Коллин Хэй представит репертуар Men at Work и свои сольные хиты в Тиллс-центре

For most music fans, Colin Hay will be forever known as a founding member of Men at Work, a group he spent six years in during its original run from 1978 to 1986. During that time, the original quintet released three studio albums and won the 1983 Grammy for Best New Artist. In the four decades since the first breakup, Hay has carved out a solid solo career, releasing 16 solo albums. It’s a musical legacy he’ll be bringing to the Tilles Center on Sept. 17. Most recently, Hay released Men @ Work Volume 2, the sequel to his eighth studio album, “Man @ Work.” Like that collection, Volume 2 features reworkings of Hay’s group and solo work. For the septuagenarian rocker, the timing was right. “After 23 years, it turns out [Man @ Work] sold 100,000 copies,” Hay said. “The label I’ve been working with all that time, Compass Records, sent me a little plaque [marking that milestone]. It’s not bad for an independent release, given what was possible in the past. It’s still relatively humble in a way because it’s hard to get from zero to that amount in 23 years. The label said we should really do another one and [I agreed] since I didn’t really have a new album of original material ready to go.” Highlights on Volume 2 range from “Into My Life,” a pop nugget wrapped in chiming mandolin runs and layered vocal choruses which first appeared on Hay’s 1990 sophomore bow “Wayfaring Sons,” the reggae-flavored “Blue for You” from the 1983 Men at Work album “Cargo” and closer “Next Year People,” an acoustic Dylanesque anthem of hope from the 2015 solo album of the same name. For this current tour, Hay is taking a version of Men at Work on the road, rounded out by bassist Yosmel Montejo, drummer Jimmy Branly, multi-instrumentalist Rachel Mazer, guitarist San Miguel Pérez and Hay’s spouse Cecilia Noël on harmony vocals and percussion. When asked what fans can expect, Hay responded with a clever analogy. “It’s like when you walk into a party and think, ‘So and so will be there. It’ll be good to see him or her; you want to see these friends you’ve known for years,” he explained. “But, at the same time, it would be nice to have a conversation with a couple of strangers. You don’t want to be overwhelmed by the strangers, but sometimes, if there are too many old friends, you think that you’re sick of these people.” Hay’s love of music dates back to a childhood growing up in Scotland with memories of his mother vacuuming the house to the sounds of British Big Band stars like Al Bowlly and the Ray Noble Orchestra on a big Gramophone radio as her son lay there with his head against the speaker. A major inflection point came when his father opened a record shop when he was five and ran it until Hay was 14, when the entire family emigrated to Australia. Hay is quick to point out how much of his musical passions and influences were shaped by that particular time period. “That was extraordinary, more so when I grew up and was an adult realizing that the most [remarkable] music was made during that time period, between 1958 and 1967, when we had the shop,” he recalled. “You had the birth of everything and the discovery of everything. I was, of course, mad for The Beatles, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Who and then my brother turned me onto Booker T and the MGs, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and all that stuff. That was a whole other deal. It was a rarefied way to grow up.” Landing in another continent halfway around the world also proved to be fairly earth-shattering for the young Scot, who quickly found a bubbling music scene he could relate to. “At that age, you are so impressionable,” Hay said. “By the time I went, I was almost who I was, but I was very much affected by my new environment. Although I had dreams about my Scottish homeland. The curious thing was that there were a lot of bands made up of immigrants like me. AC/DC was from Scotland and The Bee Gees were from England. The Little River Band was also made up of people from England. There were so many bands made up of immigrants in Australia during the ‘60s and ‘70s.” Fast forward to the present, and Hay’s musical journey has taken him from early multi-platinum success with Men at Work to a steady solo career and being recruited to be a member of Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band back in 2003, which led to him being a constant regular starting in 2018. With so much history under his belt, the man from Down Under has plenty of unfinished business. “I realize I don’t have as much time as I think I have, so I just need to get on with it,” he said. Men At Work will be performing on Sept. 17 at The Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, 720 Northern Blvd., Greenvale. For more information, visit www.tillescenter.org or call 516-299-3100.