CALIFORNIA ROCK NEWS

Photography by David Khorsandi

American artist, however Australian-born Rick Springfield, British artist John Waite (The Babys/ Bad English) and Scottish/ Australian artist Colin Hay/Men At Work played the YouTube Theater in Inglewood, CA last night. This was a night full of great hits from the 80’s. Waite took the stage first. Waite was the lead vocalist for the Babys from 1975 until they broke up in 1981 then was solo followed by Bad English from 1987-1991 with Journey members Jonathan Cain and Neal Schon while the band was on hiatus, and Dean Castronovo who would join Journey in 1998, as well as Ricky Phillips before 12 years before he joined Styx. Cain and Phillips were also members of The Babys.  Waite performed Bad English’s “When I See Your Smile,” his number one hit “Missing You,”  The Babys’ “Midnight Rendezvous,” and ended with a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.” Waite had some difficulty with the sound monitors, but nevertheless gave a great performance. Due to the sound issues, Waite and his guitarist performed “Bluebird Cafe” acoustically. 

Hay & Men at Work took the stage after Waite. Men at Work formed in Australia in 1978 and took its first hiatus in 1986 then reformed from 1996-2002. Sax/Flute player Greg Ham was a member of both lineups and passed away in 2012. Hay reformed the band in 2019 with a new group consisting of guitarist San Miguel Perez, drummer Jimmy Branly, sax/flute player Scheila Gonzalez, bassist Yosmel Montejo, and backing vocalist Cecila Noel. Hay jokingly said “I never left Men at Work, but the other members did. Hay was a member of Ringo Starr’s All Starr band in 2003, 2008, and again since 2018. Men at Work is a very global group with the current members originally being from Cuba, Guatemala, Norway, and Peru. Montejo was dressed in a Joker-style outfit with purple suit and green tie. His bass had green strings as well. The Men at Work set was all Men at Work songs like “Overkill,” Who Can It Be Now,” and “Down Under,” Hay performs with the All Starr band every show. The closing song was “Be Good Johnny.” Men at Work won five Countdown Australia Music Awards between 1981 and 1983 and the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1983. Hay had a few funny stories, in one he said “When someone asks him if it’s a good idea to pursue music and song-writing” that “Down Under took him 40 minutes to write and it still makes a good living for him now so F*ck yeah!”
Springfield closed the show opening with “Affair of the Heart.”Springfield has won two King of Pop Awards and a Grammy. Springfield has released a whopping 22 albums with the latest solo album being Orchestrating My Life in 2019 and released a self-titled debut album with Red Locusts (Matt and Gregg Bissonette) last year. Springfield has had four consecutive Platinum albums and one Gold album. Springfield’s set was full of hits like “I’ve Done Everything for You,” “Don’t Talk to Strangers,” for “Human Touch,” he came in the audience, “Love Somebody,” and ended with his number one hit “Jessie’s Girl.” Springfield had the audience sing happy birthday for his 73rd birthday which was a week earlier.