Heaven must be there

I really wasn’t feeling like driving two hours to Newcastle on Sunday to see the Eurogliders perform. But I am so glad I did.

I didn’t cry during the concert, but I had a bulk fun time. Live music is the best, chuck out all the rest.

DD was supposed to come with me, but between booking the tickets and the concert itself he was asked to go to a conference in Chicago.

I wouldn’t have minded the four hours travel time so much if he’d been beside me in the car.

One of the reasons we agreed to go to the concert was that we hadn’t seen our friends Darren and Kirsten for ages. When they suggested the show we thought it would be a great chance to catch up. Little did we realise we’d run into them on a comedy cruise the weekend before!

The Eurogliders were playing a lunchtime gig, so I rescheduled my usual Sunday walk to 7.45am, then hooned up the freeway to visit my mum and dad briefly before the show.

The band were playing at Lizotte’s, which is owned by Diesel’s brother and is set in the old King’s Theatre in Lambton, a gorgeous art deco building. It’s a bit like a supper club, with a dining area on the ground level. I settled into a table with my friends and we had a lovely lunch together before the gig.

It felt slightly weird to be sitting in the dark at 1pm waiting for a band to come on but, hey, I’m getting on, so I reckon it beats the hell out of watching encores at 11pm at night.

Do you remember the Eurogliders? They formed in 1980 in Perth, Western Australia, with Grace Knight on vocals and Bernie Lynch on guitar and vocals.

In 1984, the band released an Australian top 10 album called This Island, which featured their No. 2 hit single, “Heaven (Must Be There)”. “Heaven” even went to No. 21 on the United States Billboard charts.

Grace and Bernie started out as band mates, eventually started dating and were together for six years and got married in 1985. The marriage only lasted 11 months and three weeks, but they seemed very fond of each other all these years later – they even drove up from Sydney together for the gig.

In between each song they would tell a story. One was about Bernie being in the dog house for having an affair with their tour manager Pamela.

Grace explained that she found out about the affair when he went out for an “important meeting” and came back with a big, white chalky stripe down the back of his t-shirt and grass in his hair.

She looked out the window and saw the lines of a football field and realised what he’d been up to …

Shagging Pamela.

As punishment Grace made him wear a fat suit with muesli stuck on his face for the film clip for the song “Absolutely sure”, while she dressed as an angel.

Bernie was standing right beside her as she told the salacious story and they seemed to be such good mates after all these years that it was impossible to hate him for it.

Before they sang a song called “Judy” they explained it was about their groupie from the 1980s. Grace told the audience that when she noted during a previous performance that we don’t call people groupies any more, we call them …

Someone yelled out “pensioners!”

Harsh, but I suppose at 67 Grace is technically a pensioner, so Judy must be too!

It was also amazing to hear that the bass guitarist had only been asked the night before to step in when the regular bloke got sick. He learned all 15 songs overnight!

Legend.

It was a joyous performance by the Eurogliders that included two versions of their hit song Heaven, one regular, then one acapella with the whole band and audience raising the roof together.