Unlock the door and light the fire, my head is filled with sweet desire, slip into something comfortable ...
If these lines from one of the great Aussie anthems, Comin’ Home, spark a smiling flash of memories, make sure you’re at the gig when The Radiators ignite the stage at the Blues Festival on Sunday evening, October 26.
The Rads, as they’re known to their loyal fans, have been gigging almost continuously since they started in 1978 and are a lively, pumping, joyful live show, performing recently in the Hawkesbury at Clarendon Tavern.
The Courier spoke to original bass player Geoff Turner last Friday. When told how the Courier had seen 21-year-olds going nuts over Comin’ Home at a covers band gig a week before, he laughed and said ‘‘a lot of them have grown up listening to their parents’ cassette tapes in the back of station wagons’’.
He said he wrote the song very early in the band’s career.
‘‘It was a song written about missing home and my lady, who I’m still with,’’ he said. ‘‘Even at the start of our career, we were moving around a lot.’’
The band’s performance on Countdown in late 1979 is something remembered by many.
‘‘You’re miming!’’ Geoff said with a laugh. ‘‘We had to learn how to mime and not look stupid and we realised we just had to go for it and sing and play, but it sounded strange as the sound was coming out of a crappy old ABC speaker and the cymbals were taped down.
‘‘We knew we were on our way when we got on Countdown. We were used to watching Sherbet and Skyhooks on it.’’
The Radiators will be on the main stage at 7pm on Sunday, October 26, followed by the Black Sorrows at 8.30pm.
