Entertainment
8 April, 2024
Paying tribute to music guru
RENOWNED Cairns-based Australian crooner Chris Lloyds is looking to bring the magic and mastery of Tony Bennett to the Cairns stage with his latest show ‘For the love of Tony’ to celebrate the star’s greatest hits and life with jazz and classic pop lovers of the Far North.
Although not a reality in Cairns yet, Mr Lloyds is fiercely advocating to get the show, which has already debuted in Brisbane, to the Cairns Performing Arts Centre (CPAC) for a night of glamour and nostalgia to celebrate the crooner, who died in 2023.
Although no show has been announced yet, Mr Lloyds is hoping to put the event on stage this year.
“Tony Bennett was an amazing artist, a man who was even in the Guinness World Records for releasing an album at age 95,” Mr Lloyds said.
“In ‘For the love of Tony’ we do a number of his songs including his signature song, ‘I left my heart in San Francisco’ and some of my favourites like ‘I wanna be around’ and ‘Where do I begin’ – the theme song from Love Story.
“Right now, I’m talking to CPAC because I think this would be the perfect venue to take the show to because everyone everywhere deserves live music shows and there are a lot of people in Cairns who love jazz music and the Great American Songbook.
“This is a new show, we’ve only had a couple of shows, one in Brisbane completely sold out and I want to bring it to Cairns.”
The show will be accompanied by the prestigious Jamie Rigg band, with Rigg, former musical director of Ricky May, on the piano, multi award-winning guitarist Michael Fix, former bassist for stars like John Denver and Thelma Houston, Gus Fenwick, and drummer for The Midday Show and Sammy Davis Jr, Doug Gallacher, accompanied by the smooth voice of actor and successful soloist Chris Lloyds.
“We’ll go into a number of Tony’s hits, and I will talk about his life, things that many people don’t know about him,” Mr Lloyds said.
“This is my way of keeping that legacy, crooners like Tony Bennett had their own way of singing and a very authentic treatment to the songs,” he said.
“Songs like these aren’t written today, that musicianship isn’t there anymore so I’m sure people would be excited to experience Tony with us too.”
