Revisiting Powderfinger’s decision to call it quits in 2010

In light of Powderfinger’s one-off reunion for charity, I wanted to see how the Brisbane band members recalled the decision to call it quits.

Powderfinger bid farewell after final performance together in 2010. Picture: Dave Hunt/AAP

Ahead of a surprise reunion from Brisbane rock band Powderfinger, who will be streaming on YouTube from 7pm Saturday, May 23, I wanted to revisit the final pages of Melbourne writer Dino Scatena’s 2011 book, Footprints: The Inside Story of Australia’s Best Loved Band, which was partly written and researched while travelling with the group on its farewell tour. In light of this one-off event – which will be performed remotely, with the five musicians appropriately socially distanced in different locations – I wanted to see how the band reflected on its decision to call it quits in the pages of its official biography.

On the day of its final show at the Brisbane Riverstage on November 13, 2010, singer Bernard Fanning told Scatena: “A lot of people have said, ‘Congratulations, you’re going out the way you want’. That to me is the key thing. It’s so rare for people to be able to choose when they are going to stop, and celebrate that. To say, ‘Yeah, we have had a f..king awesome career. We have worked really hard, been really lucky and chosen the right time to go’. That’s not sad, it’s awesome. There is no regret, it’s been on my mind for quite a long time.” Bassist John Collins recalled the final tour as “the best time we have ever had in the band by a long way”, while drummer Jon Coghill told Scatena: “This is what we should have done the whole time – be able to look at it and go, ‘How good is this?’. But we could only do that since we decided to split up. But I’m actually really happy that the band’s finished. I think if we had kept going for another 10 years, even if we were really happy, I don’t think we would have had a chance at a second life when we were 50-year-old musos.”

That is precisely what they are now – or thereabouts, with Coghill and guitarist Darren Middleton both aged 48 – and given that it’s been a decade since they all made music together, it will be fascinating to see how those songs now feel to the songwriters after a long break from performance. The Saturday night concert, dubbed One Night Lonely, is designed as a one-off fundraiser for two charities, Beyond Blue and Support Act, both of whom have seen a dramatic uptick in demand for their services in the past two months. Fanning has said the entire point is to put a smile on people’s faces during a testing time, and if there’s a more altruistic reason for getting a band back together, I haven’t heard it.

Lastly, I wanted to briefly mention something I wrote for The Weekend Australian Magazine a couple of weeks ago, on May 9. Named Heyfield Girls and Blundstone Boys, it’s a story about two songs that mean the world to a country singer-songwriter from Melbourne named Michael Waugh, and you can find it online.

[e-mail]