Nice to see him perform when something is wrong with my baby! I didn’t think he ever sung that live! Great footage considering the technology back then :)
what a great new years eve gig to be a part of .....I'm guessing back then there wasn't video walls up or filming ? this footage is pure gold priceless !
Agree. It may be a Ross Wilson song, doesn't mean I like his duets for the song lol he seems to be somewhere near the stage a little bit when John is on.
Awesome thanks so much for this amazing video! Can you remember what the event was? This wasn't a gig performed as part of the Chain Reaction tour I don't think and quite a different setlist.
Matt Adams I think it was billed as John Farnham live at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, or New Years Eve (or some combination of the two). I don’t believe it was billed as the Chain Reaction Tour, but I could be wrong. Yeah the set list is very different. Even the London concert I filmed looks consistent with the Melbourne DVD. I remember a friend of mine said he went the year before (during the Chain Reaction Tour) and I was mad that I didn’t hear about the Music Bowl concert. So I was surprised hearing about it being advertised the following year. There wasn’t any mention of these concerts on johnfarnham.info and I didn’t save the ticket. I think there was a warmup band, and it wasn’t Sam Brown or Southern Sons. One of the songs the warm up band sang, was Drift Away, but obviously that would have been a cover and probably isn’t any help. I’ll see if either of my parents can help with any info. But their memory could be worse than mine! Haha.
Just had a memory jog. And this was in fact on Dec 31, 1991. Other songs performed after when the battery died and they did the countdown and fireworks etc. If I can get any other info I will post it.
Matt Adams Hi Matt this concert and a few others was in celebration of John's live album called "Full House" which came out towards the end of 1991 The Chain Reaction Tour was a year earlier similar set list to keeps things easier I would imagine.
Ah yes that makes sense! tracklist is very similar to Full House and his opening with When the War is Over makes sense now. Pity See the Banners Fall isn't on Full House but of course was never a single so makes sense - just that it was my favourite ever live song! His re-entry into 'Help' after the break for the audience singalong of 'I'm feeling down' is absolutely spine chilling. Also first time I've ever seen him sing "something is wrong with my baby' with Lisa and WOW is all I can say. I met Lisa a couple of years ago in Auckland at John's hotel and she spent a long time chatting with me - what a spectacularly lovely person she is. John was also very generous with his time with me at the hotel and Gaynor and Glenn offered me their limo to go back to the arena to watch Lionel Ritchie as I'd left after John's set to get back to meet him at the hotel!!...John manages somehow to surround himself with amazing, generous, kind people. PS thanks for all the great uploads of John you've done over the years as well - I'm a keen follower!!
Matt Adams awesome to have those experiences. I saw Glenn getting in the elevator at Rod Laver at the Tom Jones concert. We made eye contact that was it. John Blackman told Farnsy “Alex Stelling says hi” for me. His response to Blackers “Alex who? Tell him I said hi!” Haha - I have always wanted to meet John. My two year old daughter’s favorite song is Hearts on Fire, and she will request it and she knows a lot of the words. Chain Reaction is my favorite album of John’s. I love just about all the songs on that album, like See The Banners Fall, The Time Has Come, The First Step, In Your Hands, And I Can Do Anything. They all have about the same positive message. Hopefully John does a 30th anniversary Chain Reaction Tour. Man I feel old! lol
Great footage! Love seeing old stuff like this. Why on Earth does John have a corded mic though? Haven't seen him use those much after Expo 88. I would have thought they were pretty standard by 1991, especially for John.
I’m not sure. If I remember right, there were more than just him performing that night, as it went to midnight. So maybe longevity, and the fact there’s not much room to move around on that stage anyway. I’m only speculating. He also used a corded mic at London 6 months earlier (that I also uploaded).
Yeah I did see the London footage - never thought I would see anything like that! In fact last night I discovered your Expo 88 upload from the master source. Audio quality was amazing. Yeah corded mic is still a little weird to see. Especially considering John performance style.
Luke Chalkley I have the Jack of Hearts concert in Betacam SP from the master too. But my DVD copy of that failed and need to have it recopied. Maybe next time I’m in Melbourne or I’ll ask my dad to take it to his friend who has a production studio with those decks. They have the commercial break blanks which need editing out though. Expo had them too. First time I played Expo in Beta SP, I had some expensive Sennheiser headphones plugged in. I swear there was a certain quality about high end analog audio which digital can’t touch.
Oh god I would love to have that! I rip audio to MP3 for my iPod. Did it for all DVDs. I love live concerts. I have copies from here but recording isn't in stereo - screws up the audio. I am surprised they have never actually released them on DVD. I know Wheatley Records has uploaded a pretty solid Man of the Hour Concert with close to broadcast quality.
Luke Chalkley the guy I was talking about actually rented out the old Talentworks building from Glenn Wheatley for the production studio. It was in Richmond if I remember right? Or somewhere near there. Keith said when they moved in (this was a few years ago), there were a lot of Farnham archives. But I think he said they got moved somewhere else. I think a lot of the concerts had separate audio recordings that they could use to remaster with the video tape. All the broadcast tapes were in 2 channel, but I think the audio masters in many cases were recorded on separate channels. I think that’s how they did the DVD remasters. I was lucky to have a HiFi stereo Video 8 camcorder for the two concerts in 1991. You can convert mono to stereo though. Just need to create a slight delay. But if you do it on a video editing system, 1 frame (1/25th of a second) is too much of a delay.
Omg! Blown away by Lisa Edwards at 29:00 - duet of ‘When Something is Wrong with My Baby’. Thanks so much for uploading. I adore Lisa!
Nice to see him perform when something is wrong with my baby! I didn’t think he ever sung that live! Great footage considering the technology back then :)
what a great new years eve gig to be a part of .....I'm guessing back then there wasn't video walls up or filming ? this footage is pure gold priceless !
It's Stephen Housden on guitar. Very interesting to see him there, didn't realise he ever played for John after LRB days.
Thanks! I just turned 12 at the time and my only familiarity with LRB was the fact Farnham was in it for a while. Haha.
Thanks for sharing Alex !
It’s been years since Vanetta Fields has performed with John. Notice how powerful she sounds, especially during Pressure Down.
Queen Venetta! 👑
Wish she’d stayed in the band - her, Lisa and Lindsay were an absolute dream team! Yep, I do miss the Venetta years ....
Someone left the stage door unlocked and let Ross Wilson sneak in again.
FreeTheRocks hahaha!!! That was gold! 😂
That's my standard reply every time I see Ross Wilson. :)
Agree. It may be a Ross Wilson song, doesn't mean I like his duets for the song lol he seems to be somewhere near the stage a little bit when John is on.
Haha 😂 Good on them! He’s a bloody legend - love Mondo Rock!
Awesome thanks so much for this amazing video! Can you remember what the event was? This wasn't a gig performed as part of the Chain Reaction tour I don't think and quite a different setlist.
Matt Adams I think it was billed as John Farnham live at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, or New Years Eve (or some combination of the two). I don’t believe it was billed as the Chain Reaction Tour, but I could be wrong. Yeah the set list is very different. Even the London concert I filmed looks consistent with the Melbourne DVD.
I remember a friend of mine said he went the year before (during the Chain Reaction Tour) and I was mad that I didn’t hear about the Music Bowl concert. So I was surprised hearing about it being advertised the following year. There wasn’t any mention of these concerts on johnfarnham.info and I didn’t save the ticket. I think there was a warmup band, and it wasn’t Sam Brown or Southern Sons. One of the songs the warm up band sang, was Drift Away, but obviously that would have been a cover and probably isn’t any help. I’ll see if either of my parents can help with any info. But their memory could be worse than mine! Haha.
Just had a memory jog. And this was in fact on Dec 31, 1991. Other songs performed after when the battery died and they did the countdown and fireworks etc. If I can get any other info I will post it.
Matt Adams Hi Matt this concert and a few others was in celebration of John's live album called "Full House" which came out towards the end of 1991 The Chain Reaction Tour was a year earlier similar set list to keeps things easier I would imagine.
Ah yes that makes sense! tracklist is very similar to Full House and his opening with When the War is Over makes sense now. Pity See the Banners Fall isn't on Full House but of course was never a single so makes sense - just that it was my favourite ever live song! His re-entry into 'Help' after the break for the audience singalong of 'I'm feeling down' is absolutely spine chilling. Also first time I've ever seen him sing "something is wrong with my baby' with Lisa and WOW is all I can say. I met Lisa a couple of years ago in Auckland at John's hotel and she spent a long time chatting with me - what a spectacularly lovely person she is. John was also very generous with his time with me at the hotel and Gaynor and Glenn offered me their limo to go back to the arena to watch Lionel Ritchie as I'd left after John's set to get back to meet him at the hotel!!...John manages somehow to surround himself with amazing, generous, kind people. PS thanks for all the great uploads of John you've done over the years as well - I'm a keen follower!!
Matt Adams awesome to have those experiences. I saw Glenn getting in the elevator at Rod Laver at the Tom Jones concert. We made eye contact that was it. John Blackman told Farnsy “Alex Stelling says hi” for me. His response to Blackers “Alex who? Tell him I said hi!” Haha - I have always wanted to meet John. My two year old daughter’s favorite song is Hearts on Fire, and she will request it and she knows a lot of the words.
Chain Reaction is my favorite album of John’s. I love just about all the songs on that album, like See The Banners Fall, The Time Has Come, The First Step, In Your Hands, And I Can Do Anything. They all have about the same positive message. Hopefully John does a 30th anniversary Chain Reaction Tour. Man I feel old! lol
Great footage! Love seeing old stuff like this. Why on Earth does John have a corded mic though? Haven't seen him use those much after Expo 88. I would have thought they were pretty standard by 1991, especially for John.
I’m not sure. If I remember right, there were more than just him performing that night, as it went to midnight. So maybe longevity, and the fact there’s not much room to move around on that stage anyway. I’m only speculating. He also used a corded mic at London 6 months earlier (that I also uploaded).
Yeah I did see the London footage - never thought I would see anything like that! In fact last night I discovered your Expo 88 upload from the master source. Audio quality was amazing.
Yeah corded mic is still a little weird to see. Especially considering John performance style.
Luke Chalkley I have the Jack of Hearts concert in Betacam SP from the master too. But my DVD copy of that failed and need to have it recopied. Maybe next time I’m in Melbourne or I’ll ask my dad to take it to his friend who has a production studio with those decks. They have the commercial break blanks which need editing out though. Expo had them too. First time I played Expo in Beta SP, I had some expensive Sennheiser headphones plugged in. I swear there was a certain quality about high end analog audio which digital can’t touch.
Oh god I would love to have that! I rip audio to MP3 for my iPod. Did it for all DVDs. I love live concerts. I have copies from here but recording isn't in stereo - screws up the audio. I am surprised they have never actually released them on DVD. I know Wheatley Records has uploaded a pretty solid Man of the Hour Concert with close to broadcast quality.
Luke Chalkley the guy I was talking about actually rented out the old Talentworks building from Glenn Wheatley for the production studio. It was in Richmond if I remember right? Or somewhere near there. Keith said when they moved in (this was a few years ago), there were a lot of Farnham archives. But I think he said they got moved somewhere else. I think a lot of the concerts had separate audio recordings that they could use to remaster with the video tape. All the broadcast tapes were in 2 channel, but I think the audio masters in many cases were recorded on separate channels. I think that’s how they did the DVD remasters. I was lucky to have a HiFi stereo Video 8 camcorder for the two concerts in 1991. You can convert mono to stereo though. Just need to create a slight delay. But if you do it on a video editing system, 1 frame (1/25th of a second) is too much of a delay.
There is a God his name is John Farnham.