LIAM DURKIN
HORSERACING
By LIAM DURKIN EVEN Shannon Noll said Moe was “God’s country”. The Australian music legend played to an adoring crowd at Moe Racing Club on Friday, taking to the stage after the last race. Noll finally came to the area, two years after he was first booked to play. While the original date had to be rescheduled for obvious reasons, the quality of the show and reception he received on Friday indicated it had been worth the wait. The Australian Idol cult hero played all his hits, including ‘Lift’, ‘Shine’ and ‘Drive’. He also belted out a number of covers, with ‘Run To Paradise’ by The Choirboys and, of course, ‘Horses’ by Daryl Braithwaite seeing plenty of hands in the air, and even some people on each others shoulders. The concert was set up on the lawn area closest to the main carpark, with food vans surrounding the area. Thanks to Moe Racing Club chief executive, Shane Berry, The Express was able to have a word to Noll backstage before the show. As Noll explained, he flew down from Ballina on the New South Wales coast, to Sydney, to Melbourne before arriving in little old Moe. “We came down a day early, I watched on the news there was going to be some plane strikes early in the week, so I panicked and thought the last thing we need is trying to get our flights on Friday and then not be able to make it, so we came down last night (Thursday),” Noll said. “I’m really stoked about getting down here to do a gig, for sure. “We’ve played at Traralgon before, done a lot of touring here, down this way years ago, long time ago, back in the day. I toured a lot around this area.” Like most musicians, Noll has been busy in the last 12 months, with the Moe performance one of many rescheduled during the last couple of years. “Just had a heap of shows on, we’ve been doing a fair bit,” he said. “I did The Masked Singer at the start of the year, which was really good, then we just had a few shows, a lot of them have been catch-up shows from two years ago, catch-up shows from 18 months ago, mixed with a few that have been freshly booked. “It’s been a bit all over the shop, but we’re finding our feet now and hopefully we can plan decently for the future.” His new single ‘Believe It’ is coming out early next year. While you often wonder when talking to people of some notoriety if they really want to be interviewed, speaking to Noll, who started every answer with “yeah mate”, you did get the impression he was a genuinely good guy willing to give you the time of day. Some eager fans got to the concert well before starting time to get a spot right in front of the stage, before Noll came on for a near two-hour set. Not that this writer knows anything about singing, but Noll sounded just as he does on record. By the time the concert was in full swing, congregators had gathered from all walks of life. Racing club members mixed with those who had been in the Pub Marquee all day. If the races were the Boxing Day Test, the committee room would have been the MCC, and the marquee Bay 13. The Shannon Noll concert was like The Royal – the place everyone goes after the day’s play. Speaking of cricket, there was perhaps only one disappointment: Nollsy didn’t play ‘C’mon Aussie C’mon’. “That was a bit of fun (covering the original late 70s jingle used to promote World Series Cricket),” he said laughing. “That’s such an iconic cricket song. “Mark and Steve Waugh are my second cousins, we’ve had a lot to do with cricket over the years, we all played up in the bush, we are cricket tragics as much as they come.” Back on stage, you can probably guess what song he ended with. You just might not guess exactly how it ended. “What about … Mo-eeeee”.
all photographs liam durkin unless stated
