Cronulla Leagues Club "Concert for Kurt" Friday 14th October 2016
When your team wins the NRL after 50 years – you just gotta play and so it turned out. Dave Faulkner has been a longtime supporter of the Sharks and kindly donated his time alongside Rick Grossman, Brad Shepherd and Mark Kingsmill as the Hoodoo Gurus took to the stage for their only show this year.
A special charity event to raise money for Kurt Drysdale who was injured sometime ago playing junior sport, this was to be the last show inside the auditorium of the Cronulla Leagues Club as it is now undergoing major renovations. Bryce Cohen commenced the night’s entertainment with an engaging blues set that clearly had Stevie Ray Vaughan influences.
He was followed by Jon Stevens who drew on his extensive catalogue of solo work, Noiseworks and INXS tunes as well as some superb improvisation, as several exuberant ladies managed to find themselves on stage. Rather than usher them immediately off stage Jon stated “everyone who is on stage has to sing” and so encouraged ‘Gloria’ to sing her namesake song which went down a treat with the crowd.
Paul Gallen was also introduced on stage and an impromptu sing along to 'We are the champions' with Jon Stevens as a duet nearly caved the roof in with the crowd singing along at fever pitch.
Aside from this as an obvious highlight, I was suitably impressed with the raw strength that Jon Steven’s voice still has and the vocals on 'Take me back' and ‘Disappear' were delivered superbly by a man still in fine form.
The Hoodoo Gurus played for about an hour and included songs from across their list of extensive albums right up to Purity of Essence.
Another visit on stage from Paul Gallen – this time with the NRL trophy in tow, went down a treat with the Cronulla faithful and this was a truly great night to celebrate as well as providing much needed funds for Kurt’s on going medical attention.
For those that paid $90 for a ticket to this show, well done!
A lot of money was raised.
Adrian Alders
