Interview: Russell Crowe speaks about upcoming Warrington gig

Worldwide megastar Russell Crowe is heading to Warrington this summer, and according to the man himself: “You don't want to be the person that didn't go!”

Perhaps a household name through his acting career, starting in the likes of Gladiator, he will be heading up from Down Under in the summer for a music gig at Parr Hall.

He will play his ‘Indoor Garden Party’, featuring band The Gentleman Barbers, singer Lorraine O’Reilly and special guests, on Thursday, July 4 – back in the UK for the first time since 2017.

This is part of a mini-tour of Britain, Europe and Ireland, with gigs also scheduled for Dublin, London, Inverness, Leeds and Paris, and it will cover a range of genres – folk, pop, soul and rock.

With tickets already selling well, the Warrington Guardian caught up with the 59-year-old to talk all things music, Warrington and rugby.

“I started playing professionally in the late 70s while still in high school,” Crowe said of his love affair with music.

“I came out of high school and got the job my parents approved of, but I also started working in nightclubs two or three nights a week as a DJ

“The DJ work led to being a feature performer on the stage there, and then my first record came out in 1982, so it's 42 years of doing this.

“Movies came along quite a bit later for me. My first feature film I think was 1989, but I did my first job as an actor when I was six, and there have been little bits and pieces all the way through.

“People say, ‘oh my God, you were a child star’, but no, I was a child extra basically.”

Crowe said that both music and acting have always operated simultaneously in his life.

“I go and make movies, and then I sort of rebalance things by sitting down, writing some songs or going on tour,” he told the Warrington Guardian.

"You don't want to be the person who wasn't here," Crowe said of his upcoming Parr Hall gig

“I've had five or six albums come out, and we've got a new one coming out that coincides with this tour called Prose and Cons.

“The Indoor Garden Party is kind of like an umbrella basically, over whoever I happen to be working with at the moment.

“This album mainly centres around my work with a band called The Gentleman Barbers.”

When asked what artists inspire him, Crowe divulged: “That (musical inspiration) comes along all the time, and from such weird sort of angles into your life, the way that you hear new music.

“But if I've got longer term heroes, probably people like Elvis Costello, maybe Sting – people like that.

“Recently I've been really into this young American guy called Break. He's got a song called Cigarettes and Black Lipstick, which just hits straight away.

“There's a young English guy called Ren. He's got like six albums out already, so there's a lot to get into, and he's been really impressing me.

“I like a good song and I love the distillation of words into musical poetry. Music has been a big part of my life, so I'm always susceptible to a great song.”

The question many will be asking will be - what can people expect from a Russell Crowe gig when they go?

He said: “You can expect to have a great time!

“The band may be my mates, but they're all individual monsters at their instruments and what they do.

Parr Hall will play host to the gig

“They have toured the world with people like Silverchair or Natalie Imbruglia or The Corrs or whatever – their credits are vast.

“When we get together, you can really feel that there's a 30-year history of music between us.

“Most of the time with the shows, there are a few stories, there are a few songs you might recognise and there are brand-new songs of our own.

“Some of them come with the story, and I've learnt over time that most audiences like a couple of stories as we go, so I don't let them down in that respect.

“But we also know what our responsibility is by the end of the show, and it's our job to make people forget all the other things that are going on in their lives at the moment.

“Just to get them up dancing, having a bit of fun, so that's what we'll be doing at Parr Hall in Warrington.”

When asked if he had a message for Warringtonians - it was this.

"You definitely don't want to be the person that didn't go to the gig," he added.

"As long as there will be discussion about this show for many years after we finished it.

"I'm pretty sure we tend to take no prisoners when we get on the stage, so I'm looking forward to seeing the crowd.

"Tickets are selling pretty well for Parr Hall already, so I wouldn't wait around too much."

Tickets are on sale now, and for more information, visit tix.to/RussellCroweUK

Part two of the interview – talking all things Warrington, Wire and his friendship with Sam Burgess – will be published on the Warrington Guardian website tomorrow morning, Tuesday.