Billy Thorpe and the Aztec’s classic 1973 performance at the Sydney Opera House happened by error.
The Aztecs drummer Gil Matthews tells Undercover that the people at the Sydney Opera House thought they had booked in a traditional South American act, not the loudest rock band ever to play an Australian stage, when they signed on to take The Aztecs.
“The board of Governors at the Opera House, they thought they were getting a sting quartet called The Aztecs,” Gil tells Undercover.fm. “For some reason someone came along with the paperwork and they sat down in meetings and they actually thought they were getting a quartet with strings and violas. It was too late once the Aztecs had set up and the P.A. was set up. I think they just thought at that point lets go home. So we became the first rock band in the Opera House. It wasn’t meant to be but it happened”.
The concert was documented on the live album ‘Steaming Live At The Opera House’ which has just been released for the first time ever on CD through Matthews’ Aztec Records label.
The album almost completes the digitising of Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs catalogue. There is just one more album to go, ‘The Hoax Is Over’.
“There is a bit of a problem with The Hoax Is Over. First of all, they have lost the master tapes for it. Secondly, there is a beeping going on in ‘The Gangster of Love’ and I am trying to work out someway I can get rid of the beeping so I can actually let the word go through”.
VIDEO: The Aztecs, watch the Gil Matthews interview here:
