Music Lessons #1

I went to see Colin Hay perform a show at Hamer Hall in Melbourne last night.

For anyone unfamiliar with Colin Hay, you’ve almost certainly heard the song he (and his old band Men at Work) are most well known for - Down Under - used as the theme song for Australia II back in 1983 when it became the first non-US winner of the America’s Cup in it’s 132 year history.

Back in those early and mid 80’s, Men at Work were one of the biggest bands in the world.

Last night Hay told the audience the story of how they played to an audience overseas of 150,000 (I’m guessing this was in South America) and then came back to Australia and disbanded. Hay then launched his solo career and told us he started out playing to audiences of eight. He then expressed how happy and content he was playing to the two-or-three thousand seated there in Hamer Hall last night.

He fills his shows with lots of little stories and anecdotes, but what struck me the most was the sheer quality of the songwriting and musicianship.

Regardless of the size of the audience, or the standard of venue, Hay delivers quality and believability. To me these are the two most essential ingredients for a performer if they want to have a career (as opposed to the 15 minutes of fame a game-show music competition might provide).

It’s a good takeaway for work and business too - to always be striving to deliver our best quality work regardless of the audience. Quality and believability always seems to win out in the long term.