Latest news with #WorkingClassMan
Sydney Morning Herald
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Jimmy Barnes doco to premiere at Melbourne International Film Fest
Seven years after the release of Working Class Boy, in which hard-living rocker Jimmy Barnes shared the story of his abusive upbringing, a sequel has finally arrived. Working Class Man will debut at the Melbourne International Film Festival on August 21 before its airing on Seven towards the end of the year. The film, which was announced at MIFF's official program launch on Thursday night, was many years in development but not so many months in production. 'We always wanted to do a second one,' says director Andrew Farrell, who was executive producer on the first. 'It was just when was the time going to be right?' Hectic schedules for Barnes and his musical clan finally presented a brief opening late last year for a week of interviews and recordings of acoustic versions of some of his biggest hits, solo and with Cold Chisel. The experience for 69-year-old Barnes was painful. Not because he was trawling the emotional wreckage yet again, but because his body was falling apart. 'When we interviewed him, he was about to go in and get his hip replaced, so he's hobbling around,' Farrell recalls. 'He'd just come off tour, he'd had to be strapped up by a physio before he could walk on stage each night, and even sitting down on the couch talking to us, he had to get up and have a bit of a ripple. And then he went straight into surgery the next week.'
The Age
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Jimmy Barnes doco to premiere at Melbourne International Film Fest
Seven years after the release of Working Class Boy, in which hard-living rocker Jimmy Barnes shared the story of his abusive upbringing, a sequel has finally arrived. Working Class Man will debut at the Melbourne International Film Festival on August 21 before its airing on Seven towards the end of the year. The film, which was announced at MIFF's official program launch on Thursday night, was many years in development but not so many months in production. 'We always wanted to do a second one,' says director Andrew Farrell, who was executive producer on the first. 'It was just when was the time going to be right?' Hectic schedules for Barnes and his musical clan finally presented a brief opening late last year for a week of interviews and recordings of acoustic versions of some of his biggest hits, solo and with Cold Chisel. The experience for 69-year-old Barnes was painful. Not because he was trawling the emotional wreckage yet again, but because his body was falling apart. 'When we interviewed him, he was about to go in and get his hip replaced, so he's hobbling around,' Farrell recalls. 'He'd just come off tour, he'd had to be strapped up by a physio before he could walk on stage each night, and even sitting down on the couch talking to us, he had to get up and have a bit of a ripple. And then he went straight into surgery the next week.'
The Age
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Fans waited patiently as Barnesy played his new songs. Then something magical happened
From here, the set lifts considerably. Barnes introduces his wife Jane on backing vocals and occasionally bagpipes, and daughter Mahalia, who's raced from the Princess Theatre, where she's Mary in Jesus Christ Superstar. They duet on Good Times, with Mahalia taking Michael Hutchence's part. Ride the Night Away and Working Class Man unite the crowd. The final encore of Khe Sanh clinches it: we're in the presence of something bigger than us, bigger than Barnesy even. It's yearning, living, a piece of history. Perhaps it didn't need wailing two guitar solos and a Hammond organ solo. Outside, a busker dressed as a pirate axes through Working Class Man on an acoustic. It's a bold gambit, following Barnesy on his own material – but a song like that is bigger than any of us. Reviewed by Will Cox JAZZ James Shortland Quartet & Lerner / Jansen / Greenhill ★★★★ The JazzLab, June 15 One of the most valuable aspects of the Melbourne Jazz Co-operative's weekly presentations at JazzLab is the platform it provides for young and emerging artists, helping them establish a profile with local audiences. Sunday night's double bill paired two youthful ensembles that shared the same drummer (Sydney's George Greenhill). The opening set was led by bassist James Shortland, who recently moved from Sydney to Melbourne and has been developing his voice as a composer. He presented his appealing original tunes in a quartet setting, accompanied by Greenhill and two Melbourne players (saxophonist Toby Barrett and pianist James Bowers). Bowers played a key role in shaping the dynamics of each piece, offering lyrical introductions on ballads such as Skylight, and building momentum beneath his bandmates' animated solos. Several tunes were buoyed by a subtle Latin undercurrent courtesy of Shortland and Greenhill – including the set's final number (Emergence), which was suffused with warmth and positivity. Greenhill was back for the second set, forming one-third of a potent Sydney-based trio. The drummer has been working with saxophonist Ben Lerner and bassist Nick Jansen since 2020, and the three have developed a powerfully persuasive group sound. Their impressive debut album – Play Trio – has just been released, featuring compositions by artists who inspired them. On Sean Wayland's John Barker, their nimble reflexes were on display as they sprinted across the melody with taut precision, before Lerner spiralled off into an agitated, angular solo. Kurt Rosenwinkel's Synthetics was a speedy, bop-fuelled sprint, Lerner's lines tumbling forth with remarkable fluency as Jansen and Greenhill pushed at the beat like ebullient jockeys. Lykeif had a more expansive, open-time feel, incorporating a vigorous three-way dialogue of split-tone squawks, exploratory bass and textural drums. With Greenhill now based in New York (and Lerner soon to follow), this was a rare opportunity to see some exciting young players whose stars are well and truly on the rise. Reviewed by Jessica Nichols MUSIC Invenio – Bits and Pieces ★★★★ Tempo Rubato, June 12 I still have vivid memories of seeing Invenio's very first show – Gone, Without Saying – in 2010. Fourteen singers (including the group's leader and composer, Gian Slater) presented an arresting suite that explored extended vocal techniques, wordless singing, improvisation and choreographed movements, along with intricate multi-part harmonies and songs with poetic lyrics. Some passages were startlingly strange and experimental; some so tender and moving that they left audience members in tears. A decade and a half later, Slater's vision of an unconventional vocal ensemble continues to bear rich fruit, and Invenio serves as a beacon of creativity and commitment in Melbourne's art music community. Slater now has a collective of about 30 dedicated singers to draw from, 12 of whom performed at Tempo Rubato on Thursday night. This concert marked Invenio's 15th anniversary, and the program ranged widely across the group's extensive back catalogue. It opened with Banterer (from Gone, Without Saying), where the singers held various kitchen implements – bowls, saucers, teacups – in front of their mouths as they twittered, stuttered and whispered, before coalescing into unison syllables and rhythmic cycles that intersected and overlapped with perfect precision. Fight Eyes had the feel of an evocative folk song, with lush three-part harmonies that occasionally diverged into subtle trills or sustained drones. On Growing Pains, the bass and tenor voices sang the lyrics, while the altos and sopranos quivered, pulsed and slid up and down in a series of elongated, wordless sighs. And for Warm Bodies – perhaps the most affecting piece of the night – the singers moved down the aisles and along the back of the room as they sang, enveloping the audience in a delicate harmonic field that resonated with a hushed, almost hymnal beauty. Loading We also heard three new pieces from a forthcoming album, suggesting that while 15 years is an impressive milestone, Invenio's journey of inspiration and discovery is far from over. Long may it continue. Reviewed by Jessica Nicholas
