Kate Ceberano revisited four decades of Australian music history in Melbourne, drawing on Divinyls, The Saints, INXS and her own catalogue, with special appearances by Fanny Lumsden and daughter Gypsy Lee adding personal connections to a show that closed with a tribute to lost Australian music greats.
Kate Ceberano turned Hamer Hall into a celebration of Australian music history on Friday 23 October, leading a sold-out Melbourne audience through a sharply arranged, three-piece performance that connected the songs of a generation with the people and experiences that shaped her own career.
The Australian Made encore tour revisits the musical landscape of 1986, the year of the landmark Australian Made concert series that brought together INXS, Jimmy Barnes, Divinyls, Models, The Saints, Mental As Anything and I’m Talking. Four decades later, Kate Ceberano is revisiting that repertoire on her own terms, stripping the material back to its essential musical elements while placing her distinctive voice at the centre.
Joined by guitarist Kathleen Halloran and multi-instrumentalist Dusty Lee Stephenson, Ceberano opened behind a stand-up drum kit with three Divinyls numbers: Science Fiction, Boys In Town and I’ll Make You Happy. The latter, originally recorded by The Easybeats before the Divinyls made it their own, established the night’s approach. These were familiar songs, but the trio was not attempting to recreate the original recordings note for note. Halloran supplied the guitar work while Ceberano brought the material into her own performance vocabulary.
A brief reference to INXS’s Burn For You led into Australian Crawl’s Slave, with Halloran switching to bass. The Saints’ I’m Stranded prompted one of the night’s more revealing recollections. Kate Ceberano remembered opening for the band, alongside The Church and Sunnyboys, at Melbourne’s Lower Plenty Hotel when she was 15. She admitted to having been a little frightened of The Saints’ Chris Bailey, an anecdote that placed her connection to this music in the reality of a young performer finding her way through Australia’s live circuit.
The Angels’ No Secrets encouraged audience participation before Ceberano took up the harmonica for Spectrum’s I’ll Be Gone. That song moved directly into Russell Morris’s The Real Thing, with the audience joining the familiar refrain. The sequence also connected to Ceberano’s own stage history. She recalled sharing the 1992 Australian arena production of Jesus Christ Superstar with Morris, who played Simon Zealotes while she played Mary Magdalene. The production ran for 84 performances, and its cast recording debuted at number one and remained there for ten weeks.
Kate Ceberano’s own catalogue was never far from the story. Sweet Inspiration, True Romantic, Pash, Holy Word and Brave demonstrated how naturally her material sat alongside the Australian classics she was revisiting. Pash brought a pronounced lift in energy, while Love Don’t Live Here Anymore gave her voice room to cut through the programmed percussion and strings.
Country singer Fanny Lumsden joined Ceberano for Mountain Song and Earth & Sky. The latter, written by Ceberano and inspired by Sara Storer, appears on her 2023 album My Life Is A Symphony, recorded with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Lumsden’s contribution provided a contemporary country perspective within a set otherwise built largely around established Australian rock and pop repertoire.
Kathleen Halloran took the vocal spotlight on You’ve Always Got The Blues, the jazz-blues duet Kate Ceberano originally recorded with Wendy Matthews. Stephenson then stepped forward for John Farnham’s Burn For You, followed by Farnham’s interpretation of The Beatles’ Help. These changes of voice helped keep the concert moving without compromising the trio’s cohesion.
The repertoire continued through Models’ I Hear Motion, Hunters & Collectors’ Talking To A Stranger, Midnight Oil’s Beds Are Burning, Models’ Outa Mind, Outta Sight and Icehouse’s Can’t Help Myself. Ceberano introduced Hunters & Collectors as her favourite band, giving Talking To A Stranger a personal context before Holy Word brought the focus back to her I’m Talking years.
One of the evening’s most personal moments came when Kate Ceberano’s daughter, Gypsy Lee, joined her for Bedroom Eyes. The appearance connected a signature song from Kate’s career with a younger generation, making the family relationship part of the performance rather than simply a guest appearance.
Before Brave, Kate spoke about travelling to the United Kingdom with her mother early in her career and turning down an offer from Stock Aitken Waterman in favour of greater creative control. The recollection added context to a song whose message carried particular resonance in that setting. It also reinforced a central thread of the concert: the songs were not simply historical artefacts, but records of decisions, ambitions and lives lived.
The closing medley brought together Mental As Anything’s If You Leave Me Can I Come Too, Models’ Barbados, Split Enz’s I See Red and Skyhooks’ Women In Uniform. Dedicated to Greedy Smith, James Freud and Shirley Strachan, the sequence acknowledged the absence of artists who helped shape the country’s musical identity. Ceberano had also paid tribute to Divinyls singer Chrissy Amphlett earlier in the night.
The three-piece format was central to the show’s success. With fewer musicians on stage, the arrangements depended on the strength of the songs, Kate Ceberano’s vocal control and the ability of Halloran and Stephenson to move between instruments and musical roles. The result kept the emphasis on songwriting and performance rather than spectacle.
For Melbourne, the Hamer Hall concert was also a homecoming of sorts, reconnecting Kate Ceberano with the city’s music history and her own formative years. Australian Made works best when those personal memories intersect with the songs themselves. By the closing tribute, the concert had become more than a run through familiar Australian hits. It was a reminder of the interconnected careers, friendships and musical legacies that continue to give those songs their meaning.
Kate Ceberano Australian Made Hamer Hall Setlist
Science Fiction (Divinyls)
Boys In Town (Divinyls)
I’ll Make You Happy (The Easybeats / Divinyls)
Burn For You (INXS snippet)
Slave (Australian Crawl)
I’m Stranded (The Saints)
No Secrets (The Angels)
I’ll Be Gone (Spectrum)
The Real Thing (Russell Morris)
Harley & Rose (The Black Sorrows)
Mountain Song (with Fanny Lumsden)
Earth & Sky (from My Life Is a Symphony, 2023) (with Fanny Lumsden)
Sweet Inspiration (from Sweet Inspiration, 2021)
You’ve Always Got The Blues (Kathleen Halloran)
Everything’s Alright (Jesus Christ Superstar)
Burn For You (John Farnham, with Dusty Lee Stephenson)
Help (John Farnham version of The Beatles song)
True Romantic (from True Romantic – The Best of Kate Ceberano, 1999)
Pash (from Pash, 1998)
I Hear Motion (Models)
Talking To A Stranger (Hunters & Collectors)
Holy Word (I’m Talking)
Love Don’t Live Here Anymore (I’m Talking / Rose Royce)
Beds Are Burning (Midnight Oil)
Outa Mind, Outta Sight (Models)
Can’t Help Myself (Icehouse)
Bedroom Eyes (from Brave, 1989) (with Gypsy Lee)
Brave (from Brave, 1989)
If You Leave Me Can I Come Too (Mental As Anything)
Barbados (Models)
I See Red (Split Enz)
Women In Uniform (Skyhooks)
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