“THERE were times we’d be on stage sound-checking – and we weren’t touring with a keyboard player at the time - and we would hear keys and we’d turn around and there’s Bob [Dylan] on the keys at soundcheck playing along to London Still.”

That was a story from The Waifs’ Donna Simpson on how crazy 2003 was for the band following the release of their Up All Night album.

The band had been touring solidly since the Simpson sisters Donna and Vikki formed The Waifs with guitarist Josh Cunningham in Western Australia in 1992, released three albums independently and had earned a reputation internationally as a live act, but mainstream success had eluded them until the release of the single London Still.

“We hadn’t really had much airplay before, and when the radios picked up on that song, people just fell in love with it,” Donna says.

“They really connected with that song and then came Lighthouse and the album went through the roof and it was a lovely feeling. It was terrifying for us though. It really was.”

The Waifs released their fourth album Up All Night in January, 2003. It debuted at No 3 and was certified gold four weeks after release, taking the band by surprise.

“We were touring nine months solid in the US at the time, really big, long, arduous tours that just kept going and going and going,” Donna says.

“We had no idea. We started getting emails from friends and family saying ‘they’re playing you on the radio’. We were thinking, ‘Oh yeah, at 3am’.

“We got back and it was just massive. We went to the ARIA awards, and then there was the Triple J Hottest 100. We couldn’t believe the scope of what had happened while we were away and not even out there playing.”

The first EP the band had ever released, London Still, hit the shelves in July 2002, six months before the album Up All Night was released.

Donna wrote the song while in London after a long North American tour.

“I think it’s the honesty in the song. I’ve always said it sort of wrote itself. I was homesick. I didn’t like London. A lot of people go there and live there for 18 months … and the Pound, and it is so far away. It really is so far away and there is a big contingent of Australians over there that were probably also feeling a bit the same. They missed home; you think of those Sunday sessions in a small town and sunshine. The song is I’m saying I’m okay here, it’s alright, but what I wouldn’t give for just one weekend at home.”

The song was a turning point. It received two nominations at the ARIA Music Awards of 2002 for Best Independent Release and Breakthrough Artist – Single.

ON THE ROAD WITH DYLAN

Bob Dylan selected the band to support him on his 2003 Australian tour when their manager Philip Stevens put their name forward after a request from Donna.

Donna and Vikki had started out playing Bob Dylan covers in pubs in West Australia.

“He chose us off hearing the Up All Night album. He loved it. He commented on quite a few of the songs,” Donna says.

“We were told not to look at him. That was from the promoters and the people around. Bob was trying to talk to us and we’re like turning our backs on him and he couldn’t work it out.”

Dylan then asked the band to support him on his US tour.

“Then we got to know more of the real Bob. He is great, he is amazing, he is lovely.

“That was like a highlight of your life. And yet now talking about it, you’ve got to pinch yourself.”

ANNIVERSARY TOUR

Twenty years later, the band are back touring the Up All Night album with a massive 44 show tour of the country to celebrate the anniversary.

“It’s really comfortable. We were really comfortable with the album that we made. We knew we’d made something special when we made it.

“There is a certain alchemy with this band. When we went to rehearse, a lot of the songs we hadn’t played since we released the album, they’ve never really seen the light of day live, and we all got together and bang it was just there.

“I just think that was beautiful magic and that is why we play together. We didn’t have to re-learn harmony. It just felt right; it was like a good pair of jeans that you slip on.”

The Waifs Up All Night 20th Anniversary Tour comes to Queensland next month with shows at The Events Centre, Caloundra on July 19; The Tivoli, Brisbane on July 20 and 21; the Empire Theatre, Toowoomba on July 22; and Miami Marketta, Gold Coast on July 23.