Air Supply

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Air Supply, the band best known for serenading the 1970s and ’80s with classic love ballads, is returning to (softly) rock Singapore. However, their reputation as low-key balladeers doesn’t mean the live show lacks. Just last year, Air Supply ranked number 83 on Billboard’s Hot 100: All-Time Top Artists. And these guys have earned their reputation – core duo ‘the Russells’ (Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell) have maintained their musical careers by selling out 100,000-seat stadiums across the world, long after the soft-rock genre faded out in the last decade. But, as Arista Records discovered back in 1979, when it signed Air Supply after sampling the band’s demo tape, the Russells have a gift for invoking the fervour of newfound love or the hurt of heartbreak. Sure, it’s clichéd, but no one does it like Air Supply – just ask any soft-centred Generation X-er.

So now they’re back for their 13th appearance in Singapore, an occasion that’s likely to be another sold-out show just like last year’s. It’s a safe bet there will be a raft of classics spanning the band’s three-decade career, such as ‘Just As I Am’ and ‘Even the Nights Are Better’ – early ’80s tunes still easily recognised among those who were just tots when these singles hit the charts. Be prepared, too, for a sneak peek into the band’s current project, a studio album entitled Mumbo Jumbo that’s set for release this summer. Hitchcock blogs that the new material maintains ‘the essence of Air Supply’ but with a ‘very different’ sound. The ‘mumbo-jumbo’ itself was all written by Russell, like most of the Air Supply repertoire.

If the track record is anything to go by, this means more love songs destined for airplay on classic-rock radio. Airheads will just have to wait and see if, after all these years, the band is all out of love after all.

Air Supply plays at Max Pavillion on 19 June.