‘Don’t know? Come to the show’: Now and Forever concert in Shepparton
A daylong concert to be held in Shepparton on Friday will feature Paul Kelly, Jimmy Barnes and Hilltop Hoods, while targeting undecided voters on the Indigenous voice referendum.
Don’t know? Come to the show. That’s the slogan of a day-long concert aimed at undecided referendum voters to be held in northern Victoria on Friday.
Named Now and Forever, the event is packed with Australian music stars and supported by live industry leaders, all of whom are backing the Yes vote for the Indigenous voice referendum.
Held at the Shepparton Showgrounds and headlined by Adelaide hip-hop trio Hilltop Hoods, the all-ages event will also feature Paul Kelly, Baker Boy and Jimmy Barnes and his daughter Mahalia.
The concert is curated by hip-hop artist Adam Briggs – who will perform with his award-winning duo A.B. Original – and is co-presented by leading Australian music promoters Frontier Touring, Live Nation and TEG.
Said Briggs of Kelly: “I asked PK first; he said, ‘Yep’. I asked the Hoods; they said, ‘Yep’, and then it snowballed from there. It’s about solidarity; of sharing a vision of what we believe is the best part of our country, and what we want to see in the future.”
Admission to Now and Forever is free for children under 12, and more than 5000 tickets have been sold to the alcohol-free event.
Priced at $21.50, it’s a bargain for a day of quality entertainment, considering the scores of chart-topping albums, ARIA Awards and industry accolades accumulated by those on stage.
Briggs, 37, grew up in Shepparton. “I want to bring things back home as much as possible, and inject some culture and life into the place,” he said.
“Where better to share our vision? The cities get everything; the cities are spoiled. I would have killed for something like this to be going on when I was a kid there.”
Kelly, 68, recently released a pro-voice song titled If Not Now. On social media in September, he wrote: “No leaves us nowhere, Yes breathes in new air. That’s why I’m voting Yes.”
Speaking with The Australian on Wednesday, he said he and Briggs had been weighing up the merits of such an event.
“Sometimes concerts can be preaching to the converted, and they can cause blowback in a way,” said Kelly.
“People see doing concerts as somehow being ‘out of touch with the real world’ – which doesn’t make sense to me.”
In 2016, Kelly collaborated with A.B. Original on a Triple J cover version of his 1988 single Dumb Things. With 3.7 million YouTube views of the video, it’s become a crossover hit for both acts.
As for whether that collaboration might get a live reprise in Shepparton on Friday?
“I honestly can’t say yet, because I don’t know whether he’s got all the tools in the toolbox to do that,” said Kelly with a laugh. “It’s a definite maybe.”
More Coverage
