‘It is important to remember’: John Schumann revisits The Redgum Years
As he prepares for a national tour with his band The Vagabond Crew, Adelaide-based singer songwriter John Schumann is still moved to put human stories of trauma, resilience, and mateship into song.
Over four decades have passed since John Schumann wrote ‘I Was Only 19’, but the former Redgum frontman still gets stopped in the street by people affected by the haunting hit.
“You can’t imagine how often I get stopped in airports, supermarkets or at the service station by somebody who has been touched directly or indirectly by that song,” Schumann says.
“An uncle, brother, father or husband, and sometimes it’s the veterans themselves who will thank me for telling their story in such a way that the Australian people stopped and realised that they hadn’t done the right thing by those blokes.”
Despite slowing down in recent years, the 72-year-old is about to embark on a 16-stop national tour with his band The Vagabond Crew. Starting in Adelaide on August 16, each show will consist of two sets. The first, ‘Behind the Lines’, draws from Schumann’s 2008 album of the same, which brought together iconic songs that reflect upon the stories of Australians at war — from his own songs to reinterpretations of iconic Midnight Oil and Cold Chisel tracks.
“Or as we say in The Vagabond Crew, we ‘crewed’ them up a bit,” he says. “We’re not a cover act, so we’ve reinterpreted, rearranged, reimagined the songs and made them our own.”
The Chisel classic ‘Khe Sanh’, for example, features a reworked opening line that Schumann changed after first seeking songwriter Don Walker’s blessing.
“He very graciously agreed when I asked him if I could reflect the bravery of the chopper crews from the nine RAAF who flew the resupply mission into the Battle of Long Tan,” he says.
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Two days after The Gov gig Schumann and the band will head to Edithburgh on the Yorke Peninsula to perform as part of the commemoration ceremonies for Vietnam Veterans Day. The occasion also marks the opening of the Vietnam War Memorial Walk along the coast from Edithburgh to Coobowie. Schumann says there are “a couple of reasons” why he thinks it is so important to keep these stories alive.
“It is important to remember the sacrifices that ADF members — and their families — have made over the years to keep us safe, directly or indirectly. We actually owe them that.
“And I think we respond to these stories as Australians because we recognise in them important elements of our national character — mateship under adversity, resilience, courage and selflessness.
“Essentially, the best of us, and when we reflect on these stories we are reminded of who we are, who we can be, where we’ve come from and where we’re going. This is particularly the case in our uncertain world — made all the more uncertain by an idiotic, ignorant and self-obsessed occupant of the White House.”
Clearly Schumann has not consigned his political advocacy to his back catalogue, with one recent song, ‘Fishing Net in the Rain’, inspired by the 2024 Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. The song’s title is taken from a social media post by David Finney, a member of the Royal Australian Navy who took his own life in 2019.
“When he talked to the doctors in the search of some sort of explanation as to why he was feeling like he was feeling, sometimes he felt he ‘caught the answers’, but sometimes it felt like he was ‘standing out in the rain with a fishing net’,” Schumann says. “I always wanted to write a song that bolted a human face onto the Royal Commission because royal commissions can be very dry, but they are, ultimately, drawing from the stories of real human beings”.
It’s a similar approach to the one that inspired Schumann’s signature track.
“When I wrote ‘I Was Only 19’, I didn’t realise that I actually put post-traumatic stress disorder back into the national conversation,” he says.
“These guys were coming back damaged, but they weren’t putting their hands up because they didn’t understand it and they felt it was a blight on their character.
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“After that, lots of people would tell me their stories, and I learnt more about veterans and what they brought home with them, psychological injuries. I also worked with rural and remote Australians in the mental health space, flying in and out of mine sites and remote construction camps for about nine years.”
While that famous song is never far from mind, Schumann says he has largely shied away from dipping too deeply into his older Redgum material. He has made a rare exception for this latest tour, with the second set exploring his old band’s songbook.
“I don’t want to be one of those artists constantly looking in the rear vision,” he explains.
But it was members of The Vagabond Crew — Matt McNamee (drums), Rohan Powell (12-string guitar and backing vocals), Jamie Harrison (bass), Julian Ferraretto (violin), Ian “Polly” Politis (piano and backing vocals) and Anthony Thyer (electric guitar) – who pushed him to revisit ‘The Redgum Years’.
“For quite some time I’ve resisted even using the name Redgum or doing any of the other songs from the Redgum repertoire, over and above the ones that I wrote,” he says.
“But the boys in the band were brought up with those songs, and they loved them. And there was always a push on behalf of the punters to play Redgum songs. When the band suggested we frame it around ‘John Schumann and the Vagabond Crew present The Redgum Years’ I thought, that works.
“It honours the band, without us pretending to be anything that we’re not.”
And there’s no doubt the crowds will be eagerly awaiting to hear the song that shot Schumann to fame in 1983.
“It’s not one of those songs you can just stick on automatic pilot and press play,” he says. “Every time you perform it, it demands that you sing it with every shred of intensity that you can muster, because it means so much to the people about whom it’s written and their families and friends.”
John Schumann and The Vagabond Crew will perform at The Governor Hindmarsh on August 16, before touring nationally.
If you’ve been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, help is available at Lifeline on 13 11 14.
For 24-hour crisis support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or the SA Mental Health Triage Service on 13 14 65.
For support visit Beyond Blue or call 1300 22 4636.