couple of years,” Sarah McLeod (Superjesus) said.

“When we came in and the script changed a bit and we added some more songs and took it to the next level.”

After a few years at the Adelaide Fringe, the idea to tour meant that the script and staging would evolve even further and a fully formed touring act emerged.

“Choosing new songs for each tour is in the hands of Dusty and our producers, and then we get together to see how and where the show can grow and we keep tweaking and adding songs and changing the set,” Lippis said.

“It has gotten bigger and bigger and I have noticed that each time we go out on the road we are pulling more and more people,” McLeod said.

“We collectively do Janis Joplin’s “A Piece of My Heart,” McLeod said, while Lippis added “With “Lithium “I really put my signature on it and make it mine.

“It’s so different from the original but you cant mistake the bridge and choruses.”

McLeod said that there is no chance of running out new material to explore with each outing as the output by the artists they are referencing is so vast.

“What is the most magnificent thing about these artists is that they released so much material in such a short time, and they produced such game changing music that has lasted for generations,” McLeod said.

“I have been in the music business for years and my output doesn’t cover what these people did in a couple of years.”

“Having all these years together we have grown to such a strong team that it feels right to take this show to a wider audience outside of South Australia and so far the results have been great,” Lippis said.

Lippis adds “the audience has grown remarkably over the time and the rapport grows within the band the bigger it gets.”

Joining McLeod, Mitchell and Lippis on the 27 Club tour will be Stephensen leading a four-piece band. Virginia Lillye, Bek Jensen and Justin Burford will swap out with McLeod, Mitchell and Lippis as lead artists for the shows later in the Fringe Festival. 

Audiences for the Sydney Fringe shows at the Sydney Spiegeltent through August and September should expect a show honed to musical perfection as it delves into the light and shade surrounding the musicians they are honouring.

“There is enough light and shade to keep everybody happy,” McLeod said.

The 27 Club at Sydney Fringe Festival
30 August – 29 September, Sydney Spiegeltent
https://sydneyfringe.com/events/27-club/