by Bonnie Collings

Get ready to travel back in time to the era of the British pop invasion with stage and screen star John Waters when "Radio Luxembourg" performs at the West Gippsland Arts Centre on Friday February 21.

Featuring Stewart D'Arrietta and the Chartbusters, "Radio Luxembourg" presents a phenomenal walk through nostalgia and an era of music that remains a core memory for fans over several generations.
Between fantastic performances of 60s hits like "My Generation" by The Who, "Waterloo Sunset" by the Kinks and "To Love Somebody" by the Bee Gees, John Waters recounts anecdotes and moving memories of the music of the era.
Born in London, Waters was in his teens and early twenties during the 1960s and considers himself one of the luckiest music lovers as a result.
John said after the first song of the night, he explains the significance of the name "Radio Luxembourg".
"If you were in England in the 50s and 60s and you wanted to hear rock and pop music, you couldn't hear it on the BBC because they had a monopoly of the airwaves, there was no commercial radio," John said.
"The record companies decided to broadcast the recordings and all the latest news from the pop scene from a station that was on the continental mainland. We have to tune in on our transistor radios to a broadcast from the Dutchy of Luxembourg, 208 on the medium wave."
John recalled the thrill of searching for the best signal when weather across the English Channel impacted broadcasts.
"That was part of the joy, sometimes you found yourself holding the transistor radio out of the window to get a better signal," he said.
"(The history) is an intro to a concert of all the great British rock music of the 60s, which was basically influenced by musicians who had spent their youth listening to Radio Luxembourg."
While the performance is packed full of songs that appeal to a baby boomer audience, "Radio Luxembourg" is perfect for music lovers of any age.
"We (Baby Boomers) are the ones for whom this was the soundtrack of our lives, but these songs have endured, so our children and our grandchildren also love this music," John said.
"I know the core of the generation for whom this was the music of their youth will be there, and it's really great when I see their children and indeed their grandchildren coming along to enjoy the same music. It's such a unifying and beautiful thing to communicate to people with music."
John said a highlight of each performance was seeing the audience singing along.
"Music is all about communication and celebration and this show epitomises that I think," he said. "I really encourage the audience to be loose if they can, if they've got any space to dance, I say get up and dance! For us, it's why we do what we do. Our audiences so far have had terrific reactions to what we're doing."
The "Radio Luxembourg" tour is scheduled to stop in a number of regional locations, including Warragul. John said performing regionally is a "rewarding" experience and an exciting way of discovering new places.
"We take shows out to regional areas because there are people who are kind of starved of entertainment and are wanting something good to come their way," John said. "It's very rewarding for people to say, 'thank you for coming to our town', it's a nice thing to hear and it's not something you in hear in the capital cities."
"Stewart and I have done this kind of touring for at least 30 years, and we love discovering new places and we always revisit the old places. It's like being strolling minstrels of centuries gone by!"
"Radio Luxembourg" will perform at the West Gippsland Arts Centre on Friday February 21 from 8pm.
Tickets are available to purchase online at https://sales.wgac.com.au/