Performance has always been in Liam Cooper’s blood since “banging pots and pans” like drums as a youngster and now he’s finally trying to get his full-time career off the ground.
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The 26-year-old chose to pursue marketing on the advice of his parents after leaving Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts, but hopes to “spark something” with a new covers show he’s bringing to Thirroul’s Anita’s Theatre on August 18.
“I’m actually not out to make a profit with this launch show, it’s purely a case of covering costs so that I can set this show up to be a long-running success,” he said. “Vegas here we come.”
The two-act piano show will be accompanied with a seven-piece band with storytelling about the songs and artists such as Billy Joel, Elton John, Ray Charles and Prince. Cooper will use the Thirroul show as a testing ground in the hope of touring it in 2019.
All they want to hear are songs that they know. So it’s really important that you can deliver that to be a musician that can work full-time or part-time.
- Liam Cooper
A strong repertoire of cover songs, he said, was essential to being a sustainable musician.
“That’s what people in pubs, bars, league clubs – all they want to hear are songs that they know. So it’s really important that you can deliver that to be a musician that can work full-time or part-time,” he said.
“If I was only doing originals I would be on a very different path but I wouldn’t have any of these regular gig work and I wouldn't be as a quality performer that I am because I wouldn’t have done all of those gigs and learnt all of that repertoire.”
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He hopes to not only entertain with his band and grand piano but also give a “history lesson” of sorts by chatting in between songs.
“I really think that when you introduce a song with a bit of background people listen to it completely differently and it gives them, almost listening to it in a different light and to the words a little bit differently,” he said.
“Essentially it’s tied together with a little bit of commentary from me around the songs, the history, who wrote them, whether there are any funny stories.”
Kings of the Keys, Anita’s Theatre Thirroul, August 18. Tickets via www.kingsofthekeys.com