Singular Voices: Robert Forster (solo)

Robert Forster is one of Australia’s most literate songwriters, with a solo repertoire drawn from a deep well of ideas and imagery, delivered in a conversational tone and impossible beautiful melodies.

His enviable discography of seven superb solo albums is backlit by the incandescent body of work he assembled with The Go-Betweens co-founder Grant McLennan, surpassing all their contemporaries in quality and consistency.

Many commentators have pronounced The Go-Betweens the greatest ever Australian group; Nick Cave dubbed Forster “the truest and strangest poet of his generation”; and Uncut ran a 9/10 review for his most recent album with the deadpan headline, “Greatest living Australian returns with splendid seventh solo record”.

Forster’s latest solo LP Inferno won rave reviews from MOJO, Record Collector, The Guardian, Uncut _and _The Irish Times. Its titular track, “Inferno (Brisbane In Summer)”, is Forster’s anthem to Brisbane, where he grew up and immortalised in 1988’s "Streets of Your Town", written by McLennan.  

Forster has written a superb memoir, Grant & I, and is currently writing a new novel. For his Singular Voices performance, Forster has curated a tailor-made setlist from every page of his weighty songbook, promising Go-Betweens favourites, recent solo album gems and songs from his acclaimed reissued nineties solo albums – Danger In The Past and Calling From A Country Phone.