It doesn’t get more Australian than interviewing the Prime Minister Anthony ‘Albo’ Albanese at a Jimmy ‘Barnesy’ Barnes concert in the nation’s capital.
CD was able to snap up a moment of Albanese’s time at the concert at the Canberra Theatre Centre on 28 June.
Albo read a text to CD that Barnesy sent to him ahead of the Canberra show, which was the final stop on the DEFIANT TOUR.
“We’ll go hard for the last show of the tour,” it read.
Albanese attended Barnesy’s Canberra show this year, as well as Cold Chisel’s The Big Five-0 tour at Commonwealth Park in November 2024.
“Jimmy’s just fantastic. He’s one of the greats of Australian rock and roll and tonight, I’m sure will be fabulous,” Albo told CD.
When asked how he felt to see Barnesy back on stage following the musician being in hospital for various reasons these past few years and releasing new music, Albo only had praise for his mate.
“It’s just great and he just keeps going. And, of course, he has his family around him who are all musical as well. I think that is part of what keeps him going.”
CD asked Albo how important it was to get big acts like Barnesy coming to Canberra, not just Sydney.
“Canberra is a great city, and in recent decades it’s really grown. And it’s part of a national tour, so it’s fantastic to see people like Jimmy Barnes and Sarah Blasko, and a whole range of big artists, coming here. It’s a great theatre.”
We asked who he wanted to see come to Canberra, his response was “wait and see”.
For me personally, I had wanted to see Barnesy perform for many years, and following seeing him at a post-COVID-19 pandemic pop-up in Melbourne’s CBD in 2021. This Canberra show was my second time seeing his solo show; I also attended last year’s Cold Chisel show.
And you know what, Barnesy has still got it! You would never have known he had been sick these past few years. He still sounds just as good as he did decades ago.
He performed a mix of old and new songs, including many from his newly released Defiant album, which were seamlessly slotted in among the classics. A few Cold Chisel songs were also included.
My favourite part of the night was when his 16-year-old granddaughter, Ruby Rodgers, jumped on stage to perform a chilling duet with Barnesy of Cold Chisel’s ‘Flame Trees’.
Most of the crowd remained seated for his 90-minute set, which is a shame for a rock concert, but there were pockets of people who did manage to stand up for parts of the show.
The encore was filled with classics like ‘Khe Sanh’, and you could see how proud Barnesy was of all his family members performing with him.
Of course, the night ended with a standing ovation (and lots of cheering).
The support act for the night was singer-songwriter Taylor Sheridan, a self-confessed country boy from Kyneton in regional Victoria. His six-month-old daughter, Mabel, was side of stage, which was special to hear because one of the songs was about her.
Sheridan said he released his first album 12 months ago. And while his set was short, his talent shone through. He was also great at getting the audience to join in with the singing.
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