Together with Strangers and Sync or Swim stun 10,000 at the Mundi Mundi Bash in major win for disabled musicians

The 10,000 strong crowd at the Mundi Mundi Bash were stunned by one heartwarming detail as two bands took to the stage.

The 10,000 strong crowd at the Mundi Mundi Bash had never heard of Together with Strangers or Sync or Swim when they rocked onto the huge festival stage in the NSW outback.

In just seven weeks, these talented disabled musicians who have battled discrimination and personal hardships, soared from nervous auditions to two killer live acts performing in front of an ecstatic, roaring festival audience.

It was an emotional, hectic ride for the artists, their champion Elly-May Barnes, and seasoned musicians and mentors Ella Hooper and Tim Rogers, charted in the new Headliners documentary series which premieres on ABC this week.

Sonnet of Together with Strangers performing at Mundi Mundi Bash for Headliners ABC series. Picture: Supplied / ABC

Together with Strangers frontwoman Sonnet, who is deaf in one ear, said the musicians struggled with “tears and tantrums” during their seven-week boot camp to get match fit for the challenge of performing at the annual festival staged 40 km outside of Broken Hill.

“It’s so important to gel as a band, first, otherwise you can’t support each other and excel and catch each other when you fall,” she said.

“There were many points where I thought it wasn’t working. It was tense … we didn’t trust each other at first … but then it came together as we all got to know each other.”

Together With Strangers band on stage with mentor Tim Rogers and Elly-May Barnes at the festival. Picture: Supplied/ABC

The equally heart-wrenching and inspiring series, made by the team behind the Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds, is a dream come true for Barnes, the youngest daughter of revered rocker Jimmy.

She has experienced the crushing disappointment wrought by lack of opportunities and venue inaccessibility for disabled artists. During the auditions, she had to step out of filming, her body gripped in crippling spasms of pain.

Sync or Swim’s drummer James, who has Tourette syndrome and plays in his own metal band, said he “just lost it” when he walked into the audition and saw Elly’s rocker dad Jimmy Barnes had stepped in for his daughter.

The irony was James had considered performing Barnes’ hit Lay Down Your Guns at the audition but changed his mind at the last minute.

“I was told to walk to the drum kit and turn and face the table but I got two steps in, looked over, saw Jimmy Barnes and just went ‘Holy f***!’,” he said.

“I was pumped. He asked me how I was doing and I said ‘Pretty f****in’ good now!’ I had rehearsed, I knew I was ready.”

Sync or Swim band on stage with Ella Hooper and Elly-May Barnes at Mundi Mundi Bash for Headliners ABC series. Picture: Supplied/ABC

The stories of the struggles the Headliners musicians have faced to get on a stage, any stage, are heartbreaking, and shine a harsh spotlight on the inequities they encounter pursuing their ambitions of a professional music career.

Soulful blues singer Aimee, who fronts Sync or Swim and has a prosthetic leg, shares in the first episode how she was once told backstage at a festival, that she doesn’t name, they didn’t want her on stage because “I was a hazard.”

Barnes, who hosts the show, said Headliners is a powerful vehicle to put the country’s disabled musicians in front of an Australian audience.

“I’ve always been dreaming of seeing people like myself up there on the stage, knowing the kind of talent that’s out there, and wanting to make it easier because I know how hard it can be to drag yourself up there having done it for years,” she said.

“And it shouldn’t be; it’s a human right! There’s often ramps set up to get drums and stuff on stages, and then they pull them down.”

Sonnet and Together with Strangers rockin’ out in front of the huge crowd. Picture: Supplied / ABC

Hooper and Rogers often had to act as referees as these disparate players clashed, as all bands do, over musical differences. It was a tough act for all involved to get festival-ready in just seven weeks.

Emotions ran high as they arranged their songs and practised with added advice from guests including Jimmy Barnes, Silverchair drummer Ben Gillies and Delta Goodrem.

Hooper said the Headliners experience opened her eyes to the myriad obstacles faced by disabled musicians to just get into a venue.

“The fact we would get (to a venue) and there’s no ramp. The fact we would get somewhere, and you and I remember that venue as not having stairs, but it’s got a couple of steps,” Hooper said.

“We just don’t see them as able-bodied people. That was full on, and I just thought how much frustration and how much disappointment on the daily do our disabled friends have to process and just push through to do what they want to do. It’s mind blowing.”

Ella Hooper, Elly-May Barnes and Tim Rogers during filming. Picture: Supplied.

Rogers said he was relieved during the making of Headliners that there was no reality TV temptation to over-egg the drama.

“Going into it, there were moments when because it’s TV, I thought they might try to manufacture drama which I felt very uneasy about because these musicians have had enough drama in their life, you know,” he said.

“But they didn’t do that. I’m sure it was interesting to them when there was conflict or some difficulty and that happens.

“Then the performances at Mundi Mundi were off the hook, I’ve never felt pride like that, it was really overwhelming and very emotional because what these people have had to go through is very humbling.”

Headliners will premiere on ABC on November 19 at 8pm with all episodes available to stream on ABC iview.

Originally published as Together with Strangers and Sync or Swim stun 10,000 at the Mundi Mundi Bash in major win for disabled musicians