John Schumann (Redgum) & The Vagabond Crew to play Imperial Hotel - Oct 20.
One of Australia’s most influential singer-songwriters John Schumann and his band The Vagabond Crew are heading to The Imperial Hotel Eumundi for what will be a very special performance in The Brewery on Sunday 20 October, supported by Andrea Kirwin.
John is best known for his leadership of Redgum, and is credited with changing the way Australia thinks with his Vietnam veterans anthem ‘I was only 19’.
He has now written and recorded ‘Graduation Day’ to support the Police Federation of Australia’s mental health campaign and sales of the single are going towards supporting police officers (serving and retired) and their families in need.
“Police all around Australia now have their own song in ‘Graduation Day’. It will remind them that they’re not alone - and it will give the broader Australian community an empathetic insight into the lives of the men and women who hold the ‘thin blue line’,” said Mr Mark Carroll APM, President of the Police Federation of Australia (PFA).
“I have yet to meet a police officer who hasn’t been stopped in his or her tracks while listening to this song,” Mark said.
He said the job of keeping our communities safe can carry very significant psychological costs for the people involved - and their families. These costs include mental ill-health, psychological injuries and, in the worst cases, suicide.
Mr Carroll said that ‘Graduation Day’ is part of a comprehensive mental health program being developed and rolled out by the PFA with the assistance of the federal government.
John Schumann said that ‘Graduation Day’ took him almost a year to write. “To write it with credibility, I had to get inside a cop’s head, walk around in a cop’s shoes – and look out and see the world through a cop’s eyes,” John said.
“The song owes everything to all the police officers around Australia who trusted me with their stories. The stories were very hard to listen to - but I got a real insight into what it means to go to work every day to keep the community safe - and then come home with a head full of barbed wire without knowing how to talk about it or what to do about it.”
“I firmly believe that if you want to change the way people think and behave, tell them a story. That’s what I did, quite by chance in fact, with ‘I Was Only 19’. We are Australians - we respond best to stories. Don’t lecture us, don’t subject us to death by PowerPoint, don’t write a report - tell us a story and we’ll get it, “ John said.
Recorded with Schumann’s long-time band, the Vagabond Crew, and featuring guest vocalist Taasha Coates from The Audreys, ‘Graduation Day’ can be downloaded at www.fineprint.net.au/graduation-day. ‘Graduation Day’ can also be purchased via iTunes.
TICKETS: $30 at the Imperial Hotel (Ph: 5442 8811) or through Oztix (+ booking fee).
Doors open 5pm, and please note that this is a seated event.