The Short Back And Sides Of Song

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday September 11, 1997

By RICHARD JINMAN Entertainment Writer

Barbershop quartets are hip. So say the members of Fred, the all-singing, all-joking foursome from Atlanta, Georgia, who are ranked No 2 in the world.

"People have a stereotype of a barbershopper as an older person with a top hat and very little hair," said the group's amiable tenor, Jerry Carlson. "OK, I'm some of that," he said patting his follicly challenged forehead. "But there are arrangements of a lot of newer tunes; the Beatles and popular show tunes from Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon."

Hardly cutting-edge though, is it?

"Well, there was a Sweet Adeline [the name given to female barbershoppers] quartet that did a couple of rap songs," said Fred's lanky baritone Clay Hine. "It was a kinda comic portrayal, though."

In Sydney yesterday for the start of The Australian Association of Men Barbershop Singers' four-day convention, Fred are big guns in the world of close-harmony competition.

Earlier this year they took out the silver medal at the international championships organised by the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America Inc (or S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. as it is known to its 35,000 members).

Both Hine and Fred's lead singer Rick LaRosa will be judges at the Australian championships, contested this year by 41 quartets and 18 choruses (singing groups of between 17 and 120 people). At 12.30 today about 550 barbershoppers will perform en masse on the Darling Harbour forecourt and for tomorrow evening's concert at the Darling Harbour Convention Centre auditorium featuring Fred and the 1997 medal-winning quartets.

What makes a killer quartet?

LaRosa said points are awarded for three criteria: music, singing and presentation.

The style of singing dates back to 18th century America - men would entertain themselves while waiting for a shave and a haircut.

"It's progressed from what most people think of as four guys standing around a lamp-post and having a good time, but not singing so good," said Hine. "Now some of the best barbershop groups are among the best vocal groups in the world."