Live Review: Working Class Man: An Evening Of Stories & Songs

Jimmy Barnes

Footage of Jimmy Barnes in a dressing room, warming up his voice with that trademark ear-piercing yowl, opens tonight's performance of Working Class Man: An Evening Of Stories & Songs and we can't help imagining how much this sound must have alarmed more traditional singers doing vocal warm-ups in nearby dressing rooms over the years. 

This show accompanies Barnes' memoir of the same name and is the sequel to Working Class Boy, also an autobiography turned into a show. Once on stage, Barnes affectionately compares his voice to "a Mack Truck". He asks for those who were in attendance at one of his previous performances of Working Class Boy: An Evening Of Stories & Songs to identify themselves and heaps of hollers show that many in the house have returned for part two.

The stage set incorporates a wall of rock posters and there's a four-piece backing band in one corner, which features Clayton Doley on keys and his son Jackie Barnes on drums.

Picking up where his first memoir left off, we're immediately transported back to early 1974. Having recently joined Cold Chisel, we imagine Barnsey rolling around on a mattress in the back of a van with his bandmates. The band is relocating from Adelaide to Melbourne to chase their rock'n'roll dreams. We visualise Barnes, aged about 17, clutching and taking swigs from a bottle of liquor. He tells us beer was "for pussies". Our first tune of the evening is an example of the kind of songs this motley crew of misfits would have been singing in the back of said van: Happy Together by The Turtles.    

He's widely referred to as "the hardest working man in Australian rock'n'roll", but we all know that Barnesy is also the hardest partying. He's also an incredible storyteller and shares stories from his life with that ever-present self-deprecating sense of humour. One of our favourites from this evening details an ill-tempered dog he once had that ate a block of hash Barnes threw onto a coffee table. After returning to find this dog comatose on the floor, Barnes reveals he picked said dog up, placed it carefully on a couch, dimmed the lights and put some Pink Floyd on the stereo as he himself liked to do when in a similar state. Barnes then claims this dog's temperament improved tenfold from this point on, claiming the animal chilled right out and became "a hippie".

When Barnes and co perform Wild Thing by The Troggs, a lone punter gets up out of his seat to rock out in the stalls.

Barnes tells us that he now recognises it was the conflicting musical styles and influences within Cold Chisel's line-up that made them stand out in the Australian music scene and become successful. We hear the story behind Letter To Alan - an ode to a member of Cold Chisel's road crew, Alan Dallow, who was tragically killed in a car accident - which is then played live and with added gravitas. After we learn of Cold Chisel's demise, it's time for intermission.

Part Two is all about Barnes' solo career. Michael Gudinski is in the house tonight and Barnes does an impressive impersonation of the Mushroom Group founder's springy walk, also singing his praises for always believing in him and allowing him to make the music he wanted to make (including Soul Deep) as well as helping him break into the US market.

We're in stitches when Barnsey tells us of life on the road in the States. A straight-laced backing band was often recruited on purpose to hopefully curb Barnes' hard-partying ways and such was the case when he supported ZZ Top during one of their US tours. Barnes admits that all his bandmates needed was, "A drunken Scotsman with a coke habit and a black belt," to share a tour bus with.

Video clips are played on the screen throughout tonight's show with Barnes speaking over the top, giving us entertaining behind-the-scenes commentary and additional insight. Barnes talks about the Australian Made tour - which featured INXS, Jimmy Barnes, Models, Divinyls, The Saints, The Triffids, I'm Talking and Metal As Anything - and then we watch the film clip for Good Times, The Easybeats cover he recorded with Michael Hutchence and INXS. We learn that the last time Barnes saw Hutchence he didn't think Hutch looked well so gave him a call to check in on him, asking if he was alright and then suggesting that they catch up for dinner the following week. Sadly, Hutchence passed in the interim.

Throughout Working Class Man: An Evening Of Stories & Songs there's a sense that Barnes questions why his life was spared when the lives of so many of his heroes and peers were taken, often in their prime. Barnes then tells us of one night in a New Zealand hotel room when he tried to take his own life, which is something he promised himself he'd never to talk about (until writing his latest book). He courageously shares this story, shows us his post-open-heart-surgery photos and encourages those among us who are suffering from addiction and/or mental illness to speak out and seek help since it affects those closest to us, and we're not alone. Barnes then injects some humour, as is his way, saying he went to so many 'A' meetings - NA and AA, for example - that he should've had his own TV show called, "AA It's Saturday". 

Barnes finishes with a new song he co-wrote with Don Walker, Criminal Record, which he tells us is about his family.

Today is Barnesy's 62nd birthday and his long-suffering wife Jane (about which Barnes wrote Rising Sun) walks out on stage, together with one of their grandchildren, to present him with a cake and lead the audience through Happy Birthday.

We leave feeling incredibly inspired and enlightened. Perhaps Barnesy's true purpose in life is as a promotional speaker to increase awareness of mental health and addiction issues?       

If you are suffering from depression or need assistance, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyondblue 1300 224 636.