Concert Preview

Despite New Players, Little River Band Still Honors Its Aussie Roots

By John Voket

When you think about the Little River Band circa 2007, it may not be so strange that the act’s current lineup of personnel features not one original member. Considering the Australian pop ensemble has, since its humble beginnings in the mid-’70s, included a cast of more than 30 – that’s right, thirty — musicians and vocalists, the entity should be considered on the basis of its material versus the sum of its many contributing parts.

According to current bassist and most veteran member Wayne Nelson, fans of the many top charting hits are in for a familiar but newly energized set March 31 when Little River Band pulls into Ridgefield Playhouse. Even the most casual of radio listeners will get an earful of familiar tunes along with a sampling of newer offerings and even a dusted off old album cut or two.

Little River Band’s claim to fame began in 1976 when original co-founders Glenn Shorrock, Graeham Goble, Beeb Birtles, Ric Formosa, Roger McLachlan and Derek Pellicci evolved from the Aussie harmony-rock group Mississippi in 1975.

Between 1976 and ‘77, the act couldn’t buy a hit in the UK, but American concert audiences and radio listeners began clamoring for more material on the heels of early hits, “It’s A Long Way There,” “Help is On Its Way,” and the infectious hook of “Happy Anniversary.” By 1978 LRB had already shed two of its co-founders, seeing the departure of both McLachlan and Formosa.

The personnel change certainly didn’t hurt Little River Band’s success, and by the time Shorrock split in 1982 to pursue solo success back in Australia, the band had racked up an astounding six consecutive Top 10 singles – an amazing feat considering the act was fairly pedestrian with a straight ahead stage show and no real marquee personality to carry them.

Those hits, which are still popular tenants of the current band’s set list, include “Reminiscing,”  “Lady,” “Lonesome Loser,” “Cool Change,” “The Night Owls,” and “Take It Easy On Me.” Subsequent to that lineup, LRB continued trips to the top of the charts with “The Other Guy,” in 1982 and its final major success, “Down on the Border.”

According to Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI), “Reminiscing”, written by Goble, was recognized as one of the most frequently played songs in the history of American radio, with more than four million plays to its credit. “Lady” has also accumulated more than three million plays, and Goble is the first and only Australian songwriter ever to win a “Four Million Air” award from that organization.

In a recent interview with Nelson from his Nashville office, he talked with The Newtown Bee about re-working the hits for a 21st Century audience, while honoring LRB’s Aussie roots with a new, mostly American lineup of musicians.

Newtown Bee: How much of the live show that we’re going to see at the Ridgefield Playhouse has its basis of origin among you and your new bandmates, versus some configuration of past members?

Wayne Nelson: The hits belong to the band. As the older members left, they knew they were leaving the rights to the songs behind. When we do the hits we don’t do them like some other vintage acts do … begrudgingly, we’re proud of them and they connect with people. That being said, however, we don’t treat them like we did in 1980. We kind of lifted up the hood on almost all of them and tried to beef up the feel of them. For example, we took one of the hits and put a blues arrangement under it which makes it a lot of fun for us and the audience. We’ve got the privilege now of doing the hits with a different kind of energy, and every year we go back and dig up a kind of obscure song and retool it for the new band. The soul of the song is there, but we find the audiences enjoy our fresh take on these songs.

NB: Do you flavor things up by breaking up the set to, say, do an unplugged version or two?

WN: We do and we can. Sometimes the venues are not appropriate for that. Also, when people want to rock, we find stopping the momentum to do an acoustic thing borders on self-indulgent. But we have actually stripped the band down to a three piece which we never did before. We can change the keys that are more appropriate for an acoustic venue. But when we head out to an arena, we crank it up for the rock show and I have to say I’m having a lot of fun with that versatility. When we didn’t move light and fast, we were restricted to where the bus could get us. Today, we can pick up and fly from where the bus is to do like a corporate show, and fly back to the bus. We’re in our thirty-third year and we’re still doing 105 or 110 gigs.

NB: Let’s talk about Little River Band of 2007.

WN: In order of years of membership, our other lead singer is Greg Hine, who is the only Aussie. He is the band’s historian, a great singer and songwriter, and over the past six or seven years, we have done the most new material which is written by Greg. Our keyboardist, Chris, is a writer, producer and singer who comes from a country act called Western Flyer. He brings a unique approach to the keyboard which is rooted in gospel rock, so we give him a couple solos in the set where he can really show off his skills on the B3 organ. Rich Herring, our other guitar player, is a Nashville rock and roller. He’s very intense, but once the crowd gets into his unbelievable playing, it’s kind of interesting. We get a lot of compliments on his playing. Our regular drummer is on injured reserve, so our new drummer, Kip Rains, will bring surprises because he is a work in progress. We want to let his personality help us take the song where he might want to take it, and he has played with us on and off before.

NB: Is there a new LRB project in the works?

WN: There’s a new live set on Sony’s “Standing Room Only” series which was recorded last year. That will be out soon with the new arrangements of the hits. We are also working on a new CD for later this year so Connecticut might hear some of the new songs in our set.

NB: You have stood witness to the shift from some original members to no original members. What was it like going through those changes including what may be considered musical suicide – the replacement of a lead singer, or singers?

WN: We could talk for three hours on that question alone – but I’ll try to make it concise. I was actually there for the replacement of one of the original lead singers. I was asked to join LRB in 1979, and quite frankly it was a shocking time. In 1981 we let go David Briggs, who wasn’t an original founder but he wrote two of the hits. In ’82 Glenn was asked to leave. He had written hit songs and he was the voice of the band. This was tough because I left America and uprooted my family to go to Australia, and slowly this band is being dismantled. The next year Beeb Birtles decides to leave and by 1985, the original drummer decided to leave as well. Now each of these members was replaced by phenomenal musicians, but even the record company didn’t know where to put us. If you go back to 1984, we have “Playing to Win,” which was a heavy rock album, so by then it was game over for charting singles and the level of support we had been getting up to then by the record company. It was very disappointing for me, because I was asked to join a package, and here was the package getting torn apart.

NB: And now Steven Housden, who joined the band in 1981, owns the brand and you are the veteran member?

WN: He owns the brand, and he and I share in the management of it. Of course, we weren’t there for the platinum days, we were there for the cardboard days. Now it’s turned around and those other guys walked away… they didn’t want to ride eight hours on the bus to get to Ridgefield, Connecticut – they wanted it the way it used to be. But Stephen and I weren’t willing to walk away. Now Stephen is devoting the next few months to doing some original material, and he is still with the band. He hadn’t missed a show in 25 years, so he deserves a break. It’s been quite a ride, no question, but what is important is between the downbeat and the bows at the end of the show. If we ever get to the point where we hear ‘Hey, those guys have lost it,’ that’s when we’ll call it quits. But the feedback we get is better than ever, people love the fresh look at our material, and they won’t let us quit!

Tickets for the March 31 Little River Band show at Ridgefield Playhouse are available by visiting RidgefieldPlayhouse.org or by calling 203-438-5795.