Men at Work Newcastle City Hall 5th July 1983
“Do you come from a land down under?” 
Its easy to forget just how massively successful Australian band Men at Work were in the early 1980s. The statistics are formidable: a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single in the US and the UK; winner of the 1983 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and sales of over 30 million albums worldwide. In the UK, the single “Down Under” topped the charts in January and February 1983, and is the only Men at Work song to make the UK top 20. “Down Under” was one of those earworm songs which plays again and again in your head, and it was playing everywhere you went in early 1983. I remember buying a ticket for this gig simply on the strength of that one song. I was surprised just how quickly the concert sold out. 
Unlike every one else in the City Hall that night, I didn’t but their albums “Business and Usual” and “Cargo, and so all the songs, other than “Down Under” were fresh to me. I remember enjoying the gig; I think they may have played “Down Under” twice, once during the set and again as an encore’ or that could be my mind playing tricks again. Support came from Cook da Books a new wave band from Liverpool.
I found a setlist from a 1983 concert in the USA: Overkill; Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive; Underground; The Longest Night; Down Under; Blue for You; Highwire; No Sign of Yesterday; Who Can It Be Now?; Helpless Automaton; It’s a Mistake. Encore: Mr. Entertainer; Be Good Johnny.
“Do you come from a land down under? Where women glow and men plunder? Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder? You better run, you better take cover.” (Down Under, Men at Work, 1981)
Archive for the ‘Men at Work’ Category
8 Dec
Vintagerock's Weblog. 