Author: James

Via ThePitchKC.com

Alongside Russell Hitchock, as one half of long-running rock duo Air Supply, Graham Russell is responsible for some of the most recognizably-beautiful songs in the pantheon of popular music. Air Supply’s string of eight top five hits from 1979 to 1983–“Lost in Love,” “All Out of Love,” “Every Woman in the World,” “The One That You Love,” “Here I Am,” “Sweet Dreams,” “Even the Nights Are Better,” and “Making Love Out of Nothing at All”–are still radio staples over 40 years later, and continue to find their way into film and TV placements to this day.

Thanks to tuneful musicianship and gorgeous harmonies, Air Supply’s songs hook their way into you head and remain there for life. Whether you’re a metalhead or jazz aficionado, you can definitely hum the hook to at least one song from their catalog without breaking the slightest mental sweat.

The duo comes to the Lied Center in Lawrence on Wednesday, October 4 [details here] and we took the opportunity to speak with Air Supply’s Graham Russell by phone ahead of their stop.

The Pitch: You and Russell Hitchcock met as performers in Jesus Christ Superstar and then started writing your own songs. What it’s like to go from singing someone else’s songs to writing your own songs to then getting so big that other people want you to perform their songs?

Well, it’s kind of it’s like a full circle thing. I mean, being in Superstar was my first real professional occupation. I always wanted to be in show business and I’ve been writing songs since I was 13 years old, but I really had no direction or no idea what I was doing. When I went into Superstar, it was such a great opportunity. It was great for me on a personal level because I got to sing some of the greatest music ever. I think we did over like 500 shows. Playing so many shows, you really get inside the music and I kind of got a grip of how he did everything and what he was thinking, in my own way.

I met Russell on the first day, believe it or not. It was like a switch went off that said to me, “Okay, you’ve got the whole run of this show to get something together. You’ve got a step up now because you’re in Superstar. You’ve got 8 months to really put something together with your own music,” and so I looked at it as like an opportunity because I knew the show wouldn’t last forever and I wanted to make the most of it.

Russell and I made plans to do something straight away within a few days. I’ve always wanted to play my own songs. I’d been in different bands when I was a teenager in England and I never fitted. It just wasn’t right for me. I didn’t like doing cover songs all the time, which most bands then were doing to earn a living and just to play, but it was never right for me.

I always felt, “I can’t join somebody else’s band. I’ve got to start my own. That’s the only way I’m going to have a shot at having any success,” and when I met Russell, that really stood out to me. I’d think, “Yeah, this is it. We can do this,” and that’s what we tried to do from the very beginning.

It’s so appropriate you started out in this big rock musical because then later on, performing songs that were written by Jim Steinman just seems to fit hand-in-glove.

Oh, absolutely. Well, the thing was, we had so much success. Even when we came out of Superstar, we have the number one album and single in Australia and nobody knew who we were. We were still in the show. Suddenly, there’s this group all over the radio in Australia and nobody knew who they were. But it was us. We left Superstar Saturday. On Monday, we started our own touring and so we had a big leg up with that.

After we had success in the US–which really is worldwide. If you have a success in North America, then everybody was coming to us and Jim Steinman was one of those. He says, “Oh, do you want to record this song?”

The thing is this: even though I’m a very successful songwriter, I think it’s great for Russell to sing other songs too. He doesn’t just want to sing my songs. I mean, he would, but I think he should have a broad spectrum and sing other great songs. We recorded “The Power of Love.” We were actually the first to record that song.

Then Jim came with “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” and it was just perfect for us. It was perfect for Russell to sing, for him to let people know he’s not just the singer in a band. He’s one of the greatest singers of our generation. I think it was very important for him to sing those songs instead of just singing my songs all the time, which he’s done for almost 50 years.

After coming out of Superstar, you opened for Rod Stewart. When you’re performing with with Rod Stewart, does that teach you something about stagecraft in a different manner?

Yes, it is stagecraft. You’re absolutely right. That’s what I was looking for. But at the same time, we learned so many other things that you can only learn through experience and you can’t read it in a book or anything.

We learned about respect, being on time–but respect for everyone, like the drum techs. We got to know Rod quite well and his band, and they were just incredible. They were all top notch musicians, you know. Carmine Appice was on drums, he’s super famous, and we became really good friends, and they were teaching us without realizing it, and they were saying, “Now you do this, and you do that,” and so in the end, we learned so much, it was kind of this massive crriculum that we discovered, so we felt that something was going on.

Why were we suddenly thrown to the wolves like this to learn everything? And then, of course, in 1980, we realized, “Oh, wow, here it is. It’s happening now.” We were ready for it, but there’s so much that we had to learn, that we needed to learn, because we were really young.

Well, we weren’t that young. We were 25 and 26, which actually is late to come into any success. But we were very grounded and we thought, “Okay, this opportunity presented itself in 1980 when ‘Lost in Love’ came along and took the world by storm,” but we didn’t want to be, first of all, a one-hit wonder. We wanted a career and and that’s what we got, but we worked for it.

We have the songs and we have Russell’s incredible voice. I’d only had four years experience at that point, but we didn’t waste anything. We realized that we needed to work if we’re going to have a career for a long time, which, of course, we have had so far, you know?

What’s sort of fascinating about bands that have had long careers is the way that your songs start to become shorthand for certain things. You’ve had your songs featured in hundreds of films and TV shows. What is it like for you to have these songs that you wrote used to soundtrack someone else’s vision?

It’s really cool. It’s a great feeling, for several reasons. Take “All Out of Love,” for instance, which has been in dozens of movies. Every time people pick it to be in a movie, our manager will call us and say, “Oh, ‘All Out of Love’ is going in there,” and I go, “Wow, that’s amazing.”

The song’s 40 years old but it spans generations because of its simplicity and its message, I think. It’s a great feeling. It really is because Russ and I think, “God, you know, we recorded this in 1978, and here it is, and it’s in another movie, and the movie’s the number one movie in the world”

It’s really, it’s really strange, but at the same time, I think those songs, and songs like that, become the soundtrack to everybody’s lives and it keeps us as a band so relevant because people hear it. I mean, younger generations hear that song or songs like that in the movies and then they go, “Oh, who’s that?That’s Air Supply? Who are they? Oh, I’m going to find out,” and when we come to their city, they come and see us and once they see us, they want to see us again.

It’s kind of this cyclic thing, but the songs in movies and TV shows and commercials keep us relevant and they keep us in the public eye, when in fact, throughout our career, we’ve always been the opposite. We’ve always wanted the music to speak for itself. We’ve never been the opposite, on the front pages of all the magazines in people and stuff like that. We really chose to be low profile and let the music speak.

Of course, the music does speak for us now and it keeps us there. It keeps us relevant. We get so many young kids at our shows and sometimes I’ll say, “I want you to come back with your parents,” and they come back and I say, “How come you’re at our show? You’re 11 years old and you know all the words to every song,” and they go, “Wow, they just love you guys and they listen to you all the time.”

Of course, our music isn’t for everyone, but the people that do follow us, they follow us forever and they keep coming to the shows and Russell and I are perplexed. We go, “Oh my God, it’s amazing,” and we go, “Yeah, I know,” but we really don’t know any more than what I’ve just said of why it happens. You know, it’s bizarre, but it’s a beautiful thing too.

Via Good Morning America 

ABC News’ Phil Lipof sits down with legendary rock duo Air Supply about their five decades of performing and touring together.

Watch the full interview below!

Via Philstar.com

MANILA, Philippines — Air Supply, the iconic rock group that lorded over the music scene back in the 1980s, returns to the Philippines for yet another exciting live performance in December.

The night will definitely be better on December 15, 2023 when the Australian musical duo of Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock take their The Lost in Love Experience 2023 concert tour live performance to the Santa Rosa Sports Coliseum in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

Russell and Hitchcock began as Air Supply in 1975 after the two met on the first day of rehearsals for the musical Jesus Christ Superstar in Sydney, Australia.

Soon after the musical ended in October the following year, Rod Stewart invited the pair to open for him on his Australian and North American tours. This was where Air Supply’s humble musical journey began.

From there, they had a succession of hits worldwide, including eight Top 5 hits on the US Billboard Hot 100: “Lost in Love” (1979), “All Out of Love” (1980), “Every Woman in the World” (1980), “The One That You Love” (1981), “Here I Am” (1981), “Sweet Dreams” (1982), “Even the Nighta Are Better” (1982), and “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” (1983).

In July 2005, Air Supply’s live DVD “It Was Thirty Years Ago Today” celebrated 30 years of recording and touring and, in the same month, smashed the attendance record by performing in Havana, Cuba, to 175,000 fans.

They were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association’s Hall of Fame on December 1, 2013, at the Annual ARIA Awards. and a year later Evolution Music Group released Air Supply’s first high-definition concert film, “Air Supply: Live in Hong Kong,” under its Evosound label.

In 2020, Air Supply was listed at No. 48 on Rolling Stone Australia’s list of the 50 Greatest Australian Artists of All Time. Australian newspaper Herald Sun named Air Supply in the Top 5 of “Greatest Aussie Bands” of all time in the company of AC/DC, The Bee Gees, and INXS.

Air Supply’s scheduled live performance in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, in December will be their second time at the same venue and it is anticipated to sell out just like the first time in 2018.

Tickets are available starting September 25, 2023, at smtickets.com and are priced at P5,500/4,500/3,500/2,500/1,500 plus ticketing fees.

For more details and updates about the concert please check the official website and Facebook Page of Ovation Productions at https://ovationproductionsmanila.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/ovationproductions/

Via Broadwaypodcastnetwork.com

We are “All Out of Love.” We are “Making Love Out Of Nothing At All.” We think “Even The Nights Are Better.” We can go on and on, but you get the drift! We are “Lost In Love” with Air Supply and honored to have Graham Russell with us!

2023 is Air Supply’s 48th Anniversary! They have been Named One Of The Greatest Groups Of All-Time According To Rolling Stone. Air Supply performed their 5000th concert in 2020. It took place in Las Vegas. They are up to about 5300+ concerts as of today.With an energetic live band on tour these guys really ROCK in concert! proclaimed Air Supply in the Top 5 of Greatest Aussie Bands of All Time. In great company of course with the likes of AC DC, BEE GEES and INXS. This is the AIR SUPPLY LOST IN LOVE EXPERIENCE TOUR.

We had the chance to chat with Graham Russell about this journey, the fate that led to the group, life on the road, his style of songwriting, and why writing Musical Theater has given him joy! It is a special chat with someone we all grew up singing along with!

For Tour Dates and info: www.AIRSUPPLYMUSIC.com

Listen to the full podcast HERE! 

 Via Good Morning America

ABC News’ Phil Lipof sits down with legendary rock duo Air Supply about their five decades of performing and touring together.

Via Consequence.net 

WATCH VIDEO HERE!

The Australian duo Air Supply has been melting hearts and serenading souls since 1975. Just a few years into their career, the band had found themselves in the midst of an incredible run of acclaimed, chart-topping hits. Between 1980’s Lost in Love and 1983’s Greatest Hits collection, the group had a remarkable eight singles break the top five on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Their second such smash, “All Out of Love,” hit No 2, and in particular stands as one of the band’s most enduring, love-sick ballads. On this episode of The Story Behind the Song, Air Supply guitarist Graham Russell connects with host Peter Csathy to tell us all about the rock classic.

Russell explains how he met lead vocalist Russell Hitchcock via Jesus Christ Superstar, chronicles the band’s rise to stardom, and reflects on their pop culture. He also reveals Clive Davis’ role in making the song an international success: “He said, ‘You’ve got to change some of the lyrics you had in the Australian version,’” recalls Russell. “I also knew at that point, if Clive suggested two lines, they were the lines that he wanted. So, I agreed… I changed it, and the rest became history.”

Listen to the full conversation with Graham Russell about the story behind Air Supply’s “All Out of Love” and more in this episode, and watch some of the interview highlights below. Then make sure to like, review, and subscribe to TSBTS wherever you get podcasts for updates on all our new episodes.

Air Supply are in the midst of celebrating their 45th anniversary on “The Lost in Love Experience” tour; get tickets to their upcoming dates here.

Via WFMU.org

Bob Barth reviews Air Supply’s Hollywood Bowl performance on his radio show “Bob Barth’s One Night Stand.”

Listen to the full review here:

Archive Player

Via WeLiveEntertainment.com 

It was another glorious ‘80s night at the Hollywood Bowl this past weekend, but instead of the upbeat pop we’ve gotten recently with Boy George and the Village People, things went a bit mellow. But not too mellow.

The musical duo Air Supply, comprised of Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock, are widely recognized for their powerful ballads and impressive key changes. However, it was surprising to discover that they also have a knack for rocking out, much more than I had previously remembered. During their performance at the Bowl, Hitchcock’s pristine vocals mesmerized the audience while Russell and the rest of the band delivered outstanding guitar and drum solos in between singing some of their most popular hits, including “Every Woman in the World,” “Here I Am,” and “Making Love Out of Nothing At All.”

While Hitchcock did his best Elton John impression, prancing around in a glittery coat (and later in a sleeveless tee showing off his many tattoos), he worked the crowd throughout the evening, getting them to clap and sing along.

His vocals were the star, sometimes so clear and flawless I wondered if he was lip-syncing. At 74 years old, the guy can still belt their hits the same as he did 40-50 years ago, and that’s more than impressive.

Likewise, bandmate Russell not only shredded throughout the night but at one point did a stupendous percussive bit on his guitar that has to be seen to be believed.

I had planned to attend a relaxing concert featuring some of my favorite childhood songs, but I was pleasantly surprised to find myself at a full-blown rock concert that exceeded all my expectations. The performers were truly talented, and if you have the opportunity to see them live, I highly recommend it.

The band closed the evening with their classic “All Out of Love,” which had the audience on their feet and singing along. Truly a special night.

First to hit the stage was the renowned Michael Bolton. He effortlessly performed ten of his most popular songs, including some of his famous covers like “When a Man Loves a Woman” and “(Sitting On) The Dock of the Bay.”

One of his backup singers, Chrissi Poland, joined him for a few of his other hits, including the David Foster penned “The Prayer” and “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You.”

Bolton’s presentation was somewhat stoic, but his dry wit between songs kept the audience amused.

The singer wrapped up the night with a lively rendition of “Steel Bars,” a song that had slipped my mind. The audience was thrilled, particularly the female attendees who were still just as smitten with him as they were when he had long hair like theirs. This performance left everyone in high spirits as they headed into intermission.

Via MusicConnection.com

Forty-eight years after meeting as chorus members in an Australian production of Jesus Christ Superstar, and nearly 44 (!) since their debut Top 5 U.S. single “Lost In Love” catapulted them to global stardom, Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock – collectively soaring throughout millions of hearts everywhere as hit romantic pop duo Air Supply – achieved a career first Labor Day weekend headlining the Hollywood Bowl. Significantly, the duo announced that they were dedicating their show to The Beatles, who took the same stage on consecutive Augusts in 1964-65. As teenagers, long before they met, the British born Russell and Australian born Hitchcock were inspired to become musicians by seeing the Fab Four play during the height of Beatlemania.

While they mentioned all this at the beginning of the show – after they blessed the roaring crowd by riding the skies in their “Sweet Dreams,” the only literal musical nod to their heroes was having “All You Need is Love” pour forth as they and their powerhouse four piece backing band took their final bows, While it might have been nice to hear them bring their Air Supply magic to a few “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” or the chorus of “Hey Jude,” Russell and Hitchcock were focused on sharing their own nonstop hit parade with their ever-eager audience.

At one point, Russell asked, “How many of you are seeing us for the first time?” Thousands of hands went up. While obviously not groupies who follow them around the planet – because, you know, they’re mostly middle-aged adults with busy lives and responsibilities – these folks had clearly been waiting years for their chance to partake in the ultimate love song singalong. It seemed as if EVERYONE in the crowd knew the lyrics of heartbreak and love’s initial euphoria by heart. When Hitchcock took a breather after soaring on their sole #1 smash “The One That You Love,” the crowd amiably took over in rapturous loving harmony. Ditto on one of the later choruses of Air Supply’s sweeping signature hit “All Out of Love,” an extended version of which was the dynamic closer. Thousands of swaying, flashlit phones were testament to the bright flow of nostalgia that dazzled the evening.

The underlying reason The Beatles connection is so crucial is that, for all the chart and industry designations of their enduring smashes as “adult contemporary” and “soft rock” songs, “The Russells” are true rock and rollers at heart. Those who only know their tunes from radio or their recordings are familiar with just the foundation of what these tunes can become. It’s the spirited classic and prog rock fire they bring to them that makes their show so captivating. This is where their fiery band of young musicians comes in, elevating these heartfelt pieces – already soaring to operatic heights thanks to Hitchcock’s still-amazing poperatic vocals – into epic pop/rockers.

Air Supply is one of the few legacy bands out there who give prime space on their home page to their backing (and sometimes spotlighted) cohorts – lead guitarist/music director Aaron McLain, keyboardist and vocalist Mirko Tessandori, drummer Pavel Valdman and bassist Doug Gild. This crew brought an edgier, electric funk/rock energy (sometimes with higher tempos) to instantly recognizable gems like “Even The Nights Are Better,” “Just As I Am,” “Every Woman in the World” (my personal favorite), “Here I Am (Just When I Thought I Was Over You” and “Lost in Love.”

For variety’s sake, the duo took the spotlight for a mostly stripped-down version of “Two Less Lonely People in the World” before the ensemble, led by McLain, powered in for the final chorus. Speaking of variety, Russell reveled in his two unique solo spotlights away from the hits, dramatically reciting a thought-provoking original poem titled “Am I” and later performing a fascinating solo acoustic guitar improvisation featuring intense fingerpicking and exploring the percussive possibilities of the wood. His speedy hands and fingers were a marvel to watch up close on the video screens!

For those who just don’t get it, the best way someone of a certain age can explain the enduring appeal and power of Air Supply is to share personal anecdotes of how certain songs have impacted their lives over the years. On a personal note, in those early 80s, when I was in the throes of first love (and resulting first heartbreak), their song “Here I Am” was the perfect sorrowful expression of how the swell of conflicting emotions felt. Decades and many loves and losses later, a recent triumphant karaoke duet I performed of “Every Woman in the World” in a dive bar on Sunset with a special friend felt liberating and uplifting at a time I needed to feel that most – and rekindled my passion for all things Air Supply.

Air Supply shared the bill with another romantic mega hit maker (whose greatest chart successes were in the late 80s/early 90s), two-time Grammy winning singer/songwriter Michael Bolton. While his raspy soul voice set just the right inviting, inspirational tone on everything from his reimagined R&B hits (“When A Man Loves a Woman,” “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay”) to memorable original hits like “Go The Distance” (from Disney’s Hercules), “Said I Loved You…But I Lied” and the rambunctious, gospel and rock fired “Steel Bars,” one of the main takeaways beyond the music were his many anecdotes, told with dry humor and a droll wit.

The emotional core of the show found Bolton and guest duet partner Chrissi Poland bringing their deepest passions to his best heartbreaker “How Am I Supposed To Live Without You” and a wonderfully unexpected, beautifully rendered version of “The Prayer” – complete with a shoutout to its composer, David Foster, who was in attendance. Another great surprise was when Bolton took a break and let his saxophonist Jason Peterson DeLaire let loose on his pocket funk smooth jazz jam “Check Please.” That performance would have been right at home a week earlier during the Bowl’s Smooth Summer Jazz show.

Via Nottinghampost

Next week Graham Russell will be performing in front of an 18,000-strong crowd at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. But for now he’s in Arnold, where he grew up, and to say he’s an international rock star and probably the most successful Nottinghamshire musician ever no one knows who he is.

Graham, a singer songwriter and guitarist, is one half of the group Air Supply, whose epic ballads All Out of Love and Making Love Out of Nothing At All soared up the charts in 1980s. Together with Aussie rocker Russell Hitchcock, he has enjoyed decades of success around the world, selling more than 60 million albums and performing nearly 5,400 gigs.

Air Supply ranks 36th on the Billboard Hot 100 list of all-time top duos and groups, ahead of superstars everyone knows, such as Queen, Aerosmith, U2, Blondie and Gun ‘n’ Roses.

Graham, 73, says: “In 1980 we released Lost in Love which became the fastest selling single of the year, then All Out of Love, which did the same. We were recently voted by Billboard as the 36th most successful band of all time. However, no one in the Midlands has really heard of us, it’s quite hilarious.”

The duo are still going strong in 2023 with nearly 50 upcoming concerts across the US, Canada, Philippines and Chile in the months ahead and into 2024. Graham, who lives in Utah, in the United States, has paid a flying visit to UK to visit his childhood home in Arnold for the first time in more than 60 years – the place where he first started writing.

Joined by his girlfriend Lori, we meet up at Costa Coffee in Arnold’s Front Street where he talks about growing in the modest semi, his stellar music career and the fact that he can come to the UK under the radar.

He says: “I’m very proud of coming from here. I’ve been back over the years but I’ve never been back to the house. I think I wanted some closure. It was very emotional. I was drifting back and seeing images of myself and my sisters playing in the backyard. We never had a car or a phone. We always went to Skegness for our vacation.”

It was a turbulent time after his mother died from cancer when he was just ten years old but the way he dealt with the anguish led to his eventual song writing career.

“I’ve always thought that sent me down that path. I didn’t know she was dying. When I woke up that morning my dad said ‘your mother’s gone’ – I didn’t know what that meant. I asked if she was coming back. I didn’t speak to anybody for three months. I went totally inward. The only thing that brought me out was writing things.

“I had a big paper pad on a string around my neck and would write things down. I would start to make it rhyme for fun. Then I borrowed a guitar from a friend of mine and started to play. I poured everything into that. I started to write songs without knowing.

“I’ve never been taught music by anybody. I just taught myself. Writing a song was my escape for everything. I just loved it so much. I’d write three or four songs a week.”

One of the most impactful events was as 14-year-old, seeing the Beatles at Nottingham’s Odeon Cinema at the height of Beatlemania in 1964. Graham says: “It just changed my life. I had already been writing songs and when I saw them, it was ‘oh my god’ everything fell into place for me and I became even more driven – I had a goal.”

He joined a band called the Nottingham Odd Fellows who performed covers in local pubs. Leaving Nottingham in 1968, he headed to Australia as a hopeful songwriter. In 1975, he was cast in Jesus Christ Superstar, along with Russell Hitchcock, who coincidentally had experienced the same frenzy at one of the Fab Four’s concerts at Festival Hall in Melbourne, Australia.

The two struck up an instant friendship and bonded over their mutual admiration of the Beatles. They went on to form Air Supply, opening for Rod Stewart on tour in America, selling-out concerts and performing more than 130 gigs every year around the world.

Now nearly 50 years later Air Supply they will be dedicating their Hollywood Bowl concert on September 3 to the Beatles, who performed there in 1964.

Graham says: “We are almost at 5,400 shows in our career and I don’t think a lot of bands have done that but that’s what we love to do. We are very fortunate because our fans are hardcore. Fortunately we sell out every show we do. We’ve made 25 albums so we’ve kind of done really well, we are doing ok.”

He looks every inch the rock star with blond hair, a healthy tan and an English Ghetto Rockers’ military jacket yet no one stops and stares or asks for a selfie. A group of young mums having a coffee at the next table weren’t born when he first hit the big time.

Graham puts it down to the fact that Air Supply have never played in Nottingham, or indeed toured the UK. He says: “This is the really weird thing because in our early career when we first broke in the US we concentrated so much on the US and then Japan and Asia and Latin America.

“We had some big hits here but we never came here to tour and I think that was a mistake. My ultimate goal would be to play at the Concert Hall in Nottingham. I would love to play here to show people what I’ve done.”

Fans span all ages, with the older generation bringing their children and their grandchildren to concerts. Graham says: “We have a lot of fans, I think its 22 million. Our fans are legion. Some of them have seen almost 1,000 shows.

“We do Q&A before and we say why do you keep coming to the shows? You know what we are going to do, you know all the songs a million times and they say ‘it’s not just about the songs, it’s the experience of being there. They say when you sing, when you play, you really mean it, it’s for real..

“And it is, we don’t just get up and go through the motions. We are very aware that what happened to us could have happened to thousands of bands and it really shouldn’t have happened to us. We didn’t have any experience but we were thrown to the lions very early and we’ve had so much luck on our side it’s uncanny.

“We formed the band in 1976 and that same month we played a New Year’s Eve show in Sydney on the Opera House steps for 90,000 people. There were other artists on the bill. A few weeks after that Rod Stewart was touring Australia and we had the number one single and album so we got the job of opening for him.

“After the first show in Adelaide, Rod came to our dressing room and said ‘I want you to open for me in North America next year.’ We were freaking out because he was standing there and we’d never seen a big star before.”

During his stay in Nottingham Graham has met up with one of his former secondary school teachers at Carlton le Willows (after a brief stint at Robert Mellors) and enjoyed a cruise down the River Trent with the “Zoomers” – a bunch of old school pals who meet up every Sunday online. After our interview, they’re off for a curry.

It turns out Graham has a fascinating family tree. On his mother’s side of the family, he recently discovered one of his ancestors was William Booth, who founded the Salvation Army.

And on the Russell side, he’s a lord. He explains: “My great great great grandfather was the right hand man for a lord. He had no children and he passed the title on. I was looking around at genealogy once and someone got hold of me and told me I was related to that Lord Russell from the 1770s. We went back and looked at it and I was.

“I did some research and I could claim it, so I did. It took a couple of years but I claimed it just because I thought it would be fun.”

Interview over, we’re about to part ways when a man comes over and asks if it’s Graham. It’s an old school friend, Bill Goodwin, who lives in Arnold. “You’re the third person to recognise me since I’ve been in England this time,” says Graham before the two start on a trip down memory lane.