About
Bill Wade Live is a singer-songwriter for hire in Hervey Bay, QLD.
Bill Wade has played to ten people and to ten thousand, including work alongside bands and symphony orchestras. Solo, it's two acoustic electrics, a Taylor and a custom surf guitar, harmonica and a modest pedal setup. He'll sit in a relaxed corner of the room with Landslide, Flame Trees, Heart of Gold and The Weight, then lift it when the night wants lifting, with backing tracks ready if there's dancing. He's an award-winning songwriter too, and his originals sit in the americana, folk rock and country space. If This Guitar Could Talk took an Australian Songwriter Award for country. He's self-sufficient in smaller rooms and patches into a PA when the crowd goes past fifty. A qualified audio engineer, with Working With Children clearance and NDIS certification for family and special needs events. Based in Hervey Bay.
Watch
The show
The default is relaxed. Bill plays acoustic in a way that fills a room without taking it over, which suits a venue, a long lunch or a reception where people want to hear each other. But he'll lift it when the night asks, and there's a stack of classic favourites ready for exactly that. Festivals and events wanting original music get a different set again, drawn from a large catalogue of his own songs across americana, folk rock and country, some of them award winners. He's played to rooms of ten and crowds of ten thousand, including work with bands and symphony orchestras. His recordings, including instrumental and ambient releases, are distributed globally.
On the day
In smaller rooms he's self-sufficient and needs nothing from the venue. Once the crowd goes past 50, or the space is large, patching into a house PA is easy and preferable, so let him know what your venue has. He performs with two acoustic electrics, a Taylor and a custom surf guitar, harmonica and a modest pedal setup. Where dancing is on the cards, weddings especially, he brings backing tracks to pick the energy up.
Performance options
Solo is the usual booking, but it's not the only one. For a venue that suits it, Bill can bring in Aussie & the Menace, his accompaniment band, and turn the evening into a full band show. That line-up plays the classic covers a pub crowd expects, alongside country, americana and Aussie pub rock. The band travels, and accommodation can be organised where the distance calls for it, so a regional venue isn't out of reach. Say which version you're after when you enquire and he'll tell you whether the room suits the band.
Insurance and paperwork
Working with Children Check
Song list
Riptide, Wagon Wheel, Copperhead Road, Flame Trees, Free Falling, Chasing Cars, Heart of Gold, 3 am, Reckless, No Secrets, The Weight, Working Class Man, To Her Door, Sunsets, Hotel California, Landslide, Sweet Caroline, Country Roads, and originals, Daddy's Guns, Hurricane, If This Guitar Could Talk, and Simpleman (see video above).
Set 1
1. Heart of Gold
2. The Weight
3. When I Was Five (original)
4. Hold on
5. If This Guitar Could Talk (original - Australian Songwriter Award - Country)
6. Big Montana Sky (original)
7. Hurricane (original)
8. Stuck In the Middle
9. Lullaby / Rockabye
10. Wild West Show (original)
Set 2
11. Come Back Again / Eagle Rock
12. Always Gonna Be that Way (original)
13. No Secrets
14. Cabin in the Woods (original)
15. Gulf of Mexico
16. Crystal Ball (original)
17. Down on the Corner
18. You’ve Got a Good Heart (original)
19. Bramble Lane (original)
20. Angels Among Devils (original)
21. Daddy’s Guns (original)
