The Radiators – The Gershwin Room, Esplanade Hotel – 13 July 2024
Review and photos: Craig Eriksson
Where does one begin when asked to review iconic Western Sydney rockers The Radiators (The Rads). This is one of the hardest working pub rock bands that has been rocking our world for over 40 years now, having played over 4000 gigs and they still remain strong and larger than life when it comes to their phenomenal live shows.
Formed in September 1978, The Rads made an impression in the Australian music scene right from the get go establishing themselves as one of Australia’s best pub rock bands. They appeared on Molly Meldrum’s Countdown back in the 80s singing Comin’ Home. This song has lasted the test of time and has become somewhat of an Australian anthem on the same parallel as The Angels – Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again.
With the catchy anthem: “Don’t worry, it’s alright, I’ll be comin’ home to see you tonight, Don’t worry, it’s okay, I’ll be comin’ home to see you today”
I first saw The Rads back in October 1984 at 3XY ROCKTOBER held at Olympic Park Stadium, Melbourne. That was a huge memorable day which had an incredible calibre of Australian artists: The Radiators, Skyhooks, Richard Clapton, Australian Crawl, Kids In The Kitchen, Uncanny X-Men, No Nonsense, Electric Pandas & Austen Tayshus. I still remember this concert like it was yesterday.
Here I am, a huge fan, almost 40 years later still experiencing living rock history with The Rads at a matinee show at the Gershwin Room (Gershwin), Esplanade Hotel (The Espy), St Kilda in Melbourne. A very fitting venue considering The Rads have played the Gershwin many times over their stellar career.
The Espy is one of Melbourne’s most iconic live music venues and has an incredible history and is like no other. The Hotel was built back in 1878 as a Resort Hotel to initially accommodate both residents and passing trade. Throughout the Hotels history it has hosted some form of live music dating as far back as to when it first opened. The Gershwin Room was added to the Hotel building in the 1920’s and has hosted some of the most iconic artists throughout its lifespan. When you step inside the Gershwin you instantly sense and feel the history of this bandroom.
Geoff Turner (Bass guitarist and vocals) is an original member of The Rads and a very funny and charismatic character, storyteller and talented bass player. Throughout the show, Geoff talks to the crowd between songs about all the fun and memorable times they’ve had, along with all the ups and downs of the rock and roll life. Geoff reminisced about all of the memorable times they had when in Melbourne and playing at the Gershwin and other live venues. These stories are so wonderful to hear and had the crowd in absolute stitches with his dry, witty, no bullshit sense of humour. It’s impossible not to love the man.
For those Rads fans reading this, Australian Musician recently did a wonderful interview with Geoff that is well worth watching.
Assassins were the Support for The Rads today. A wonderful band to kick start todays gig and I thought they need to receive a shout out in this article as the crowd thoroughly enjoyed them.
The Rads opened the show to a thunderous applause with Summer Holiday from their platinum selling album Feel the Heat (1980). Lead singer, Brian Nichol came out holding a white towel and was waving it about as he danced frantically around the stage completely absorbed in the song. This created an exhilarating energy in the bandroom from the beginning and had the crowd singing along to all their songs throughout the show.
Up For Grabs was the next song from their 2nd album Up For Grabs (1981) followed by One Touch from the Nasty Habits By Children (1987) album.
No Tragedy & How Does it Feel followed which are both from the Scream The Real (1983) album. These songs really ramped things up, revving the crowd who started jumping around and body slamming each other.
The Rads groupies in front of me held up their hands and formed a diamond shape as the Rads led into the next song Room Full of Diamonds from the Up for Grabs album.
One of my personal highlights of the show was the next song called Sitting In My Armchair. A song from Scream of the Real they said they haven’t played for like 30 years and is about sitting in an arm chair drinking white wine or something along those lines.
Heavier sounding song Hard Core Love from the 1991 album of the same name had the crowd fist punching, head banging and chanting along with the lads. They then led into You (1983) and Bring On The Crazy (1987).
Geoff then introduced the newest band member and lead guitarist, Martin Cilia who joined them in 2021. Martin was formerly in Mental as Anything for 6-years and Geoff made a very heart-warming tribute to the late Greedy Smith who was a great mate of the band who suddenly and unexpectedly passed away back in 2019. The Rads then played a cover of Mental as Anything’s Live It Up as a tribute to Greedy. The crowd sang along with gusto and it was a beautiful moment and very fitting tribute.
The Rads then performed Life’s A Gamble from their 1995 album In Their Element before walking off stage for a well-deserved breather, leaving drummer Mark Lucas to perform a magnificent and classy drum solo. Mark has been on the stool in The Rads since 1989. Geoff then came on stage and contributed a bass solo. That beautifully led into the next two songs Lonely and then the popular Hit and Run from Feel the Heat.
By this stage of the show, the level of admiration and respect from the crowd is blatantly obvious. True testament that The Rads are the real deal. One of Australia’s finest.
The Rads finished the show strong with a series of their biggest hits. They played the controversial, infamous Gimme Head, a truly iconic Rads song with the crowd singing along in a mischievous, fun, humorous like manner.
Nancy Can’t Dance was next and then probably their biggest song 17 (I Wish I Was). The crowd who were predominantly in their 50-60s erupted into song and laughter as they chanted ‘I wish I was 17 again’. Like me, I’m sure everyone was thinking back to when they were 17 years of age and the wild and crazy things we got up to in our youth.
The Rads finished the show with Comin’ Home, the first song that I had first heard as a teenager back in 1979. A full circle moment in my life.
The Rads then returned for an encore and belted out a cover of The Easybeats ‘Sorry’ and finished with the promiscuous Fess Song with lyrics referencing enjoyment of sex, drugs and rock n roll.
Today was a nostalgic day and I felt very honoured, privileged and thankful that I grew up in a time where I have been able to enjoy and be part of The Rads journey over the past 40-plus years. Their show today took me back to my youth and made me feel alive, young and leaving the Gershwin beaming like a Cheshire Cat.
Thank you Rads! Keep on rockin’ for another forty!
