The biggest question I had going into director Poppy Stockell’s documentary about the beloved Australian singer John Farnham is: how many times will it deploy that song? You know, the one reminding us that we’re all someone’s daughter, we’re all someone’s son. The song that arrived in 1986 and became seared on to the national psyche, to be played and replayed ad infinitum, and may God curse the swinish face of any so-called ’Strayan who doesn’t like it.
Will You’re the Voice be played once? Twice? Will it be reserved for the last act? How long can we look at each other keep watching a Farnesy doco without hearing this amazingly catchy tune about standing up to injustice? The answer is: about halfway through the runtime. But even then we hear the song in pieces, as the story around it is recounted.
The tone of Finding the Voice is fawning: this is one of those gushy accounts of music history in which almost everybody has the Midas touch, and almost everybody is a legend and/or talking about a legend. It’s also one in which any serious exploration of the subject’s vices or moral failings are no-fly zones. The film is an authorised work with Farnham’s blessing – though he did not participate in an on-screen interview and is only occasionally heard, via audio that combines an interview conducted for the film with archival material.
Stockell opens with vision of Australian society from the 1960s, accompanied by Olivia Newton-John describing the country at this time as “sheltered” and “very isolated from the rest of the world”. The film quickly segues into discussing music, with images of bars, clubs and nightlife chased by Jimmy Barnes asking: “Who was gonna be our big star? Who were we gonna worship?”
The singer Bev Harrell describes Farnham as a “star in the making”. This kind of language is often used when discussing famous musicians, as if their success was preordained and not – as is most often the case – a combination of talent, luck and opportunity. Music producer David Mackay discusses how he convinced a young Farnham to record Sadie (The Cleaning Lady) because Mackay “knew it’d be No 1”. And voilà! This sad song, incongruously performed in a jovial spirit, became the biggest hit from an Australian recording artist in the 1960s.
The ghost of poor ol‘ Sadie returned to haunt Farnham; she made him a star but not a respectable artist. Finding the Voice includes a section that recounts how Farnham was dropped by his record company and bottomed out doing crummy gigs with a band that couldn’t even keep time (when the inevitable biopic or miniseries arrives, this will be perfect for the dramatic curve downwards). But Farnham had the chance to turn the pages over (thank you, thank you) and took it when he discovered You’re the Voice, written by Chris Thompson, Andy Qunta, Keith Reid and Maggie Ryder.
Thompson says he got the idea for the song when he overslept and missed a big march against nuclear disarmament (classic muso behaviour). He KBed Farnham’s request to record it, saying: “I said no, no! The only thing I knew about John Farnham was a song about Sadie the Cleaning Lady.” But Farnham and his team went ahead and recorded it anyway, among other things becoming the first time in human history that bagpipes have sounded almost tolerable. Here the story’s dramatic arc tilts up, up and up, towards massive crowds and superstardom.
Finding the Voice has a very good energy and flow: editors Scott Gray and Steven Robinson make it fast and jumpy, like someone bouncing around at a concert. But it also keeps tumbling past bits that might’ve added more meat to the bone, reducing potentially interesting tangents to quick soundbites. Lines such as “John doesn’t like parties or gatherings” beg to be further explored, as does his depression, which is alluded to a few times but never properly addressed.
Interviewees talk on behalf of Farnham, with commentary like “he was for the first time in control of his career and really he couldn’t be happier”. The vibes are a bit weird, as if the subject is no longer with us. While an authorised production, this film imparts an impression that Farnham contributed little to it. By the end we have a good overview of his career but not the man himself. Who is he? What are his values, insecurities, weaknesses, strengths? Farnham found his voice, but it’s not really in this film.
John Farnham: Finding The Voice airs at 7.30pm on Monday 24 July on Channel 7 and will be available to stream on 7plus, and is released on 1 August on digital platforms in the UK
