I’ve caught Joe Camilleri off guard as he’s just finishing off one of his children’s lollies! But once the sweet is consumed I find that there is a lot of residue sweetness in Joe’s life, among which is a taste for continuing to evolve as an artist.
With this evolving Joe is asking audiences to rediscover what he does as an artist. Joe has never been content to rest on his laurels and firmly believes in not looking back but instead having a conviction to keep working on making things better.
This continual quest for doing different and doing better, means Joe is always a busy man. Today we are talking about one of Joe’s projects, bringing his Van Morrison tribute show ‘Here Comes the Night’ to Tasmania. Joe says Tasmania is ‘a beautiful state to be in’, ‘a beautiful place to b and goes on to say he believes it’s an ‘undervalued jewel and incredibly beautiful’. Joe tells me that he could easily live in Tasmania and commute to the mainland!
‘Here comes the night’, which he has been performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has been well received and will canvas all the great Van Morrison hits, including ‘Brown-Eyed Girl’, ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’, ‘Bright Side of the Road’, ‘Days Like This’, ‘Gloria’, ‘Have I told you Lately’ and ‘Moondance’
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Making the trip to Tasmania with Joe will be his very talented co-stars, Christine Anu, Vince Jones and the Voodoo Sheiks Large Band.
Joe is a long-time admirer of Van Morrison with the show paying homage to the classic songs although amazingly Van’s prolific song writing makes his songs number up to 900! This sheer volume says Joe makes Van come close to Gershwin’s song output.
There will be some of Joe’s stamp on the songs but for the most part Joe is faithful to Van’s own interpretations because he doesn’t believe in ‘meddling with perfection.’
Ahead for Joe is another tour before the end of the year promoting the Sorrows new album and then another European tour in April 2016.
Joe’s advice demonstrated by example is at the end of the day ‘to keep plugging away’.
You can see Joe and friends in ‘Here Comes the Night’ at the following dates and venues:
Friday 9th October, 2015 – WREST POINT ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE, HOBART – Bookings: 1300 795 257 or www.tixtas.com.au
Saturday 10th October, 2015 – PRINCESS THEATRE, LAUNCESTON – Bookings: (03) 6323 3666 or www.theatrenorth.com.au
Paula Xiberras
