From Brisbane to the Aisle of Man: international acoustic duo headed to Queenscliff

BRISBANE-BASED guitarist and composer Michael Fix will bring his long-time collaboration with UK vocalist Christine Collister to Queenscliff Uniting on 17 April, for a night of world-class musicianship.

Fix, widely recognised as one of Australia’s finest acoustic guitarists, began playing in the 70s, drawn in by the guitar-driven Top 40 hits of the era.

“Just about every song on the radio featured guitar, whether it was acoustic guitar or electric guitar – it didn’t really matter to me, I just loved the sound of it,” he said.

A move from Wollongong to Sydney led to a pivotal meeting with legendary guitarist Tommy Emmanuel, who introduced him to advanced fingerstyle playing.

Fix describes it as a method of “playing the guitar almost the way a piano player can play, where you’ve got bass going, you’ve got rhythm going and you’ve got melody all happening at the same time”.

While Fix toured alongside other artists, in the background he was working on his solo repertoire, which blossomed into an international solo career.

At a music camp in 2015 he met revered vocalist Christine Collister, and a one-off concert for the students evolved into a lasting performance partnership.

Their working life now stretches between Brisbane and the Isle of Man, where Collister is based.

“She’ll have a visa for three months, so before a tour we’ll always build in a couple of days to freshen the repertoire up and do some rehearsal,” Fix said.

“But we’re in touch on email and we send each other files and swap ideas.

“She’ll record her voice and I’ll have a guitar part that I’ll send over to her and we can play around with it that way.”

On stage, audiences can expect a carefully curated set of songs the pair genuinely love.

“We love finding those unexpected gems, like songs that you wouldn’t expect to hear with just the voice and an acoustic guitar… strip away all that stuff and you find a gem of a song underneath,” Fix said.

He said this kind of no-frills live performance matters more than ever.

“If you go to a concert, especially an intimate concert with acoustic instruments, it’s totally real… live music is like one of the few things that you can trust,” Fix said.

He said he values the “stories that go around the songs”, the things no recording can reproduce.

[It’s] the banter and the play and the jokes and all that kind of stuff that makes up a live performance,” Fix said.

Fix is looking forward to his first visit to Queenscliff.

“It’s always exciting to play somewhere new and I’m told that the acoustics in the church are really lovely,” he said.

Michael Fix and Christine Collister will perform at Queenscliff Uniting on 17 April at 7pm.

Tickets are available through Trybooking.