Radio Australia Today Editorial

John Farnham. The Voice makes a comeback

28 May 2009

John Farnham has made more comebacks than Rocky Balboa has had broken noses.

Farnham, of course, is best known for his 1980′s singe You’re the Voice, which came from the album Whispering Jack, one of the biggest sellers this country has seen. The song was an anthem, even if most of us didn’t have a clue what it was supposed to be about.

When the album came out Jack had just finished a stint at the helm of the Little River Band, which gave him some exposure across the U.S. I was in fact in Los Angeles for the 1984 Olympics (my first overseas working trip), and I, mere youngster that I was, found myself sitting next to Jack at a weird nightclub with the even weirder name of Nuclear Nuance. I and the rest of the team were thrilled to be sitting near such an Aussie icon (a joy that was a touch diminshed when he left us to pay the bill).

The reason we were so pleased had nothing to do with the Little River Band, but it was a much more faffy song that dated back to the 1960′s, Sadie the Cleaning Lady, recorded under the pubescent name of Johnny Farnham. Yes, it was all about being near an icon of our tender years, as crook as the song was.

John Farnham took the success of Whispering Jack and made the most of it. He went on to do world tours, record more successful albums and even sang the role of Jesus in a major Australian arena production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Earlier this year he sang with Coldplay (who claim to adore him) as a funfraiser for bushfire victims here in Australia.

Over the last ten years he has made a series of farewell tours, each promising that it would be the last, and each one being even more absolutely the last than the previous one.

Well he’s announced that he’s going back on the road again, and now admits that the farewell thing was tongue in cheek. He had no intention of calling it quits permanently. And for a man with a voice that can be rightly called The Voice, that’s just as well.

Welcome back, Jack.
– Phil