Brian Cadd and the late Phil Emmanuel on Queen’s Birthday honours list

Brian Cadd was one of several notable Australian musicians recognised in the Queen’s Birthday honours list.

Australian music legend Brian Cadd in Sydney last weekend. Picture: Britta Campion

On Monday, Brian Cadd was one of several notable Australian musicians to be recognised among those on the Queen’s Birthday honours list: he became a Member of the Order of Australia in recognition of his significant service to the music industry as a singer, songwriter, performer, mentor and producer.

I spoke with Cadd late last week ahead of the announcement, and it was fitting that the 71-year-old was in the midst of a national tour, alongside fellow musicians Russell Morris, Marcia Hines, Leo Sayer and John Paul Young.

“That’s a real addiction,” he says of live performance. “It’s not an ego-based addiction, it’s just a sheer pleasure. I never get sick of it. It’s still very hard to just put your hairdryer and all your fancy shirts away. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t do it. I can’t play golf; I can’t fish. There’s not anything else I can do. I think time will eventually deceive me, and I’m probably getting to that point in the next year or so.”

Known for his roles as keyboardist and vocalist in pop and rock bands The Groop and Axiom, as well as a solo career that began with his 1972 self-titled album, Cadd’s signature songs include Ginger Man, Let Go and Your Mama Don’t Dance.

After more than 50 prosperous years in the performing arts, including long stints in the US and Europe while working in music publishing and production, Cadd thinks that one of the keys to longevity is to try learning different skills.

Still, it’s live performance that gives him the greatest thrill. “I think the trick is even now, at my age, when I play a song that was a hit maybe 40 years ago, I look in the audience, and I’ll see a couple and I know then, at that point, they’re not 50 or 65, or whatever they are; they’re 15 or 16, and remembering that time in their growth,” Cadd tells me.

“It’s fabulous that music is capable of taking people back through their lives — and to be able to do that on stage is a tremendous gift from the gods.”

Another of the musicians to appear on the Queen’s Birthday honours list was rock guitarist Phil Emmanuel. Sadly, however, Emmanuel did not live to see the public recognition for his long service to the performing arts, in the form of a Medal of the Order of Australia: he died on May 24, at the age of 65, after an asthma attack.

This week his youngest brother, Darcy, told the Parkes Champion-Post: “That was just who Phil was — he wouldn’t have wanted the fuss. He’d want someone else to have it. He’d say: ‘Give it to someone who’s done something, I’m just a guitarist.’ ”

Phil became the second Emmanuel sibling to join the Order of Australia: older brother Tommy became a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2010 Queen’s Birthday honours.

In mourning, Tommy — who is also an accomplished guitarist, singer and songwriter — wrote on Facebook on May 26: “He taught me so much right from the start, showed me how to recognise song keys, chords, harmonies, how to get a sound that worked, how to stay out of the way on stage and when to step forward when I had something to say, musically or otherwise …

“We shared everything, and he taught me about kindness, giving, listening, how to love people as they are. He was a walking contradiction, and a dreamer, but mostly, a loving, kind, concerned brother.”