Planning for a barnstormer

Jimmy Barnes says songs from his last record are unlikely to make it onto his setlist in Lower Hutt in February.

Though proud of his latest body of work, he doesn’t think songs from Och Aye the G’nu – a children’s album he created with the Wiggles, will cut it with the Hutt audience at the Red Hot Summer Tour.

An unlikely collaboration at first glance; The Wiggles were formed by members of The Cockroaches who are mates of Barnes’ from the pubrock scene.

Barnes is now back in rock n’ roll mode recording a new album, and he will be bringing that energy to the stage when he returns to New Zealand.

With The Living End, Diesel and The Angels also on the bill, he doesn’t want to be made to look like a shrinking violet.

‘‘It’s going to be full-on.

‘‘You’ve got to be at the top of your game or you’ll get blown away.’’

Kiwi fans last saw Barnes earlier this year on his Working Class Man tour.

Supporting his book of the same name, the rocker says the tour was a cathartic experience as he switched between the roles of singer and raconteur.

He sang lean, stripped back versions of songs from his back catalogue and told yarns from his personal life and storied musical career.

‘‘It really made me assess what I do, and doing those songs and stories have made me a better singer and songwriter.’’

While Barnes’ Wiggles caper might have added children to his legions of fans his fame has also spiked among another younger generation of music lovers following his trademark scream being featured on a track by eccentric Australian musician Kirin J Callinan.

Describing Callinan as ‘‘creative’’ and ‘‘out there’’ he was only too happy to lend his howl to Big Enough on the 2017 album

Bravado.

Barnes’ appearance in the song’s music video – dressed as a screaming cowboy, has since been turned into a series of memes.

"Screaming for five minutes [on Big Enough] put me in touch with more people [in America] than 40 years of touring. It was a lot of fun.’’

While his stable of fans grows, Barnes says he cannot forget his Kiwi fans who were the first outside of Australia to embrace Cold Chisel.

Barnes has been performing in New Zealand for more than four decades and says the Red Hot Summer Tour is not only an opportunity to get back over here, but to take his music away from the main centres.

The Red Hot Summer Tour will visit Lower Hutt’s Hutt Recreation Ground on February 5, 2019. Tickets are on sale now.