George Harrison might have been known as ‘The quiet Beatle’ but he had a message for the world and singer Wes Carr felt compelled to deliver that message through his show, ‘Here Comes the Sun’, in which he performs a collection of songs from the George Harrison songbook and shares stories and anecdotes from the life of one of the world’s most celebrated musicians from undoubtedly the world’s most celebrated band.
Wes tells me that the idea for the show was inspired by George’s message. “And his core message was just looking within yourself to find your own peace. That really resonated with me. Everybody’s running around forgetting who they truly are; forgetting about what they’re here for and they seem to forget their intention for life or the core essence as to why they’re here. That’s what it’s all about really; to expand in what makes us happy and what makes us happy is what makes us learn more and put ourselves into positions in life where we can expand and grow and learn what we’re here for; what we are really here for instead of burying ourselves into other people’s expectations and that was really the core message of George’s work so that really inspired me.”
Wes wanted to make his shows a little bit more special than just to play a bunch of George Harrison songs. He points out that the show celebrates George in a spiritual way, more than just as a Beatle. “I think he was more of an innovator, as Eric Clapton says, but living in the material world. I think he was one of the great innovators of our time as a musician.”
Harrison’s interest in eastern philosophy was well-known and Wes credits The Beatle with introducing this philosophy into the realm of modern pop culture and consequently his own awareness. “The beautiful thing about George is he brought the eastern philosophy into pop culture and he started this whole other consciousness of people and I think, now more than ever, we need to start reminding ourselves again of those core principles that he raised all those years ago. That’s the sort of thing that is the intention behind the show. It’s not just a celebration of George. It’s also a celebration of his messages, what he wanted to portray, what he wanted to say and I think coming from someone like George Harrison where people know his name and know him as a Beatle, people leave with much more of an insight into what he was saying.”
The show features many of George’s songs, interjected by quotes from the legendary Beatle delivered by Wes in a Liverpudlian accent. “It goes through a certain period of time and it’s almost like him looking back and talking about his life; the spiritual essence of his life and also The Beatles and what they meant to him but really it’s mainly just his thoughts on why are we all here? Asking the bigger questions… what are we all doing on this planet? He says that The Beatles experience brought so much in such a short period of time but when he looked back, there was nothing that was giving him a buzz any more. He couldn’t meet anybody who could really impress him but that’s when he met Ravi Shankar and that kind of spiralled… that was his little rabbit hole. He fell down that rabbit hole very willingly, like we all have in our lives. It’s just a story about somebody who goes on a very big journey very fast. And many people do that. I think he reminds us that we don’t need to be famous or rich to have those experiences. That’s what I love about him. He was a gardener. He was just a normal guy who didn’t want any trouble or anything. He just wanted to be able to create what he wanted to create and say the things he said and be peaceful and quiet. I resonate with that a lot, these days more than ever.”
Wes sees a correlation between his experience on Australian Idol and what George might have gone through during his rise to fame. “I know it’s nothing on the scale of the Beatlemania thing but it was kind of a similar machine that ran Idol. I caught a glimpse of it all whilst I was doing that. When I was researching George, I really did resonate with what he was saying about that. I shared his anxiety. I could feel it; this whole thing of just being this ‘commodity’. It was like he said in ‘My Guitar Gently Weeps’: ‘They bought and sold you and nobody told you’. I’ve felt that in my life. I don’t feel it now but I did feel it at one stage. It’s just this thing that nobody really cares. It’s just a bunch of business and that’s ok because I understand how the world works now but I suppose, to young kids who are out there playing music, they don’t realise it’s all business. They just want to play music and back in the days of The Beatles, they were all learning together. That’s why it worked because the business people were learning how it all worked themselves. They created this monster that went so far so quickly. Everybody was learning so there was no time to structure it.”
“I think that, at the end of his life, from what I have seen, he just wanted to be quiet in his garden and he just wanted to be a true artist I suppose and that’s what I like about him too.”
Wes Carr’s ‘Here Comes The Sun’ tour continues around the country throughout June, July and August. You can catch the show at one of the venues listed below but you need to be quick to grab your tickets.
by Sharyn Hamey
Copyright © Sharyn Hamey 2015. All rights reserved
HERE COMES THE SUN TOUR DATES
12th June
Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick http://www.flyingsaucerclub.com.au/gig/wes-carr-presents-here-comes-the-sun/
13th June
Western Point Hotel, San Remo
http://tickets.oztix.com.au/?Event=51354
19th June
The Rhythm Hut, Central Coast http://www.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/wes-carr-here-comes-the-sun-a-journey-through-
the-songs-of-george-harrison/76541
20th June
Roth’s Wine Bar, Mudgee
http://www.rothswinebar.com.au/index.php/ticket-sales
26th June
The Depot, Newcastle
http://www.thedepotonbeaumont.com.au/
27th June
The Basement, Sydney http://www.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/wes-carr-here-comes-the-sun-a-journey-through-
the-songs-of-george-harrison/76495
3rd July
Centro CBD, Wollongong
http://www.centrocbd.com.au/events-at-centro
4th July
Katoomba RSL, Katoomba
http://www.katoombarsl.com.au/what-s-on/entertainment
10th & 11th July
Ellington Jazz Club, Perth http://www.ellingtonjazz.com.au/event/wes-carr-presents-a-live-tribute-to-george-
harrison-here-comes-the-sun-2/
8th August
The Cavern, Adelaide
http://tickets.oztix.com.au/default.aspx?Event=52069
For more information on Wes Carr and ‘Here Comes the Sun’, go to:
https://www.facebook.com/wescarr
https://www.facebook.com/BuffaloTales
