By Luke Voogt
Veteran cover artist Rick Charles will squeeze as much of three decades of music as possible into one hour in his next Geelong performance.
“We’ll be going down memory lane with all the golden classics,” he told the Indy Monday.
Charles will cover Elvis and Charlie Pride to Johnny Cash and Tom Jones in a musical journey spanning from the 50s to 70s.
The Morning Melodies concert will be his first gig at the Sphinx since 1995, he said.
The versatile singer has performed as hundreds of iconic artists for 26 years and isn’t slowing down.
“I still average 25 to 30 jobs a month – I’m working every day,” he said.
The 52-year-old’s repertoire of more than 2500 songs spans seven decades, from 1950s country to modern artists like Meaghan Trainor.
“I’ve covered virtually every different rock song there is,” he said. “I’ve got close to 600 songs just on Elvis.”
“Although they won’t be getting all them at The Sphinx as it’s only an hour.”
Charles has a number of unique credits to his name like performing at Kerry Paker’s 60th birthday and coming third in an international Elvis competition.
“I’ve played at virtually every Casino in Australia,” he said. “I’m back at Crown with the Viva Las Vegas special this Friday.
“These people are getting a great deal at the Sphinx because Crown’s a lot more expensive to get into.”
Charles was born in India in 1965, the youngest of 10 children. His family migrated to Melbourne in 1968.
He learnt guitar from age seven, but his father wouldn’t let him be a full time performer until he finished a printing apprenticeship.
He broke into the music industry in the 80s and appeared on television with Denise Drysdale Show and on Good Morning Australia with Bert Newtown.
Charles said he would be happy to take crowd requests when he plays at the Sphinx on 29 March.
“If they yell it out loud enough, I’ll be more than happy to do it.”
