One for NAIDOC

I was wondering what to do for NAIDOC week and I had the opportunity to attend Big name, no blankets at the Canberra Theatre Centre.  It's the story of the Warumpi Band, their history and music.  I was aware of the Warumpi band by name but not particularly aware of their music or influence, having already entered the domain of jazz by the time they appeared.  And they appeared ages ago, early 1980s.  They comprised 2 brothers and 2 others, so the family story is apt.  They came from NW of Alice Springs , Papunya, within sight of the Warumpi mountain.  They were poor but a white visiting school teacher had a guitar and amp and car and they formed and added a brother-in-law singer.  Starting with rock and roll standards, they graduated to some seriously satisfying originals of real personal and political concern and ended up touring Australia and internationally, even being asked by Dire Straits to support an Australian tour.  They eventually succumbed as members missed the country and finally disbanded in 2000.  R&R is a hard life, especially for poor black rockers.  But this was happy and inspirational theatre and sometimes a bit rock loud but with relatively interesting compositions, 12-bars but more and I noticed some fascinating lengthened lines and unexpected changes and inviting lyrics.  The show was heavy on the music and that's joyous.  The whole theatre was called up and jumping several times and it was just inevitable with the very lithe and mobile singer up front.  Interestingly, there were another 4 musicians behind the band, sometimes playing backing behind spoken passages, sometimes backing the full band in flight up front, and these included two sons of core Warumpist Sam.  A daughter also appeared as all female roles and we met her at drinks after.  The musical has been running for about a year and took 5 years of creation from band memories and it continues to the Alice and beyond for festivals and more.  It's late as I write this, but this is joyous and mostly hopeful picture of our cultural experience as well as a visit to our recent Aboriginal musical history.  "Blackfella, whitefella / It doesn't matter, what your colour / As long as you, are true fella / As long as you, are real fella ... Are you the one that's gonna, stand up and be counted / Are you the one that's gonna be there, when we shout it".  Simple but honest.  Highly recommended.

Big name, no blanket was rock and roll theatre telling the story of the Warumpi Band at Canberra Theatre.  By Andrea James (writer) with Sammy Tjapanangka Butcher (consultant) and Rachael Maza and Anyupa Butcher (co-directors).  And thanks to Canberra Theatre Centre for the tix.