If you’re anything like us, you did a major “Wait, what?” when you heard Australian politician Anthony Albanese was responsible for saving Sticky Fingers from breaking up, but it’s true. Just ask Stickys bassist Paddy Cornwall.
“The band came very close to breaking up last year. There was this point where it wasn’t going to go on,” Paddy revealed in an interview with Music Feeds. “…we couldn’t get some visas sorted to get over to our tour of the States. So morale for the band was pretty low and we felt like if we weren’t going to get over there, that might’ve been it for us.”
“But then miraculously, we got it sorted. Anthony Albanese got wise to the fact that we were having some trouble because of minor criminal record stuff like drink driving charges et cetera. But it turns out he was a fan of the band, so he got us all cleared and got us over there.”
Yep, you can thank Albo for bringing Sticky Fingers back from the brink of collapse. According to Paddy, it was on the band’s recent US tour that the bandmates, who hadn’t spoken in months, reconnected and remembered why they love being in a band so much in the first place.
Speaking to The Huffington Post, Albo himself has since revealed just what went on behind the scenes and how he became the Newtown band’s guardian angel in their time of need. “They had a big tour booked and it was getting closer to when they had to leave on the tour,” he told HuffPo.
“Obviously having sold out concerts in the USA is a big deal for an Aussie band. It would have been a disaster for them if they hadn’t been able to tour. They contacted us, I spoke to the U.S. ambassador John Berry who I know, and essentially it got fixed pretty quickly.”
“It was just one of those things, it just needs a push sometimes. The bureaucracy can sometimes take a long time in the U.S. and Australia.” Albo said he was happy to help out a bunch of local boys who hailed from his inner-west electorate.
“They are locals, inner-west lads and some of them went to Newtown Performing Arts High,” he said. “I was aware of the band because of that and my interest in music, and the fact many of their songs are about the inner-west.”
“They’ve got a song called ‘Australia Street’, which is the street where my son went to school. There’s an Australian economic interest here as well. Ambassador Berry understood that a successful Australian band is essentially an export. It was a good thing to be able to get sorted.”
STICKY FINGERS NATIONAL TOUR DATES
Friday 28 October
Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Friday 4 November
The Tivoli, Brisbane
Saturday 5 November
NightQuarter, Gold Coast
Friday 11 November
Odeon Theatre, Hobart
Saturday 12 November
Festival Hall, Melbourne
Friday 18 November
Metro City, Perth
Saturday 19 November
Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide
Wednesday 30 November
Beyond The Valley Music Festival, Lardner VIC
