Beatles White Album Played in Full (not by the Beatles)

The White Album. The Beatles’ influential masterpiece is now a 40-year-old icon. To celebrate this rock’n’roll milestone, three of Australia’s  finest  rock n’ rollers – Chris Cheney of the Living End, Phil Jamieson of Grinspoon, Tim Rogers and an interesting collaborator Josh Pyke – will take to the stage this August in four very special Concerts in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.

Coming after India, but before the split, The White Album was the sound of John, Paul, George and Ringo throwing everything they’d learned into their musical blender. This major work bursts with variety, creativity, experimentation, and the genius of The Beatles during one of their most intense, fertile, periods.  It is a timeless album, yet very much of its time. Its 30 songs veer from the populist stomp of Back in the USSR and the mind-bending Happiness is a Warm Gun to the melodious sorrow of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, the ska pop fun of Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, and the hard rock prototype Helter Skelter.

Bringing this classic to life at The Beatles’ White Album 40th Anniversary Concert requires an all-star line-up of Australia’s best musicians, with Cheney, Jamieson, Rogers and Pyke backed by 17 players including guitars, strings, horns and two drummers, musically directed by Stewart D’Arietta.

The White Album songs will be performed in track order, starting with Back in the USSR and closing with Good Night, with state of the art sound.

“I always loved the sound of The Beatles when they let loose and sounded tough, and to me The White Album has a perfect balance of rock’n’roll abandonment with the incredible songwriting skills they’re so revered for.”              – Chris Cheney

“The White Album gives me the fear. It’s denim and silk. Flickers of beauty washed out by blinding anxiety. I had a babysitter who’d play Revolution No.9 as I was just about to go to sleep. It made a mess o’ me and I love it deeply.”     – Tim Rogers

“The Beatles were the first band that made any kind of impact on me as a kid, curled up in the front room with my parents’ record collection. The harmonies, the deceptively simple songs, and the amazingly creative production are all elements that I still draw upon in my music today.” -  Josh Pyke

“It’s hard to imagine growing up without The Beatles. From the nursery rhyme Yellow Submarine to the songbooks we got in primary school with Help From My Friends, they have been omnipresent in my life. They have provided a soundtrack to so many moments, I mean, my wife walked down the aisle to I Will, for Christ’s sake.” – Phil Jamieson

Tuesday 4 August ? Hamer Hall, Melbourne
Thursday 6 August ? Brisbane QPAC
Friday 7 & Saturday 8 August ? Sydney Opera House

Onsale Friday 22 May

World Party – Private Revolution

When Karl Wallinger left The Waterboys after that band released 1985’s This Is The Sea album he set about creating World Party. This album Private Revolution was the debut of the band that was effectively Wallinger’s solo outlet.

It was a startling debut that seemed at the time to be the vehicle to launch Wallinger to superstar status. The fact that that result never quite eventuated remains somewhat of a mystery. In fact when you listen to  World Party albums now next to Coldplay’s work you realise how close Wallinger might have been to ‘world domination’ – a fact alluded to on the Coldplay live review found elsewhere on this site.

The calling card for this album is of course the sublime Ship Of Fools which I don’t mind admitting is still one of my favourite songs. The surging and rollicking song completely takes you on a journey with that little boat as it battles a world gone mad.
Wallinger’s green credentials are well stated on this song and in fact across the whole album when he shows himself to be a couple of decades ahead of his time in voicing his concerns about environmental issues.

The Ballad Of The Little Man is almost as addictive as Ship Of Fools as Wallinger warns us against the influence of our own base instincts while constructing another unstoppable musical journey. The title track adopts a “think global, act local” philosophy while Hawaiian Island World channels Bob Dylan both vocally and musically to good effect. All I Really Want To Do takes a similar path but to a slightly less satisfying conclusion.

The song World Party even sounds like a Beach Boys song that Jimmy Webb may have co-written – which in itself is a remarkable achievement and proof of Wallinger’s place in the upper echelon of songwriters.

Possibly this was Wallinger’s only problem – he was such a musicologist who had a deep understanding of how artists like The Beatles and Dylan and Brian Wilson worked and created.  This understanding perhaps over-pervaded his own work. I’m not so sure I see that as a problem but I can see how it gave some listeners a way out as much as a way in.

Private Revolution was a landmark album and one that should have been the beginning of something bigger. It stands up well today and provides as exciting listening now as it did when it was released in 1986. Wallinger went on to have a couple more hits and make some more really great albums like Goodbye Jumbo and Bang which will be re-reviewed here in coming months.