Promoter Michael Gudinski reveals how AFL lured Lionel Richie to perform at 2010 Grand Final replay
The AFL went into overdrive after the 2010 Grand Final as planning started for the replay. For Michael Gudinski, it meant finding a headline act to perform before the last draw decider. This is how he lured Lionel Richie to Melbourne.
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As the siren blew in the drawn Grand Final between Collingwood and St Kilda in 2010 Michael Gudinski was a man divided.
As a passionate St Kilda fan, who was once the club’s Vice President, he’d just missed watching his team win a second grand final.
As the man who books the entertainment for the AFL Grand Final, he also knew his job was suddenly not over.
That first final Gudinski booked INXS – fronted by JD Fortune – to belt out Kick, Suicide Blonde and New Sensation.
But with another Grand Final in less than a week, he hit the phones to secure a new act – a job that usually takes months, not days.
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“I was devastated about the draw,” Gudinski said. “I really thought we should have won it but we didn’t. I had a bad feeling about coming back the next week which turned out to be right. But I also knew another game meant another entertainer.”
Then AFL boss Andrew Demetriou made the call on Sunday morning.
“The AFL wanted to go hard,” Gudinski said. “They wanted to take it to an international level. I started to see if there were any international acts in the region who were performing …”
Gudinski struck gold fast – US superstar Lionel Richie was playing a show in Hong Kong on the Tuesday before the second Grand Final.
As a promoter Gudinski had toured Richie across Australia in 2007 for sold-out arena shows, so had a relationship with the artist and his manager.
“Finding Lionel was on tour in Asia was like pulling a rabbit out of the hat,” Gudinski said. “As soon as I had a sniff that they could possibly do it the AFL were keen.”
Richie would have to reshuffle some recording dates to accommodate a last-minute detour to Australia, but a six-figure payday made that decision easier.
“I don’t even remember any other act being in consideration, he was the No. 1 option, the obvious choice – no one blinked. If you come in from England or America you lose a day, but Lionel was in Asia, he could get in fast, he had his band with him, he had time to rehearse.”
Demetriou revealed at the time Richie was paid $500,000, while production costs were another $100,000.
The drawn Grand Final grossed $16 million for the AFL.
“I don’t remember the exact figures, but Lionel would have got that at least,” Gudinski said. “Another Grand Final was an extra payday for the AFL, they wanted to make it special.”
Richie played his hits Hello, Easy, Dancing on the Ceiling and All Night Long at the Grand Final.
His 11th hour performance is widely regarded as one of the best in AFL entertainment.
“Lionel is the consummate performer, the ultimate pro. He came out and nailed it, everyone loved him. He’s got wide appeal which is what the Grand Final entertainment needs. Great songs speak for themselves.”
Richie was also locked in to perform after the game in a free show for Grand Final ticket holders in what would become the first concert at AAMI Park. “It’s a great venue for music,” Gudinski said, who has since used it for shows by Taylor Swift, Foo Fighters, Ed Sheeran and Bruce Springsteen. “It sounds good, it’s not like a big cricket or football ground.”
It wound up being a celebratory gig for Collingwood fans, with Richie sporting a Magpies scarf on stage. Post game gigs have since become a Grand Final tradition, now held on the MCG.
Gudinski, who’d just watched his beloved Saints lose, was obliged to come to the AAMI Park show – his wife and son went home instead.
“I was shattered but professional,” Gudinski recalled.
“I was about to face 20,000 Collingwood fans – I may have slugged a bottle of red wine. But as I walked through the crowd there was decent sympathy, which you don’t always get from Collingwood fans! Everyone vibes after a Grand Final win. It was amazing how many young people were there and that they knew Lionel’s songs.
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“It was a tough night as a St Kilda supporter but a great night as the entertainment co-ordinator for the AFL.”
Gudinski wound up having dinner with Richie that night.
“He knew I was a broken man, but I was proud of myself that I could still go there and make sure everything was right for him. It was a great coup all round to get Lionel to play the Grand Final at short notice. The only thing that was missing for me was a premiership cup.”
Richie would return to Australia in 2011, on the back of his Grand Final show, for another sold out tour of wineries and arenas.
DAVIS REVEALS HE AVOIDED TROPHY AFTER GF HEARTBREAK
— Scott Gullan
Collingwood‘s favourite son Leon Davis never touched the 2010 premiership cup after being dropped for the Grand Final replay.
Despite being a part of the premiership celebrations on the ground and then in the days afterwards, the Indigenous star made a pact with himself never to lay a finger on the silverware.
Davis made the revelation in a three-part Herald Sun special to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the 2010 Grand Final draw, the last in AFL history.
“Something that not too many people know is that not once did I touch the premiership cup,” he said.
“I wanted to win one the next year.
“So I deliberately avoided it. The boys tried plenty of times but I said, ‘Nah, I’ll wait until next year when I actually win one so it will be so much more sweeter’.”
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Despite kicking an important last quarter goal in the drawn Grand Final, Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse replaced Davis with defender Tyson Goldsack for the replay.
He found out via a phone call from the coach as he was driving back from visiting his daughter in Shepparton on the Thursday before the game.
“I understood it, I didn‘t really do not nearly enough in the drawn game to warrant a spot the next week,” Davis said.
“I told him, ‘Look I understand it, I’ll come to training and I’ll be upbeat’. Being at the club for as many years as I was, I was pretty well known around the boys.
“I got on well with all the boys so the last thing I wanted to do was let them see me sh***y and p***ed off about not getting a game. I would get to training, put in the work and be my usual self which is to joke around and be happy.”
The following season Malthouse switched Davis, an All-Australian forward pocket in 2009, to defence where the enjoyed the best season of his career.
But unfortunately for a fourth time Davis missed out on the ultimate glory with Geelong defeating Collingwood by 38 points in the 2011 Grand Final.
“It still stings now that I missed out on it,” he says.
“I was super happy for the boys when they did it and I celebrated with them because I know it took a lot to win that Grand Final.
“But then we couldn‘t win it in 2011, or in 2002 or 2003, so I played in four (grand finals) and couldn’t pinch one so there is disappointment there for myself.”
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Davis surprised many by retiring at the end of 2011 given he was awarded his second All-Australian guernsey, this time on the halfback flank. He played 225 games in 11 seasons with the Magpies.
“I‘ve always been one to know that football isn’t everything and there is life outside of footy,” he says.
“Footy doesn‘t last forever and while I love playing footy, I retired at 30. I retired when I made All-Australian off halfback and probably played my most enjoyable season at the club.
