Coronavirus Australia: From his great hall at home, The Show must go on for Tex Perkins

During the pandemic, the rock singer-songwriter has begun a ticketed online concert series named The Show.

Tex Perkins, who has been filming a ticketed online concert series named The Show from his home in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. Picture: Luke Marsden

When the enforced closure of live music venues wiped clear the schedule of rock singer-songwriter Tex Perkins from March onwards, it wasn’t long before he realised that a partial solution to the problem could be found by filming performances at the property where he lives with his family in the Northern Rivers ­region of NSW.

Rather than join the global frenzy of live-streamed performances from artists’ homes, the singer and a small crew of creative friends began a ticketed online concert series named The Show, which he records inside a space dubbed “the great hall”.

“We built it as a place to rehearse music and also to have parties to entertain friends without having to tidy up our own house,” Perkins said. “When this whole COVID thing came down, it seemed like the perfect place to do something like what we’re doing.”

The fourth episode of The Show screens on Sunday and features guest folk singer-songwriter Lucie Thorne. With tickets priced at $15, it has been a useful stopgap for Perkins and his crew during the months without their usual income from playing live gigs. “It’s not a big money-spinner, but we will continue,” he said.

For Perkins, the effects of the pandemic were felt not long after enduring an horrific summer. “We were right in the thick of the bushfires: we had to evacuate three times, and we were very, very lucky,” he said.

As the clock ticked down on the final moments of last year, he made a snap decision born from the weeks of pain preceding New Year’s Eve.

On stage at Sydney Harbour during a concert broadcast live on ABC television, Perkins introduced his 1993 hit with the Cruel Sea by saying, “This one’s for the Prime Minister — it’s called The Honeymoon is Over,” then he raised his middle finger towards Kirribilli House.

“We’d been going through months of the bushfires and seeing Scott (Morrison) on holiday, and also saying stuff like, ‘Volunteers want to be out there’,” Perkins said of that moment. “It was an incredible string of unbelievable statements our great leader was putting out during that time, and I think I was just the first of many people to express their frustration at the situation.”

For the singer, the gesture was born out of the stressful situation he and many others had been facing at home.

“Personally, when I get angry about something, I become very inarticulate, so I’m glad I reduced it to a symbol that could be very easily understood. It kind of sorted my audience out: now I know that there’s no arseholes in my audience.”