Iconic Australian band Goanna bring home their extensive national tour to Geelong with a special one-night-only performance at Costa Hall on Friday, November 18.
Goanna leader and frontman Shane Howard said having started the tour in February at Mount Duneed, the show is a fitting end to the tour and one that also marks 40 years since the band originally formed in Geelong.
“We were a Geelong band, it’s where we cut our teeth and it’s where the songs emerged from, really,” Howard said.
“Geelong is very much the band’s heartland; it was a great live music scene, there was a band in every hotel.
“We’ve always seen ourselves as a regional band, and Geelong’s had a lasting impact on the sort of music that we played and the sort of songs that we wrote.”
Howard recalled how one night at the Eureka Hotel in 1981 the band was spontaneously joined for the first time by Billy Inda, who played didgeridoo on Aussie anthem Solid Rock.
“We were setting up, playing Solid Rock, and two Aboriginal guys were drinking in the bar,” he recalled.
“They came over and said they loved the song, and asked what sound Rosie [Bygrave] was using on the keyboard. And she said, we’re trying to emulate a didgeridoo.
“He said, ‘Well I play didj, I’ve got one at home, do you want me to go and get it?’ So that evening, Billy came up to the bandroom before the gig and we ran through it for the first time.”
Goanna have also delved into the archives to present Looking Across the Bay, a nostalgic exhibition of posters, memorabilia and artifacts, which will be on show at Deakin’s Project Space to coincide with the performance.
“We’ve got lots of paraphernalia, going right back to the first poster we had back in 1978,” Howard said.
“You also accumulate stuff people give you on the road. There’s a beautiful kangaroo skin painted with Uluru and a goanna in Aboriginal painting design that was given to us in Townsville.
“It’s lovely to be able to show them off and display them in this way.”
Goanna will be joined by Luke Biscan and Mick Ryan. Looking Across the Bay will be open at Project Space from November 14-20.
