One of Baykali Ganambarr’s fondest childhood recollections is being mesmerised by the legendary Warumpi Band when they played on Elcho Island where he grew up.
He’s now drawing on those memories narrating the band’s tribute musical Big Name, No Blankets, playing the role of founder and guitarist Sammy Tjapanangka Butcher. They are playing the Concert Hall at QPAC, September 20-21, as part of Brisbane Festival.
“Watching and listening to their music, I was really intrigued as a little kid growing up, looking at them as role models to our community,” Ganambarr says. “It was so inspiring watching all these community blokes go and perform and share their story and culture through music. Warumpi Band was the first rock band to be on the radio that sung in language and that was a huge thing back then and it still is now.”
Big Name, No Blankets has taken six years to evolve into the hit production that will grace the Concert Hall stage for Brisbane Festival. It was a huge hit at Sydney Festival at the beginning of 2024 and recently had a triumphant homecoming to the Northern Territory with a massive season at the Darwin Amphitheatre.
The musical brings to stage not only the people in the band but a moment in time, all intricately linked to Country – the remote Northern Territory where the Warumpi Band first burst forth in the mid-1980s to national fame.
Ganambarr’s excitement radiates down the phone during this interview, even after months on the road performing Warumpi Band classics such as Blackfella/Whitefella, Waru (Fire), My Island Home and Jailanguru Pakarnu.
“I’m so proud and so privileged to be able to show the audience that this is what Warumpi Band used to do, this is what they did, and a bit of background story about where they are from and how they all came about,” he says. “All the family back home, they’re really happy and excited.”
For Ilbijerri Theatre Company artistic director Rachael Maza, part of the triumph of Big Name, No Blankets is how the show has evolved. She is co-director with Anyupa Butcher, the charismatic daughter of Sammy Butcher, who first came to her at Ilbijerri Theatre with the concept for the show.
“We are fully black self-determined, self-governed black theatre company, and we are about telling our stories and telling them our way,” Maza says.
“This incredible moment during the ’80s and ’90s – this iconic band that travelled the world and that speaks to the heart of who we are as Australians for a moment in time,” Mazda says. “These blackfellas and whitefella are working, playing and creating magical music together, singing in the language of this land from the heart of this country and the stories and the politics relevant to that mob and actually that speak to all of us.”
She hopes they have captured the beauty of Warumpi Band – how they spoke with joy and compassion while actually shining a light on serious issues from a black perspective.
“That first song that brought them to national attention was Jailanguru Pakarnu, where it just speaks to the lived experience of being a blackfella. They’re walking down the street and then there’s this other fellow walking down the street and he’s strutting his stuff. And they’re like, `Hey, where are you from? You look great, you going to a wedding?’ And he reckons, `no, I just got out!’ and that’s what Jailanguru Pakarnu means – I just got out of jail.
“So, speaking to the lived experience of going in and out of jail is very common and familiar for our mobs. It’s a song that’s done with humour and it’s beautiful, and it speaks with that classic generosity and heart that is true of Warumpi, but it’s actually speaking to something much deeper and much more serious.”
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After each performance, Maza says they’re always approached by people who saw the band in their heyday. “All of those stories that come out, it’s so incredible,” she says.
Following Brisbane Festival, the Big Name, No Blankets crew will hit the road again. Ganambarr cannot wait to return to the smaller Outback communities so integral to Warumpi Band, as well as doing a prison tour.
“I’ve been telling everyone about it and they’re like, `oh, that’s like Johnny Cash all over’,” he says. “What I really can’t wait for is to show it to the mob, how it all began, where it all began in Papunya, for instance. That’s where Warumpi Band first began. And, yeah, that’s where I really want to take it, to be honest.”
Big Name, No Blankets plays the Concert Hall, QPAC, September 20-21; qpac.com.au
brisbanefestival.com.au
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