Vance Joy reminisces about the ‘cakewalk’ of being an opening act as he books big Aussie tour
Vance Joy is now a star in his own right, but it wasn’t always that way, and he can vividly recall certain parts of life before his big break.
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James Keogh remembers being the “opening guy”. It was July 2013 and he was the first act on stage for Bernard Fanning’s national Departures tour, just two months after he released his breakthrough single Riptide.
While the song was getting smashed on radio, and on its way to becoming one of the first Australian singles to break the billion streams benchmark, the artist known as Vance Joy was the “classic, singer-songwriter opening act” on the Fanning tour.
“I was just starting out and I was stressing out about making more songs and recording the album and all these new pressures and I really enjoyed that tour, but if I did it now, it would be ‘What is this cakewalk?’” Keogh says.
“I get to carry just a guitar around, everything is done for me and I play for 20 minutes, this is the greatest.”
He plans to share the benefit of that hindsight with First Nations soul singer-songwriter Budjerah, who will be one of the openers on the massive The Long Way Home tour in 2022, Vance Joy’s first headlining national run of concerts since 2018.
Keogh also wants to recreate the “school camp” vibe of that Fanning tour, particularly on the regional legs of the two-month-long musical adventure, which will also include “friends” – aka support acts The Rubens, Middle Kids, Thelma Plum and Mia Wray at various gigs.
He remembers Fanning, fellow support act Big Scary and himself kicking off that 2013 tour in Queensland and staying at a classic retro motel, hanging out in the centre courtyard. He says the great Australian tour is as much a road trip with mates as it is a day job.
“In my tours I’ve been on in America, you hang out sometimes and make friends with the main band or who you are supporting but I remember my last tour was more of a school-camp vibe and I think this one will be the same thing,” he says.
Keogh has spent more time touring overseas than at home since Riptide exploded eight years ago, following its success around the globe as an opening act on Taylor Swift’s mammoth The 1989 Tour in 2015, booking his own headlining and festival performances in America and Europe and joining Pink’s Beautiful Trauma for its European leg in 2019.
He has been based in Barcelona with his Spanish girlfriend for much of the past year; their long-distance relationship inspired his latest hit Missing Piece, which has more than 65 million streams.
As he announced his homecoming tour in 2022, Keogh was heading back to Australia to fulfil best man duties for one of his best mates, including sourcing a message from celebrity shout-out app Cameo for the occasion.
Surely the presence of a global pop star trumps a “Congratulations on Your Impending Nuptials” from a “celebrity”.
“No, because I’m just James from down the road, there’s no star power attached to me,” he says.
“We need to get someone from The Sopranos or something like that. But every now and again, I get an Instagram message asking if I want to join Cameo but I don’t think I could ask for money to do those things, especially for the fans I know.”
Like most of the superstar tours being announced in late 2021, the Vance Joy concerts won’t be happening until the second half of 2022, kicking off in September in Darwin and winding up at the Sydney Opera House forecourt in mid November. The dates were partly influenced by the expectation all state borders will be fully open by then, preventing the tour from being halted by a sudden closure because of a Covid outbreak. And it gives the songwriter a deadline to complete work on his third record, the follow-up to 2018’s award-winning Nation Of Two album.
He has already amassed a decent clutch of potential future hits for the record, some even written during two-week quarantine hotel stints back in Australia over the past 12 months.
“On paper, I have enough songs,” he says. “But I’m always dragging my feet on a deadline. I guess most of the uncertainty (about touring) is going away now. It would be nice to be touring sooner but I guess everyone decided this was the most opportune time.”
Keogh suspects he will be daydreaming about his 2022 Australian road trip during those long hours in the studio next year.
“I remember on that first tour with Bernard Fanning, we played Rockhampton and Townsville, Cairns and Mackay, all these two-hour drives between gigs to see places I probably wouldn’t have gone to for years, and haven’t been back to since,” he says.
“Doing all of that again will be nice, with all the experience I’ve had since then, and I just love touring Australia.”
Tickets to the The Long Way Home tour go on sale Friday. Dates and details via frontiertouring.com
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