Little River Band offers a mellow, throwback sound with lush arrangements and in one song even mentions Glenn Miller.
The 1978 hit was “Reminiscing” with these lyrics: “We were hand in hand/Glenn Miller’s band was better than before/We yelled and screamed for more….”
Little River Band plays Thursday, March 10 at 7 p.m. in the Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center. They won’t have Glenn Miller’s band, but will have the backing of The Villages Philharmonic Orchestra.
For nearly a decade from the mid-’70 until mid-80s, Little River Band was a hit machine. The bandcomes from Australia and their charting singles include: “Cool Changes,” “Lady,” “Take It Easy On Me” and “Lonesome Loser.”
The band has sold over 30 million records and was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame.
Wayne Nelson plays bass and sings; he has been with Little River Band for over three decades.
“This group of guys is unique in that we all cut our teeth on the same types of music when we were young,” Nelson states on the band’s website. “We have the utmost respect for the history of the band, and for what Little River Band songs mean to our fans…but we always look for a way to bring something new to the stage.”
George Martin, who produced the Beatles albums, worked with Nelson and Little River Band back in the early ‘80s.
Nelson said Martin had one rule: don’t talk about the Beatles in the studio.
“Otherwise, we’d sit around and talk for two weeks and never get anything done,” Nelson told the Web site ultimateclassicrock.com. He added that Martin told the band:
“We can talk about the Beatles at dinner; ask me any question you want and we’ll talk about it at dinner. When the dinner bell rings, it’s on, and when we’re done with dessert, it’s off and we go back to work.”
Nelson has fond memories of working with Martin.
“I had a great time with him,” he told ultimateclassicrock.com. “He wrote me a letter at the end and said: ‘It was a pleasure to work with you; hope we do it again.’ It was an awesome experience. I can’t say enough about it.”
