The one and only Air Supply is still going strong after more than 40 years. We spoke with lead singer Russell Hitchcock about his long history with singer-songwriter Graham Russell and their upcoming performance at the IP.
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A visit with Graham Russell, one of the founding members of Air Supply ahead of their concert August 27th at Niswonger Performing Arts Center. For more information visit www.NPACGreeneville.com.
via Mercury News
Air Supply knew it had to live up to its reputation on Sunday night at the Mountain Winery.
“Time magazine said we are the most romantic band in the world,” guitarist-vocalist Graham Russell said from the stage. “So, I guess tonight we have something to prove.”
And Russell and his longtime Air Supply partner — lead vocalist Russell Hitchcock — certainly made a valiant effort in that pursuit during their approximately 90 minutes on stage in Saratoga, delivering a richly romantic set of love songs, tearjerkers and beautiful ballads for the capacity crowd.
The lovely historic venue was absolutely packed with “Airheads” — the affectionate nickname for the legions of diehard followers of this Australian soft-rock duo — to the point where even Russell seemed impressed by how many were in attendance.
“Wow — look at all those people up there,” he remarked as he looked to the upper reaches of the 2,400-capacity venue.
As the group delivered one memorable hit after another — starting with “Sweet Dreams” (from 1981’s “The One That You Love”) — it was easy to understand why this sold-out show was such a hit at the box office. Air Supply just has so much good material, including “Even the Nights Are Better,” “Just As I Am” and other numbers that rank among the top love songs of the ’70s and ’80s.
Plus, it was clear from watching the crowd that these weren’t just any old songs being played by the band. Instead, they were the soundtrack to first kisses and lost loves, high school dances and other such memories that leap once again to life when the right song is played. The fans listened to the songs with rapt interest, but they also sang along at top volume, shared hugs and kisses, waved their hands in the air and seemed to want the night to last forever.
As always, the amazing mountain setting, with the unparalleled views of the South Bay, greatly added to the enjoyment of the concert — not just for the fans, but for the musicians as well.
“What a pleasure to be in this beautiful venue here,” Hitchcock said. “It feels very medieval — that’s a big word for me.”
Hitchcock and Russell — who met while performing in an Australian production of “Jesus Christ Superstar” in 1975 — both sounded great as they were accompanied by a topnotch four-piece band on such winners as “Here I Am,” “Two Less Lonely People in World” and “Lost in Love.”
At one point during the show, Russell asked if there were any people seeing Air Supply for the first time — and, indeed, some people raised their hands in the affirmative. The superb guitarist then made a bold prediction:
“When you leave this venue, you are going to be an Airhead forever.”
And he could turn out to be right. Based on this great show at the Mountain Winery, it’s easy to see how Air Supply could be very habit forming.
Very excited to launch our new webstore at https://Shop.AirSupplyMusic.com/
Be sure to check back often as we will be adding lots of new products very soon!!
To celebrate 40 years of Now And Forever, we wanted to give you a chance to win something special as a thank you for all of your support during the years. 40 lucky winners that will receive a “Now And Forever” postcard signed by Graham + Russell. You can enter below. Good luck!
Graham Russell is a musician, songwriter, and singer/guitarist of the soft rock duo Air Supply. In 1975, with Russell Hitchcock, he formed the guo in Australia. The duo have been singing and performing romantic songs and ballads, such as “Lost in Love”, “All Out of Love”, “Every Woman in the World”, “The One That You Love”, “Even the Nights Are Better”, “Goodbye” and “Making Love Out of Nothing at All”, for more than 45 years.
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In this debut episode of You Gotta See This, Phil and Julie talk to one half of Air Supply about the business of music rights.
I must start this review with a special appreciation for guitarist Graham Russell of Air Supply.
During Air Supply concerts, such as a recent sold-out appearance at MGM National Harbor, Graham holds centerstage while the rest of the band takes a break in the middle of the show, and he recites a poem. This time, he recited “Am I” in a clear but hushed stage whisper. It was a wonderfully theatric moment, and the audience held his breath as he dramatically passed through the poem of his own composition.
Graham then presented a tongue-in-cheek ode to “The Perfect Lover,” which is in fact his guitar, and sang a song of that name. The covid-era composition, recorded by Graham and some bandmates as G and the Cool Cucumbers, flowed smoothly throughout the auditorium.
Our appreciation of the tall and lean guitarist, who is critically underrated, is not meant to detract from his equally magnetic bandmate, the vocalist Russell Hitchcock, who also was in fine form at MGM National Harbor on June 3. But Graham’s comprehensive but tender grasp of guitar mechanics, his effortless rhythmic synchronizing with the band’s excellent drummer, and his extraordinary compositions leave us wondering why he doesn’t more frequently appear on the top lists of classic rock guitarists in the world.
Graham and Russell began this performance in the Lost in Love Experience Tour, celebrating more than 45 years of Air Supply, with “Sweet Dreams,” their 1982 Top 5 hit, offering both men an opportunity to sing. And while Russell’s powerful tenor was certainly a defining feature of the performance, Graham sounded quite remarkable as well!
Soon after Graham’s midshow spotlight, Russell returned to the stage and the two shared the tale of how they met in Australia as cast members of Jesus Christ Superstar. Russell and Graham recognized each other’s talents immediately and began collaborating. The admiration the two men shared for each other from those early days was evident in abundance still today, and their shared confidence fueled their brotherly bond and in turn their penchant for showstopping moments.
After the recap, Russell and Graham took seats for a moving performance of “Two Less Lonely People in the World,” another USA chart success in 1983 and also a calmer moment for the often more theatric duo. As the men sang, the audience sang along with them, bonding in the warm embrace of the lyrics. Air Supply’s skilled songsmiths sang directly to the crowd, who sang back with enthusiasm.
Of course, when you say that almost everyone inside The Theater at MGM National Harbor knew every word to every line of each Air Supply song, you at the very least can point to the example of “The One That You Love,” the USA No. 1 singalong anthem dating from 1981. You’ll never find a roomful of people more eager to sing to a tune than a gathering of Air Supply fans eager to sing “The One That You Love,” and the highly anticipated group sing was glorious, cathartic and very much a lot of fun.
At the close of their set, Air Supply played “Making Love Out of Nothing at All,” one of the greatest pop torch songs in modern music. The sneaky 1983 power ballad began earnestly enough but soon built into the over-the-top hallmarks of its famed songwriter, Jim Steinman. Well, it may be a Steinman composition, but its undoubtedly an Air Supply tune, as no one could deliver those declarative, commanding lyrical turns of phrase like Russell, and no one could construct a foundation for the song’s musical explosion like Graham.
Those last tunes lingered in our heads as we headed home for the evening — a testament indeed to the timeless talent and musical prowess of two men who show no reason to slow down any time soon.
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via Jerusalem Post
Australian-British rock outfit Air Supply is coming back, for the fourth time, to perform some of their seemingly endless string of definitively melodic numbers and, while they’re at it, spread some much-needed good vibes around. The ambiance should be suitably charged when they appear at the Haifa Convention Center (May 27) and Live Park in Rishon Lezion the next night (both 9 p.m.).
“For some reason, the music means a lot to people,” says songwriter-guitarist-vocalist Graham Russell. “You see it when we step on stage. People stand up, and they’re crying and they’re laughing and they have a great time. So, something’s going on,” he adds with a chuckle.
Something has been “going on,” admittedly with a few early stutters, for 47 years. Russell and Australian singer Russell Hitchcock first met up, in 1975, when they were in the cast of the Australian production of hit musical Jesus Christ Superstar. It seems the fates summarily threw them together. “I think we were predestined to meet. And I’m a big believer in that. We were just thrown together,” says Russell who hails from what he calls “a small working-class village near Nottingham,” in England. “I could have gone down the coal mines, likes everybody else where I lived. Thankfully, I didn’t.”
Thankfully. Had that happened, not only would Russell would have had a far less healthy means of making ends meet, millions of adoring fans, around the world and across the generations, would have been deprived of such timeless classics as “Lost In Love” and “All Out Love,” which came out in 1979 and 1980 respectively.
Both were huge hits and cemented the duo’s place as one of the world’s biggest rock acts. Since Air Supply started life, in 1975, the group has put out 17 studio albums, 13 compilation albums, 4 live albums and 27 singles, racking up sales of in excess of $40 million in the process.
But it might have been so different had Lady Luck, eventually, not smiled down on Russell and Hitchcock and opened up some crucial doors for them.
The pair’s initial rendezvous was the result of circumstance. “We were the only two people in [Jesus Christ] Superstar who didn’t know anybody,” Russell recalls. “The rest of the cast were all actors and musicians, and they’d all been in other shows. It was like the first day at school for Russell and me. You know, when you’re in the playground and you don’t anybody, you go and hide behind a brick wall. That was both of us. So, by chance, we sat next to each other.”
THAT MEANT they were in adjacent earshot and Russell was able to appreciate Hitchcock’s vocals from close quarters. The Brit heard his new Aussie pal singing and complimented him on his voice. A lifelong friendship and an enduring hugely successful professional liaison were in the making. “There are certain moments when Russell and I are traveling, we wonder what would have happened in that scenario. We’ve always thought the Universe threw us together. I’m a great believer in that.”
Russell notes all sorts of interfaces between them. “We were both born in June, we’d both seen The Beatles when we were 14 – that was the first concert I ever went to. And, when we met, Russell said ‘hey, we’ve got the same name!’” The Fab Four and the music his parents played at home – the likes of George Gershwin, and Rodgers and Hammerstein – laid the solid foundation for the songwriter’s enduring love affair with close harmony and strong melodies.
During Jesus Christ Superstar’s 18-month run the two got together to try out numbers Russell was writing, and began doing late-night rounds of the local pub and other cozy music venue scenes. Their initial close harmony group morphed into Air Supply and their first single, “Love and Other Bruises,” made number 6 on the Australian Billboard chart.
That wasn’t quite the big time, but things stepped up incrementally when, after Air Supply released its second album, British megastar rocker Rod Stewart asked them to open for him Down Under. Stewart was suitably impressed and the Australian circuit was followed by a five-month stint with Stewart around the United States. Russell and Hitchcock felt they’d made the big time, playing on the grandest stages America had to offer, including Madison Square Garden in New York.
But the pair was in for a rude wake-up call. “We came back to Australia and we discovered we’d been forgotten,” Russell recalls. “They didn’t know who we were.” Things hit rock bottom when, at one gig in Sydney, no one turned up.
It could have gone completely and irretrievably pear-shaped but, somehow, they managed to turn things around. Russell headed for home, in Adelaide, to write some songs, hoping against hope that his muses would deliver. Three months later, Hitchcock made the long trek over from Melbourne to see what his pal had come up with. “He came down, I think it was by bus, and I played him ‘Lost In Love.’ Russell said: ‘That’s the one. That’s going to change everything.’”
HITCHCOCK WAS spot on, even though there were a few more challenging twists to be negotiated, including Russell being confined to his hotel room for three days, with food poisoning, after scraping together a few pennies to get to the Midem music industry trade fair in Cannes, France. He missed the whole event, including a bunch of meetings with industry leaders but– unbeknownst to Russell and Hitchcock – word of “Lost In Love” and other charts Russell had penned during his Adelaide stint had gotten out to the world, via the Australian arm of the CBS record company. Clive Davis, of Arista Records had gotten in on the act, and the rest is now history.
“There is never a day that goes by without me and Russell feeling grateful for what has happened to us, and Air Supply, over the years,” the songwriter says. “We could have packed it in back then, on more than one occasion, but we kept going and we got our luck.”
Close to a half a century on, Russell and Hitchcock are still playing to adoring fans all over the globe. It appears to work well, on all levels. That, Russell feels, is largely down to their live and let live ethos. “The great thing about our relationship is that Russell doesn’t want to write songs. He doesn’t know how to write a song. And I don’t want to be a singer, because I’m not a lead singer. I’m a songwriter that sings and he’s a lead singer. We both love our roles.”
While one revels in getting into the nitty-gritty of the creative machinations, the other just gets on stage and pumps out the mellifluous vocals. “I love working on production, and putting everything together. Russell just likes to come in and sing. But when he does, everything changes. When he sings the songs I write something happens. I can do demos, but when Russell sings it, it goes to another level.”
The pair is also perfectly happy to keep on playing those yesteryear hits, along with some newer material from across their extensive discography. They also have the knack of being able to perform numbers time and again, year after year, without getting staid.
“The nucleus of our show is all the big hits. Fortunately, we have a lot of them,” Russell says without a hint of hubris. He is a great believer in entertaining. “People come to our show, and they want to hear ‘I’m Lost In Love’ and ‘All Out of Love,’ and we play them. And we don’t just play them. We love playing them. We’ve played over 5300 shows in our career, and there’s never been one time when I’ve thought ‘Oh dear, here we go again.’ We just love every moment.”
Russell and Hitchcock also like playing here. “I think Israel is a great place,” says the 71-year-old Brit. “We love coming there. There is just such a diversity of people and cultures. People say aren’t you worried about going to Israel. We are not worried. We are just coming to spread love and bring people together.”
Sounds like a cue for an Air Supply song.
For tickets and more information: Haifa – (04) 837-7777 and https://barak-tickets.co.il, Rishon LeZion – *9066 and https://www.eventim.co.il, and www.airsupplyIsrael.co.il.
Traditionally, in the music industry, acts like Air Supply were only as good as their next hit. But for people like Air Supply’s Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock, times are changing. In 2020, Bob Dylan sold his entire catalog to Universal Music for a reported $300 million. Bruce Springsteen sold to Sony Music a year later for about $550 million.
Larry Mestel’s company, Primary Wave, has been buying music catalogs since 2006. “Can you imagine Sony without Bruce Springsteen as part of their roster?” he told correspondent Kelefa Sanneh. “They were gonna have to pay whatever they had to pay to keep Bruce Springsteen.”
Two years ago, Air Supply sold a portion of their music rights to Primary Wave. The company places hits like “All Out of Love” in TV shows (like “Young Sheldon”), and in commercials, such as this ad for AAA Insurance.
Watch the segment at CBSNews.com
