Warumpi Band's Neil Murray has announced a one-off Melbourne show at MEMO Music Hall on Saturday October 1.
One of the founding members of the pioneering Warumpi Band and the songwriter behind ‘My Island Home’ and ‘Blackfella Whitefella’, maverick song man Neil Murray returns to Melbourne for one night only for a performance with his band at MEMO Music Hall on Saturday 1 October.
Celebrating the release of his latest and ninth solo album of original material, Murray is renowned as one of the most respected and potent Australian songwriters of modern times. Across his four-decade long career the 1995 ‘Song of the Year’ APRA winner has released a string of albums, the last being 2019’s joint releases Blood & Longing – his first solo release in five years – and Tjungu (all in one joined together), recorded with Warumpi Band co-founder Sammy Butcher. “I look forward to stepping out with a band at St Kilda’s iconic venue,” Murray said.
What you need to know
- Neil Murray with special guests Kerryn Fields and Áine Tyrrell
- MEMO Music Hall, St Kilda
- Saturday October 1
Check out Melbourne’s most comprehensive gig guide here.
Murray’s music has been covered by the likes of Mary Black, Jimmy Little, Emma Donovan, Missy Higgins, Powderfinger and Liz Stringer. Warumpi Band’s ‘My Island Home’ – along with the group’s ‘Jailanguru Pakarnu’ (‘Out From Jail’), the first commercially released pop-rock single sung in an indigenous language – earned the honour of being selected into the National Film and Television Sound Archive’s ‘Sounds Of Australia’ series, an accolade reserved for recordings “with cultural, historical and aesthetic significance and relevance, which inform or reflect life in Australia”.
Murray’s recent single ‘Keep Rolling On’, co-written with Yolngu singer Yirrmal Marika, was recorded remotely during lockdown. It features powerhouse singer Emma Donovan (whose vocals were recorded by Jim Moginie, later mixed in) and celebrates the continuance of First Nations people and their culture in Australia. It’s also an apt title for the resumption of Murray’s live tour plans, put on hold in 2020/21 due to the COVID pandemic.
Also performing on the night are special guests Kerryn Fields and Áine Tyrrell. Tickets for this special show are on sale now via trybooking.com.
