In 1987 Kevin Bloody Wilson played a remote lepers colony at the behest of a nun he once taught on School of the Air. It was a gig without swears.
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The inveterate performer will bring his Almost Awesome tour to Ballarat next month.
Wilson’s lepersorium was run by nuns out past Derby, Western Australia. The same year Wilson played the Sydney Opera House – which he dubbed the Bennelong Workers Club “to take the posh edge off it”.
“It’s since been closed but it was being run by nuns and I knew one of the nuns from my older days, she was a student of mine,” he said.
“I was playing Derby in WA and this lepersarium was not far and I loved her she was just a gorgeous, gorgeous lady and she said ‘if you’re in Derby can we have a cup of tea’. I didn’t do the Kevin Bloody Wilson stuff I just went out there and sang songs that the Aboriginal people related to. I loved it, there was a hospital section to it but most of the people were up and walking around. I think that same year I played the Sydney Opera House.
“I was trying not to be awe struck by the fact that I was playing the Sydney Opera House so I renamed it the Bennelong Workers Club.”
Wilson, who is now 70, says his farewell tours were a rouse to “out Farnham Farnham”.
“I did a first and a second final tour and the reason for it I was cashing in. I was going to out Farnham Farnham with the comeback tours.
“I haven’t run into him since but I know he’s laughing about it - Farnham is a good bloke, he’d be totally pissing himself.”
The man behind You Cant Say C*** In Canada says he taught his kids to choose their swear words carefully.
“What I’d taught them in swearing is be appropriate when you swear, that was the lesson I gave my kids. We have grandkids now so we don’t swear much around the grandkids and ironically enough I didn’t swear much around the house when the kids were growing up.”
Kevin Bloody Wilson’s Almost Awesome Tour arrives in Ballarat on Friday, August 25. Wilson will perform at the Mercure Ballarat Hotel and Convention Centre.
Tickets: www.mercureballarat.com.au.