Review by Jeff Scott
First up for the evening was local bloke by the name of Dave Johnson. He was pretty good and seemed pretty happy to be playing a place where the audience actually listened to the show!
He was followed by Kavisha Mazzella, who is touring with Neil. I must admit I'd never heard of her before, but about half or more of the audience seemed to know her (and about half of those who knew here seemed to be members of her family!). She grew up in WA, though she now lives in Melbourne She described her music as "country and ethnic", and again was pretty good. Neil joined her for a few songs at the end of her set.
Then it was on to the main bit of the evening (as far as I was concerned anyway!), which got off to a bit of a slow start but brought it home in a blistering finish.
Neil opened with a new song, possibly called "Mile Creek" or something similar. I don't remember a great deal about the song now, but it was a reconciliation type of thing about two women from different backgrounds meeting (in other words, your standard Neil Murray type of song!).
That was followed by "Spirit", which as always served to show just how good Neil's acoustic guitar work is.
He then did the poem "Great Redeeming Actions" (over the top of the "Prelude" intro to "These Hands"), before putting the guitar down and reading a few selections from One Man Tribe. At this stage, the audience seemed a bit unsure, and the show was looking a bit shaky. I felt that a couple more songs to get everyone going before the poems would have been better, but it subsequently became clear why the spoken parts were so early.
Kavisha rejoined Neil on stage ("to make me look good" he said), playing accordion and providing backing vocals for the rest of the show. The next song was "Good Light In Broome", and from there things just got better and better.
Neil talked a bit about the European tour the Warumpi Band did in 1995, and played "Native Born" which he wrote while in Europe. Now that the Warumpi Band have been oficially laid to rest, Neil seems a lot more comfortable about his past with them. I've never heard him mention the name of the band at a solo show before - it was always "a band I used to be in" or something like that.
They were also joined by another Perth local by the name of John Reid (or Read? - not sure!), who played an instrument I can't exactly identify. It was a bit like a mandolin, except it had a much longer neck - longer than a guitar neck. It had eight strings, perhaps someone can guess what it is I'm talking about? He had also played with the others before Neil, so he was probably on stage longer than anyone for the night!
They played "Tjapwurrung Country" and an excellent "Eddie Mabo", followed by an even better "Holy Road". The three of them left the stage briefly, before returning to close the night with "My Island Home". Dave Johnson, the opening act, was invited back up by Neil to sing along. Mid-way through the first verse, Kavisha called up someone else from the audience to sing, which turned out to be Ted Wilkes (a prominent local aboriginal). Neil didn't seem to know that was going to happen, and it wasn't until the end of the song that he realised who it was, as he called out "hey, that was Ted Wilkes!" as Ted left the stage. He wasn't a bad singer either, for a political figure!
I guess the only disappointment was that Neil's part of the show was so short - less than an hour. But then I'd always want more, no matter how long he played. And based on recent history, we can expect to see Neil here again sometime in 2004.