Air Supply to play at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall
TROY, N.Y. » Soft rock duo Air Supply will make its Troy Savings Bank Music Hall debut this week with a Friday night show in the famous Collar City venue.
Australian rockers Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock, better known as Air Supply, will perform at 8 p.m. on Friday at the hall, located at 30 Second St. in downtown Troy.
Air Supply will play its greatest hits like “All Out of Love,” “Lost In Love,” “The One That You Love,” and “Making Love Out Of Nothing At All,” along with other music from throughout the group’s more than 40-year career.
Russell and Hitchcock first met on May 12, 1975, the first day of rehearsals for “Jesus Christ Superstar” in Sydney, Australia. They became instant friends with their common love for The Beatles and, of course, singing.
After the show’s performances, they would play late night pizza parlors, coffee bars and clubs with just one guitar and two voices.
The duo quickly gained a reputation for great harmonies and for original songs that Russell was constantly writing.
The guys made a demo on a cassette of two songs, “Love and Other Bruises” and “If You Knew Me” and took it to every record company in Sydney. Everyone turned it down but one — CBS Records — who admired their unique style.
The musicians made a single in one afternoon and it shot to number one on the national charts. Air Supply was born! That same year, they opened for Rod Stewart across Australia and then throughout the U. S. and Canada playing all of the famous huge venues before Stewart would take the stage.
Back in Australia, Air Supply had to start again and made a record called Life Support. On this record were some treasures of songs, including “Lost in Love” which went Top 10 in Australia and somehow found its way to music industry executive Clive Davis in New York.
Davis i mmediately signed Air Supply to Arista Records and in 1980, “Lost in Love” became the fastest selling single in the world, leaping to the top of all of the charts. Now Air Supply was on its way. The second single was “All Out of Love,” and that went up the charts even quicker.
Seven top- five singles later, Air Supply at that time had equaled The Beatles’ run of consecutive top five singles. The albums Lost in Love, The One That You Love, Now & Forever, and The Greatest Hits sold in excess of 20 million copies Lost in Love” was named Song of the Year in 1980, and, with the other singles, sold more than 10 million copies.
The trademark sound of Hitchcock’s soaring tenor voice and Russell’s simple yet majestic songs created a unique sound that would forever be known as Air Supply.
However, it is the live shows that always hold audiences captive around the world. Air Supply was the
first Western group to tour China, Taiwan, and countless other countries that before would not allow pop music across their borders.
Most recently, in May 2010, the duo released Mumbo Jumbo, its first studio recording in eight years. Recorded at Rus-
sell’s home studio near Park City, Utah and at Odds On’s state of the art facilities in Las Vegas with top session musicians and an orchestra, Mumbo Jumbo was produced by Russell and engineered by Odds On’s Sean O’Dwyer, whose credits include Pink Floyd, Randy Newman and Blink-182.
In 2013, the duo was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Associ-
ation’s Hall of Fame.
Air Supply celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2015 and continue to delight audiences all over the world.
Tickets to Air Supply’s upcoming Troy Savings Bank Music Hall show are available for $79, $69, $59 or $49 via phone at (518) 273- 0038, in person at the box office, or online at www.troymusichall. org.