Twelve years in the making, Australian super group Tex, Don & Charlie return to the airwaves with their new album ‘You Don’t Know Lonely’ and a massive national tour stopping in at The Tanks Arts Centre on Friday 15th September.
The outfit made up of Tex Perkins, Don Walker and Charlie Owen will perform at The Tanks for intimate night of storytelling, playing a bunch of new and rare special tracks as well as numbers from their acclaimed 1993 debut ‘Sad But True’ and 2005 follow up ‘All Is Forgiven’.
Speaking recently to Don Walker, he was excited about performing again with both Tex and Charlie and was full of praise for Cairn’s premier live music venue.
“It’s a great venue. It shouldn’t work; you know when you think about it, music inside a water tank. But it definitely does. The way it has been set up, its sounds great. Its really a terrific venue.” said Don Walker.
Back together after a 12 year gap between releases, the band’s latest offering ‘You Don’t Know Lonely’ has put the outfit back in the national spotlight with help from their first single ‘A Man In Conflict With Nature’.
“We first got together this time around at Charlie’s house in February last year in St Kilda. Trying out a few songs. It sounded great from the start which is the way it’s always been with us. Then it got real intense because we are all such perfectionists. We would workshop the song, cut them back, shave and repolish them up at Tex’s house over a few days. Then about 6 months later we made the record”.
With the trios first performance in 1992 originally thought to be a one off, Tex, Don & Charlie would go on to record ‘Sad But True’ the following year , highly regarded as one of the greatest Australian albums of all time.
“All it was going to be at the beginning was a one off performance for Triple J. At the time there was a trend for Unplugged, acoustic performances that were happening overseas. Triple J jumped on the trend and we jumped on the bandwagon. Tex and I we’re an unlikely combination, where Charlie had performed with both us. We mucked around with a few songs and the music worked, so we thought let’s make a record.”
“When I first met Tex he was only really known in the cities of Melbourne and Sydney, but then all of a sudden The Cruel Sea had a massive hit and Tex became very well known. So when we were making the first record, Tex’s record company was an unwanted distraction. But Tex being Tex, has always done what he wanted to do”.
“It was recorded in 2 days and night. We had so much fun in the studio, everything worked so well. I walked out of the studio on air. I drove back to Sydney from Melbourne with a cassette of it, and I knew we had done something remarkable, and unlike anything I’d ever done.”
With all members of the outfit caring such high profiles and busy schedules, the band’s 3rd album ‘You Don’t Know Lonely’ has come nearly 24 years after their debut.
“It was never going to be a band or an on-going thing. But we’ve got together twice know, both times 12 years apart. Tex pointed out we always seems to release an album in the year of the rooster. It’s pretty much when everyone can get a break in their schedule that works for everyone.”
Tex, Don & Charlie perform at The Tanks Arts Centre on Friday 15th September. Doors open 6.30pm. Show starts 7.30pm. Tickets from Ticketlink. Support from The Ahern Brothers.
Mitch Sullivan
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