Robert Forster

Robert Forster – Sydney Theatre, 21 May 2010

Former Go-Between Robert Forster played a special solo show as part of the Sydney Writers Festival.

Robert Forster ambles on in a typically dapper suit. He welcomes us to the evening, offering an explanatory note that there would be a lot of talking, and also, when he refers to ‘the band’ he means The Go-Betweens, for the benefit of the purely bookish types in attendance.

Forster laments the fact he only had the idea to present 15 Songs of Sydney to us tonight about a week ago, not months when the festival program was first launched as the place would be full and I’d be here for three nights. So rather than just a standard set of songs we were treated to an evening of genial narration, anecdotes and extended introductions of songs by Forster and The Go-Betweens that were inspired by (Part Company, Spring Rain), recorded in (Clouds, I’m All Right, Dive For Your Memory) or merely made mention of our fair city of Sydney (Darlinghurst Nights).
Darlinghurst’s famed back-street cafe coffee was said to be responsible for Ed Kuepper writing all his Laughing Clown’s work – “that’s why the songs were so long”. The suburb and it’s colourful cast of characters; and it’s nights also gave Forster a song.

Sydney, Forster recounted, was also the destination for a naive road trip for he and fellow Go-Between McLennan so they could check on the progress of the pressing of the band’s first single. A trip greatly enhanced by the purchase of a Playboy magazine – for the articles of course, namely a Bob Dylan interview – and finding the elusive fourth Monkees album.

The story really provided a biographical snapshot of the two Brisbane boys who’s first tentative foray into the recorded world was an unworldly ode to the ravishing red-headed actress ‘Lee Remmick’. The brace of songs from 16 Lovers Lane album, recorded in Sydney a decade later showed how far Forster and the band developed from this humble beginning.

The 15 songs, and encore, traced through ‘the band’ and Forster’s solo work, each with revealing narration, making for an illuminating evening giving a rare insight into both the ‘Streets of Your Town’ and one of our countries more highly regarded song writers.