By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
REVIEW
COODABEEN CHAMPIONS
Drum Theatre, Dandenong
3 August
THEIR voices and wit remain strong, even if their bodies are showing their age.
The Coodabeen Champions, on their 35th anniversary tour, delighted their fans, many bracing the chilly night in their footy scarves, at the Drum Theatre on Tuesday.
The sharp repartee and gentle ribbing between the foursome – Geoff Richardson, Ian Cover, Billy Baxter and Greg Champion – was delivered like a well-oiled premiership team.
Their conversation is about football, but not obsessively.
There are sojourns into ‘talkback’ from eccentrics like Pearl, who called up for help looking for her glasses, farmer Peter from Peterborough and some other caller who had become way-laid at stripper palace Club Sloop.
And then there are the legendary songs, sung along with gusto by the audience with the help of a big screen autocue.
Musical talisman Champion, who resembled David Letterman in comic timing and appearance, led fans through the nostalgic repertoire including That’s the Thing About Football, Dermott Brereton is a Hood, The 6.15 From Hurstbridge and I’m a Receiver.
Then there was the good-natured reworkings of Carlton’s theme song We Have a Wooden Spoon and Richmond’s We Finished Ninth Again.
The audience could have lapped up more but as Champion said: “Some of you need to milk cows in the morning.”
Plus he had some concerns about getting out of Dandenong before midnight.
Well played!
