It has become a tradition at the Hats Off to Tamworth Festival to pay tribute to a great of the industry on the final day of the festival.
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This year, the concert on Sunday at South Tamworth Bowling Club, from 1pm, will honour the late, great, songwriter, Stan Coster. And it’s not the only tribute concert at Hats Off this year, with a free gig on Saturday night remembering the late Brian Young, who died last year.
The line-up at the Stan Coster tribute includes Coster’s daughter Tracy, as well as Brian Howard, Brendan Smoother and a character named ‘Clancy’.
“Brian was a very good mate of my dad’s,” Tracy Coster said. “They shared a lot of memories and stories, so Brian will be very entertaining as he’ll be able to tell us some of the anecdotes about dad that he shared, as well as sing his favourite songs.”
She said Brendan Smoother came to the final Tenthill Turnout this year, which has been an annual tribute to Stan Coster in Queensland each May.
“He was great. He’s a newcomer to country music, and definitely new to bush ballads and my father’s style of music. He tells me that he discovered Stan Coster songs through John Williamson, then went out to research other Coster songs.”
The other artist on the line-up is more mysterious.
“Clancy just goes by the name Clancy, and he comes from down south somewhere,” Tracy said. “Clancy used to come along and watch the Stan Coster show when we played at the golf club there, which we’d do every year.
“He grew up watching dad perform, and has always been a huge fan.”
The band will include Trevor Letton on drums, Dan Manning on bass as well as Steve Newton and Dally Croft.
Stan Coster’s song-writing career began in the early 1960s when he met Slim Dusty and sent him a tape of songs. The tape contained one of the best collections of bush songs Dusty had heard, and he would go on to record more than 70 Stan Coster songs.
On Saturday night, the launch of the Brian Young Show album will start at 6pm at Tamworth City Bowling Club.
The concert, as well as being an album launch, is a fundraiser towards getting a bronze bust of Young erected in Bicentennial Park, and a signed Troy Cassar-Daley guitar will be raffled.
Cassar-Daley was one of the many artists to have cut their teeth in country music, touring with the Brian Young Show.
Some of the others will be performing on the night, including Bobby Howson, Freddy Bowen, Kate Daniel, Lance Birrell, Finnian Johnson and Tommy Miller.
