Vika and Linda Bull tour their album The Wait in November 2021
While most of their colleagues are in lockdown, the singers are touring with Paul Kelly – and they can’t help feeling guilty about it.
Very few rock ‘n’ roll shows are on the road anywhere in Australia at present due to lockdowns and travel restrictions that have kept many musicians and crew marooned in the two major capital cities.
Vika and Linda Bull are out there, though, as singers in Paul Kelly’s band, even while feeling more than a little guilt for their friends and colleagues at home in Melbourne.
“There’s this really heavy feeling in your heart all the time,” said Linda. “Although we’re working and there’s people that want to come and see shows, and there’s happiness there – in other states, it’s just not happening. You feel really torn: you’re doing your job, but they’re always on your mind.”
The term “back-up singers” doesn’t quite do Vika and Linda justice, for on stage right at Kelly’s concerts, the sisters’ considerable presence and power is an essential element within a sparkling show driven by one of the tightest units in Australian rock music.
On Wednesday in Devonport, the band will finish a short run of Tasmanian concerts before returning to Queensland later this week.
After the Gold Coast, they’ll venture into regional Queensland for a series of theatre shows arranged and announced at short notice.
Monday night in Bundaberg isn’t a booking that one of the nation’s most popular entertainers would usually find in his itinerary, but this is no ordinary tour.
In effect, Kelly’s jaunt – fittingly named On the Road Again – is a modern-day take on Bob Dylan’s famed Rolling Thunder Revue tour of 1975-76, where the US singer-songwriter and his band detoured off the main drag in favour of more intimate auditoriums in smaller markets.
Only this time, Kelly and co are staying on their toes to avoid the viral hot spots that are kneecapping a live music industry that was starting to return to normal just a few months back, when the likes of Midnight Oil and Tina Arena managed to complete national tours before big crowds.
“It’s really difficult, but you can’t drop the ball,” said Vika. “You just try and keep shit together, and that’s what’s been so great about Paul: there’s 15 of us on the road. It’s been a really wonderful thing to witness, because he’s doing everything in his power to keep us all employed, and put food on the table. We’re really grateful, and very moved and touched by that.”
By performing wherever they can, the Bull sisters are once again choosing to see their role as offering light amid the darkness.
This approach mirrors the public service they offered in the depths of the first national lockdown last year, when their Sunday Sing Song home videos became a major hit across social media.
This surge in popularity led to their first ARIA No.1 album for an anthology titled ‘Akilotoa in June last year, and a follow-up collection of gospel songs, which debuted at No.2.
This year, the duo’s first album of original material in 19 years will be released on September 17.
Titled The Wait, its songs were penned by some of the greatest Australian songwriters alive today, including Don Walker, Kasey Chambers and Bernard Fanning, as well as their friend and current band leader in Kelly.
Later this year the sisters will support the album by playing a run of theatre shows in four states, starting on the Gold Coast on November 5 and ending in Sydney on November 25.
As for announcing a tour in the current climate? Luckily their different personalities are well-suited to navigating such uncertain times.
“Linda’s more optimistic than I am,” said Vika. “I’ll go, ‘Oh, what’s the point? I can’t be f..ked, Linda.’ And she’s like, ‘Come on, Vik! Get up!’”
“We work well together,” agreed the younger sister. “It’s a team: I am more positive. I see the world as more glass half-full.”
“I don’t see it as half-empty; I’m not all doom and gloom,” clarified Vika with a laugh. “I’m just more of a realist.”
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