God bless the Internet and the ever meme-worthy Shannon Noll.
In recent years, thanks to the combined effort of trolls and Shannon's larrikin sense of humour, he has become known as the sort of bloke who likes to borrow things and not return them. It's all in good fun he reckons.
“Mate, no, I'm not a serial borrower,” Nollsie laughs when the topic arises.
“It all came together from a few tweets over a couple of weeks that I put up. I posted a photo of a $5 note I found on the street in the Cross; I thought 'if this note could talk it'd have a pretty interesting story', I'd expect. People started saying 'yeah, that's my $5 note', so I think that's where the borrowing thing came from.”
This July, Shannon makes his way to the Gold Coast for his first-ever performance at Groundwater Country Music Festival held in Broadbeach. “I'm absolutely stoked to be on the bill and really champing at the bit to get into the show,” he says.
“I saw a lot of stuff on Facebook last year and just thought it would be such a great festival to be a part of; very lucky to get the opportunity this year and really keen and eager to get up there and put on a show.
“We put the show together tailored to the crowd; I'm looking forward to getting up there and hooking right in. It's the first time we've played there, so we want to make a good impression. And what better place in the country to do it? I'll think I'll enjoy this one, mate,” he laughs.
In December, Shannon released a video clip for his song 'Long Live The Summer', which was shot as an 'anti-film clip' that poked fun at all the things you get asked to do during a shoot. “We had a great time filming that. All the extras who got involved were all really good, fun people so it was a lot of fun all-round, it was really enjoyable,” Shannon says.
“We were just having a bit of fun with it, a tongue-in-cheek type of style. We got halfway through it and thought it was more of an anti-film clip than anything else,” he laughs. “We were having a bit of a joke, but it was a lot of fun. The guys who got involved were all eager to be a part of it and lots of fun having them in there.”
Before Shannon hits the Groundwater stage however, in April he'll be performing his five-times platinum debut album 'That's What I'm Talking About' live and in full at a one-off concert in Sydney. “I'm really excited about this one,” Shannon says.
“We toured that album for two years early in the piece just off the back of the show ['Australian Idol'], so I can't wait to get out on the road and do these songs as is again. I've been listening to them in the headphones and [it's] bringing back memories, so it'll be a lot of fun going down that road and playing these songs again.”
