Augie March’s Glenn Richards Reflects on 20 Years of ‘Moo You Bloody Choir’
Augie March vocalist and guitarist, Glenn Richards, discusses 20 years of Moo You Bloody Choir, playing it in full on their upcoming tour and how the music industry has devolved since 2006.
Words Thomas Jackson // Image supplied
This April, national treasures Augie March will perform their iconic album Moo, You Bloody Choir across Australia in its entirety to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Vocalist and rhythm guitarist Glenn Richards has been revisiting these songs that defined his career and, in doing so, has been transported back to the memories and moments that surrounded the album. This includes songs that he has never played live before. Most notably in a full-circle moment, Moo, You Bloody Choir had a number of songs written about Tasmania, where he now lives.
“One of them that we hadn't played is called ‘Mt Wellington Reverie’,” Richards shares over the phone from his home in Tasmania. “I now live in the shadow of that mountain, but at the time I was staying in a bed and breakfast, not an Airbnb, but a B&B, which was the thing back then,” he jokes.
“I think we'd played a couple of shows in Hobart, which was extremely rare back then, and I decided to stay on an extra week because I have Tasmanian relatives. I spent a lot of time here as a kid, but I hadn't been over for a long time.
“So I had a week here on my own and just really fell in love with the place, and I wrote that song and a couple of others. I was recently going through it and having to learn it from scratch and figure out what tuning it was in, and it started me thinking about that time, that really lovely week.”
When asked if Richards could have imagined playing Moo, You Bloody Choir in full to sold-out rooms 20 years later, he said his younger self wouldn’t have believed it, but he also wouldn’t have imagined the music industry would descend to the point that it has.
“It would have been a ridiculous thing to consider back then. I wouldn't have guessed that the music scene would have - for want of a better word - devolved to the point where these sort of tours are kind of the only way you can get around the country. That’s the flip side of it, the not quite so positive side of it. But we're not going to complain, it is a really nice opportunity.
“We've kept on making records. I'm in the middle of making another record now. So I don't tend to think about the past records that much, unless I have to. But there's no doubt that this is the only way that we can legitimately justify the cost of getting around the country these days with a full band and that sort of thing. The fact that there's enough people to justify it is really wonderful but it's just a bit sad that we probably can't do that on the strength of the new record.”
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Augie March have lived through both eras of the industry when musicians were still able to make money off of releasing an album and physical sales, compared to now, where touring is the main source of income.
“As much as people like to trumpet the ‘your album is just an excuse to tour’, I don't believe that at all,” Richard explains. “I think the album is by far the most important artefact and reason for being in a band. I think live is great, but it's certainly not a way that I want to try and scrape a living. I think with increased flight costs, accommodation, car hire and the venues themselves trying to survive, they're not as forgiving of certain costs and it all adds up.
“If you're not sort of cracking those numbers that are required, you're almost a leper in the industry. I'm sort of glad that this time it's looking pretty good. So I think we'll get some nice treatment, but yeah, it's a bit of an odd one. We're a bit of an in-between band, so we can speak to both experiences.”
Augie March are in the wonderfully awkward position of having their biggest song and triple j Hottest 100 winner of 2006, ‘One Crowded Hour’, as the album opener. It’s a situation that always makes full album playthroughs unique and the energy in the room unpredictable. Richards says he’s still debating whether the shows are a full album playthrough front to back or if they mix it up across different nights of the tour. They’re an old-school band that doesn’t rely on sequences and can make an audible in the moment if required.
“I think we'll discuss it again because it's pretty loaded up front. In terms of sheer energy, if you kick off with too much, it can kind of rob the second half of a bit. So we'll talk about that. But I think [playing front to back] it's kind of what people expect. I can't say I've ever been to a 20th anniversary show. I think we did it for - I mean it was a COVID-interrupted effort - but we did it for the first album and I'm pretty sure we played it from start to finish, so I guess we'll do that again.
“It's not something I'm completely married to, but for the time being, it feels to me that's the way you service the audience and the record at the same time.”
Catch Augie March performing at The Gov on Friday 10 April. Tickets on sale now at ticketek.com.au.
