The Fabulous Caprettos hit the road this week for a country-wide tour and if you haven’t seen this show then we beg you to grab tickets for a night of nostalgia and sing a longs. Multi Award winner Dave Gleeson (The Screaming Jets/The Angels) will join forces with ARIA Hall of Famer and Multi-award winner Russell Morris and music giants Jack Jones (Southern Sons), Rai Thistlethwayte (Thirsty Merc/Joe Satriani/Sammy Hagar) performing their biggest hits together on stage, as the Caprettos get back together and on the road in October 2024.
We caught up with Rai as he settled back in to Australian life once more, after a whirlwind US tour playing with rock legends Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony and Jason Bonham (part 2 of this interview will cover all that next week). Our very own legend (and G.O.A.T) spoke about the excitement of playing getting back with The Fabulous Caprettos as well as a little bit about the band.
Rai: Sean, how are you mate?
Sean: Great thanks Rai. Thanks for your time. I know it’s been a busy year with no looking to let up anytime soon.
Rai: Yes, It’s been hectic. I’ve been away overseas and touring around and I’ve just got back about a week ago – I‘ve been on a big tour in the States as you know and then I’ve now got this wonderful Capretto stuff coming up in October then Thirsty Merc stuff in November so I’m working like a headless chook [laughs] but I’m enjoying it so it’s really good.
Sean: Well, we’ve got all that to talk about but the main one to start with is that it’s great to see the G.O.A.Ts back out again for another run of The Fabulous Capretto shows. They are always one of my highlight gigs for the year, every year and I’ve been lucky to see version one (with Daryl Braithwaite) and version two (with Dave Gleeson). Back out on the road in October which is not far away at all. A host of shows around the country and we get to see you for two here in WA which is great. How much fun is that to get out on the stage with those guys each night?
Rai: It’s bloody great! Yeah, I’m really enjoying working with Gleeso again on this one. Obviously a huge fan of Daryl and his whole catalogue and career and he’s a great guy but yeah as you as you said before you’ve seen version one and now version two. I caught up with Gleeso the other day just in South Australia, and we were both just saying how much we’re looking forward to the next run. It’s so much fun. I mean, you’ve got great musicians, and great song power. You’ve got lots of known songs one after the other. So, yeah, it’s just a really good vibe.
Sean: And the great thing about it, for anyone who hasn’t been to see it, and the one thing I love about it, is it isn’t a case of you all walking out one at a time to sing your song. The fact that you’re all the house band as well just makes it an incredible evening.
Rai: Yeah, I agree. I mean I think that’s the distinguishing thing about this and other sort of bands that have multiple singers from other projects or collaborating, I think it really is more of a band. I mean the fact that we’ve got some original material in there as well that we’ve all actually worked on together is sort of testament to that.
Sean: Last time we had ‘tambourine Dave’ and his bruised hip. Has he managed to strengthen the hip or has he actually learned to play a few more on the acoustic this tour? [laughs]
Rai: [laughs] I haven’t really discussed it with him so we’ll see what happens. I think we’ve actually got Joe Camilleri coming in for a cameo on one or two gigs so we’ll see what happens there but you know obviously we’re going to be wood shedding his material himself. He’s got quite a few hits that he released, you know, over the years. So he’ll be coming in. I don’t know what Dave’s going to be doing. One thing I can be sure of is that Dave will have his leg up on the monitor wedge in that sort of arresting pose that he does, addressing the crowd [laughs]. Great front man. And, of course, Jack Jones, what an incredible vocal, incredible song selection and just beautiful guitar playing. He’s just second to none so that’s fantastic.
And then there is Russell of course – he’s one of the founding sort of members of the band and I think it was sort of through him and his manager John Starr, they got the show rolling really. They started a conversation about something that was going to involve other artists so it’ll be all of us and then you’ve got Jason Vorherr on bass – man I just love this guy. He’s a great player and a great vocalist himself actually… underrated vocalist is Jason Vorherr and then on drums for most of the shows, I believe it’s Jimmy Barnes’ own son Jackie Barnes so it’s a sort of bit of a star-studded cast of musos on stage if I do say so myself and I’m very happy to be alongside these guys each night.
Sean: I bumped into Jason the other week backstage at Mundi Mundi.
Rai: Oh cool. How did you like Mundi?
Sean: Oh, my God. Ray, I was just blown away. We went over to cover it for The Rockpit, hung out backstage interviewing a lot of the people. Bumped into Jason, Daryl and a few others. It was just an incredible event.
Rai: Yeah, that’s it. What an incredible vocalist. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, I’m glad you got over to Mundi as well. That’s a really, really cool gig.
Sean: Oh, I can’t wait for next year already. But, yeah, you mentioned on Joe Camilleri, we’ve got him exclusively for the two WA shows, which is going to be incredible. Bigger venue this year too as you play the Crown Theatre instead of the Astor and then down at the Ravenswood, where we last caught up when you were here with the Merc. I think that one is an outside show too which will be cool.
Rai: Excited to play Crown Theatre. Yeah, love the Ravo down near Mandurah. That will be fun.
(Part two of this interview will be up next week when we talk to Rai about the amazing Best of Both Worlds tour he has been playing on with rock legends with Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony and Jason Bonham. We also discuss the forthcoming Thirsty Merc shows that will heading out later this year countrywide.)
THE FABULOUS CAPRETTOS – Tour Dates
Tickets HERE
Thurs 3 October
Event Centre, Caloundra
Fri 4 October
Twin Towns, Tweed Heads
Thurs 10 October
Norwood Town Hall, Adelaide
Fri 11 October
Anita’s, Thirroul
Sun 13 October
Toronto Hotel, Newcastle
Wed 16 October
West Gippsland Arts, Warragul
Thurs 17 October
Palms Crown, Melbourne
Fri 18 October
Crown Theatre Perth
(with special guest Joe Camilleri)
Sat 19 October
Ravenswood Hotel Outdoors, Mandurah
(with special guest Joe Camilleri)
With thanks to Starr Special Events and to Estellar PR for arranging the interview.
