Irwin Thomas (aka Jack Jones) says it was an honour to perform in place of Stuart ‘Chet’ Fraser as the guitarist for Noiseworks on their recent shows.
Both Stuart and Irwin had a various times been the guitarist for John Farnham. “Phil (Buckle) and I temporarily replaced Brett Garsed because you need two guitar players to replace that guy. Chet (Stuart Fraser) and I did do some gigs together early like way back. I always had a deep, deep love and respect for Chet. I first met Chet in the 80s before I was old enough to go to venues. The first time I met him was at the Palace (when it was still there in St Kilda) after a Noiseworks show and I always thought he was spectacular. Music was inside him. I wouldn’t say we hung out regularly but I always loved spending time with him”.
Stuart died in 2019 and recently the band decided to honour him by finally releasing their ‘Evolution’ album, mostly recorded nearly 10 years ago and then play some shows with Jack in Chet’s place. “Really what made the Noiseworks proposition so easy was I got to celebrate my mate,” he said. “When you lose a member of a band it is very, very hard. They do it all the time, they get someone else”.
Jack now wants to get the original line-up of Southern Sons back together. “That’s why I have been so passionate about getting Southern Sons back together with the original group because we are all still alive. You just don’t know when. There are two guarantees in life. When there is that catalogue in music like the Noiseworks catalogue it was a real honour to do that for Chet. To look out there and see all the faces of the die-hard Noiseworks fan. Now we get to go out with Balbi and do other things together. We keep threatening to do a Balbi and Jones. These Beatles shows are just fun and wonderful opportunity to celebrate arguable the greatest band ever”.
Jack, Steve Balbi of Noiseworks, Russell Morris and Robin Laou will perform The Beatles classic ‘Sgt Pepper’ album for two shows in Sydney and Melbourne in May.
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