The extraordinary career and lifetime contribution of music legend Russell Morris will be honoured by a full orchestra and 10-piece band touring from July 2023 with performances at Australia’s most prestigious venues – the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall and Arts Centre Melbourne’s Hamer Hall. Tickets are on sale from Ticketmaster
Two time Academy Award nominee David Hirschfelder (Shine, Elizabeth) has arranged the score for the 54 orchestra musicians and the 10-piece band that will accompany Russell as he journeys through a career that started with a remake of Joe South’s Hush and then took it off like a rocket with the rich, psychedelic rock masterpiece The Real Thing that topped the charts as man landed on the moon in July 1969.
It will follow his various incarnations – including the hits Hush, Sweet, Sweet Love and Wings of An Eagle – through to the acclaimed blues trilogy that began with the landmark, record-breaking No.1 album Sharkmouth in 2012. It rose to the top of the ARIA charts and stayed there two years, becoming his most successful album, and winning the 2013 ARIA Award for Best Blues and Roots Album while going platinum.
In addition to the awe-inspiring music power that emerges from the union of a band and symphony orchestra, audiences will be treated to never-before-heard stories, offering a rare and intimate glimpse into the life of the man and his music.
Russell is a member of the ARIA Hall of Fame and Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame with a career spanning more than five decades. He was awarded an Order of Australia on Australia Day 2018 for “significant service to the performing arts as a musician, singer, songwriter and entertainer, and as a supporter of charitable organisations”.
The spectacular once-in-a-lifetime concerts are sponsored by Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy Mining Company. Mr Palmer, a life-long Russell Morris fan, initiated these special concerts to recognise Russell’s esteemed and popular contributions to Australian music.
“I have followed Russell’s career from the 1960s and am just one of his many admirers who have recognised his drive, energy and passion on his inspiring musical journey,” Mr Palmer said.
For Russell, this is a dream came true. “This is a big deal for me, the biggest of my career and I can only thank Clive Palmer for his generosity making it happen” he said
The concerts, under the banner of The Real Thing, promise an unforgettable night of musical excellence.
Russell Morris, The Real Thing will take place at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday, July 2 and at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall on Tuesday, July 4, 2023. Tickets are on sale from Friday April 21 from Ticketmaster In Melbourne via artscentremelbourne.com.au and Ticketek.
Russell Morris is one of Australia’s most enduring singers. A major pop star in the late ’60s, he went on to become one of the country’s first singer/songwriters.
His career started in September 1966 with the formation of the Melbourne group Somebody’s Image, which rose to prominence with a local hit version of the Joe South song Hush.
Russell and manager/producer, Ian Meldrum, spent unprecedented hours and money to create a seven-minute production of The Real Thing. It reached Australia’s number one spot in June 1969 and without any promotional support it reached number one in Chicago, Houston, and New York.
The second single – Part Three Into Paper Walls and The Girl That I Love became a double-sided number one hit, the first time an Australian artist had scored consecutive number ones with their first two singles.
Russell had now decided to concentrate on his own song writing and with the cream of Australian musicians, spent almost a year painstakingly recording and re-recording that became the Bloodstone album. The hit single from Bloodstone was the resonant, romantic Sweet Sweet Love. The following year, in 1972, Russell delivered the equally beautiful Wings of an Eagle.
In 1991, Russell released another solo album, A Thousand Suns, and he spent the subsequent years as part of a highly successful performing trio with fellow ’60s heroes Ronnie Burns and Darryl Cotton of the Zoot, In 2001 The Real Thing and Wings of an Eagle featured prominently in the Australian-made movie The Dish.
Three highly successful Blues albums were released between 2012 and 2018; Sharkmouth (certified Platinum), Russell’s highest charting album of his career, Van Diemen’s Land (certified Gold) and Red Dirt-Red Heart (ARIA Best Blues and Roots Album).
More recently Russell teamed up with Rick Springfield to record Jack Chrome and The Darkness Waltz.
Russell helped form The Caprettos, with Daryl Braithwaite, Jack Jones and Rai Thistlethwayte and have just completed recording and playing to sell-out audiences around the country.
Over the journey Russ GoSet Best Male Vocalist 1969, 1971, TV Week King of Pop Award – Best Composer/Songwriter and Best Album 1971, Tamworth songwriters Award Best Contemporary Song of The Year 1992, inducted into the Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame 2005, ARIA Hall of Fame 2008 and The 2011 Mo Award
David Hirschfelder was raised in the country township of Ballarat, about 110 kilometres northwest of Melbourne Australia. After graduating from Ballarat Grammar School in 1976, he studied music at the University of Melbourne. Emerging as a young keyboard prodigy in the late 70s, David formed the legendary improvising art-music ensemble “Pyramid”, which performed his compositions at the 1983 Montreux Jazz Festival.
From the mid-80s to early-90s, Hirschfelder became the musical brain behind many of Australia’s landmark concert events and recordings, including John Farnham’s Whispering Jack in 1987, the “Classic Jack” Tour in 1988 featuring John Farnham and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and Harry M. Miller’s record-breaking “Jesus Christ Superstar” Arena Spectacular in 1992. Also in that same year, David’s first film-score for Baz Luhrmann’s “Strictly Ballroom” won a BAFTA (British Academy) award. In 1996 David received an Oscar nomination, an AFI and an APRA award for his “Shine” score; and in 1998 a further Oscar nomination, as well as BAFTA and APRA awards for “Elizabeth”.
David’s recent film-scores include Jonathan Teplitzky’s “The Railway Man” (starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman) which won AACTA and APRA screen music awards in 2014; Russell Crowe’s “The Water Diviner”, which won the 2014 FCCA Regal Cinema Award for Best Music Score, and also APRA Soundtrack of the Year Award, and in December 2015, David received AACTA and APRA nominations for his eclectic score to Jocelyn Moorhouse’s “The Dressmaker”, starring Kate Winslet and Judy Dench.
In 2019 David garnered AACTA and FCCA nominations for his score to Rachel Griffith’s “Ride Like a Girl”, starring Teresa Palmer and Sam Neil, and in 2020 David’s score for political thriller “Escape from Pretoria” (starring Daniel Radcliffe) was nominated for Feature Film Score of the Year.
2023 sees the release of David’s most recent work, the original music for the feature documentary “John Farnham: Finding The Voice”, as well as a large-scale commission of symphonic arrangements for Russell Morris’ concerts with the SSO and MSO in July 2023.
Other works include “Eternity” for orchestra, choir and 1000 tap-dancers (commissioned for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games Opening Ceremony), “Mixed Doubles” for string quartet (2004 Adelaide Fringe Arts Festival), “Branches of Vayu” for trombone, two pianos and percussion (2011 MSO Chamber Series), and “To a Child” for soprano and string quartet, recorded and released in 2016 by Katie Noonan and The Brodsky Quartet. In 2018 David completed another commission for Katie Noonan and the Australian String Quartet, setting music to a poem titled “No More Boomerang” by indigenous artist Oodgeroo Noonuccul.
