Still Standing: Play On.

Still Standing plays at La Boite until August 3.

We know Ewan Mackenzie best as an accomplished guitarist, vocalist and a songwriter possessed of extraordinary sensitivity, fronting his own band, aptly named The Ewan Mackenzie Band or playing with the Karen Anderson Quartet. We’re about to see Ewan step out of his comfort zone to take on the responsibilities of musical director for a new play about to open at La Boite, Still Standing.

Still Standing is an affectionate look at the vibrant Brisbane music scene of the eighties. The play follows the fortunes of three musicians after their band broke up amid a backdrop of substance abuse and differing ambitions. The three are brought back together for a nightclub opening.

As Ewan explains: “There are three main characters - there’s Barb Fordham’s character, Damian Garvey’s character and Hayden Spencer... Barb’s character went on, got management and went on to become a star. Hayden’s character is opening up a club and he books her to open the club and he book’s Damian’s band to back her. The show starts in rehearsal for that show. It’s basically based around the dynamics of the past, present and future, of these three people. There’s a love story involved and a battle between good and evil.”

Ewan plays the part of a member of the backing band. As he explains: “The other musicians are Chris Tone, who was in Neighbourhood Unit years ago. He’s the drummer. Ross Smith is playing bass. The three of us are Nev’s (Damian Garvey’s) band. We’re kind of onlookers really. We’re there to learn her songs and perform them, back her at the gig. We’re witness to all that’s going on, all the dramas. In between all that we get to play some songs.”

Though we know Ewan best for his musical performances around Brisbane, the Ewan Mackenzie Band just released their debut album, A Patch Of Blue, to wide critical acclaim. This is not Ewan’s first foray into the world of theatre. He was also involved in the Toadshow production of Glamalot a few years back.

Ewan explains how he came to be involved in the project: “It’s written by Michael and Marjorie Ford who wrote Milo’s Wake and Way Out West. They were doing research from the middle of last year, almost a year ago, into the Brisbane music scene, interviewing people who had been a part of it for a while. They gave me a call and we met a couple of times for interviews, picking my brains about the old days. I did my first gig in Brisbane I think in 1969.”

“We talked a few times about things I remembered and they interviewed Robbie Stewart (Ewan Mackenzie Band) and various other people. They interviewed a lot of people in the end but I got a phone call from them asking if I wanted to be musical director. It’s kind of precise stuff but it’s fun. So I said yes and here I am doing it except that I actually have to be on stage. The whole band is on stage and we are in character, which is not as hard as it sounds because the characters are musicians.”

The play is punctuated with some great Aussie rock songs from the likes of the Easybeats and Debra Conway, but will musicians find it convincing?

“One of the reasons they will is the amount of research they (Michael and Marjorie) did - the references, the dialogue, the conversations between the musicians and the way Barb interacts with her backing band is very realistic I think. The conversations are very natural. And in the process of rehearsal, we’ve tried very hard if there’s a part where we’d say, I don’t think we’d really say that, to change where possible. The story is interesting. The themes that are through it are good, the way the members have evolved since the band broke up in the 80s. A lot of it is about how you approach music, whether you do it for success or whether you’re doing it because you love it. Why do we still do it? Why are we still standing?”