AIR SUPPLY

80′s Hitmaking Duo Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock To Appear on “Live With Regis & Kelly” on Tuesday, October 4th and “Fox & Friends” Wednesday, October 5th

Air Supply comes to the Big Apple next week to appear on “Live With Regis & Kelly” on Tuesday, October 4th and on Fox News Channel’s morning show “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday, October 5th.  Founding members Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock will perform songs from It Was 30 Years Ago Today their first Live Concert DVD recording.

“Graham and I always enjoy any chance we get to reach out to our fans!” according to Hitchcock.

NEARLY THREE DECADES LATER,
THE WORLD IS STILL LOST IN LOVE
WITH AIR SUPPLY

80′s Hitmaking Duo Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock Celebrate Three Decade Milestone With Release of ‘ It Was 30 Years Ago Today ,’ Their Second Live CD and Very First Live DVD Recording

Mix of Classic Hits and Newer Songs Recorded In August 2004 At Canada ‘s 7,000 Seat Casinorama

If James Brown is the ‘Hardest Working Man in Show Business,’ the hardest working band over the past three decades has to be Air Supply, whose principals Graham Russell (keyboards, guitars, vocals) and Russell Hitchcock (vocals) have literally toured together every year since meeting while performing in a Sydney, Australia production of Jesus Christ Superstar in 1975. With a titular wink to The Beatles, their mutual chief influence, the duo celebrates its incredible personal and professional hitmaking partnership on It Was 30 Years Ago Today , their very first Live Concert DVD Recording whose audio portion can also be played independently as a CD.

Filmed and recorded in August 2004 at the 7,000 Seat Casinorama arena outside of Toronto, the show features all of the hits that made them the kings of pop and Adult Contemporary radio in the early 1980s—“Lost In Love,” “All Out of Love,” “Here I Am (Just When I Thought I Was Over You),” “Even The Nights Are Better,” “Two Less Lonely People In The World,” “Sweet Dreams” and “Making Love Out of Nothing At All.” The concert also includes a handful of the prolific group’s best post-heyday songs, including the brand new “Shadow of The Sun,” and one of their live show’s longtime signature moments—Russell and Hitchcock going out into the audience and singing “The One That You Love.”

“My favorite part of our concerts is the interaction with the audience, and going into the crowd to sing that song really defines the way we connect with our fans,” says Russell, who wrote or co-wrote most of Air Supply’s signature hits. “We love doing it. I think the reasons these songs continue to resonate with people all over the world is that they are simple and infectious. Our message is simple and they bring people together.

“They’re classic tunes that stay popular because people still want to hear them on the radio, and we still love playing them live,” he adds. “It’s particularly exciting when parents bring their kids to the shows, the way we’re able to span the generations. Because so many of our fans have been so loyal over the years, we’re always finding new ways to change the show and make it more exciting for them. It had been ten years since our previous live CD that was recorded in Taiwan , and Russell and I thought it would be a good idea to do this DVD as a time capsule marking our 30 th year together.”

Echoing his longtime partner, Hitchcock says, “In this day and age, it’s really a great achievement to work with the same person for 30 years. The music business being what it is, very few bands and duos stay together this long. So the DVD is a way for us to acknowledge that and give something special to the fans who have been so supportive over the years. From the moment we met in the Male Chorus room of Jesus Christ Superstar, we found incredible things in common…from both being from working class families to our love for the Beatles and the same movies and food! Over the years, we’ve been able to maintain this incredible friendship and have never shared one cross word with each other. We both brought our unique talents to the table and shared the same vision for what Air Supply would be, both then and now. And of course, our voices have always complemented each other, and Graham is just a phenomenal songwriter.”

Over two decades after their last Top 5 hit—the classic #2 power ballad “Making Love Out of Nothing At All,” featured prominently in the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie blockbuster Mr. & Mrs. Smith—the duo and their longtime ensemble show no signs of slowing down, performing their biggest hits for thousands of fans around the world, an average of 120 dates a year. Thus far in 2005, they have performed in Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Cuba. Though they do annual dates throughout the U.S. and occasionally visit their homeland of Australia (Hitchcock was born there, Russell in England), Air Supply is currently even more popular in constant demand throughout Asia and Central and South America.

The end of the band’s chart heyday in the U.S. circa mid-80s opened up an exciting new world of opportunity, literally—including performing in China, Japan and Beirut, playing for Prince Charles and Princess Diana at the Australian Bicentennial in 1986 and becoming one of the first bands ever invited to play North Vietnam. While establishing enthusiastic fan bases throughout the globe, Russell and Hitchcock continued to record top selling international albums. Their four 90s recordings on Giant (The Earth Is…, The Vanishing Race and News from Nowhere, Book of Love) all sold over a million worldwide. Their most recent albums include Yours Truly on Warner Bros. (2001) and the independently released Across The Concrete Sky.

Even before they first charted in the U.S. in early 1980 with “Lost In Love,” Air Supply was familiar to numerous pop fans here and in Canada via their extensive touring with Rod Stewart in the late 70s. In 1979, they released Life Support, which included the original version of “Lost In Love.” Their early multi-platinum albums include Lost In Love (1980), The One That You Love (1981), Now and Forever (1982) and Greatest Hits (1983).

“One of the nicest things about our shows is that we always hear new fans tell us they didn’t know we did this song or that song,” says Hitchcock. “A friend of mine who played for Ozzy Osbourne once said to me, ‘I can’t tell anyone I know that I like your music.’ That’s just it, we were never cool, but the songs, lyrics and melodies have somehow touched people everywhere with their honesty. Recently at the airport in Guatemala, this guy told me his sister learned to speak English by listening to our records, because we enunciate every word! So we’re entertainers and well as educators. We’ve been on the road for so long and in so many places, it’s easy to take that sort of thing for granted, but we still enjoy what we do so much. As long as we have new music to write and play and something valuable to offer, we’ll be out there.”

Air Supply’s It Was 30 Years Ago Today also features Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock’s longtime bandmates, pianist Jed Moss, bassist Jonni Lightfoot and drummer Mike Zerbe.