Anthony Albanese lights up Enmore Theatre with a beer in hand at Gang of Youths concert

Anthony Albanese has skolled a beer amid cheers at the Enmore theatre in Sydney as he attended a Gang of Youths performance on Monday night.

Anthony Albanese has skolled a beer amid cheers at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney as he attended a Gang of Youths performance on Monday night.

While the Prime Minister, 59, is not known as a big drinker, he was egged on by the crowd when they spotted him at the concert.

Mr Albanese wore a Joy Division t-shirt as he attended with his partner Jodie Haydon, 43, and Labor frontbencher Tony Burke.

When Mr Albanese was struck down by Covid-19 during the election campaign, Mr Burke dropped off a vinyl edition of Sydney band Gang of Youths’ latest album, Angel in Real Time, to cheer him up.

He spent a week at home in isolation after his diagnosis, but ventured out onto the doorstop that day as police watched on to pick up the record.

Former Prime Minister and legendary drinker Bob Hawke was famous for skolling beers, amid other pursuits.

But despite this reputation, he gave up the grog altogether when he was prime minister and didn’t start drinking again until 1993.

Quietly enjoying @gangofyouths with the Prime Minister at the @[e-mail]/iikYv7vBwc

— Rhanna Collins (@rhanna_collins) August 22, 2022

“He probably used alcohol more than any public figure, any leader in our history,” former NSW premier Bob Carr said.

“He was drunk a lot of the time. He obviously used alcohol as a way of bringing down barriers and gaining quick intimacy, steering people toward some emotion-laden compromise.”

“He gave up drinking in 1980 when he went into parliament, and when he was prime minister he was drinking non-alcoholic wines and all that sort of thing, but as soon as he left office, we went back on the grog,” his political contemporary Graham Richardson told news.com.au.

“He could have never become prime minister if he carried on drinking the way he was.”

Mr Hawke once explained the reason why he ditched the beers during his tenure was PM.

“I said to myself, ‘If you are going to become prime minister of this country, you cannot be in a position where you can make a fool of yourself in front of the country’,” he said. “I never had a drop for the whole period I was prime minister.”

Originally published as Anthony Albanese lights up Enmore Theatre with a beer in hand at Gang of Youths concert