“It’s like packing in all of your best friends into one small room and hanging out and listening to music and being really comfortable,” explains Whitfield. “Everybody always has a good time. I’m very close to my audience when I perform so I enjoy the feeling of loving that you get from the crowd and sending that loving vibe back to them.
“When I was in Australia a couple of years ago – I did the Big Day Out and Rockwiz – I never had a chance to do an intimate show and perform the way I usually love to, because I didn’t do shows outside the festivals. I doubt that people who saw me at the festival knew who I was or were familiar with much of my music; this show is going to be a great opportunity to play for people who choose to see me.”
With a new record to be released this year with his old-friend Peter Greenfield as the reformed Savages band, there’ll be even more motivation for the die-hards to get out and check out Whitfield at Ding Doing with the Fireballs or the Good Friday eve Deep Roots session. “That’s the best part about traveling all around the world – getting the chance to see some interesting acts that you hear for the very first time, it’s exciting,” enthuses Whitfield.
“I don’t think I’ll play a lot of the new stuff just because the record’s not out yet. It’s called Savage Kings,but I think I’ll do this show as a reintroduction of myself to people who have never heard my stuff before, the songs that I’m famous for.
“I’m also looking forward to meeting up with another band who’s going to be here in Melbourne at the same time, they’re called Los Lobos and they’re really good friends of mine. Don’t be surprised if I show up on stage at their show next week and prance around! It always happens – they called me ‘the sixth ‘Lobos’,” he laughs. “We’ve known each other for a very long time, ever since they first saw me perform their minds were blown and they said they’d love to jam with me. We always have a crazy time on stage.”
Another legend in his own right who’s mind was blown by Whitfield’s raw vocals and frenzied live antics, is one Robert Plant. Being a massive Whitfield fan, Plant personally chased the singer down, begging for a copy of his recently re-issued debut album Barrence Whitfield And The Savages – something the vocalist was more than happy to pass on to the Led Zeppelin frontman.
“He said, ‘thank you so much for sending me that record!’” Whitfield enthuses. “He told [BBC journalist/DJ] Andy Kershaw back in the ‘80s that that album was one of his favourites of all time. It’s so amazing when you hear something like that!
“The thing is that a lot of those classic bands all go back to African American music anyway. I initially dreamed of being a television journalist but I was a huge record collector, so music overcame that passion, especially after I met Peter Greenfield in Boston. Now I teach Music And Society during Black History Month in America, and my lectures are about the origins of African American music and the styles and political views that relate to it. It’s basically about the ramifications it’s had on American society.
“One comment I always tell people is that if it wasn’t for African American music, there would be no roots, blues, gospel and jazz, and therefore, there would be no Elvis, no Rolling Stones, and none of the great classic rock bands.”
