Support act named for Jimmy Barnes concert

JIMMY Barnes’ concert in Geelong is just over a week away, and he has announced a special guest will start the show.

On Friday last week, Barnes revealed three extra dates on his Working Class Man 40th Anniversary Tour with Icehouse, Ian Moss and Kate Ceberano, and that John Rooney would be the new opening act for the tour, which will begin at Mt Duneed Estate on Saturday, November 22.

As well as being an accomplished musician, Rooney is Barnes’ surgeon and has operated on him three times.

“This man got me up dancing again when he operated on my hips, not once, not twice but three times,” Barnes said. “John Rooney will get you up dancing too.”

Coincidentally, on the night Barnes married his wife Jane, Cold Chisel were playing a gig at Blacktown’s Comb and Cutter Hotel with Rooney’s band The Lonelyhearts as the support act.

While Barnes’ career remained on stage, Rooney’s detoured into becoming one of Australia’s best orthopaedic surgeons.

As well as being what Barnes describes as his “singing super surgeon”, Rooney has released a new solo album, Hoodwink, featuring Barnes on the opening track.

The three new shows on the tour are at Sandstone Point Hotel in Sandstone Point, Centennial Vineyards in Bowral, and Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. Tickets for the Mt Duneed Estate gig are still available.

Gates will open at 2.30pm, with John Rooney to take the stage at 3.20pm, Kate Ceberano at 4.10pm, Ian Moss at 5.20pm, Icehouse at 6.40pm and Jimmy Barnes at 8.10pm.

The sometimes Cold Chisel frontman better known as Barnesy will perform his album For the Working Class Man from start to finish, taking the crowd from I’d Die To Be With You Tonight to Paradise, plus classic cuts from his chart-topping catalogue.

Released in December 1985, For The Working Class Man went straight to number one on the Australian charts and helped define Barnes’ hugely successful solo career.

The album spent seven weeks at number one, becoming Barnes’ longest-running chart-topper and has sold more than 500,000 copies in Australia.

Tickets for the new shows go on sale this Friday, November 21, with presales starting yesterday (Monday, November 15).

For more information and tickets to all shows, head to mg.live/jimmybarnes