Hoodoo Gurus set for final gig in Byron Bay ahead of long-awaited break

DAVE Faulkner is ready for some long service leave. After decades performing with the Hoodoo Gurus — and following an intense tour across Australia, the United States and Brazil to mark the iconic rock band’s 40th anniversary — the frontman is ready for a rest.

“We have been working so hard,” he said. “It’s just been intense for quite a while. We need a rest and people need a break from us. Maybe people will feel a bit hungry for us to come back at some point.

“There’s some things on the boil but we might not worry about leaving home for a while and try to have a bit of a normal life instead.”

But before the band behind classics like What’s My Scene?, Miss Freelove ’69 and Come Anytime takes its well-earned break, there’s one last show on the calendar: a performance at the WILDAID charity concert in Byron Bay.

Proceeds from the event — set for September 27 at The Green Room — will go to the Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital, which delivers critical veterinary care to sick, injured and orphaned native animals.

“It’s a great cause, plus there’s the fun of playing in Byron,” Faulkner said. “We haven’t been there for quite a while but in the past we have played at The Piggery (at Arts Factory Lodge), Splendour in the Grass and pubs in town. It’s a beautiful part of the world and with some of the cold weather we’ve had in Sydney lately it’s alluring.”

Despite being tour-weary, the Hoodoo Gurus won’t be phoning in their final gig.

“We’re feeling on top of our game so it’s not like we’re running out of steam,” Faulkner said. “It’s take no prisoners. We want people to have the best night of their life and think we are the best band they have seen. We have a huge career that we can draw from, so we’ll pick some and give a good cross section of what we’re about. Anyone who’s ever seen us perform knows that there’s a lot of songs that are our signatures that have become part of Australia’s culture.”

The band, which formed in Sydney in 1981, is no stranger to taking a step back. They split in the late 1990s before reuniting a few years later — a move Faulkner admits was sparked by his own midlife crisis.

“Music is a very ageist industry and I was thinking, ‘Will people lose interest in us and we’ll start to embarrass ourselves?” he said. “I thought it was better to quit while we were on top. It was a noble idea, but after doing it and sitting around writing songs that were meant for the Hoodoo Gurus I realised what a great band and outlet for creativity it was, so I got off my high horse. Some people thought it was a marketing strategy and said I did it for money, but I eventually thought who cares what people think – this is the right thing to do. That second chapter has now gone longer than our first and been a very important one.”

Tickets for WILDAID are available via Moshtix.