Bringing the history of Western Australia to life in pictures and songs

This Fringe World, Peter Barry is set to take Perth audiences on a musical and visual journey around Western Australia in Western Australia in Pictures and Songs. Combining original acoustic music with historic and contemporary photographs, mining industry and Spare Parts Department inmates Gudgeon Pinn and Nitro Gasket, are joined by Perth based singer, songwriter Bethany O’Brien to transport audiences through the state of Western Australia and iconic locations. Western Australia in Pictures and Songs will play at select venues from Saturday, January 18 to Saturday, February 8, with tickets on sale now. BEC WELDON sat down with Gudgeon Pinn to hear all about it.

Gudgeon! Thanks again for joining us again for 2025. We had the pleasure of interviewing you for the 2024 Fringe World season. What’s new since we last spoke?

I guess 2024 turned out to be surprising for many of us and unfortunately not always for the best of reasons when we look at what’s currently happening around the world, so everyone involved in the show was keen to get together again and do something for everyone to enjoy at Fringe World 2025.

We were all delighted with how well Western Australia in Pictures and Songs was received last year, so we’re really keen to take the show out to more people in some new suburbs of Perth and beyond; hence, in 2025 we will be performing more shows at three new venues in Maylands, Northbridge and Kalamunda.

Western Australia in Pictures and Songs pays homage to the iconic landscapes and iconography of Western Australia through historic and contemporary photography and original songs. What inspired you to develop this show format?

Western Australia has such great stories, people, and places, and I love that I get to immortalise some of these in songs in the same way that Irish folk and American popular music always have. When I saw some of the magnificent images from the 19th and early 20th centuries in the State Library of WA collection, it just occurred to me how well the songs and photographs would work together to provide an entertaining, thought-provoking, and memorable show.

After a successful 2024 season, you’re back for the 2025 festival. What can new and returning audiences expect from the show?

Once again, original songs composed by myself, Bethany, and Bethany’s mum, with strong Western Australian themes, will be performed to accompany projections of old and contemporary photographs from WA. Last year’s show was so well received that it would be foolish to tinker too much, so we are retaining most of the song and photograph combinations when we take them out to a wider audience.

However, we have introduced two new songs, including one that has been specially written to celebrate playing in Kalamunda! Also, I’m delighted to say that this year Bethany is taking the lead in more songs so we all get the immense pleasure of hearing her beautiful, angelic voice to the fore more often.

Mining engineer, original songwriter and performer, budding historian—you’ve got quite the resume! How has the format of the show been influenced by your artistic background and interests?

My dad is a very keen photographer and always had a great record collection, so I have had an interest in music and photography as long as I can remember. I am also fascinated by the past and love the way a well-crafted verse or lyric can magically bring such stories to life. Western Australia in Pictures and Songs brings so many of my passions together!

Take us back to the development of the show: did the original songs or the photography come first? Was there an image that started it all?

Nearly all of the songs we are performing were written before I had the idea for the show, with the exception of the new Kalamunda song. Having said that, I never stop writing songs with connections to Western Australia, and now I probably have enough songs to do another two shows without any repetition!

The idea of combining the songs with historic photographs took root when I saw photographs of 19th-century miners in the Goldfields, and I realised how they resonated with a song called The Queen of the Murchison, which I had written about the harsh loneliness of gold mining at that time.

This is a show with such poignant national iconography and connections! How have audiences reacted to the shows, and was it in ways you were anticipating or hoping for?

We’ve really appreciated how well audiences have liked the shows; they sang along with the songs, and it was really pleasing to see how they studied the images to try to get a sense of how familiar locations may have changed, as well as their empathy with people in the photographs who have long since passed away.

Like your namesake, you’re a connector—in this case of artists—working with Bethany to write an oeuvre of original songs. Can you tell us about the collaborative process behind your songwriting?

I love your analogy; many people aren’t aware of what a gudgeon pin is! I’m actually quite non-collaborative when I write songs; I tend to occupy my own songwriting bubble and can take weeks teasing and polishing before I will consent to allowing anyone to hear a new song.

Once I do loosen my grip, however, Bethany and Nitro are brilliant at developing the arrangement of a new song with different harmonies and dynamics and making it into so much more than I would ever have achieved on my own.

Western Australia in Pictures and Songs will play at select venues from Saturday, January 18 to Saturday, February 8, 2025. Tickets are on sale now from fringeworld.com.au