On the
eve of his first audition
for Australian Idol, the
talent show that was set
to change his life forever,
Shannon Noll was nervous.
Not about his audition -
after all, he knew he could
sing a bit - but about his
footy side. He’d just
learnt that the date of
his audition clashed with
his weekend game of footy,
and he didn’t want
to let the side down. He
called his coach. “Do
you reckon I should come
home for footy?”,
he asked. “Nah, I
wouldn’t bother mate”,
the coach replied. It was
sound advice; the Condo-Milby’s
scored only nine points
that weekend. Shannon Noll
scored himself a record
contract.
It may
read like a fairytale, but
in many ways, Shannon’s
musical career has come
at a price. Shannon grew
up on his family’s
four and a half thousand
acre property at Condobolin
in the central west of NSW.
Running sheep, cattle, oats
and barley, it’s a
property that’s been
in his family for 92 years.
Shannon, along with his
two brothers, grew up with
an expectation - a pressure
even - that he would continue
in the family tradition.
But as Shannon began tasting
regional success with his
classic rock covers band,
Cypress (named after the
Cypress pine timber mill
where his band rehearsed),
Shannon began to question
where his heart lay.
”That’s
when it started occurring
to me that I was on the
wrong track in terms of
farming, ‘cause everything
we did with music was so
positive. I love farming,
don’t get me wrong,
but it just got too business
orientated, whereas it used
to be a lifestyle. By the
time I got to it, it had
became a real business and
that feeling of just cruising
about and working it out
as you go along was getting
harder and harder. If you
had one failed year at one
crop, it put that much extra
pressure on you the next
year.”
Although
Shannon’s parents
were endlessly supportive
and proud of their sons’
musical endeavours , they
viewed it as a sideline
rather than a career. “Mum
and Dad would go and watch
us play and have grins on
their faces from ear to
ear”, recalls Shannon,
“but when we’d
see dad the next day and
he’d be talking about
the land market, his face
would light up. Dad was
really into music and loved
watching us play and we
loved the support that he
gave us when we played,
but I think in his heart
he would have always liked
us to be farmers. He was
the boss of our family and
we would have done whatever
he told us to”.
But tragedy
struck the Noll family two
years ago, when Shannon’s
father died suddenly in
a farming accident. Overnight,
Shannon was forced to reassess
his priorities. Music may
have been the dream but
now there was the farm,
a fiancé and a six
month old son to think about.
Reality had kicked him in
the guts. The dream would
have to wait.
”My
middle brother and I ran
the farm the next year”,
says Shannon, “and
we spent umpteen thousand
dollars putting the crop
in, then we had the worst
drought in one hundred years.
It was like, ‘Oh,
what can we do?’ We
just found out after we
lost dad that the finances
on the place were really
bad, then we’d sown
a crop, spent a great heap
of money, then not even
put a header in it. So we
got to the stage where if
we sowed another crop the
next year, we risked losing
everything. And as it turned
out, it would have been
another year like the one
just gone”.
So Shannon
leased the farm out and
got by on drought support
money and odd-jobbing on
a friend’s farm. That
lasted about three months,
by which time news of a
show called Australian Idol
had made its way to Condobolin.
And Shannon thought, hell,
it’s worth a shot.
It’s the dream.
And so
it was that Shannon became
Australia’s favourite
son. Guy may have represented
the slick, city crowd, but
Shannon - with his larrikin
charisma and his gutsy,
honest vocals - was the
nation’s soul. As
the weeks rolled by, Shannon
soared in popularity, growing
in stature and confidence
with every performance.
Drawing on songs from Aussie
rock greats like Powderfinger
and Jimmy Barnes, and international
superstars like Frank Sinatra
and Bon Jovi, Shannon whipped
the competition with his
gutsy, emotional delivery
and his soaring upper range.
But if
you think you’ve seen
it all, you ain’t
seen nothing yet!
That’s
What I’m Talking About,
Shannon’s astonishingly
accomplished debut album,
takes its name from a saying
Shannon and his Condobolin
mates have been throwing
about for the last eight
years. Stamped with a classic,
80s pop rock-feel that recalls
80s heroes like The Choirboys,
Richard Marx Bryan Adams,
John Farnham and Jimmy Barnes,
That’s What I’m
Talking About has an immediacy
that’s intoxicating.
But don’t let those
pop smarts fool you - this
is an album of textures.
Effortlessly seguing between
bright, punchy rock (Drive),
epic power ballads (Learn
To Fly, What About Me) sun
kissed pop gems (Wise),
brooding, key-driven mid
tempo rock tracks (Burn)
and country tinged rock
(The Way That I Feel, which
Shannon co-wrote with his
brother Damian), That’s
What I’m Talking About
has the feel of a pop classic.
Of course
we could go on and on and
about its emotive mix of
grit and grandeur, about
how its rock heart lifts
its pop soul. But that’d
just reek of pretension
and Shannon Noll is anything
but pretentious. Suffice
to say that this is an album
- and we do mean album,
for there’s no filler
here - of simply great songs
sung by a guy with a voice
whose range and feel is
truly extraordinary. Without
a doubt, That’s What
I’m Talking About
is set to establish Shannon
as one of the country’s
truly great vocalists. Like
his hero, John Farnham,
Shannon Noll is authentic
to the bone. There’s
not a note here he couldn’t
reproduce live… and
then some. When Shannon
hits that afterburner, take
cover! But it’s the
ballads here that surprise.
True love may travel on
a gravel road, but only
Shannon makes it sound so
sweet.
Shannon’s
first single from the album,
the raw and emotive What
About Me, is already the
number one most added track
at Australian radio. It’s
a stat he’d better
get used to, ‘cause
there’s plenty more
where that came from.
That’s
What I’m Talking About
is Shannon Noll living the
dream. It may have been
27 years in the making,
but it’s been worth
the wait. Turn it up and
enjoy.