Interview - Air Supply

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< Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell >

Fresh After thirty years, 28 albums and countless broken hearts left trailing in their globe-trotting wake, James McCarthy meets the formerly manfro-clad balladeers of Billboardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 83rd greatest love song of all time.

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< The pair have toured every year since 1975, and they are still not “all out of love” for life on the road >

>>> We all grew up with their songs, amid early 1980’s visions of shoulder pad-laden girls gazing teary-eyed from the windows of lear jets and sports cars, as Air Supply lamented through song that they would be “so lost without them.” However, when I sit down with the legendary duo, there is not a lear jet, nor a teary blonde, in sight. We sit together in the plush surroundings of La Cigale hotel, a day before British-born Graham Russell and Australian Russell Hitchcock play their first ever Doha gig, and it’s clear that neither are “all out of love” for their music or life on the road.

“So far it’s been excellent,” Hitchcock says of the band’s first visit to Qatar.

“So far we have seen the airport and the journey to the hotel - at night,” Russell adds with a wry smile.

“I have a beautiful room, the room service last night was very quick and the food is excellent,” Hitchcock retorts.

It is clear to see that the pair play off each other well, which is partly the key to their longevity. The naughties are far from the band’s 80’s heyday and these days, they could be just any pair of middle-aged mates; down to earth, humble and grateful that they continue to be able to travel the world and play their music. While they look a bit like your dad, they still have an infectious Peter Pan aura about them.

< Graham and Russell face Doha’s media >

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< Something in the air: Cranking out the classics at Qatar Foundation in October >

How do you keep the torch burning after thirty years? Graham, you say you write every day, how do you keep that up? What is your inspiration and how many girls’ hearts have you broken in the name of your art?

Graham Russell: Well you know this is just what I do, just wanna break hearts (laughs).

Russell Hitchcock: I just look at him and it breaks my heart ( jabs thumb in Graham’s direction).

GR: Seriously though, its just always been there - since I was ten. It’s just what I do. And I think together we create this thing that is pretty distinct, no doubt about that. We do so many shows every year and we always have.

RH: The way I see it, we’ve never been away. We haven’t had a year off since 1975, and what’s better than playing great songs all over the world? I mean, if that doesn’t motivate you, you shouldn’t be in the business. It’s just incredible to come to places like this and play.

How do you think you will go down with the Qatar audience? Do you think there will be an issue with the language barrier?

GR: Well, I think that we can actually say this is life in music. It doesn’t matter where we play in the world, because we have been all over, and some countries we played many years ago where English wasn’t the first language. They can actually listen to the song and music, so we would like to just cover every spectrum; you know, regardless of race and religion and culture. No matter what happens, they will come to listen to us live and hear the songs and that’s the connection we have.

RH: In fact, we have had many people who come to us and pick up some grasp of English by listening to our music. I think that’s a great compliment.

You famously hold the record for being one of the first foreign bands to play in Havana, Cuba. That must have been a pretty spectacular feeling?

GR: It was one of the highlights of our career. They expected 50,000, we were supposed to go on at 8pm and they just kept coming and coming.

Midnight came and we said we can’t go on yet people are still coming.

The city shut down, we were playing right in the centre and the crowd

reached 150,000. At 1am they told us: “You’ve just got to go and sing because cyclone “Dennis” is coming in”. In the end there was 175,000 people there and they had to put loud speakers a mile down the road.

It was one of those moments you know and they don’t happen very often, but when they do we just do it loudly.

Cyclone Dennis? This Air Supply and natural disaster thing - it seems the fates are stacked against you?

RH: We were at the MGM Grand in 1982, the day after we left that caught fire. We did a show in Kansas City, two days after we left, the inside walkway collapsed. We have just missed an earthquake and several hurricanes.

GR: We were in the Philippines recently to do five shows when the flooding hit, we didn’t know if we were gonna play from one moment to the next. They said typhoons were coming and everybody was glued to CNN to see the typhoon’s direction. It went out to sea then it started to come back in and we didn’t know what to do.

RH: We tried to get out of the water to get to the show, that was pretty scary We were terrified, but the guy that was driving the car was really calm. He just smiled and said: “Don’t worry, it’s just a passing shower.”

It all sounds very Spinal Tap. In 30 years of touring the world and playing concerts everywhere, you must have quite a few Spinal Tap moments?

RH: Oh, we’ve got lots of them.

GR: We didn’t know how to come here today, nobody knew how high the building was. We went up in the elevator four times before we could find the restaurant.

RH: I fell off the stage once and broke my ribs, all because I just put my foot where I shouldn’t have had. We’ve not been able to find the stage sometimes, so “hello Cleveland” and all that. It happens you know, but you try and keep it to a minimum certainly.