Did you fall in love to this band's '80s songs? They're playing on the South Shore
We’re a little past their 45th anniversary, and they are, in fact, looking ahead eagerly to their 50th anniversary in 2025, but Air Supply continues to be one of popular music’s most consistently busy and acclaimed groups.
The band formed in Australia around Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell is in the midst of its fall tour, with a handful of New England dates coming up. On Nov. 9, Air Supply headlines Memorial Hall in Plymouth, and then the next night they perform at the Chevalier Theater in Medford. The group swings back around Nov. 17 for a show at Bally's Twin River Casino in Lincoln, Rhode Island, and then plays the Chubb Theater in Concord, New Hampshire, on Nov. 19.
(The Plymouth show begins at 8 p.m., and tickets are scaled from $59-$129, available through Etix.com, or by checking spectaclelive.com)
A chance encounter
Air Supply began when Hitchcock and Russell were both in the chorus of the Australian touring company of Jesus Christ Superstar, in 1975. The two became fast friends over their shared love of pop music like The Beatles and The Bee Gees, and soon began playing in local clubs and coffeehouses, after their nightly performances in the musical. By 1979, Air Supply had their first hit with “Lost in Love,” and before long Columbia Records mogul Clive Davis had signed them and brought them to the United States. A dazzling array of hits followed, “All Out of Love” and “Every Woman in the World” in 1980; “The One That You Love” (which hit No. 1) and “Here I Am” in 1981; “Sweet Dreams” and "Even the Nights Are Better” in 1982; and “Making Love Out of Nothing At All” in 1983.
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Air Supply’s musicians in the backing band have changed over the years, but Hitchcock and Russell are still the principals, and still packing them in all over the world. Better yet, reviews all marvel at how pure and incredibly evocative Hitchcock’s tenor vocals still are. One amusing sidelight to recent reviews is the use of the term “soft rock” to describe the music – the current band rocks pretty hard seems to be the common conclusion.
More than just soft rock
“Hahaha! We’ve been a rock ‘n’ roll band for a long time,” Hitchcock said by phone from his California home, when asked about that issue. “Our hits were so many years ago, and those records were kind of lush and mellow. But that is one of the best surprises when people come out to see us – we have a super band, and they certainly do rock.”
The way the duo met, and the manner in which they honed their first songs in pubs and coffeehouses, would make one think they could’ve been a folk group. Was there an effort, or even a struggle to shift their sound more towards pop?
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“It was very hard for us to break through in the beginning,” said Hitchcock. “We could only play in what was available to us, which was pubs that let us set up in the corner. The climate in Australia back then was all AC/DC and Midnight Oil – hard rock. There was a lot of resistance to us getting booked, and some nights when we were, we were not so well received. I remember one night in Sydney, we’d been booked on a punk rock night, where they showed a film, then us, then the punk headliners. It was lucky the stage was seven or eight feet up, because we were getting stuff thrown at us during our set. It was pretty difficult before we hit it big, and more venues opened up to us. By the time we left Australia, we were playing on the steps of Sydney city hall before 90,000 people.”
Musicians with an eclectic background
Ironically, the strict categorization of musical tastes did not extend to the musicians themselves.
“I can recall a time in the late 1970s, having a long conversation with (original AC/DC singer) Bon Scott,” Hitchcock added. “And we were agreeing that in Australia at that time, everybody was just glad to be able to play and get paid for it. There was always tremendous camaraderie among the musicians. We have had an amazing career, despite those early ups and downs, and we play 130 dates a year now, and the crowds are better than ever. We have nothing to complain about.”
Russell writes and arranges all of Air Supply’s music, and it seemed natural to ask if Hitchcock, who sings all the leads, ever suggested changing a word or a phrase here or there? That’s even if Russell’s lyrics are deceptively simple, yet universally strike an emotional chord with audiences.
Songs written for Hitchcock's voice
“I don’t ask for changes, even minor ones,” Hitchcock replied. “The best thing is that Russell writes with my voice in mind, what I can sing. From the beginning, we shared a love of The Beatles, Queen, and the Bee Gees, all bands where melody and lyrics really count. I love singing the music Russell writes. It is not musically complicated, but he definitely and deliberately writes what he feels and thinks. I like singing them, especially when we play a venue where a lot of people haven’t ever seen us before, and I can look at see their faces as they react, see their expressions when they hear ‘Here I Am’ or ‘Making Love Out Of Nothing At All’ for the first time live.”
“There are a couple songs we’ve had to retire over the years, because we just got sick of them,” Hitchcock noted. “But you have to remember, we’re not doing this for us. Sooner or later, someone comes around and requests that song you’ve dropped. And people pay a lot of money to go to these venues to see us, so we realize we should play what they want to hear.”
New music in the works
Air Supply has sold millions of records, and their greatest hits compilations still sell briskly, but is there any new material coming down the pipeline, and might fans hear some of it on this tour?
“We are actually in the process of recording our first new album in 14 years,” said Hitchcock. “We are hoping it will be out by next spring, consisting of all-new original songs, and we’ve been playing a couple of them in concert already, where they’ve gotten great response. When we started out, radio play and record sales were really linked, and you needed a machine to support you, like Clive Davis had brought to us when we signed. Now it is all different, and we do it all in-house, and do whatever we have to do. But the bottom line is that we still love performing, and our fans are still coming out, so we work all the time.”
Billy Idol hitting the big screen
Millions of music fans have made the Taylor Swift concert film a hit, but Nov. 15 marks the theatrical release of another singular concert movie.
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“Billy Idol: State Line” is a flick based on the rock star’s concert at the Hoover Dam in Nevada, preceded by a short segment explaining the history of the venerable structure. Idol and his band – which includes Alison Mosshart from The Kills, Tony Kanal from No Doubt, and old pal Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols – played a full concert at sunset in the shadow of the dam, which makes for some incredible scenes.
Idol is also celebrating the 40th anniversary of his iconic “Rebel Yell” album, and is just off a European tour called Generation Sex, where Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols, and Tony James of Generation X formed a sort of punk-rock supergroup. But the Hoover Dam concert is also the latest episode in one of Idol’s offstage concerns, water conservation in the West. Idol first got the idea for this concert when he became alarmed at the incredibly low water levels in the Colorado River, and in addition to the film, he’s done public service announcements for the Department of the Interior urging water conservation.
Idol is still one of the most kinetic performers in rock, and this film should really raise the roof.
You can watch the trailer on YouTube.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Air Supply to bring 'Sweet Dreams' to Plymouth Memorial Hall show
