Lynne Mowbray

He’s been in the music business for over 50 years, and he’s still got what it takes to rock the socks off his fans.

Concert goers took to the dance floor at the Yamba Bowlo on Saturday night to experience Kevin Borich in fine form, along with drummer Jon Carson and Chris Gilbert on bass.

The Independent sat down with Kevin just prior to his performance:

Kevin said that he was about 12 years old when he picked up a guitar and learnt to play three chords on it.

“I tried to get lessons on it, but I didn’t like it when they started trying to teach me scales – I just wanted to learn songs,” said Kevin.

“I learnt a song by Hank Williams called ‘Honky Tonkin’, it’s only got two chords in it, so I killed it, it was great! So that was like a kick start.

“I was only 12, so there wasn’t much on the radio back then really, but I saw ‘Rock around the Clock’ and movies like that, and I wanted a piece of that energy.

“I also liked movies like the Marx Brothers, because it was all frivolity and madness and all of a sudden Harpo would come across the harp and he’d start playing and it was angelic and it was serious and beautiful, and then it went back into craziness. So that was a lesson in what music can do. It was fantastic,” he said.

Kevin said that his music has always been a constant in his life.

“That is, except during a recession in the 90s, that sort of squeezed us and we had the ‘plan-demic’ a couple of years ago and while that was going on, I actually did a great album called ‘Duets’, with a lot of artists like Ian Moss, Leo Sayer, Russell Morris and Joe Camilleri etc. So, it turned out fantastic and went up the charts on community radio. It’s hard to get into commercial radio charts – it’s just impossible. Even people like Ian Moss are complaining.

If it wasn’t for community radio we’d be stuffed, and we wouldn’t get the music out,” he said.

Kevin said that this was his first trip back to Yamba since the 1970s.

“When we played in the bowlo back then, it was in a little brick building,” he said.

“We also played at the Pacific Hotel back in the sixties and seventies and did the Golf Club once,” he said.

Looking forward, Kevin said that he is going to try and get his producer on board to work on some songs that were kicking around at the same time they were recording ‘Duets’, so he’s going to try and get that happening.

“One song’s almost done, so we might release that one in the new year,” he said.

“And I’m writing a book at the moment – it’s nearly finished and should be available also in the New Year.

“I just want to thank everybody who has been part of my life, by supporting me, by coming to my shows.

“We’re loving what we do, and we’ve been doing it for 50 something years now, so, I must be doing something right,” he said.

“If you love doing what you’re doing, and you are doing it, it’s a great thing in life” – Kevin Borich