| John's first solo
experience since 1980, was doing some live shows with a band consisting of Brett Garsed,
Sam See, and Derrick Pellicci. Only 2 weeks worth of bookings were made but the reaction
was so good that they extended it for another week. Because of this success Ross Fraser
suggested to Glenn Wheatley that it might be time to start working on a solo album. Once again no-one would give John a solo record deal. Glenn Wheatley had his own label but he thought it would be a conflict of interest. Glenn ended up putting his home up as security to raise the $150,000 needed to produce an album. John worked with Ross Fraser and David Hirschfelder in his little garage, often working 18 hour days. John and Ross started searching for the songs that were to appear on "Whispering Jack". They had literally boxes and boxes of tapes that had been collected over the years by John. After selecting 15 songs, Ross had to convince the music publishers to allow the use of their better songs. All were of the opinion that John Farnham was washed up. Part of the selection criteria was lyric content. John wanted songs that could express a message and make people think twice about themselves and the world in which they lived. |
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| "Whispering Jack" was almost
ready to be recorded when a tape arrived from London with similar material as
"Pressure Down". Ross listened to the song "You're The Voice" once,
raced straight over to John's house where he listened to it and they knew they had found a
once in a lifetime song. "Whispering Jack" took a year to plan, 6 weeks in a garage, 1 week putting it all onto a tape in the studio, another week of keyboard adjustments, and a further week adding guitar, bagpipes, and saxophones, before laying down the vocals in 3 weeks. After some tough questions in press conferences for the launch of the album, and Glenn pleading with radio stations to give them a chance, stations started playing "You're The Voice". The requests and phone calls came rolling in. "You're The Voice" was released on 27 April 1987. "Whispering Jack" sold more than 1 Million copies. It stayed at Number 1 on the Australian music charts for 21 weeks. 1 in 4 Australian households has a copy, and it's the biggest selling album by an Australian artist ever! |
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After the success of the album, the next step was a tour. The Jack's Back Tour, originally had four performances in Melbourne, two in Sydney, two in Perth, and two in Brisbane. Although at the time they thought this would have been enough considering they were up against such people as Michael Jackson, and Billy Joel, the people of Australia demanded more. Five more shows were added in Melbourne, three more in Sydney, and Brisbane's concert was moved to a larger venue. At that time the Jack's Back Tour was the biggest grossing tour by an Australian act. Little did they know that they would shatter their own record with the Age Of Reason Tour. |
| John's next album was Age Of Reason. He
also took this album on tour with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. It was in this tour
that John did Sadie as a gag, because of all the people asking for it on the Jack's Back
Tour. When John was in Brisbane he became ill with a viral flu, he was delirious for
almost four days and one of the shows was cancelled. They were desperate to have John well
and they called chiropractors, GP's, ear nose and throat specialists, acupuncturists, and
naturopaths, and anyone else they thought might have been able to help. John also did a European tour for the Age Of Reason album in which they visited Scandinavia, Denmark, Germany, and London. They played everywhere from Night Clubs with 1000 people to concert halls. Although John had achieved number 1's in Australia, Canada, West Germany and Scandinavia as well as being in the top 10 in Britain, Spain, and Italy, he didn't have any success in the US. John knows there is some pressure for him to hit it big in the states but to this he says, "I just don't care - I have no intention of going to America and busting my arse for four years trying to get it to work. To do it properly, I would have to go there to live and I'm not interested in that. If it works, terrific, if it doesn't, terrific". 1987 |
| In 1988 John was named the
Australian of the Year, but there was a bit of a problem in that when he was nominated he
hadn't yet been naturalised. It wasn't until then that John felt he needed that piece of
paper to prove he was an Australian. He had the citizenship ceremony in Glenn Wheatley's
office. John's second child, James, in January 1988, just days before Australia day,
meaning that Jillian and James were unable to travel to Sydney for the ceremony. He did
however take Robbie and his parents. When John received his award he said with tears in
his eyes, "Australia does deserve national pride. We are right to instill national
pride in our children, but please let's make our national pride encompass humanity. Thank
you VERY much indeed".
1988 Also during 1988 he toured Europe for three months, he didn't talk much about the record just about being Australian and being Australian of the Year. |
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"I think Sam Cook is
the greatest singer who ever lived,
and I think John Farnham is the greatest singer alive" - Richard Marx
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