GLENN Shorrock laughs when people take the title of his new concert literally.
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He admits the title, ‘The History of Rock and Roll, Part 1… according to Glenn Shorrock’ has prompted some nervous punters to wonder if they were in for an academic lecture, or otherwise a concert that would run for eight hours.
“I’m a brave man,” he chuckles. “But the title is done tongue in cheek. It’s not an encyclopedic show. It’s entertainment.
“And I’m just exploring my influences and inspirations from my 50-odd year career. In fact, the shows goes back even before that, back to when I first heard Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel when I was a young teenager.”
Shorrock pauses at that point to make an important clarification: He was, in fact, one of the first teenagers.
“I was a new teenager, actually, because back then the word ‘teenager’ hadn’t been exposed all that much.”
Shorrock said he fell in love with the genre during his formative teenage years of the 1950s and ‘60s. His new show seeks to pay homage to the music that changed the world for ever.
Elvis, Buddy Holly, The Kinks, The Beatles, The Beach Boys and Van Morrison are just a few of the artists that are remembered in the show, which will be performed at Newcastle’s Civic Theatre on Saturday, October 8.
Shorrock said The Beatles changed everything.
“With the advent of The Beatles, rock and roll grew up. Rock and roll was a dance craze, really, before The Beatles turned it into an artistic form of expression.
“There are 50-odd songs that we visit in the show, some only briefly, and we move pretty quickly through the decades,” he said.
Shorrock’s own musical history is featured in the show, too. There was no way he was leaving out The Twilights, Axiom and Little River Band.
Shorrock said he had assembled a dozen of Sydney’s top musos, including a horn section, to bring the show to life.
“It’s what we like to call a big noise,” he said.
## The Lakes Mail has two double passes to give away to readers for the Glenn Shorrock gig at Civic Theatre. For your chance to win a double pass, email info@lakesmail.com.au and include your name, address, and daytime phone number. Entries close at 10am on October 5.
