The Waifs to return to Bunbury for 20th Anniversary Tour

Twenty years after the release of their most celebrated album, beloved Australian indie group the Waifs will return to Bunbury to revel in the milestone. The band’s Up All Night 20th Anniversary Tour will ring out in the South West on September 13 and 14, with shows at the Margaret River Heart and the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre respectively. Playing through the entire ARIA award-winning album along with a sprinkling of other fan favourites, the show offers listeners a chance to revel in the joy of the band’s early years. Speaking to the South Western Times, vocalist Donna Simpson said she had loved the process of revisiting the album and finding new ways to connect with it all these years later. “I was amazed at how we’ve sunk into it, like a pair of warm gloves,” she said. “Some of the songs we’ve never stopped playing — London Still, Lighthouse, Fisherman’s Daughter … but then there’s all these other songs that we haven’t played in years. “There’s something about the magic of when you play in a band with these people for so many years, and even though you haven’t played a song for ages, you all just slip back into your original harmonies and stuff.” Joining the group on the tour are a variety of special guests who have each affected the group in their own way, with singer-songwriter Liz Stringer earmarked for the WA leg of the tour. Though unable to recall their first meeting, Simpson said she felt like she’d known Stringer “for ever”. “Liz is an absolutely amazing singer-songwriter and a powerful, beautiful woman,” she said. “I love having other women on tour with us … to have such lovely women to sing with backstage and borrow their shoes.” Hailing from Albany along with bandmate and sister Vikki Thorne, Simpson said hometown shows, and sharing them with friends and family, had a special place in her heart. “I love coming back and having my schoolmates come to a gig. It’s always fun — there’s Team Donna and Team Vikki,” she laughed. “It’s great to have my girlfriends meet me backstage and for my kids to get to come along and run around the theatre. “And even in Bunbury we’ve got such a history there too. We used to play at Trafalgar’s all those years ago and it was so much fun.” As well as their two South West performances, the band will travel to the Great Southern, the Goldfields, Peel, Perth and the Mid West before finishing up their tour in Broome. Tickets for the tour are available via www.thewaifs.com/tour-1.