Music / The Whitlams with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra. At Canberra Theatre, May 9. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD.

There is a long history of rock bands sharing the stage with symphony orchestras going back to 1969 when Deep Purple performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Albert Hall in London.

I have no idea what the gentlemen (and they would have almost all been men) of the RPO thought of that performance almost 60 years ago, but the members of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra certainly looked like they were enjoying themselves in the Canberra Theatre with The Whitlams.

While being multiple ARIA Award winners back in the mid-90s, the Whitlams have always been a little out of the mainstream of Australian pop music. Singer and keyboard Tim Freedman writes intelligent, literate pop songs with a great ear for a pop hook and many of their well-known songs were included in this concert.

The band is Freedman on piano, using an electronic keyboard cunningly placed in an empty grand piano case, guitarist Jak Housden and Matt Fell on bass out the front of the orchestra.

Drummer Terepai Richmond was up behind the orchestra in a Perspex enclosure, as much to allow control of the drum kit in the mix as protecting the hearing of one of the trumpet players sitting half a metre in front of the kick drum.

The CSO was at around half strength for these concerts with the sound of the orchestra blended smoothly with the band. It did not sound like a rock band with a tacked-on orchestra, with the two were well integrated with some attractive scoring, including two arrangements by Peter Sculthorpe. The conductor, Jen Winley, led the orchestra confidently throughout.

The production used some clever lighting effects.  A randomly arranged constellation of single colour-changing LED bulbs were mounted on poles or hung from the overhead gantries and added an ever changing 3D effect to the crowded stage.

The first half of the concert was quiet and relatively restrained. The second half got louder and a bit more raucous, with Freedman’s lyrics being a little lost in the mix at times. It didn’t really matter as I suspect most of the audience knew the words anyway.

This was two solid hours of the band (and orchestra) on stage, covering the 30 or more years of the band’s performance career. It was carefully paced and arranged and thoroughly enjoyable. How can you not like someone who can write lines like: “She is one in a million, so there are five more just like her in New South Wales”?