Richard Clapton: London, a Berlin commune and Girls On The Avenue | Ultimate Aussie Pub Rock Reunion

Why fans still care

RICHARD CLAPTON wrote songs about the Australian psyche when not many people were trying. “My music is about the Australian psyche and the Australian soul,” he said. Ian McFarlane calls him “one of our most important songwriters”. Goodbye Tiger is the record people keep coming back to, and in 2021, nearly five decades in, he had his highest chart album yet.

Early life

He grew up in Sydney in the 1960s, then left for London, where he spent about four and a half years. After that came a commune in Berlin, where a mentor called Volker pushed him to write. Volker gave him a Revox tape recorder and a Neumann microphone, and told him to sugar-coat his messages so radio would play them. He came home in 1972 and signed with Festival’s Infinity label.

Career chapters

1. 1972returns to Australia; signs with Festival/Infinity
2. 1973Prussian Blue
3. 1975Girls On The Avenue
4. 1977Goodbye Tiger
5. 1980Dark Spaces, self-produced
6. 1981produces INXS’s Underneath the Colours
7. 1982The Great Escape
8. 1987Glory Road
9. 1999ARIA Hall of Fame
10. 2008first State Theatre show
11. 2010Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame
12. 2014memoir, The Best Years of Our Lives
13. 2021Music Is Love (1966 to 1970), number 3
14. 202617th annual State Theatre show

The Festival years 1973 to 1977

Prussian Blue came out in November 1973. Girls On The Avenue started life as a B-side in 1975, and radio turned it into a Top 5 hit. He wrote songs for the surf film Highway One, including Capricorn Dancer. Then came Goodbye Tiger, written mostly in Denmark on an arts grant, from a snowbound house where homesickness did the rest.

Producer and rocker 1979 to 1989

He made Hearts on the Nightline while living in Los Angeles and produced Dark Spaces himself. In 1981 he produced INXS’s Underneath the Colours, which puts Michael Hutchence, Who’s Who number 15, in his story. The Great Escape, produced by Mark Opitz, featured Jimmy Barnes, Who’s Who number 14, Ian Moss, Who’s Who number 12, and Jon Farriss, and went Top 20. Farriss later produced Glory Road (1987).

The long run 2003 onwards

He counts Diamond Mine (2003) among his best. His first State Theatre show in 2008 became an annual night out for his audience. He recorded Harlequin Nights at home in 2012 with no producer, made The House Of Orange in Nashville with Mark Moffatt in 2016, and wrote a memoir. Music Is Love (1966 to 1970), his first covers album, reached number 3 in April 2021. Michael Gudinski, Who’s Who number 2, insisted on a Mushroom release for it.

Craft, sound and style

Stream of consciousness

Most of his writing is stream of consciousness, he says. Deep Water is the exception: “The lyrics in ’Deep Water’ actually happened.”

The naive painter

He has no formal training and calls himself a “naive painter” who works by intuition. “I wasn’t a particularly good musician,” he admits.

The players

Red McKelvie, who “taught me so much”, played the guitar refrain on Girls On The Avenue. Danny Spencer has been his lead guitarist for about 25 years, and Michael Hegerty has played bass with him, on and off, for 45. On Solidarity he worked with drum machines and a Roland bass sequencer.

Stories people still tell

1. Every hour on Double J.

   Festival kept rejecting Girls On The Avenue, by his account. A staffer who moved to Double J played it every hour until it broke.

2. Rose Bay.

   He says Girls On The Avenue was about three girls in a street near Rose Bay.

3. I Am An Island.

   Ian Moss flew back from LA to play on it, and Jimmy Barnes sang on it. By his account the Chisel names were left off the cover. Moss’s credit was restored on the 2024 reissue.

4. Neil Young.

   In 1985 he did a six-week tour with Neil Young, Who’s Who number 24 in Ultimate Eagles Reunion, by his own account.

5. Jackson Browne.

   By his account, Jackson Browne, Who’s Who number 1 in Ultimate Eagles Reunion, took his recordings to Elektra Asylum.

Legacy

He went into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010. He still fills the State Theatre every year, and he’s booked for Rock the Backyard 3 in Penrith on 28 November 2026. “I’ll never get sick of performing; it’s what I do best.”