Russell Crowe’s Indoor Garden Party
With
The Gentlemen Barbers
and special guests
He was named Rome’s ambassador to the world last year, honored as a ‘Global Icon’ by GQ magazine, but he was also banned from entering a suburban Japanese restaurant in Melbourne for not wearing the correct attire, on a Friday, at lunchtime, in 37° heat. A non-story that has become world news.
Whether he’s telling the story or people are telling a story about him, life is always interesting if you’re Russell Crowe.
In May and June, he plays music and organizes his indoor Garden Party in towns and villages on the east coast.
An “Indoor Garden Party” is, he says, “an event, a band, a happening. It’s fluid. The staff changes, but it’s always big. I admire, musicians and storytellers, and we put on a show.
Until January this year, with 2 gigs in his hometown of Coffs Harbour, Crowe had not played music in Australia since 2014. Yet in the same period he had done announced and unannounced gigs at New York, London, Leeds, Dublin, Stockholm, Reykjavik, LA and released the Indoor Garden Party album, The Musical.
The concept began in 2009 in a pub outside London owned by cat legend, Michael Parkinson, and it has continued on a random and ad lib basis ever since.
With this setup, Crowe brings The Gentlemen Barbers, which he has been quietly tinkering with for four years, to the fore.
“There is an attitude about this group. It has a groove. We do a lot of story songs, but we also know we’re here to blast the cobwebs and give the audience a good night’. Seizing the time between filming movies like Unhinged, Thor: Love & Thunder, The Greatest Beer Run and their next film release, The Pope’s Exorcist, the band comes together, sometimes for weeks at a time just playing, recording , speaking, gelling . The result hit the stage at Coffs Harbor in January to packed houses, and it was decided, as they say, to ‘take the show on the road’.
Relations within the group go back 30 years. Dave Kelly (drums) and Stewart Kirwan (trumpet) were members of Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts, in addition to playing with Crowe in The Ordinary Fear of God, which included Stu Hunter (piano), and in its touring form also included Chris Kamzelas (guitar). James Hazelwood (bass) fits right in and shares friendships within the band that go back decades.
Joining this tour are a pair of amazing singers from Ireland.
Janet Devlin is from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. She first caused a stir as a contestant in the 2011 UK version of X factor where she captured the hearts of the public.
She has a uniquely beautiful voice and has continued to release acclaimed albums and singles ever since.
From the town of Cavan comes Lorraine O’Reilly. Cast with Crowe for a duet on Bible Code Sundays’ “Walk like Kings” album, they became friends and have been performing together since 2017.
Famous for her beautiful, raspy and powerful voice, Lorraine has done Indoor Garden Party shows in London, Stockholm, Leeds and at home in Ireland, joining them on stage at Dublin’s Olympia.
Also on this tour, acoustically, is a young band from Sydney based in Maroubra called Myth of Her. You’d think opening a show with that many acts would intimidate a young band, but these boys were called up for encores at the two Indoor Garden Party shows they performed at Coffs Harbor in January this year. They are mature beyond their years and deeply talented.
This east coast tour includes pubs, clubs and theatres. “I like to play in pubs. That’s what I did growing up. It’s my version of theatre. Even though my daily work demands a lot of my time, I have never played music. My journey to cinema starts with playing in bands, touring, releasing records. The band’s work led to musical theater (Grease, Rocky Horror Show, Blood Brothers) and miraculously a director saw me performing in Blood Brothers and asked me to audition.
The rest, as they say, is history. Over 40 international awards later, including BAFTA, SAG, Academy Award, Golden Globes, Crowe still retains his love for the immediacy of live performance.
When asked if the shows would change between pubs and theatres, Crowe replied “Probably. I imagine that when everyone has a comfortable seat, I will tell more stories. After all, that’s what it’s all about, songs or movies. It’s always about the story. In pubs and clubs we will set foot. The Gentlemen Barbers swing between R&B, Gospel, dirty country songs about murder, dark waltzes and powerful, inspiring songs. It should be a good night.
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