Reviewed by Ray Smith, Thursday 28th April 2022.
As I sat at a footpath table, sipping a beer with my son, waiting for the doors to Her Majesty's Theatre next door to open, the conversation all around us was about Archie Roach and his upcoming concert,
Archie Roach - Tell Me Why, memories of previous shows, of stories, of songs, of love, of tears, of sadness and of joy. Such has been the impact of this man's work over several decades, and we were going to see him again, one last time.
The doors to the beautifully refurbished theatre opened, and we and the fourteen hundred plus other punters filed slowly in to find our seats for this sold out show. We were literally welcomed to country by a local Kaurna man who dispensed with all pomp and ceremony. He bounced onto the stage singing and playing clap-sticks before launching into a truly warm and jovial greeting in Kaurna and in English, joking and laughing and utterly genuine.
Musical Director and pianist, Paul Grabovsky, quietly filed onto the stage, with the very impressive ensemble of musicians that he had selected for this historic gig, to quiet and polite applause, but when Uncle Archie Roach was wheeled to his waiting chair, the audience went wild.
Roach reminisced about Adelaide and his time here before his musical career had even begun, the place where, by sheer luck, he met Ruby Hunter, the love of his life and his muse, the instigator of what was to become perhaps one of the most celebrated musical partnerships in Australian history. They met at the Peoples' Palace, run by the Salvation Army and, in 1988, went to Sydney together to join the First Nation's protest against the upcoming Bicentennial celebrations.
Bicentennial Blues, the first song that Archie Roach wrote, was written there, with his beloved Ruby by his side.
As Roach's gentle voice told us stories of life on the city streets with Ruby, Grabowsky's fingers slipped quietly over the piano keys, creating a ripple of moody noodling behind the narrative of poverty, sleeping in parks, sharing, love, and, indeed, romance.
Lying under a bush with Ruby, he would turn his back and she would brush the twigs and leaves from it, and then she would turn hers so that he could do the same. "Where's the romance in that?", he asked us.
Sometimes they would have enough money for a hot chicken and some bread, a feast that Roach would engage in with great enthusiasm, as his Ruby sat and watched, making sure that he had had enough before she joined in. "Where's the romance in that?", he said.
The song
Tell Me Why itself is about Roach's parents. Archie Roach Snr. and Nellie Austin's son, Archie Roach Jnr., was taken from them at two years of age, and that devastating loss was the cause of their later separation, suggested Roach. "Tell me why would you break a love like that?"
Roach's most well-known song is, of course,
Took the Children Away, but it wasn't written from personal experience because, as Roach pointed out, he was only two years old when it happened to him, so he couldn't remember it. It was when his Uncle Banjo asked him to write about it, and told the young songwriter, "you may not remember it, but I do" that the seed was sown, and an iconic song grew from it. It inspired the song,
The Children Came Back, by Hip Hop artist, Briggs
Introducing
Small Child, Roach told us of his Scottish foster parent, of his exposure to Scottish culture and music, and his love of bagpipes and Scottish ballads, all the while singing snippets of well-known Celtic songs and even breaking into a Scottish accent. It was like we were sitting with an old friend, just passing the time, having a chat, totally at ease in the company of a loved one, which is exactly what Archie Roach does, and he is completely sincere about it.
Roach broke down for a second or two as the recollection of a memory overwhelmed him, and the love from the audience was palpable, it rose up from the plush tiered seats and swooped down to embrace the lone seated figure on the stage in a blanket of empathy and care. Cries of "we love you Archie" popped like 'rainbowed' bubbles across the auditorium as Roach regained his composure, and thanked us.
Always Be Here was the song that prompted the memory, and it was delivered with great delicacy by Archie Roach and his close friend, Sally Dastey, their voices joining together in an intimacy that only long years and deep understanding can bring.
The musicians themselves, Stephen Magnusson on guitar, Sam Anning on double bass, Dave Beck on drums, and Erkki Veltheim on violin, are brilliant individual players, and Grabowsky had been very careful in his selection of players. I found some of Grabowsky's arrangements a little off-putting, having heard the songs before with simpler treatments, but there were some magical moments and a distinct feeling of respect for the material and its context.
The concert was, of course, superb and the audience virtually floated out of the theatre, emotionally drained yet uplifted, but only after giving Uncle Archie one last gift. Archie Roach's memory of his last show here in Adelaide will be of the love and deep respect that was shown to him, and the sight and sound of fourteen hundred and seventy people offering a standing ovation for the minutes that it took for their hero to leave the stage.
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