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David Campbell is back in
Business
 When David Campbell looks back on 2006, he will
have consider it one of the defining years of his career.
After a shaky period a couple of years ago, Campbell is well and truly back on top and
last weekend capped off an amazing year with two solo shows at The Basement in Sydney,
rocking a captivated and enthralled audience.
AussieTheatre.com's Nick Ferranti was there, and reports: "If ever proof was needed
that 2006 has been one hell of a year for entertainer/actor/singer David Campbell, one
only had to look around the crowd of all ages (from about 20 to 75 quite literally) packed
three and four deep (many standing) to watch Campbell give two concerts on Sunday. One
would have expected growls and complaints from older patrons in what is mostly a jazz and
rock venue, but once Campbell took to the stage most of the audience seemed to be
transported into some sort of zenned out musical time zone."
There's no doubt it has been an amazing year. He received
massive critical acclaim in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee for the
Melbourne Theatre Company, which went on to win Best Musical at the 2006 Helpmann Awards,
and himself scored a coveted Helpmann for his work on The Production Company's Sunset
Boulevard.
He also played a major series of gigs at the Sydney Opera
House, and appeared in Urinetown for the Sydney Theatre Company.
But perhaps the biggest and most successful venture this year
has been the release of his CD, The Swing Sessions.
The album has gone gold, and while Campbell has tried the
world of pop and most would agree theatre is still his home, swing is without doubt his
key passion.
"My heroes were the ultimate showmen, like Bobby Darin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis
Jnr and Tony Bennett," says David. "What I've tried to do with this record is
pay tribute to those men that made me the singer that I am."
 The
idea to record The Swing Sessions first came up following David's appearance on
the highly-popular Dancing With The Stars program last year. Although David
didn't win the dance-off, he forged an immediate bond with the show's gifted musical
director, Chong Lim. In recent years, Chong has also been the music man behind the likes
of John Farnham and Olivia Newton John.
"Dancing With The Stars made me realise that I am really an entertainer, an
old school entertainer," David says. "So I really wanted to get back to doing
that. Working with Chong was great, so I did a little cabaret show in Sydney and invited
the guys from my record company and they said you've got to do an album of this."
Nick Ferranti says Campbell's show on Sunday brought the
album to life: "Campbell presented all the
songs from his much acclaimed and very successful new CD, together with a host of other
hits from the swing period of the 40's to 70's, all backed by an incredible seven piece
band of top musicians and musically directed by the impeccable Michael Tyack. The band in
this small space was loud but fun and Campbell just threw energy, vocal style and good old
fashioned showmanship out at the audience in such abundance that the whole room just
rocked from start to finish."
So enthused is David by the results of The Swing Sessions, he and Chong are
already looking forward to their next recording. "There are lots of these types of
songs out there to record and we can keep doing them," says David. "I'm thinking
maybe next time we can do The Broadway Sessions, or may be The Hollywood
Sessions. This is hopefully the beginning of a trilogy."
The year isn't quite over for Campbell just yet - on Christmas Eve he will perform at
Carols By Candlelight (which will be broadcast across the country on the Nine Network) and
this Friday will sing four songs on Sunrise on Channel Seven.
Sydney fans are being invited to watch Campbell perform on the show live from Martin
Place, where he will hold an autograph session after the show.
David Campbell is also a 2006 AussieTheatre.com Awards nominee in the Best Cabaret Artist
category. For more information, click here.
The Swing Sessions is available from all good record stores. |
