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Kate Ceberano: It Sounds Like A Venereal Disease. · Lisa & Russell

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Kate Sobrano's back in town. She's got a show at
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the Astor Theatre tonight at the Mandra Performing Arts Centre,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: which is a beautiful venue, tomorrow night, and at Hart
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: in Margaret River on Sunday. for the Australian Made Encore
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Tour 2026. Good morning, Kate Sobrano.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Kate. Good morning. Good morning, fine people of Perth.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: When I said heart in Margaret River, I started hearing
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: you sing heart.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: She's got the heart. From still my favourite album, Kate
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Sobrano and the Septet. You know, I still put it on. Lisa.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: So often. When I'm listening to artists like Ray or
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Olivia Rodriguez, these guys, or even Levee. I think of
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: myself as a 17-year-old and I said, you just peaked
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: too soon, young lady. Because I was right cresting on
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: this wave of jazz, making jazz really available as a
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: sort of pop artist. Yeah. And look, and I'm still
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: doing that, but you only get one. Well, don't worry.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Back then. It did.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, it was such a.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: I am still playing it to today.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: It was such a pivot at the time, but it just.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: It worked your time to beautiful.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Well, it was a powerful gesture as an artist. Yeah.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Because what it said to people, it was like, I
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: don't care. I'm just playing dress ups. Let's not get
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: serious about this. Like I'll peg myself and discover new
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: ways to art. And entertain myself for as long as
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: I'm able to. And that's what I've been doing for
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  Speaker 2: 60 years.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: I would say that was my introduction to jazz, you know, really,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: in a way. Like Ray, as you mentioned, is now
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: introducing a new. So we rely on, you know, you people.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: But now this is Australian made and these songs are
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: also incredible.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Well, and it's interesting you mention it. Let's put it
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: into that phase where you're introducing music. Yes. My daughter's
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: 22 and hasn't heard half of the material, all the
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: artists anymore.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Her generation are just barely able to remember In Excess
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: or Michael Hutchence. Yeah. Oh my God. And Jimmy Barnes
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: they know only because I've been touring with them. Yeah.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: I'm talking Remain Very Fresh to this day and actually
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: remarkably still the album which just, they just did a
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: re-release of the album, the vinyl, and got it number
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: one in the charts again after 40 years.
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  Speaker 3: That's amazing.
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  Speaker 2: But I mean everyone else is sort of like, I
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  Speaker 2: mean their generation doesn't know who George Harrison was.
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  Speaker 3: No.
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  Speaker 2: Um, so I am doing, I think a very social
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: gesture by keeping my friends living and their beautiful work
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: and music. Um, I'm also doing a bit of history lesson.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: I go back into the seventies and, and I'm pulling
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: forward the music that shaped me as a young teenager. Um,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: you know, working with Shirley Strawn, I've worked in written
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: with all the artists I'm performing. Yeah. Paul Kelly, um,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: John Farnham. I mean, everyone that I'll be performing are
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: people who I classify as friends. Yep. It's a good thing.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's a service that you're doing because, you know–
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: To make them understand how big that was, that original
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: Australian made tour, which was in Perth in the.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Beginning of 87, I think.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: It was.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: It was January. 50,000 people. It was incredible.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: You're about last at the venue because that's not there anymore.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: It was hot as Hades. You guys would have been
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: too young, actually.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, no. Thanks, Kate.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: No?
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: No, Kate. We mentioned your age before. We are turning
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: the same age at this point. Are we? It was
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: the Royal Firehorses this year.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Oh, duh. Believe me, we remember Australia, mate.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes.
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  Speaker 3: Very, very well.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: This is a room of genetics. And it actually, it
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: was the shape-shifting for the way we conceive of ourselves
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: as Australians.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: And important as musicians. I loved the swagger. Chris, who
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: was the agent and the manager for NXS. Yes. He,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: let's just say, he sublimated all that concept of like superstardom.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: He took all the cringe away and just said, no,
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: we're putting us on the slab and you will not
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: tell us that an all Australian lineup can fail where
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: a lot of people said, it's not going to work, mate.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: You have to have someone else. You've got to have
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: a Led Zeppelin or you've got to have a Fleetwood
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Mac or you've got to have a, and he was saying, no,
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  Speaker 2: actually you just want Aussies.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: And they came.
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  Speaker 2: And they. Huge.
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  Speaker 3: I've got the book actually at home.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: The book and the film is fascinating. Yeah. And I
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: probably go into that and also by the kind of
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: the culture that I have on stage with me. They're
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: young kids too. Younger. Lots younger than me. But we
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: take that music and we have kind of given it
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: the context and the times and the stories. And it
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: doesn't get sort of too mellow, I've got to be honest.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: It's not like a storyteller's like, no, I fang it.
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  Speaker 2: I'm on the drums. Good. Two guitarists. I feel like
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: I'm in a chariot most of the night just riding
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: with these wild, crazy horses and I love it.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: You have described it as like the encore tour is
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: the same again but a different gear.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I.
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  Speaker 2: Use the template of my friends, but we're just performing
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: different material. Yeah. So it's the same, same, but different.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: And then the versions of course have been sort of
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: somewhat altered, but the shape of the show is the same.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: We still take it with the same kind of, I
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: want to say. Say it. Well, if you are there,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: the way you could only describe it is it's a
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  Speaker 2: bit of a banshee. Like it's not mellow for anyone
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  Speaker 2: who's coming. And I know that, um, when people come
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: up to me, they go, oh, are you still gigging
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: these days? These are people my age. And I turn
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: to them often. I go, you don't get out much anymore,
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  Speaker 2: do you? And so what I want to say to
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: all my friends and my vintage, um, it is exactly
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: what you want. You want to actually, uh, let go
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: of restraint and just really revel in your memories. And
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: I say to people, don't look at me. I'm not,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: I'm not there as a sort of like little fart
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: in a bottle for you to to sort of focus on.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: I want you to focus on your memories. And so
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: consequently in the room when I'm performing. I imagine above
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: people's heads like a thousand pictures of where they were,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: who they were kissing, the breakups, the love affairs, the
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: school uniforms, the idle days of doing nothing and wishing
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: for everything, the getting everything you wanted and wishing you
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: had less. It's like, you know, I have this whole
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: story right in above all the audience's heads and that's
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: what entertains me. It's amazing.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: The West Coast cooler with a Chico roll.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: The big air meds. Yeah. I mean, we had a
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: house in teenage life because for those idle hours of
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: dreaming up our futures.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: We weren't chasing trends or being told what to become.
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  Speaker 2: Or looking for likes. Or getting like little, you know,
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  Speaker 2: like a chipmunk, cheeks full of, you know, information we
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: don't need. Seriously.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: And because things are so fragmented these days, you know,
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  Speaker 3: there's lots of little tribes, whereas back then everyone came together. And,
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: you know, we talk about Australia May, we talk about Countdown,
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  Speaker 3: we talk about the top 40 on the radio. It
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  Speaker 3: was more of a community back then rather than being fragmented.
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  Speaker 3: So everybody shares.
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  Speaker 2: The same memories. Yes.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, obviously of their own, but it's more of
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  Speaker 3: a shared experience.
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  Speaker 2: I love nostalgia so much. It's a shared experience. And
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  Speaker 2: it's something that you can't impart to generations that are
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: happening today. They just don't understand. They're like, I don't
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  Speaker 2: get it. I just feel like I'm the only one
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: that ever lived. I'm on an island. A lot of
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: kids have this terrible feeling they're entirely alone. And like
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: you said, today actually came up that Fremantle's playing Hawthorne, right?
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: And I'm a Hawke supporter. So, of course, I'm like, whoa,
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: don't say that. But actually, where would we be without
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: that incredible energy of owning a team and being part
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: of a tribe? We don't do it so that we
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: love all the teams. No, what we do is so
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: that we have this lusty kind of game where we
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: can enjoy going, oh, And just yell at each other.
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  Speaker 2: No one gets hurt. No major consequences. You walk away.
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  Speaker 2: You've had a few beers. You're happy. You're not going
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: to kick the cat because you're angry at the dog. No.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: We're exactly what you said. We're a community when you're
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: in that moment. And I reckon music is community in
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: kind of like a sound bubble. Yeah. It should be
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: loved and it should be respected. I don't think that
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: people truly understand how valuable it is. And the only
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: way they'll know is if it were to be taken away,
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: which lets God help us, it never happens. Yeah. But
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: I can say that right now, the other day when
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: I saw in the ARIA charts, there were no Australian
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: acts in the top 10. I'm thinking, oof. This is
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  Speaker 2: not a good sign, people.
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  Speaker 3: And that's how lucky we were.
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  Speaker 2: We were.
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  Speaker 3: We had something that we could own.
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  Speaker 2: List them, shall we?
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  Speaker 3: Yep.
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  Speaker 2: Farnham.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: Models. Models.
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  Speaker 2: They're all going to be on this show. Hunters and collectors.
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  Speaker 1: You are the perfect conduit for this and our memories.
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  Speaker 2: I'm talking.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm talking.
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  Speaker 1: KateSobrano.com is where you can get tickets for tonight at
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: the ASTA, tomorrow at the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, or
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: head down to Margaret River for a show on Sunday
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: at Hart.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Lovely, as always, to see you. And so nice to
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  Speaker 2: talk to you all. I just want to say, did
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: you ever have a Melways? We had a Melways, which
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: was like a street. Ours was called the UBD.
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  Speaker 3: The UBD, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So I want people to come, considering that this concert
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: is rather like an analogue musical version of a UBD.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: It sounded like a venereal disease.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: That's why we don't have them anymore. We cleared them up.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: I want to know that we'll be going down streets
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: that you used to live. Yes. And the streets where
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: your girlfriends and boyfriends used to live. Yeah, yeah. I
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: love it.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: Kate, thank you so much.