‘Do we have to keep writing the same music all the time?’
The man responsible for some of Australia’s best known songs believes our music industry is in need of a big change — Little River Band founding member Glenn Shorrock isn’t impressed with what we’ve produced in the last few decades.
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The man responsible for some of Australia’s best known songs believes our music industry is in need of a big change.
Little River Band founding member Glenn Shorrock says it is time for a new wave of original music to influence culture – the same way rock and roll shaped a generation in the 1960s and 70s.
Even Beyonce, one of the world’s most successful artists, doesn’t do it for him.
“There are tonnes of Beyonces,” he says.
Shorrock, whose autobiography Now, Where Was I? (New Holland; $35) has just hit shelves, thinks the music being produced today is repetitive and lacks the emotion and artistry it once had.
“Do we have to keep writing the same songs and writing the same music all the time? It would be nice to have some fresh stuff,” he tells Insider.
“From about 12 (years old) to 20, rock and roll was such a diversion from our parents’ life and gave us our own identity and I think maybe it would be nice to have something else come out of the blue.”
Gone are the giants of the industry, not in terms of their propensity to make money, but in their ability to influence culture with their music. Artists these days — and you get the feeling “artist” isn’t a word Shorrock would use to describe them — are far more interested in fame than they are about creating good music.
“There are no Beatles anymore, there’s no Elvis anymore. Springsteen was the last one I guess,” he says.
“I wouldn’t say it’s about the money, it’s about the celebrity. People want celebrity and fame more than musical respect.”
But there is one artist who stands out in the all the blandness.
“A shining example right now is Ed Sheeran,” he says. “As someone put it, it’s busking on an industrial scale. He employs everything any young person would be attracted to —he can write and play his own music by himself.
“He did three Wembley Stadiums — that’s 85,000 each time, a quarter of a million people over three nights.”
Judah Kelly, last year’s The Voice winner, also rates a mention, although Shorrock isn’t particularly keen on loop artist Sam Perry who took out the talent show last month.
“They’ve got some DJ on there and that’s not The Voice to me. He’s playing stuff and going (Shorrock makes a mocking noise) every now and again and they’re all going “that’s fantastic” and I’m saying ‘no it’s not, it’s bloody awful!’,” he laughs.
Shorrock would jump at the chance to be a judge on something like The Voice, but concedes his fans are a little different to the “screaming girls” in the audience.
“I’ve got the experience to be credible as a judge but I think I’m a bit too old now,” he says. “(My fans) don’t throw knickers any more, they throw false teeth.”
A broken record player and some smooth Elvis moves are what planted the seeds of musical success inside a teenaged Shorrock.
Wearing his dad’s white sports jacket “that came down to my knees”, the 15-year-old was miming an Elvis classic and attempting to pull off some of the American superstar’s signature moves when the music suddenly stopped.
“I was singing to All Shook Up, miming it and doing a few Elvis moves and the record player breaks down and I just carried on singing,” he says. “Everyone went ‘Ohhh’ and clapped – that was a defining moment if there ever was one.”
Shorrock went on to form The Twilights with a couple of mates in 1962. After winning over their home town, the teenagers went on to become a force on the Australian music scene.
When they broke up in the late ’60s, Shorrock had a brief career as a manager before hooking up with Brian Cadd to form Axiom. Their song A Little Ray Of Sunshine is still considered one of the best Australian songs produced.
Axiom split after trying their luck in the UK, with Shorrock eventually returning to Australia where he would form Little River Band.
Little River Band went on to great success, especially in the US. They worked tirelessly traversing the continent as their American fan base grew exponentially.
Responsible for enduring hits such as Cool Change, Help Is On Its Way and Reminiscing, LRB became one of Australia’s greatest musical exports.
But with such blistering success came trouble. After years of leading the band, Shorrock was unceremoniously sacked in 1982 and replaced by John Farnham.
Shorrock bears no ill will towards his mate Farnham, but was furious with those he thought had his back.
“I didn’t have a lot of love in my heart for my colleagues in LRB at the time or Glenn Wheatley,” he says. “I had a lot of angst in me. I reacted pretty badly to begin with but it passed pretty quickly because I thought ‘f... them, I can do it myself’ and that took over for a while.”
He returned again in 1987 before leaving for good in 1996. The rights to use the band’s name was given to lead guitarist Stephen Housden in a last man standing situation when all the other members left. The move stripped Shorrock and others of using the band’s name or logo and couldn’t sing some of their old classics.
Shorrock has very few regrets in life – he understands what his musical success has brought him over the years. But he does wish he could change one thing.
“I wish I was born with more of a work ethic. I don’t think I’ve exploited myself properly, I’ve been lucky,” he says. “I’ve been at the right place at the right time a lot.”