It’s not often that a successful entertainer comes home to play in his home town, even rarer at a time when most people would want to be with their family. But Darren Coggan could think of nothing he would rather do more than play a Christmas show in Glen Innes. CRAIG THOMSON caught up with Darren and found a man who loves his family and has a secret (well, not now) love of eighties hair bands.
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On Saturday December 5 Darren Coggan will walk onto the stage at the Glen Innes and District Services Club, strum a chord and smile. He will be in his home town and doing the thing he loves to do the most, sing and play music.
Coggan was born in Glen Innes and the show will also double as somewhat of a family reunion.
“Both my sister and I were born in Glen Innes as was my Mum, Kaye Coggan (nee Fletcher) and my mum was captain of Glen Innes High School,” he said.
“My Grandfather ran a taxi service in Glen, whist my Grandmother owned a small goods corner store; I spent the first 7 years of my life living at 6 Lindsay Avenue before we moved to Wagga Wagga in 1980.
“I have been singing as long as I can recall. My parents have cassette tapes of me when I was about three or four singing 'Rhinestone Cowboy' with my little ukulele so it seems very fitting that we take this show to Glen Innes - we will literally be 'Home for Christmas'.”
Coggan says the evening will bring him much joy, not only because he will be singing for locals, but because his parents will be in the audience.
“My parents are actually driving all the way from Wagga Wagga to see the show in Glen,” he said.
“It is their wedding anniversary the night of the performance and I believe they are catching up with all their old friends at the show, so it will make for quite a special element to the evening for my sister and I.”
The 'Home for Christmas' show will be a true variety show that should appeal to all age groups in town.
“Essentially, the evening is a sit down, dinner and show, with a 'Christmas' theme to both the meal and entertainment,” he said.
“The show features myself and my sister, Naomi, and is a reflection on the year that's been and a toast to the New Year through a collection of celebrated songs in the festive spirit of Christmas.
“There will be songs featured from my various award winning albums, songs from the various musicals I have appeared in, songs from my show Peace Train and obviously some Christmas tunes as well, so we hope to get everyone up and dancing and celebrate this joyous time of year.”
Coggan has been back to Glen recently and says he feels the connection in his blood every time he returns.
“I've had the pleasure of compering and performing at the Celtic Music Awards at the Services Club the past two years and it is such a great festival and as I have Scottish blood in my veins, as soon as those bagpipes fire up, the hairs stand on the back of my neck,” he said.
“The Celtic festival has been another great 'coming home' occasion for my family. The Fletcher clan travel from all over to gather in Glen Innes in May and I feel very proud to be a part of that heritage and indeed the Glen Innes community.”
Coggan says he is working on new materiel and may play some of that at the show.
“I am working on a new album right now and hope to have it out mid-2016, I will be showcasing a few of the tracks whilst in Glen Innes at the show,” he said.
Coggan says that whilst he tends to veer towards singer songwriter’s for inspiration he does have a few guilty pleasures on his iPod.
“Well, I'm a child of the eighties, so there is a sprinkling of big hair bands on my iPod namely Bon Jovi,” he said.
“I’ve been fortunate that my music has taken me all over the place, I have performed in every major venue in Australia over the past few years, my favourite experience of these was the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall in 2011, we sold out the show, 2000 people all stood on their feet to applaud, it was quite a rush.
“So I guess The Sydney Opera House would have to be my favourite place to perform,” he says with a grin, before cheekily closing our chat with; “a close second though would have to be the Glen Innes and District Services Club on Saturday December 5.”
