Glenn Starr is set to bring his Hit Parade show to the Kyabram Italian Social Bocce Club as part of the Campaspe Shire Seniors' Festival.
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Glenn Starr is bringing his Hit Parade show to the Kyabram Italian Social Bocce Club for this year’s seniors festival.
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Presented by the Campaspe Shire Council, this free concert will be the highlight of all the Campaspe Shire Seniors’ Festival events.
Glenn has been singing since he was four, telling of his first experience recording in kindergarten.
“They wanted us to record our voices on cassette tapes just to see how we sounded,” he said.
“All the kids were singing nursery rhymes, and being the star that I was, I decided to sing the theme to the Greatest American Hero in its entirety.
“That’s when they figured out I had some ability to perform and entertain.”
Glenn first formed a band in high school, in the era of grunge, but wanted to do something different, so performed music from the 1950s and 1960s.
This was the right choice for him, as many of his teachers were from that era and would book his band for school performances because they played the ‘right’ music.
In Glenn’s late 20s, he started taking music seriously, leaving a career in regional radio to sing full-time.
“I got a job with a big corporate band in Melbourne, working incredible venues like the Palladium at Crown and performing for race week up on Hamilton Island, really big, high-profile gigs,” he said.
“When that ended, from the contacts I made in the industry, I started pulling a band together and putting together a tribute show.”
Along with the Hit Parade show, Glenn regularly performs a Michael Bublé or Crowded House tribute.
Until the pandemic, Glenn was performing all of his shows on cruise ships worldwide.
As part of the 2023 Seniors’ Festival, Glenn travelled across the state, performing his Hit Parade show.
It was so popular that he was asked back for more performances in 2024.
“It is just a great show because when you say 50s and 60s, there are so many different genres in that era, and there are so many songs I can do,” Glenn said.
Glenn Star’s Hit Parade show features a unique blend of pop crooners from artists like Bobby Vee, Gene Pitney, and Neil Sedaka, creating a nostalgic and emotional experience for the audience.
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“I have created my own genre and call it the pop crooners.
“It is artists like Bobby Vee, Gene Pitney, Neil Sedaka and Del Shannon.
“There is Elvis Presley in there, but we don’t do the rock and roll, it is more of the nice crooning songs.
One of Glenn’s favourites to perform in the show is a medley of past TV themes from the 1950s and 1960s.
“But my favourite song in the show, it is probably one of my favourite 50s and 60s songs is Have I the Right by the Honeycombs,” he said.
“It was released in about 1963 and has a great tempo.
“People like to sing along with it, but it is one of those songs that doesn’t get played often.
“I have people come up to me after the show all the time and go, ‘I knew every single song that you sang, and I knew all the words and I could sing along. And I have never been to a show that does that constantly for us.’
“People love to share their memories of what they did when those songs first emerged.
“I think the show really touches people in a very special way.
“For some of the songs that I do, I’ve seen people in tears, and I assume that is because it is an emotional song for them.
“And I think that is the magic of the show, and I haven’t seen anything that can pull that same kind of emotions, and that is what this show does.
“I think that is a good testament to the music and that the music lives on.
Glenn Star Hit Parade, Hits of the unforgettable 1950s and 1960s, Kyabram Bocce Club, Fisher St, Kyabram, on Wednesday, October 23, doors open at 10.15am.
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